Changing Times
Qu'il soit temps de repeindre votre salon ou de restructurer votre entreprise, savoir quand effectuer un changement n'est pas toujours évident. Mais une chose est sûre : ce n'est jamais facile.
Considérez le débat grandissant sur ce qu'il faut faire au sujet de l'heure d'été. Lorsque l'horloge avance au printemps, cette heure perdue nous manque cruellement. Il perturbe les rythmes circadiens et assombrit les déplacements du matin. Ce n'est guère mieux en automne, lorsque la nuit tombe soudainement comme un rideau. Ces désagréments ont inspiré un mouvement politique visant à mettre fin à ce qui semble être un rituel arbitraire. Mais même une tentative de changer une coutume gênante a provoqué une certaine angoisse dans le pays.
Before leaders of organizations can steer a company through change, it helps to first consider the inevitable resistance. Is it worth it? McKinsey & Company found that 70 percent of all organizational transformations fail. On the other hand, another McKinsey study found that when change is managed well, companies enjoy an average of 143 percent of the returns they expected. So before you invest time and money in an update, consider the following steps to evaluate whether a proposed change is really necessary.
Engagez votre équipe
Any change-maker will tell you that strong communication is the most important ingredient to implementing something new. It’s also vital during the decision-making process. Time spent talking with members of your team “equalizes the power dynamics, reduces anxiety, and conveys respect for all as important stakeholders in the enterprise,” according to Barbara Dyer, president and CEO of The Hitachi Foundation, who has led her organization through seminal transformations.
“My view is: you share the good, the bad and the ugly,” says Steve Vamos, a former Microsoft VP who’s now CEO of the cloud-based accounting SaaS company Xero. “People in the company email me directly, they don’t come through three levels of management.”
Communication also helps an organization’s leadership think through its “story,” which becomes its argument for undertaking the immense challenge of institutional change. A compelling narrative will go a long way towards making employees see the purpose of the shift. In the process, leaders can gauge what they are taking on and determine if it’s what they really need.
À chaque étape du processus de transformation, vous devez reconvaincre l'objectif global et expliquer pourquoi il est nécessaire et réalisable, et veiller à ce que les personnes à l'origine du changement restent impliquées et motivées. Une fois que les changements sont en place, vous devez délivrer le message qui solidifie leur statut de nouvelle norme.
Soyez précis
Les chefs d'équipe ressentent souvent la pression de devoir suivre la concurrence. Mais ce qui fonctionne pour une organisation peut ne pas convenir à une autre. Le changement pour lui-même peut conduire à un cycle sans fin de poursuite de l'inaccessible. Chaque ajustement doit être ancré dans un besoin urgent et définissable.
Take stock of what’s working and what isn’t. This process demands a methodical collection of data, customer preferences, and accounting. If you aren’t precise about identifying the problem areas, you risk losing the best part of your operation. Keeping the good parts will be critical to maintaining an anchor of stability during a transformation.
While this may feel tedious, time spent during this phase will save effort later. Consider the lesson from Instagram’s evolution. During earlier versions of the popular social media platform, the app featured many more functions than it does today. Creators conducted a user behavior analysis, which found customers were really only interested in the photo-sharing function. So the company poured all of its resources into this feature, helping make the app one of the most popular social media platforms ever.
Ce qui se passe d'autre dans votre organisation
If you’re getting ready to embark on a significant shift at your company, take stock of the entire ecosystem to guard against unintended consequences. Russ Reynolds, the CEO of Batteries Plus Bulbs, recommends asking, “Do we have the capacity to play?” That means looking around to see if your proposal would interfere with an IT restructuring or some other substantial initiative happening elsewhere in the company. The answer to this question will depend on the size and scope of your organization. It doesn’t mean the proposal under consideration should be scrapped. But be aware that introducing it during a time of upheaval may be setting it up for failure.
Le changement est difficile, et la réussite est encore plus difficile, mais les transformations peuvent fonctionner lorsqu'elles sont entreprises avec soin.
