Change management is often treated like a project with a beginning and an end. It is frequently seen by senior management as a tool for driving up productivity and profitability. It is commonly interpreted by the troops as “being made to do something that doesn’t really need to be done.”

Managing change is not a project; it is an ongoing, never ending process of successfully adapting to changes within and outside our control.

Let’s look at change management in a new way. Managing change is not a project; it is an ongoing, never ending process of successfully adapting to changes within and outside our control. Nothing stays the same for long. What worked yesterday won’t necessarily work today. Customers change, suppliers change, key employees leave, the economy stumbles, it rains in California. Change is an everyday part of life.

Some people hide from change; they see it as disruptive and painful. Such folks need to work on their attitudes and beliefs about change before they can manage it.

On the other end of the spectrum is the change fanatic. Such a person is always changing things, applying the latest management theories or tips picked up at a recent seminar. This person can’t stop tinkering. David Mahoney said, “There comes a moment when you have to stop revving up the car and shove it into gear.” The change fanatic needs to learn when that moment has arrived.

The remainder of us have varying levels of acceptance about change. Some avoid it where possible but face it when they must. Others embrace it with enthusiasm. We can be convinced that change is a good thing provided it is planned and implemented wisely.

Once we see that change can be a good thing, most of us want to do more than respond to it; we want to lead change. Effectively leading change means getting in front of it and finding ways to use it to our advantage.

A strategic plan is an organized process for changing the business from what it is now to what it will be in future.

The most useful tool for leading change is strategic planning. A strategic plan is an organized process for changing the business from what it is now to what it will be in future. It anticipates and plans responses to changes thrust upon us by external forces and it creates plans for internal and external changes within our control. It is the steering wheel of our business.

A common excuse for not planning is that things change so fast in a particular industry that a plan is outdated as quickly as it is written. Ironically, fast changing environments need planning more than slow changing environments. At minimum, planning creates structure for those working in a chaotic environment. Without planning we surrender completely to the chaos. With planning we may find a way to harness the chaos and use it to our competitive advantage.

I think resistance to planning is most often brought on by misunderstanding or misapplying the process. It is seen as a time dump rather than a time investment that will pay off down the road. It is seen by some as an annual event where everyone gets together to sing Kumbaya and put forward fantastic plans and ideas that have nothing to do with the day to day burden of getting the job done. Hopefully, this new way of looking at planning as managing change will win some converts.

Leading change means venturing into the unknown. Using planning to avoid action until we turn over every conceivable rock is as dangerous as not planning at all. The plan is the roadmap, not the road. It is by venturing down the road hat we get somewhere useful.

What do you think? How do you manage change? Please leave a comment.

Your vision may not be so grandiose but the power of your vision to inspire and lead your organization – and you – is the difference between a coffee shop and Starbucks or a local hardware store and Home Depot.

Vision is not about dreaming. It’s all about deciding where you want to go with your business (and your life). JFK didn’t just dream about sending a man to the moon. He ordered it. He said it will be done. And then he charged America with figuring out how to make it happen. Thus was born perhaps the greatest era of American innovation.

The world we live in today didn’t just happen. Somebody had a vision for a computer on every desk. Someone else had a vision for an online bookstore. Someone had a vision for a wireless telephone that could be used anywhere. There is power in vision. What’s yours?

I can guarantee that anyone who is there got there with formal goals, strategies and hard work. Seat-of-the-pants success is a myth. With a plan we get to where we want to be; without a plan we get to a random place that may or may not be desirable. The seat-of-the-pants myth is powerful because some people end up in wonderful random places. We’d rather see that as the rule even though the adage “fail to plan; plan to fail” is proven over and over again.

Here’s why we need to plan: We make decisions and take actions every day. The accumulation of daily decisions and actions over months and years determines where we will be at a future point in time. Without a plan, our daily decisions are guided by the demands of the moment. With a plan our decisions and actions are guided by our goals. It’s that simple.

We all know about the importance of long term and short term goals (well-defined steps leading to our dreams), business plans (roadmaps for reaching our goals efficiently) and strategies (how we will move our business along the road, avoid potholes, avoid bad drivers, and compete with other drivers going to the same place). So why do so many fail to plan?

As entrepreneurs, we have the freedom to do what we think is right. We are free from bureaucracy, able to follow our instincts and implement our ideas at will. Having a plan can feel bureaucratic. Worse, it can feel like putting on a straightjacket. Many of us left the corporate world to get out of a straightjacket so why on earth would we willingly put one on again?

If a plan feels that way it is a bad plan. A plan is merely the formal, organized expression of our instincts and ideas. Plans communicate our instincts and ideas to employees and other stakeholders. Plans verify to stakeholders that we know what we are doing.

