Conquering Change

Shannon Burns of Shannon Burns Training and Consulting stresses the importance of bringing all employees into the process. “They won’t agree with every change you make, but if you have an open-communication environment and respect each other, they will, on balance, think you have a good company, and that will help manage change,” she says. “It’s less important for employees to be on the same page than it is for them to be informed.”

Burns suggests incentivizing employees to learn about the business environment causing industrywide change, or how change occurs in individual businesses. For example, a company can post a list of books, offer video content, or hold seminars about trends in the industry or change management and reward employees who participate with a gift card. “Encourage them to learn and share, and recognize them when they do,” she suggests.

CASE STUDY: MAKING A MOVE
In the late 1990s, Four Seasons Produce Inc. started planning a move that would bring all of its employees from five different locations into one new building. In 2003, the company broke ground on the new location, with plans to move in by March 2004.

After delays due to heavy rains and then snow, moving day ended up arriving on the Friday before Memorial Day, 2004, one of the busiest days of the year. Despite the timing, the big move went off without a hitch.

One of the key factors behind the problem-free move, according to Ron Carkoski, Four Seasons’ president and CEO, was the establishment of a dedicated group called the “GROW Team” (GROW stood for Grand Relocation on Wabash, referring to the street where the new site was situated).

The GROW Team consisted of employees from various departments across the company, including Carkoski’s assistant, led by the vice president of business innovation.

The team was charged with preparing the new site and the associates for the move—which included details such as buying desks and office equipment, setting up computers, making sure everyone knew where they would be located within the new building, when each department was scheduled to move, creating documentation to support the relocation, and doing tours for employees in advance, among other tasks.

The members of the GROW Team devoted 100 percent of their time to the mission of ensuring a smooth transition, leaving the rest of the staff free to concentrate on daily business activities. Despite the timing of a very busy day for produce sales, the move went smoothly—and more importantly—there were no missed orders or delays.

It’s important to remember, Carkoski stresses, that business doesn’t stop in the midst of a change, whether significant or small. “You don’t want one to affect the other, in either direction.”

Involvement Through the Ranks
Communication is a two-way street, and it is important to involve employees. “Organizations win as a team,” Kenfield points out. For some organizational changes, additional staff or retraining may be required. Wilder says failures blamed on people, technology, or the change itself are often attributable to not having the proper skills in place to sustain a change once it has been implemented. Initial success is only the first hurdle.