Have you got the right people and skills to manage change in this complex world? 

As the famous saying goes: the only certain things in life are death and taxes.

That’s certainly true, but I think the saying should really be updated, because in our professional and personal lives there are actually three certainties: death, taxes, and change.

Change is an inevitable part of life and is happening all the time. It’s something that business owners and leaders must embrace – if they don’t, they risk being left behind.

Sometimes change happens internally in a company, for example if a key employee leaves or a significant client is lost.

Often, it’s external forces that impact businesses, whether it’s a change in your industry, a legislation change, or the economy.

Living in the new world

The Covid pandemic is the best example of significant and rapid change. Literally overnight the world transformed, and the ramifications of those changes are still being felt.

Organisations have had to adapt to the post-covid world as customers and employees’ desires and needs have changed.

What people were happy with before – such as working in the office from nine to five, Monday to Friday – they now want the autonomy to work where and when they want. As a result, moving forward employers will be much more focused on outcomes, rather than how many hours their staff are working in the office.

Those businesses that have been able to adapt and respond quickly to the opportunities presented by Covid have been the ones who have started to thrive: their flexible and agile approach has enabled them to keep their best employees and attract new ones.

Staying ahead of the competition

But it’s not just employees. We are in the digital era, and technology is rapidly changing how customers consume goods and services, and how companies operate.

Organisations can now do things quicker thanks to technology, making processes more automated and using artificial intelligence to make their customers happier and keep satisfaction rates high.

More and more businesses are taking a flexible approach to customer feedback and are able to adapt by constantly raising the bar to stay ahead of the competition.

For example in the financial services market, new players such as Amazon could get involved in things like selling mortgages, leveraging their strength in other markets to shake things up.

All of a sudden lot of things can happen unexpectedly, like the Covid pandemic, and everything changes. That is why organisations need to make sure they have a change management capability, otherwise they won’t be fit for the future.

And that’s where One44 can help. We offer two key services that will provide organisations the ability to prepare for, manage, and respond to change.

The first is training. We provide bespoke change management training that provides businesses with the skills and capability to manage the change process and take advantage of the opportunities it presents. This is very much a sustainable business model, designed to prepare individuals for the change and business readiness activities.

The second is consultancy. Many organisations do not have enough internal capacity or capability to implement change programmes that support and help individuals, teams, and the business in making the organisational change. We work in collaboration with businesses to create bespoke programmes to enable effective change.

We look at the business to develop a plan in line with the business vision, values, strategy, people and culture to link overall development to business purpose for greater engagement.

Keeping people valued

People are at the heart of your business. They are not automated and need to be happy and feel they belong to something special that has a purpose if they are going to provide an excellent customer service.

You need to make sure that there are strong leaders to help people stay motivated and engaged, and from an employee point of view, make sure that they feel suitably valued, are learning something new, and that their time and opinions matter.

Some organisations don’t focus on their people. They change the processes but don’t think about the culture, and that’s where One44 can have a big impact.

Dealing with change is inevitable but having the right things in place in your business – skills, people, management – is not!

If your organisation is looking to strengthen its change management capability, or you want to have chat to find out more about how One44 may be able to help, please contact us.