The pace of doing business is speeding up, not slowing down.
Each year the pressure grows across businesses – on the people, the cash-flow, leadership, operations and technologies. Ultimately negatively impacting overall growth and profit.
Did you know that most business pressure stems from an inability to successfully implement change?
So what can be done? What strategies can be implemented to guide a business and its team to a ‘new normal’ mode in which successful change implementation is the norm?
Here are three strategies to assist:
Strategy 1 - Focus on micro tasks
Think back to your last planning session or project team meeting. What strategies and actions were agreed?
Were they vague or specific in outlining steps to be taken? Too often planning sessions lead to broad statements such as: 'do a marketing plan', 'refine our sales process' or 'fix that problem' but rarely outline how to achieve the outcomes required.
Teams often head down the wrong path or don’t start the change process at all. A simple solution is to keep breaking down the broad task into micro tasks, highlighting how to achieve the goal and the steps required to reach the desired outcome. Try this simple ‘micro tasks’ strategy in your next planning session and you’ll instantly see the benefits.
Strategy 2 - Provide just-in-time learning
Sending teams to two-day residential training session to learn new skills is becoming a thing of the past. There’s a place for these types of event, but 10 years ago every training event was a two-day off-site with little accountability for acquisition and use of new learnings. Retention of new skills was thus low and too often lost until a specific need arose and the learning had to be re-acquired.
To obtain the right skills in this fast-paced business environment, you need to shift the thinking of your people to 'just-in-time' learning. To address a specific issue such as understanding the strengths and weaknesses of your competitors, they should put a half hour in their schedule to learn that skill via an online learning platform or quick internal training session and then quickly apply it in the field.
Retained learning is higher with immediate application of the learning. Best of all, a solution to the issue is implemented immediately driving the change momentum.
Strategy 3 - Capture and track your strategies and actions using innovative technologies
When returning to a strategy developed months ago do you spend hours searching through emails to remind yourself about discussions and agreed actions? Even with the discipline of having 'One Page Plans' operating in your business you’ll still waste hours putting yourself back in the same 'head-space' to decide on next steps.
Speed up your pace of implementing strategies and use the latest cloud technologies to track your projects and tasks, there’s a lot of great, cost-effective options available. Time savings and productivity gains will be felt immediately so you’re free to focus on the growth and profit of your business.
In summary
While these three strategies are not a magic bullet they’ll help adapt your approach to effectively implement change in a fast-paced business environment.
All our clients have access to Mindshop Online, allowing them to capture and track strategies, actions and professional development in one location. This information is only visible to them and their advisor who can then confidentially suggest appropriate courses and tools from hundreds of resources within Mindshop Online.
Mindshop Online coupled with just-in-time learning and a focus on micro tasks is a fantastic way to help leaders speed up their pace of implementation giving back valuable time to focus on the growth and profit of their business.
If you would like to discuss how we can assist you implement change more effectively, please contact our Strategy team to arrange a call or meeting with one of our experienced business advisors.
%20(1).svg "Frame (18) (1)")
.svg "Close (1)")
2 min read
6 min read
