The Time They Are a-Changin'

More Bob than Timothee

I recently worked with an organisation who – due to a whole range of external reasons – are about to undergo significant change in shape and focus.

I have been working with them on developing an Organisational Change Policy and Process. This isn’t something I have done before in this way. In the organisations I have worked with before Organisational Change, restructure and redundancy has often been included as a few lines in a contract “we reserve the right to change locations etc etc” or in a few policies referencing redundancy or furlough or layoffs – but not as a fully-fledged open and transparent policy to share in advance.

I think this is an excellent way to approach the challenge of creating a change ready culture with clear expectations for staff on what they can expect from this process if and when it arrives.

Here are my three tips to getting Change right:

1. Write a Change Policy – set out your stall, make a decision on how you are dealing with the process, reps or not (you can do more than the statutory requirements), your approach to pay and new roles, your plan for redundancy pay or trail periods and all the other details. Map it out in advance in a way that works for your culture, and share it so people know what to expect.

2. Make time to Plan – before any change announcement build in the time to discuss and plan and work it through, avoid holiday season and peak delivery where possible – and overall lead from the heart even when money might be the motivator.

3. Ensure an open debate – despite the great policy and excellent planning remember that this should be an open discussion, you present an option to resolve the current issue but your staff team might have other (and potentially better) ideas of how to solve the same issue. Allow time and be open minded – listen to their views.

And if you want to talk more about change and how to handle it, do let me know, I have availability from June for my next change project.