Ethiopian Review

Many companies that are going under in this economic downturn are those that have been around a long time. They have followed a set of policies and procedures that has served them well for several years and suddenly those practices do not seem to allow for the flexibility needed to
survive today’s quickly changing climate. Even businesses that are new have a tendency to be very focused on only one area – growth. As with large businesses, start-up businesses have a tendency to be very singly focused and do not develop the management style or skills that are necessary to survive in tough times. If ever the time were right for learning some new techniques, it is now. Without some serious consideration and implementation of new methods in change management strategies it will be very difficult to sustain and grow a business in this economy. Or, to survive until the economy gets better.

Change management involves more than a semi-annual retreat where executives and supervisors get together to discuss how they are going to increase their profits and productivity over a specified length of time. It is important that a review of the purpose of change management be evaluated and a decisive plan be established to implement that change.

The major shift in change management techniques and methods has been a direct result of the evolution of the employee/employer relationship over the past few years. Many employees today jump ship as soon as they see a company beginning to struggle. The reason for this is that during the
boom years many executives and businesses made the fatal error of thinking that loyalty and personal investment on the part of employees was just not that important. If a company were doing well and growing, it really didn’t matter that people left who couldn’t fit into the structure and philosophy of the company. So what if many of the long term employees stayed because they got good benefits or salaries and really didn’t care about the structure or philosophy of the company or have a personal investment in the success of the business. The business was growing and money was coming in. There was no need for loyalty or personal investment by employees. The obvious result of this attitude has now come back to haunt many businesses and executives as they attempt to perform many of the tasks that they no longer have the staff for and the employees who are still around are not willing to take on. Again, lack of personal investment in the success of the company.

Change management must start with a top down approach that includes the realization that even a janitor must have a personal investment in a business’ success for it to thrive in tough times. If the only time that your staff see you or hear you is when they are hired, at their orientation, or when they are fired, when your name is on the goodbye letter. You are not instilling a sense of personal investment in those people who, given the opportunity could help you survive an economic downturn. Managers from the top down must receive training and learn the skills necessary to inspire staff to invest their time and effort into the company and this means learning how to listen and how to make employees throughout the organization active participants in the company’s success.

One way to increase employee personal investment in an organization, and help managers to understand the vital role they play in creating a proactive change atmosphere is to have managers and staff exchange roles for a week. Many exercises are done while off-campus, or done in an office, taking place for a day or two. But, when a role has been assumed for a week, it gives the manager a chance to have completed at least one project that an employee does and the employee to participate in at least two or three of the meetings and other activities that the manager does. This exercise is not done for show. The input given by the employee/manager is taken as seriously in meetings as any of the other participants. The manager is judged as harshly as they judge the employee. This is extremely important to create a level field for the exchange of ideas that will help the business to grow.

Many times employees are great cost cutting resources. They generally have some very effective and efficient ideas for cutting waste, reducing costs, and eliminating time wasting procedures. The problem is that those ideas remain in the cubicle where the employee lives and do not make it to the board room where executives and managers are not aware of those cost cutting areas and are painfully cutting their budget of staff, equipment and necessary training unnecessarily.

In order for a business to survive today they must take a second look at their change management strategies and develop systems for inspiring employees to invest a part of themselves into the business that you wish to grow.

- by Ellen Jackson | AC