When's A Good TIme For Change

When is the best time for organisational change?

Many people feel pressure to implement change around New Year. After all, society says it is the best time. It’s a time for goal setting; for making plans to do things better than the year prior. And we all seem to have a renewed energy to make something happen as the New Year brings an air of promise.

Then there are others who say the start of the financial year is the better time to initiate change.

With new budgets and targets come new opportunities – again, giving us the motivation to make a fresh start.

The question is then, “what actually is the best time for organisational change?” or “should change only be reserved for the start of the New Year or the financial year?”

From assessing if your business really needs change to deciding if now is the right time, this article aims to give you a definitive answer.

What is change?

This might seem like a silly question as we all know that change means moving from one thing, idea or process to another.

However, change can differ in magnitude. Change can encompass everything from switching coffee brands in the lunchroom to a completely new direction or even a new leader for the organisation.

The kind of change we are discussing here is on a bigger scale. It’s not just about putting new ideas or processes in place, but rather developing your people to build capability, competence and confidence throughout your business.

For example, it could involve a new sales strategy, a full company restructure, a shift in business vision, or developing processes to enable further growth.

Why implement change?

You don’t want to make changes in your organisation just for the sake of it.

After all, change isn’t an easy road to travel, especially alone.

However, if you’re lacking:

Strategy,
Purpose,
Efficiency,
Productivity,
Cohesion, or
Consistency

Then you need to take a look at your organisation, your people, and your processes, and identify areas for improvement.

If you want:

An organisation restructure, reinvention or growth
A strong business culture
Productive employees and talent retention
Increased cooperation and collaboration
Better strategies and processes
Implementation of agile business practices
An exact plan to achieve specific goals or objectives

Think about what changes you can implement to achieve these.

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Need help creating a clear change vision? Find out why Rich Pictures are a key tool.

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When is the best time for organisational change?

If something isn’t quite right in your organisation now, then you shouldn’t have to wait to start making a change.

For example, if it’s August and you’ve identified any of the issues or desires that we listed above, you don’t have to wait until New Year to implement those changes.

Any time is the perfect time for change, and now is as good a time as any!

Goodness knows, there has been a large amount of global change in the last couple of years. And, as a result, organisations have been required to adapt and evolve to accommodate an ever-shifting landscape.

But those changes have all been reactive ones.

Proactive changes are the ones that help your organisation focus on the most important things. The change that strategically transforms the way you do things and enables you to align your processes and outputs with your core business values.

As we said, now is the perfect time to make those changes.

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Want to get buy-in from your people? Read: Winning hearts and minds: strategies for getting buy-in for change

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How to know it’s time for change

So, we know change can massively impact an organisation, but how do you know when it’s the right time to start?

There are a number of common themes we’ve seen over the years, so if your organisation is experiencing some of the occurrences below, then now is the best time for organisational change:

Your organisation’s actions are no longer aligned with your overall goals
An issue has been identified and you want a different outcome
Things don’t function consistently or smoothly
The organisation has new leadership
Communication does not flow effectively and there are issues with the overall culture
You feel as though the organisation lacks direction
You aren’t able to service your clients or customers as effectively as before
Sales are up and down with little consistency
Your market has changed and you need to change in response
You’re struggling to recruit or retain staff

Implement effective change today

The best time for organisational change is now if you’re having certain niggles and you know things can be done better.

Not New Year’s, not at the end of the financial year, but once you’ve identified an issue that needs to be addressed, or a want or need that will grow your business.

Deciding to make change is easy, it’s the implementation of it that’s difficult. Because not only do you have to create effective strategies to initiate and implement, but you have to sustain them too.

And then there’s getting your team to embrace and adopt these new ideas which is a challenge in itself!

Employees bring long-formed habits, office dynamics, differing personalities, and various levels of compliance, and it can be extremely difficult to navigate these aspects internally.

So, how can you implement change effectively?

The best way is to seek the support of an experienced Change Management team who will help you build the internal ownership and structures that can deliver effectively.

Most organisational change is complex. Not just in the new processes to be devised and implemented, but in the human element too.

By having an external team help you to action change, your team will feel empowered by this change rather than it feeling forced on them.

And we all know that an empowered team is a happy team. And a happy team is a loyal team.

Dr Caroline Gowing
Director & Change Management Lead

LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/carolinegowinggreenslade

And a final thought

At JA Consulting we help drive sustainable change; to work with you to take theory and put it into practice. With the right support and guidance, change can become a seamless and straightforward process that yields long-term results.

Want to make change happen for you? Our team is waiting and ready to help.