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Articles
Increase The Return On Your Change Investments!
by Richard S Deems, PhD
Change costs money. Whether it's for new IS software, new employees to deal with rapid growth, or reorganization to increase efficiencies, there's always a dollar investment. By taking several actions you can increase the return on your change investments and here's how.
Crush the greatest mistake executives make!
The biggest mistake executives make is to assume that everybody reacts to change the way they do. Wrong!
Some of your employees react to change by asking "Why?" while others want to know what the change will look like, some will say "Yeah, but..." and want to see how it all fits together into the existing system, and others will say, "Hey, why not?" But few of them naturally react to change the same way as do those on the executive floor.
When you accommodate the various natural strengths of people you develop support from employees for the change because they have the information they need in order to make the change. And that increases the return on your change investments!
Focus on action!
You know that focus determines outcome, otherwise you wouldn't be on the executive floor. There are a lot of change management consultants, however, who want you to focus on stress.
If you provide stress training before or after major organizational change, your employees will get the idea that they're supposed to be stressed, whether they are or not. Instead, focus on action.
Provide skill training in how to make change work, and build in the expectation that these people not only want to make change work, but they have the abilities to make change work! And you increase the return on your change investments!
Use the best world class experts!
When you go looking for advice you want help from the people who can provide the best help. More often than not, these are people already on your payroll - your employees!
If you want to know how to increase quality, ask your employees. If you want to know how to enhance productivity, ask your employees. These are the best experts you can find in how to improve operations.
And you increase the return on your change investment!
Remember you can't do just one thing!
For every action there is a reaction - usually a whole bunch of reactions! Fire one person and do it poorly? You've just touched over 100 other lives. You did more than just one thing.
Move the scrap bin ten feet? You've just made everyone who walks by the scrap bin make some kind of adjustment.
About a year ago a bus driver made a decision that touched off a furor heard world-wide. If you recall, he insisted a passenger exit his bus because she was carrying her pet dog. It was against regulations. But the woman was in her 80's, the dog was no problem to anyone else, and it was 2am in a small rural town.
Remember that you can't do just one thing and you'll increase the return on your change investments.
Make the decisive first step: commitment!
It takes a commitment to make change work, to increase the return on your change investments. And you make the commitment each morning as you prepare for work.
"The successful heads of companies," stated author and consultant to Fortune 100 CEOs Tom Winninger, "renew their commitment to excellence, to making change work, each and every day."
That's what it takes to increase the return on your change investments!
Richard S Deems, PhD, is author of Making Change Work For You! and president of Deems Associates Inc, with offices in Des Moines, Scottsdale, Moline, and Atlanta. To talk with Dick call him at 800-432-6918, or email rsdeems@worklifedesign.com.
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