Successful organizations are dynamic, constantly changing, adapting and evolving. Changes are often made in such organizations. There are two fundamental reasons for introducing change: to increase revenue, profit, reduce costs, or to become more efficient and effective. Everyone would agree with this, but regardless of the positive results of change, management often encounters great resistance within the organization when it wants to introduce any change. Read the following 5 steps to help you make changes and reduce resistance within your organization:
Management support is the key
Managers who want to introduce any change in the way they work within the company, must have a good vision, must make a good plan and implementation strategy. The modern manager is in charge of building a positive attitude towards organizational change at all levels. One must have the skill of teaching employees to accept change and facilitate their period of transition from one state to another.
It is often the case that a new way of working is not accepted just because the existing one is easy to apply and not because of its long-term positive results. Business leaders who are not afraid to “cause a storm”, by introducing changes, must set such goals that will cause long-term positive effects and that will contribute to the long-term success of the entire organization.
Involve your employees
As human is by his/her nature an inert being and loves security, routines and certainty, he/she will very easily resist any change, especially if it is a radical change of the already established way of working. Successful organizations need to change the way they do business because of the introduction of new technologies. Can you imagine companies doing business without a single computer or application? Hardly any.
Today, the big problem is that changes happen relatively often, in fact so often that we can say that the only established way of working is to adapt to constant changes. In order to minimize human resistance to change and to achieve employee readiness for change, it is necessary to influence their attitude, thinking and behaviour. They need to be explained the reasons for the changes and if possible involve them in the process. The best feedback can be given by your employees.
Communicate openly about changes
To effectively manage change within any business organization, regardless of company size and number of employees, it is important to inform them all and explain to them why change is happening and what change is intended to achieve. Poor communication and the spread of rumours about the introduction of change often cause great resistance.
To avoid such scenarios, inform all employees who will be involved in the change process itself. So prepare them to know what awaits them in the future. Proactive communication can reduce resistance because employees feel like they are part of the whole process.
Implementation and transition to a new way of working
Changes need to be systematically planned and managed. It is important to have a good timeline for introducing and implementing changes in all segments that affect the process and the employees who manage it. An effective timeline should provide employees with new equipment, a program or training that will take place before changes occur.
Implementing a new way of working without a logical order may create frustration for all those responsible for carrying out their current tasks. The introduction of any changes causes stress, therefore employees should be provided with help, support and understanding.
Monitoring results
Employees rarely talk about positive change within your organization? Why? Because they are missing or uninformed? Maybe they are not missing or they just don’t talk because they’ve never seen the positive results of the changes introduced. They don’t know why they tried, were patient, and why they agreed to participate in the changes. They did not see any positive effects. Everyone who has felt the burden of change should also feel the positive effects that have emerged after the introduction of change.
So when the first positive results come, let them know, thank them for being part of a team that introduced something new, something better. In that way, they will be more satisfied because they gave their contribution. With this approach, they will find it much easier to participate in introducing new changes within the organization in the future.
