Strategies for change

We are always making changes but let’s review some sound principles for making changes:

1. Benchmark to improve. See what others are doing.

Really look at what others are doing. Compare your performance to other similar businesses. Recognise areas for improvement. Find out what others have done and how they did that. Research, read and ask questions. Then adapt what you find out to suit your own business. Come back to your people and present what you have seen, what you have found out. Challenge your team to find ways to improve. Tell them what others are doing that has inspired you. Learn from the mistakes of others. Be open.

Learn from their difficulties, their achievements and how they became excellent. Then continue to improve and become a benchmark for others to assess and improve their performance.

2. Develop a blueprint for change.

Change must to be well managed. Create a blueprint for change which articulates a vision for the organisation, a desired set of values to provide guidelines, a clear set of measures, and a game plan to achieve the vision.

This means agreeing a strategic direction and creating the business plans to go with it.
Be clear about your goals and objectives. The blueprint for change can be built on shared principles, such as service principles, shared behaviours or a set of guiding principles to improve quality. It may be a set of values based on customers, people, health and safety, and profit.

The vision and values created need to be in clear, simple language, without jargon, so that everyone can understand and relate to them. And they need to be constructed with staff input, not by management alone.

Voice the vision and make it specific, eg. “We want to be the best… and some of our key performance indicators are…” And most importantly – find creative ways to get the staff involved.

3. Improve partnerships.

Improving partnerships with clients and customers is a fundamental factor in creating a high performance workplace. The most important partnership is the one between management and staff. But other important partnerships are between the organisation and their suppliers, their customers, unions and other organisations.

Improving partnerships means communicating with all the parties involved and making them aware of your blueprint for change. Identify all your key stakeholders and work out their different expectations and needs. Stakeholders can also include suppliers, end users, owners and shareholders. When all stakeholders have been identified, look at ways to improve the relationships and forge closer links. It may be that you recognise the need to develop new links – eg. with community stakeholders to ensure an environmental approach. Look after your stakeholders. Talk to them regularly. Review how things are going and put energy and resources into maintaining them. Create a culture of respect. And when things go wrong – fix it ASAP.

Eve Ash is the producer of Strategies for Change and many other training DVDs on managing change and improving performance. There is a wide selection at www.7dimensions.com.au.