How Can You Make a Smooth Transition?

June 20, 2018

Leadership and Marketing Update from H. LEINER & CO.

When you’re changing things around in your organization, whether they’re technological, physical, or procedural changes, it is difficult to ensure that everyone is on board with the new plan. Even if the changes are exciting, transitions always bring challenges with them.

How can you make a smooth transition for your organization?

Here are 5 tips to ease the transition process:

Senior leadership – your first allies: Get your leaders and managers on board. If they are not supporting the change, ask them if they need more information, if they have concerns about it, and if their vision of the organization can be met with the current way things run. Once you get one key leader on board, it will be easier to motivate the rest of the team.
Set realistic expectations: Tell your staff that it will take time to adjust to the new changes and it might take longer than they think. It will take practice to learn the new system and might include some setbacks, but that is all part of the process.
Share information repeatedly and in different ways: People process information differently, so share information about the changes in different formats. Speak about it at staff meetings, send out e-mails about it, and arrange a presentation about it. Keep speaking about it even several months after the change happened, because people are still in transition mode.
Meet people where they are: Colleagues are people too and therefore they have busy schedules. They are trying their best and have good intentions, but they also have crazy schedules. Take their time seriously, answer their questions, and ask how to make it an easier adjustment for them. Make sure they know they can turn to you for support.
The long view: The goal of the change is to improve your organization. You know that, but it still takes time to integrate into a new system. Set realistic expectations for yourself too, and know that the ultimate goal will happen, but it will likely take a few years to see the growth.