Don’t Do These 6 Things When You Plan Changes in Your Business

organizational changes - drivers of organizational change
One of the most important and never-ending processes in each organizational system like a business is the organizational change process.

As an entrepreneur your job is to solve problems, both internal and external. Internal problems closely related to your business, and everything inside the company, and external problems related to your target market, customers and everything outside your company. Yes, you are problem solver.

Each problem needs solution. On the other hand, the implementation of solution is the change process that will improve your business.

But, statistically many change processes fail because of different reasons. Here, I want to propose six things that you need to escape if you want to increase the probability of success of your change processes.

#1 Don’t Start Without a Clear Vision of the Future

The change process start with the plan. When you’re planning your next change process, you need to look into the future. If you don’t know the future, you can’t appropriately plan your change process.

Without the clear vision of the future, you will don’t know the path of your change process.

You need to answer the following questions:

  • What will be in the future?
  • How the future will look and what’s the impact of that future on my company?
  • Can we create, improve, accept or ignore the future? What that will mean for my business?
  • What will be the rule of my business in the future?

When you answer on these questions, then you can continue with your planning process.

#2 Don’t Start Without Clear Formulation of the Problem or Real Sources of Change

Each change is a consequence of some reason called as change sources or change forces. If you want to succeed with a change process, you need to have clear formulation of the real problem or real change sources.

If you know the change sources, you will know what you need to do.

For example, if the change source is the competition and their new product, you will know that your change process needs to start with a new product line development process.

#3 Don’t Underestimate the Power of Resistance to Change

Each change process will be faced with resistance to change. You need to know that and prepare to work on overcoming resistance before you start with the implementation. Some of the organizational members will accept the change. Some of them can initiate them, but some of them will ignore the change or simply will show that they resist the proposed changes.

The change process can be found under the threat of the persons that will ignore or resist the proposed changes. You need to know that persons. Some of the reasons of resistance can be the first improvement of the process that needs to be implemented, but some of them need to be overcome if you want to succeed.

#4 Don’t Avoid Sources of Organizational Changes From Everywhere

The organizational change’s sources can be everywhere inside or outside of your business. You need to open your eye, to improve your listening, and to follow everything around you. Everything can be transformed into useful signals that will tell you what you need to change in your business if you want to stay on the right path.

Everything can be important, or will contribute in compiling the puzzle for your business future.

#5 Don’t Forget That Your Business Have Powerful External Environment

One of the foundational basis of each business is that it operates and lives in highly powerful external environment. That environment can impact on each of your business aspects. That environment, don’t give you the possibilities to stay quiet, but it always pressures you to change something in your company if you want to keep the dynamically equilibrium with your environment.

You need to follow the changes in your environment, and immediately to adjust your company according to that changes. That changes will become reality, whether you want it or not.

#6 Don’t Escape to Celebrate the Success With Your Team

The success of each change process is not dependent only on you as an entrepreneur or manager. But, the whole team that works for you is responsible for the success. Sometimes the change process is very painful for your team. They are probably more times found themselves in a position to decide whether to continue or to quite. But, if the process is successful, it means that everybody gives their maximum for that.

On the other hand, you know that finish of one change process didn’t mean finish of changes at all. There are other changes processes that will need to be implemented. If you want to continue with success based on highly supportive employees you need to celebrate with them each success that you accomplish together.