You have heard it before, the only guarantee, is that there are no guarantees. Business professionals struggle with this concept in particular because what got us to where we are, is instincts above all, but also formulating plans, knowing our goals, estimating milestones and always having a sense of what is next. While that sounds great, anyone who has been in business, leadership, or life long enough realizes that change is a constant, and no other time in history has reinforced this concept more, than the last few years.
While planning is essential, planning for change is even more so essential. I have led organizations through periods of drastic changes ranging from establishing new programs, launching new products, dealing with changing leadership, battling through the pandemic and overall growth-related change.
The single greatest piece of advice I can offer, is to be willing to fail, but do so quickly. Iteration is key to long-term success. If you wait for the right time, one will never come. If you are waiting to fully flesh out your plan, something unknown is always lurking. This does not mean you should throw caution to the wind, but it does mean you need to be comfortable proceeding with a certain degree of risk. It is up to you to decide your organizations risk tolerance, meaning how much risk can you operate under? Some industries won't allow for much due to regulations and compliance such as insurance, financial services and federal. Determining your risk appetite will allow you and your organization to proceed where otherwise you would stall. Remember, it is not having all of the answers, rather having enough to gain momentum.
The next crucial step to managing change, is communication. It is funny how most projects, even the most complex in nature fail due to one simple miscue--terrible or lacking communications. We could write a book on communications, but for now think big picture, have you clearly established and communicated your vision? Your Goal, Your Values? What if I asked those who work with/for you, would they agree? The other aspect to communication is, companies able to weather change, are those able to solicit, facilitate, comprehend and act on feedback. This boils down to having a pulse on your organization, and trusting your team will provide feedback, both positive and negative. Is something working? It might be, it might not, how will you know? Constant communication channels are needed to gauge where and when tweaks are needed, when plugs need pulled, and when things are working. Don't be afraid to change up your approach, humble s=yourself, seek feedback from those who know, and tweak as needed. Just be careful to give a change time to be assessed accurately, all too often the urge is there to terminate a new process after two weeks because a drastic result is not detected. Ask yourself if enough time has passed to solicit feedback, and make educated assessments about what if anything is working or needs changed.
Simply put, those who will succeed are not those who plan to avoid failure, rather those who plan to fail, make a plan to resolve deficiencies, and are able to execute.
