Change Management Process for Startups
Introduction
Change is a law of nature, it is as natural as life itself. The same goes for the marketing and business world because the change management process is crucial for growth. As our world is moving at this high pace, companies and startups face continuous shifting of market conditions, customer and business demands, technologies, and work environments.
The way an organization accepts and adapts to these changes determines whether it will rise to the peaks of success or will fall. This is where proper change management is needed because one should know how to implement these changes.
What is Change Management Process?
Change management is a thoughtful and controlled way of implementing required changes to some systems within an organization.
Change also includes supporting employees, taking a structured approach in transitioning individuals and/or teams from a current state to desired future state, aimed at employee empowerment for accepting change in the work environment.
Check – 12 Mistakes you should avoid in the Business World.
There are 6 types of changes:
➣ Incremental change
➣ Piecemeal change
➣ Transformational change
➣ Flux change
➣ Transitional change
➣ Developmental change
How change management is executed?
As its definition suggests, change management is done with proper planning and with control measures. Some of the important steps for effective change management:
➢ It is important to make a plan and find out what area is needed to be changed and how it will affect everyone. It helps in clarifying what resources will be required.
➢ Make a detailed roadmap that should include everything like team members, resources required, challenges that can come, project scope
➢ Communication plays a vital role in all this process. Changes scare everyone so communicating with your employees is useful in the long haul. It provides transparency, improves trust, and minimizes uncertainty.
➢ Involve your team in the decision-making process whenever it is possible.
➢ Provide your team the reason for the changes.
➢ It is important to teach required skills to your team and to be a consistent role model.
➢ Make a solid presentation for the stakeholders and secure commitments.
➢ Resistance is a common occurrence when there are changes. For a good leader, it is important to manage and monitor them. Quantify the gaps and understand resistance
➢ Celebrate whenever a milestone is achieved, it boosts the morale of the team and everyone involved in the change process.
➢ Review progress, analyze the result and improve.
Check – HIRING TALENT FOR STARTUP
What are the 8 R’s of change management?
➣ The REASON behind the change?
➣ Who RAISED the change request?
➣ What RETURN is required from the change?
➣ RISKS involved in the implementation of change?
➣ What RESOURCES are required for the requested change?
➣ Who is RESPONSIBLE for building, testing, and executing the change?
➣ What is the RELATION between this change and other changes?
➣ what will be the consequences of REJECTING the change?
How to reduce/overcome resistance?
When a person is doing things in the same way for a long time, changes tend to be uncomfortable, scary, and even creates anxiety. This leads to resistance by the employees within an organization.
To make a change or series of changes successful, it is vital to control this resistance and re-ensure the employees.
➣ Communication is the most important step. It reduces uncertainty and communication barriers. When the employees will understand the reason for the change and how it will affect them, they will feel more comfortable.
➣ Introduce change with a positive attitude. Your positive attitude will help in making them realize that they can trust in your cause.
➣ It is important to understand the need for the change and how their joined efforts will benefit in the long run.
➣ Watching the reactions of the staff also gives the idea about what they aren’t liking. Rather than forcing the change, work with their concerns and even rethink the proposed change.
➣ Increase their involvement by asking questions and make them feel like part of the process rather than only ordering.
Why is change management necessary?
➢ Globalization and rapid growth in technologies and other fields are forcing startups to bring changes and improve if they want to stay in-game.
➢ It eventually improves performance and increases productivity because the organization adapts to the new changes and learns new things.
➢ When change is implemented in the right direction it increases the output, brings profit, decreases risk, and helps create a better working environment.
➢ With a change in the management, new ideas are put in place, which helps ensure that the employees are utilizing their potential.
➢ It helps in business becoming more viable due to its ability to grow and adapt to the transition in market trends.
➢ When change is executed positively in an organization, then staff’s trust increases in their company, their morale boasts, they take their responsibilities seriously and perform tasks efficiently.
➢ Positive change management brings better customer experience and increases their engagement with the startup, which is a huge stepping stone.
➢ When the change is successful and bears the required result it reduces a lot of resistance which eventually leads to better production and dedicated staff members.
Why does change management fail at times?
Approximately 70% of change management process fails, but change is not the reason of their failure but these:
➣ Organizations overlook some simple logistic or tactical details. Not understanding the team’s strengths and weaknesses or keep the team underequipped.
➣ Not planning properly and this lead to not enough resources, problems which arise at last minute and don’t get rectified.
➣ Trying to achieve too much in a small amount of time and neglecting little essential things which ultimately leads to failure.
➣ Not recognizing true stakeholders. For successful change management startups require strong inputs from the stakeholders.
➣ Miscommunication leads to change management process failure. Teamwork makes dream-work, but if there are loopholes in the team it leads to problems.
➣ If resistance is not resolved in time it becomes the main cause of failed change management program.
➣ Pushing everyone to their limits and not understanding the signs of exhaustion. This maybe makes you achieve your milestones but it put a strain on the company and employee relationship.
Check – Interpersonal skills for building a team in a startup
Conclusion
Change management is the best way to create innovations and ensure long-lasting benefits, but it needs to be done precisely and with a good plan. Failing to do so even leads to the fall of the startup. The best way to do successful change management is by learning to do it properly.
Till then DO NOT RESIST CHANGE.
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