Plans do not bind us to an irrevocable course. They show us the course we are on and give us the ability to change course wisely as needed. Plans can change at any time. Large organizations are like ocean liners that take great distances to change direction or stop. They need long planning horizons. Entrepreneurial organizations are like cruisers that can change direction on a dime. Whereas the liner is committed to a port and can change it only with considerable planning and effort, a cruiser can change ports easily. A cruiser can venture even into uncharted waters provided it has the skill to navigate through them.

Having a plan for our business simply means we are focusing our skills, knowledge, wisdom and instincts on the steps necessary to achieve our dreams. A plan is not a straightjacket, it’s a framework from which we can unleash our instincts and ideas for maximum benefit.

The essence of strategic planning is taking the big picture and boiling it all the way down to what needs to be done today. If we don’t have a big picture to guide us, or if the big picture is so big that we can’t translate it into day to day actions, then we are responding to whatever comes our way. We are relying on luck.

Over the past decade the concept of the Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG) has become popular in strategic planning circles. The phrase comes from a book published in 1994, Built to Last: Successful Habits of Visionary Companies by James Collins and Jerry Porras. In it they examined the practices of 18 successful companies including Marriott Hotels and Wal-Mart.

Once a devotee, I’ve dropped the BHAG as a planning device. My problem with using a BHAG is that it is so often misapplied. Yes, many very large, very successful companies have audacious goals but a BHAG is not something dreamed up at a weekend strategic planning retreat. A BHAG comes from the core of a company’s values and aspirations. It is something that appears over time as an entrepreneur or group of executives work toward achieving more modest goals like getting the business past the point of struggling to make payroll every two weeks.

J. W. Marriott started out with a root beer stand in 1927. He grew it into a chain of restaurants by 1932. While he likely dreamed of a local restaurant chain when he opened that root beer stand, a vision of owning a worldwide chain of hotels came much later.

Sam Walton started his retail career as an employee of J.C. Penny from 1940 till 1942. After serving in the US Army, Walton purchased a Ben Franklin variety store in 1945. He and his brother, Bud built a chain of sixteen stores in Arkansas, Missouri and Kansas. The first Wal-Mart opened in 1962.  While it is known that he wanted to work in retail from an early age, Wal-Mart as we know it today wasn’t envisioned until much later.

A BHAG can still be part of our long term vision but if it is so big that it can’t be translated into a motivational and inspirational tool that drives our actions then it is not a useful planning device.

For most of us, a three year big picture vision is much more likely to be useful in our day to day activities. All of us, entrepreneurs, executives, managers and workers on the shop floor can imagine three years out. We can transpose what has already happened into what could happen.

Everyone in the organization can align themselves with a three year big picture. That makes for a useful planning device.

Understanding why existing customers buy your products or services is a great start to figuring out how to approach new customers. What is their number one reason for dealing with you? Trust? Product quality? Customer service excellence? What comes second and what comes third? Knowing what it is that excites and satisfies your existing customers helps you determine what you should promote to potential customers.

You also need some basic research on your prospects. At minimum you need names and titles of decision makers. You can often find out such information from other non-competing vendors who deal with the company and who will be happy to exchange information if you are willing to do the same for them. Scott’s Directories and others are available in every library and often list names and titles of key management.

Google names of key managers to see what comes up. Get active in your local Chamber of Commerce and build your network of contacts. Sign up for Linkedin and other business related networks. Become a Rotary member. All these pursuits can bring you a wealth of information on potential customers and you might even meet some of them along the way.

At this point I strongly recommend that you have experience with sales and marketing or you align yourself with a local marketing agency. You’ll be surprised at how reasonable they can be with costs, especially if you have already done the research. For a few hundred dollars they can help you design the right kind of marketing materials like sell sheets and brochures. If your budget permits, you can get an amazing amount of help for under $5,000. Once you’ve got a budget in excess of $10,000 you are into wide range of marketing support. The best approach is to give them a budget and see what they can do with it.

If you don’t have even a few hundred dollars then scour the internet for all the free information you can find and check out competitors’ web sites to see what their marketing themes look like. Buy books on marketing and read them cover to cover. Don’t take shortcuts or you might miss something critical.

My next post will cover how to use the information you’ve gathered and the marketing materials you’ve prepared to get in front of prospects.

Your comments are welcome.

Doug

Growing your business starts with a vision of what you want to be in 5, 10, even 20 years. With a clear vision, you can set a direction (plan) to take you there. With a vision and a plan you can move into action. Action is everything. A vision exists only in your head. A plan is only a bunch of words on paper. Action is reality.

Vision, direction and action are ingredients for sustainable, repeatable success. If you have only a vision you don’t have any way to get there. If you have only a plan you don’t know where you are going. If you have only action your efforts are scattered. Putting them all together significantly improves your odds of success.

The first key to building your business is creating a business plan that details your vision, direction and action plans. Your business plan will identify your target markets and target customers so that you can develop a rational program for soliciting new business.

For the purpose of this series, we will assume that you have a well written business plan and a list of prospective customers that fit your plan. My next post will discuss how to get in the door.

Doug