Change is a natural part of business and as the world changes, your business needs to as well.
But there can be many steps and difficulties to overcome before you can set these new ideas into motion.
We have an effective formula to incorporate change within your business if you feel like it is time to shake things up and change direction.
Resistance
The first part of the formula is resistance.
When something new is suggested, there will be resistance to this idea as people take the stance of ‘if it is not broken, why fix it?’
But for your business to continue to succeed, you must embrace change and fight through resistance, with your client’s and customers’ needs in mind.
To combat this resistance to change, you must show that the advantages and benefits of change are greater than the resistance that you are seeing.
Dissatisfaction with the status quo
To demonstrate that a shift in approach is needed you need to explain the consequences of not making changes to the business.
Sticking to old methods and not being willing to make even small changes could result in losing customers and staff, and generally seeing a slow in your business’s success.
As these consequences become clearer, you should begin to see more acceptance of change and willingness to hear new ideas.
Vision for the future
Coupled with this growing dissatisfaction should be a vision for the future, whether that’s a personal vision or aspirations for the business and what you hope to achieve.
Achieving these visions cannot happen without change, so bringing both of these contrasting ideas together will create a thirst for change and hopefully cause those resisting to alter their mindset.
First steps
The final part of the formula to overcome resistance is considering your first steps:
- How can you change behaviours in the workplace?
- Is there a more efficient way of reaching your customers?
By exploring the first steps that you can take to implement change, you are showing those resisting exactly what can be done within the business.
The first steps can be small and build up to bigger ideas that will take more time to execute
All of this can help you to encourage change within the business.
With the UK being in an economic downturn, change is more important than ever as you need to adapt and find ways of making your business more efficient and profitable.
Sitting still and doing nothing is perhaps the worst approach to take if your business faces new challenges.
For deeper insights on how you can implement effective change in your business, why not speak to one of our specialist business advisors?