How to Best Manage Change in your Business to Minimise Stress and Maximise Positivity.

Change is one of those things that is inevitable, however it’s something that can be very challenging for some people, yet exhilarating for others.  In this Blog I want to explore how to best manage change in the workplace so that everyone comes along for the ride with minimal stress and anxiety and maximum positive impact.

Elaine and I are leaders that always change things up in the pursuit of excellence.  There are two main areas where we seem to focus our changes - firstly, improving processes to improve the customer experience, and secondly, using technology to make our overall outcomes better.  The change in tech might be to simplify a process to make our staff’s lives easier, or to gain more transparency and information for staff, management and clients alike.  So, I guess what I’m trying to say is that we have loads of hands-on experience in managing change within a business and I’d say,  in  the end, we became experts at rolling out new things and getting the team on board.  But it did not start that way - we certainly learnt from our mistakes in the early days.

Below I’ve laid out some of our top tips in order of implementation to help you manage changes in your business.  But before you read on, I would just like to say that once you start to really nail the process of managing change, your team will become more confident in your ability of change management.  Once they have that confidence in you, they will become less anxious when you advise them of changes in the future (they may even like the idea) - once you get to this point, you should be proud!

So, here are our top tips for Change Management:

1. Research what you’re wanting to implement thoroughly.  Speak to others that have done it, or done something similar.  Look at the alternatives to this option to make sure it's the best option for you and your business.   
2. Test the change.  For example, if it’s tech based, get one of your most techy staff members to try out the software or app - get their feedback and get their questions answered by the software company.  
3. This leads into the next thing, get one of your key staff members on board with the idea.  Depending on the type of change you are wanting to implement might depend on who you want to get on board.  Likely it will be the same person who tested the change in the first place (and this does not need to be a manager in your team).  
4. Start talking about the change to the team if it is something that you can share. You’d rather be the one to notify the team and control the narrative than for them to hear of a new change on the grapevine. You need to be really clear on the reason for the change and the benefits to them and the business.  If they can understand the why, they are much more likely to be positive about the change.  Assure them that you will be rolling out a full plan and timeline for the change and that adequate training or information will be provided to them and let them know the date that you will give them all this information.  
5. Now you need a PLAN & a TIMELINE.  This is critical.  The plan should include training dates, any videos they need to watch/things the team need to read and by when, guest speakers, group training, one on one training options.  The reason I suggest not necessarily rolling out the plan the first time you inform the team of the change, is to give them a bit of time to digest the change first.  Otherwise you risk them being so focused on the change, that they won’t really take in the roll out plan.  You also need to delegate the roll out to one person to supervise or manage.  For us it was usually our Office Manager.  
6. Now you need to share the Plan and the Timeline.  Ideally bring all the team together to do this if it is a major change. That way things aren’t leaking out to other team members before you get the chance to catch up with them.  It also allows for group discussion and questions (which you should encourage in a positive way).   If there are any questions you can’t answer, make sure you go away, find the answers and share it with the team (group email etc).  I’d also make it clear that you are aware there may be some hiccups along the way and they’ll be addressed along the way and encourage them to come forward with challenges during the roll out.  
7. Diarise the plan and timeline in the team's calendar if possible (ie invite them to the different events/cut off dates using their online calendar).  
8. Now, make sure you stick to the plan as much as possible and continue open communication with the team.   
9. Review any issues that come up and problem solve these along the way and communicate fixes or changes to the team.
10. Review the roll out with the management team that rolled it out and look at what worked and if there is anything you would do differently next time.  The only way you improve is by learning from mistakes. 

The biggest change we ever had to roll out in our business was actually when we sold the business.  Given the confidentiality and how sensitive  it was we could not roll it out exactly as above.  Instead we went from Item 1 to Item 5. For me, it felt like my whole 13 years running, growing and leading that business was leading up to that point.  The business sale roll out “change” was meticulously planned to ensure the team were as least stressed as  possible, and that the new owners had the absolute best chance at success with the business and retaining the team.  

We hope this has given you a few practical tips! 

If you are interested in looking at changes to your “Customer Service Journey”, download our free  worksheet on Creating an Awesome Customer Journey.