The Challenge of Creating a Culture That Embraces Change

The Challenge of Creating a Culture That Embraces Change
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Changes in the Workplace

When an economy enters into a recession, everyone is on their toes, wondering what the downturn in business will bring. Unemployment, financial deterioration, and even bankruptcy are all possibilities that cross people’s minds everyday. Effective managers and business owners know that it’s essential to spearhead a movement that will shift the current work landscape. You need to meld it into a system that motivates a more positive and driven workforce who will be ready and equipped to survive any challenge that may arise.

Managing the human factor in change management is one of the most difficult parts of managing your staff. Here are some tips for helping employees to embrace change.

The Importance of Calm

As the leader of the pack, it’s your job to always think calmly and never panic. You are the pillar that holds your organization together. If you break, everything collapses. Be optimistic, think rationally, and give yourself some time to fully evaluate the current issues at hand before addressing your employees.

When you are in charge of employees, you must always maintain your credibility as a project manager. One important aspect of doing that is coping with change and putting on a positive and calm face. Remember: Business is essentially about people, the lifeblood of any organization–interact with them effectively, motivate and inspire them, and keep communication lines open. Be proactive in addressing their questions and concerns in your communication process. This will help you introduce change into the system.

Retraining

Change is inevitable and will always be unsettling for employees who have already established comfortable routines. You must therefore retrain them in modifying their attitudes, feelings, and emotions, and successfully aligning them toward the organization’s goals and objectives. Always think of your employees as complex individuals who are constantly shaped by their thoughts, feelings, values, and social environment. You must seek to recognize these factors and determine what motivates and inspires them.

The Power of Positivity

The best way to encourage others to embrace change is by creating a learning and engaging working environment in which everyone, regardless of position, contributes to the constant flourishing of ideas. Bright minds that collaborate produce the most effective and brilliant business strategies. Coupled with a flexible and equally engaging management team, these ideas can be fully executed, benefiting the entire organization. A well-organized system is able to train its members to become efficient individuals who can adapt positively to change.

Always empower your employees. Use your position of leadership to empower others to be leaders as well. Whether you are working with a receptionist or a high level employee, give everyone opportunities to lead and add input to matters that they feel strongly about. Eventually, this will lead to a stronger commitment between members, or a unit that works well together.

Understanding the change management culture can bring a positive attitude toward change. It will help to streamline all of your employment decisions, from hosting a staff meeting to creating large scale project management initiatives.

Finally, stay positive. Every time a problem surfaces, be optimistic and trust that you have a strong team that will help you get through change management issues and bends in the road. That does not mean being lax and passive. It means employing the right set of attitudes that help bring clarity of mind and enhance creative thinking. You will enable solutions by embracing your company’s change management culture.