All organisations experience change- for most it’s part of business as usual, and a crucial aspect of growth and survival. But what if change happens too often, too quickly, or too drastically to manage? What if you struggle to control change and the impact it has on your business?
Our Approach to Controlling Company Change
To control company change, and improve your organisation’s ability to respond and adapt to it, there are several approaches you should consider:
1. Create a dedicated change portfolio & management system
If you tend to have many change or transformation initiatives, you need a formalised method for prioritising between them. This will help with directing resources and investment accordingly.
Begin by identifying the key factors that need to be taken into consideration when implementing change in your business. These are factors such as:
- Budget and business planning
- Annual events calendar
- The annual HR people cycle
- Compliance or regulatory demands
- Internal capability etc.
Create a scorecard to determine how you will assess and provide weightings against each of these when determining:
- whether to go ahead with implementing the change
- the timeframes and other requirements.
This will help you to prioritise change activity accordingly using an evidence-based approach that the rest of the business will be able to grasp.
2) Up-Skill your team
Invest in building capability internally- such as through change management training. Through investment you can be readily able to respond to changes and minimise disruption to BAU. Every business needs either:
- a core change and transformation function who lead on the implementation of significant change using tried and tested methods
- change management and transformation capabilities within core functions such as HR and technology. These tend to be the two areas where change is driven from most frequently
Upskilling internally will save you both money and time. It enables you to progress and grow as a business since you’re learning the skills required to stay responsive and adaptable to change. In addition, being capable of managing business change is no longer reserved for management consultants. Change management is now an accessible and necessary skill for many professionals.
3) Plan for disruption as part of investment planning
Make sure business and budget planning makes allowances for the unexpected! It’s always good practice to have a portion of funds set aside to make it easier for the business to manage when disruption happens.
4) Stay close to your market
Invest in proactive market research, or use other existing channels. This investment will help to ensure you keep on top of trends, disrupters and opportunities in your market. You can therefore plan to respond effectively when change comes down the road.
5) Ensure your risk frameworks are fit for purpose
Being able to plan for, assess, and manage risk effectively is critical for any business. Better control occurs when you have understood risks fully so that you can minimise their impact.
Having a risk control framework will help you think through scenarios and the potential risks to your business. These could be financial, reputational, or even regulatory risks. Assessing risk factors should also form part of your scorecard approach in point 1 above.
Build a supportive culture
Ensure that your HR team has the right mechanisms in place to support employees with experiencing change or change fatigue. This will help to minimise burnout and turnover. Such mechanisms might include:
- wellbeing initiatives and programmes
- equipping leaders and managers to better support their teams
- coaching and mentoring schemes
- more time together as a team both inside and outside of work to support strong relationships
You can’t control change most of the time. But if you actively apply the above you can certainly provide your organisation and employees with a much better chance of managing it effectively. For more help and assistance controlling change view our FAQ page.