How to Effectively and Successfully Implement Change within Your Business

The most successful organisations are admired for their adaptability and having the flexibility needed to take advantage of dynamic circumstances. The strength of a business’s change management is therefore frequently a consequential factor in determining long-term success.

Research suggests that only 30% of change initiatives succeed in business environments. Imagine the financial, efficiency and growth benefits that could be reaped if you could raise this figure to 70% or higher. The theory of change management highlights different change success factors. Understanding this concept puts a business in a great position to take on change with minimal disruption or impediment to operations. Conversely, businesses who fail to adapt to changing markets and demands will fall behind its competitors. This is even true for market-leading brands like Kodak and Myspace.

Change Success

Change success is the metric which measures the effectiveness of the implementation of new developments. A variety of factors determine how adept an organisation is to change and where a business should focus if they find themselves encountering difficulty in shifting. There is significant value in assessing Change Success probability before the commencement of a change initiative, allowing strategies to be implemented before and during the process which boost the likelihood of success.

Some of the key factors that affect change success include:

Readiness – How ready your organisation and staff are to implement change is one of the first things you must consider. If your team has any resistance to switching things up, you should expect this to significantly inhibit your change success. Ensure you take the necessary step to prepare everyone for an impending change.

Capability – Perhaps the most influential component of change success is capability. This is how prepared you are about the skills, personnel, training and resources required to successfully implement change. Every initiative needs to have the right investment in it to be pulled off. Ensure your organisation is capable of undertaking its aspired change before beginning it.

Beliefs – Essential to your organisational culture, the beliefs of your people are instrumental to success. Change is hard to implement when people are indifferent to it. Ingrain within your business the understanding for and belief in any changes you want to implement.

The Change Success Diagnostic

Research into change and organisational psychology continue to provide us with better understanding and advanced tools to assist with success prediction and implementation of change. The Change Success Diagnostic is a tool developed to provide users with:

• Their change potential percentage (78% being the minimum ideal mark) and;
• Which of the ten different change success factors has the biggest gap between where the business is now and where the business needs to be to maximise your score, i.e. which change area is in most need of addressing?

A change success diagnostic is useful because it applies an empirical approach to what is often treated incorrectly as a solely philosophical issue. The results of the diagnostic allow businesses to develop strategies to boost their potential for change success by lifting the scores in their largest gap areas.

To most successfully implement change in your business, it’s critical to consider the relevant organisational elements and change factors. A combination of analytical and cultural considerations will provide you with the best perspective to guide change in your company. If you have any questions about change success, please contact your Morrows advisor or either Kellie Stark or Lisa Wilson of Morrows Strategic Business Advisory to discuss your next steps:

Kellie Stark

Direct: 03 9134 3438

Email: kstark@morrows.com.au

Lisa Wilson

Direct:03 9134 3488

Email: LWilson@morrows.com.au