The business environment is becoming increasingly volatile and unpredictable. As a result, change management has become a critical part of the business plan. This emerging, yet increasing trend has been termed VUCA – Volatile, Unpredictable, Complex and Ambiguous. It is no longer something that every business owner feels should be adopted but a necessary factor or set of factors in forecasting.
Here are some reasons why change management strategies fail and some pitfalls to avoid when envisaging change in your organisation:
Lack of Forecasting
One of the most important competencies of a leader is to be proactive. It is critical for a business owner to foresee and prepare for change before it occurs. Companies can increase their bottom lines if they can create ways of integrating change management strategies into their ongoing business plan. Also, change acceptance should be adopted as part of the culture and to ensure this, adequate training and systems must be put in place.
Lack of Strategy
Do not let this take you by surprise, there are many business leaders and CEOs who do not have a change management strategy institutionalized. Many companies are folding up because there is no plan to manage a shakeup caused by unforeseen circumstances. Therefore, the management team should spend quality time developing a concrete plan to ensure the team is equipped for any expected change.
Lack of Alignment
There are some essential things leaders need to do during the planning phase. It imperative to have accurate data to be able to get the right assessment of the situation. This gives you the right information to adequately answer questions such as, “What should we stop doing, what should we start doing, what should we continue doing?” These questions are relevant to your planning phase because they help you to understand if and when the plan is fully aligned. Alignment is vital to the success of any change strategy an organisation is planning to implement. Of course, it will never be perfect and people will have diverse opinions on how to get from point A to point B. However, when every member of the organisation is on board, change will happen.
Lack of Culture
A primary reason why most change management strategies don’t work optimally is because the company’s culture is missing. The culture of a company forms the basis of which everything else lies and it plays a critical role during organisational transformations. To reform any business model, the culture must be changed first. Most times, major change within companies entail full restructuring and re-branding effort from the inside-out. If company culture is not a priority or is considered as something that will automatically adjust, then there will be huge problems ahead.
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