When is it Time for Change?

Change when it comes suddenly and uninvited is often quite difficult for most of us.

At the same time, life becomes more difficult than it needs to be when change is overdue. In these instances, self-initiating change can make life more simple, and in business, work can become more productive.

This is a great time to start this conversation because everything ahead in business, as a result of us coming out of this recession, is going to be different in one way or another. And that means change.

Have your HR approaches, initiatives and delivery systems evolved to keep up with your clients' changing HR needs?

If you haven't stopped to take a step back and consider what your business requires from you now versus what you may be delivering — it might surprise you. Just don't wait too long to discover any gaps you may have and risk getting behind the curve. The cost is too great and change later will be harder and maybe not of your choosing.

Futurist and author John Renesch in his monthly newsletters addresses issues of leadership and commerce from a global perspective, but invariably the concepts he discusses also apply to more focused, business situations of the everyday sort.

His recent newsletter talks about the need to engage in the "larger conversation". The concept is that problems and issues that dominate our consciousness and everyday dialogues are usually just the "small talk" and symptoms of much larger questions or situations that need to be addressed.

Sounds very familiar to me in organizational settings where we have helped businesses mitigate HR problems that were rooted in much larger organizational issues for example, or in other instances where we helped leaders move long-term projects out of the "stalled mode" into increasingly effective, productive stages by "engaging in the larger conversation" and by focusing on clear communications models and doing the right things as opposed to doing the things they were doing right.

Administering the old rules when the game has changed can bring the game to a halt. Pushing harder for results when the game has never been explained adequately leads to wasted effort, lack of trust and every team member working alone rather than together creating greater results.

If you are not in touch to know that new rules are needed, or that better or different communications are required so that everyone knows how to pull together, there is not much hope for advancement.

What does this have to do with change?

Periodically and personally taking the time to ask business leaders what they need from you and HR sets up the opportunity to direct your own change if what you are delivering or leading is not filling their needs. This is much more preferable to eventually being the subject of change forced upon you when the need for something different has become critical. It is a matter of being engaged with the business and your clients, aware, conscious and thinking about consequences.

Renesch suggests that most of our crises today are really the consequences we didn't think about before. Apply that to running an organization or managing a project or business function and you can see how easy it is to fall out of step when consequences of actions are not thought through or when actions are not properly aligned with today's needs.

So how do you stay out in front and remain conscious of where you are and where you need to be going?

First, it starts with knowing your businesses strategic plan and goals. Are you clear on what those are and how they relate to what you do? Everything flows from there, and the actions of all business functions and their results must enable the strategic plan and goals to be met. The job of each individual staff member must be designed to directly contribute to this objective, and each staff member must clearly understand that relationship. If anything internally or externally happens to affect the business plan or goals — stop and reassess what must be done differently now to ensure new expectations are met and changed goals are achieved.

From an HR perspective, becoming and remaining involved in the business, with leadership, line supervisors and employees in day-to-day operations is the best way to be assured your efforts and results are in line with where the business is headed. Conducting internal client-input surveys, proactively asking for feedback, participating in meetings and clearly communicating data and information that business leaders can use to perform in their responsibilities more effectively will help you stay aligned with what your internal clients require and enable you to anticipate major or even slight shifts in needs.

If you remain eagerly involved you will know when and if you need to change because you will be in touch. Getting behind the curve and dropping out of touch is a sure invitation for uninvited change to happen — and we all know how that feels.

As always we welcome your comments and thoughts. Or if you have questions or would like to discuss some of the challenges you may be facing in your HR delivery, you can reach me at rodh@merithr.com or call us at 925-867-4400 or 408-501-8863 and we'll be happy to share our ideas.