Defeating Technology Change Management Issues In Small Businesses - Forbes

Defeating Technology Change Management Issues In Small Businesses - Forbes

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Change management for small businesses has become a hot topic in recent years due to the relentless pace of technological change, which has been disrupting virtually all industries and making it difficult to adapt even for large businesses with an abundance of resources.

Small businesses assume a particularly unfavorable position because they are not equipped to overcome technology change-management issues, which greatly reduces their ability to compete with larger players. However, this just means that small businesses must do more with less, perfecting change management and using their inherent agility to their advantage.

There are countless examples of small businesses that have achieved fantastic business results by using modern technology to their advantage.

Such businesses have been able to streamline their work processes and use project management and task management tools to stay on top of their daily business responsibilities, promote their business on social media, effortlessly gather customer feedback and analyze it to generate actionable insights, or create a mobile office to allow employees to be productive anywhere and at any time, among many other things.

However, there are even more examples of businesses whose capacity for managing technological change in business is insufficient. In fact, a McKinsey study revealed that only 26% of transformation initiatives succeed. According to the study, no single action explains the difference, but the results suggest that some transformation practices correlate much more closely than others with success.

All failed transformation initiatives that involve information technology and changes in organizational work can be traced back to poor change-management practices.

Change management can be described as a process that systematically deals with the transition or transformation of an organization's goals, processes or technologies to ensure the transition or transformation reaches its intended outcomes.

There are many change-management models that provide guiding principles and help businesses of all sizes respond to change without disrupting business or making employees unhappy. Examples of popular change-management models include the ADKAR model, Bridges' Transition Model, Kotter's 8-Step Process, Lewin's change-management model and McKinsey 7S.

But despite the abundance of proven change-management models, one survey found that 42% of leaders surveyed do not manage change effectively in their companies.

While leaders like to put the blame on employees, arguing that they don’t recognize the need for change and prefer the status quo, this research debunks these arguments and reveals that most employees view change positively and are comfortable with it. The real reason so many small businesses struggle to manage change effectively has everything to do with their poor change-management practices.

Fortunately, there's a lot leaders can do to better deal with the organizational implications of technological change, even without access to a wealth of resources.

1. Approach Change As A Gradual Process

“Change management is most effective when approached as a gradual process that involves frequent interactions to reshape employee behaviors and opinions,” advises Jeff Baumohl, vice president of partnership at Bonfyre.

In small businesses, such interactions can happen completely naturally, which gives them a significant advantage over large enterprises, where employees' opinions hardly ever reach the C-suite. When employees see change as a gradual process, they quickly learn to embrace and support it.

2. Make Communication Your Top Priority 

Lack of communication is one of the most prevalent reasons for change-management failure.

On the one hand, managers in small companies tend to wait too long to communicate important news about change, keeping employees in the dark and allowing rumors to spread. On the other hand, they sometimes overwhelm employees with information they don’t need — at least not immediately — eventually causing employees to stop paying attention.

The goal should be to share only the most pertinent information when it’s most relevant so employees have everything they need to succeed without feeling overwhelmed.

3. Encourage Technology Use

The importance of technology in dealing with change can’t be stressed enough. In the digital age, small businesses must learn to use technology to their advantage if they want to compete against larger competitors with more resources.

Technology can improve communication, provide greater visibility, automate time-consuming business processes, reduce business costs, increase productivity and efficiency and much more. Tools like Gmail, Trello, Slack and others are intuitive yet very effective in helping small businesses deal with change.

4. Choose The Right Technology

Just because there are many great tools to choose from doesn’t mean they are all equally suitable. Small businesses can’t afford to invest in the wrong technology, so it’s important to conduct a comprehensive requirements assessment before making the final decision.

It’s highly advisable to involve employees in the selection process and take their input into consideration. A tool that seems ideal on paper may turn out to be disliked by employees for its poor usability or unappealing user interface.

5. Stand Behind Your Decisions

There is a good reason to go digital. There is a good reason to modernize older systems. Don’t overreact to initial friction when implementing new technology. Allow for a bonding time between the manual, paper-based, uninformed part of your business and the automated, digital, informed part.

Change is part of business, and the ability to manage it is an essential prerequisite for success. Small businesses can’t afford to let the rapid pace of technological progress make them obsolete and rob them of their ability to compete with large enterprises. They must improve their change-management practices through the successful implementation of tips and strategies described in this article.

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2019-12-17 13:00:05Z
https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil/2019/12/17/defeating-technology-change-management-issues-in-small-businesses/
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