Jay Sachetti joined Jeff O’Brien, partner at Husch Blackwell and Dyanne Ross-Hanson, president of Exit Planning Strategies talked about the market for mergers and acquisitions, exit planning opportunities for companies that don’t end up for sale and how companies can maximize their eventual sale price during an early October panel at the first Upsize on Tap event at Summit Brewing Co. in St. Paul.
When the state Legislature passed a law requiring employers to provide paid leave and safe time for employees, Justin Bieganek started hearing differing details from friends, colleagues and peers.
HIGH-GROWTH BUSINESSES go through a lot of change, as owners reposition and improve the company’s performance to remain competitive.
The pace of change is fast and the urgency is relentless. People and organizations need to be prepared for change and develop the skills necessary to succeed.
Managing change reactively instead of proactively may hurt productivity, profitability, growth potential and the overall employee experience.
But managing change oftentimes becomes an afterthought, especially in small companies, where owners tend to be experts in specific business areas but aren’t necessarily familiar with the concept of leading and managing change.
Create awareness through a change assessment. Conducting an awareness/assessment exercise (no matter how small or large the change initiative) early in the process is critical so that the people leading the charge can anticipate and respond to obstacles.
It’s a way to take the “temperature’” and gauge the orientation toward change, as well learn the pitfalls that people may face along the way. The awareness/assessment exercise may occur informally (conversations at the water fountain) or formally (focus groups and/or surveys of employees), depending on the change initiative. This assessment should help all parts of the company understand how each responds to change.
Build the organization’s change capacity. As an organization navigates through effective change it increases its change capacity, or its flexibility to adapt to market conditions and customer demands. Such capacity is a competitive advantage. Understanding the organization’s capacity for change builds the qualities of the organization, and helps its people effectively lead and manage future change initiatives.
Make leaders champions of change. To create sustainable change, owners must name the key leader of the change effort and develop frontline managers as change champions. Encourage leaders and other employees to respect and support change, and to help people deal with the stress of change.
The key leader is the primary decision maker leading the change initiative, responsible for the design and delivery of a tangible action plan. The key leader also must assess and plan for increasing people’s skills and re-tooling company processes and technologies.
Frontline leaders must support and assist in executing the action plan. Frontline people who lead the change initiative are the managers or supervisors who direct the efforts of the people. Developing frontline leaders to become true change leaders —to champion the change initiative— is also a critical success factor. If they do not own the process and commit, the planned changes never come to life.
Involve people. Ultimately, change depends on people in the trenches who are committed to doing things in ways that differ from the past. People respond to change in predictable ways, both rational and emotional. (The latter are difficult to predict and challenging to understand.)
To create a collaborative environment, acknowledge the behaviors and engage the people often. It is critical to help people understand how their role may be different as a result of the change, and how much support they will receive to help improve or re-tool their current capabilities.
Communicate the change. Constant, timely and effective communication that has a clear and compelling message will help people understand the change and how it will personally affect them. Communication begins during the planning stages and continues after all is implemented.
There are many ways in which a change initiative can be communicated, such as one-on-one meetings, focus groups, presentations, e-mails, company outings, videos, CD ROM, etc. Assess your organization’s previous communication efforts, determine what has been successful, and develop the change communications . The cardinal rule to keep in mind: employees will always be interested in how the change will affect them.
Leadership must drive the change initiative and understand key business issues in the context of change. But no change initiative can succeed unless both the organizational and personal levels are addressed.
Securing employee buy-in and input, and fostering an open work environment, will enhance the change initiative. Ultimately, leaders who seek change must respond and adapt both to the marketplace and to the people within their companies.
[contact] Sally Consolati is manager and Ruth Hendrickson is senior consultant at Deloitte & Touche’s Human Resources Strategies Group in Minneapolis, which helps clients connect the elements of people, risk and insurance to overall business strategy: 612.397.4402; rh**********@******te.com ; sconsolati@ deloitte.com; www.us.deloitte.com
