Planning

As with any business move, careful planning is key to success. Even if it’s a minor change as opposed to a complex, major overhaul, planning ahead and taking all aspects into account will allow everyone to adjust to the new structure more easily. 

Your plan should include written statements related to the objectives and goals you wish to achieve. What will be the roles and responsibilities of each of the employees? How will you communicate these changes? What resources will you need to make these changes? Will the changes be structural, as in adding or eliminating departments, or will they be strategic, as in changes in the ways departments are run? 

Being an Effective Leader through Changes

A leader isn’t a title or a position. It is a set of skills one possesses that instills confidence in others to follow their lead. Leadership involves experience, knowledge, skills, empathy, and adaptability. A good leader uses integrity in all their decision-making and effectively communicates with others. Truly effective leaders think outside the box, are open to possibilities, and embrace change. As the leader of your organization, it will be your responsibility to inspire and instill calm and confidence throughout the process. 

Communicating the Changes

Your internal communication will be all about preparing your employees for the changes and should explain why they are occurring. They should know what it will mean to each of them, how they will be affected, and the best ways for them to prepare for the change.

Your external communication involves letting your customers know what’s happening, why, and how they will be impacted, if at all. Then transitional communication, letting people know there has been a change and where they can go to learn more about it. 

Training and instructional materials will be critical in keeping everyone informed about what they can expect and what will be expected of them. These should be easy to understand and clearly stated so there is no confusion. Many of your training materials will be in a PDF file, but at some point, some of those files will need to be extracted to disseminate to other departments. You can do this by separating pages in your PDF with a PDF splitter tool. Once you save the file, you can rename, download, or share them with other departments. 

Taking the Stress Out of the Process

Sometimes the process of an organizational change can drag out over a long period of time. You can make your employees feel like they’re being given an opportunity to grow as part of the changes so that they don’t feel as though they are having an unwelcome change thrust upon them. Part of your organizational plan could include adding a new benefit, like a gym membership or student loan assistance, as a way of making the change feel more positive. 

And to really make everyone feel like they are a positive part of the process, have a company event to celebrate the new changes. Whether you decide on a family picnic at the park or something that allows everyone to let their hair down, like a karaoke night at a local pub, it should be something that doesn’t leave anyone out and is part of your business’s culture. 

Measuring the Results

How you’re able to see the impact of the changes you’ve made will be dependent on the types of changes and what your initial goals were for making the changes. Your first indication will be how well you achieved your stated goal when you were at the planning stage. Then either a brief or in-depth survey of your employees to gauge how well they were able to adjust to the changes and how satisfied they are with how things are working. Are you noticing an improvement in productivity? Has the quality of work improved? The final measure would then be the financial impact and if you saw either a positive or negative outcome of the change. 

Organizations depend on great leadership. Guiding employees and staff through all of it will take planning, communication, and some out-of-the-box thinking, but in the end, you’ll be stronger and more productive than ever.