Business is fun. We make strategies that align with our organization’s goals and we then implement tactics that position us for success. Then after patience and hard work, when everything goes our way, we triumphantly watch our efforts bear fruit. And then we pivot and do the whole thing again.
Sometimes things don’t go our way. Maybe the strategy was wrong, or the tactics weren’t implemented correctly. Maybe we had the wrong people in key positions. Maybe we found success, but what we considered success didn’t line up with what our organization actually wanted us to be doing. Maybe it did line up, but the organization is changing (and all organizations are always changing). Either way, things will eventually change. And how we cope with change can shape the perceptions of those around us, as well as the satisfaction that our teams garner from their jobs.
A natural inclination of many these days is to take to complaining to peers about changes in the organization. But while cathartic, complaining about change can brand you as being change averse, or inflexible. Complaining will infect your team. Complaining will make you look incapable of getting with the new way. Complaining about change will, in short, hurt your career. But you need to do something, right? And it can be cathartic to complain about change. But don’t. Instead, let’s look at a few things you should do:
- Celebrate success. It’s easier to handle change when you know that you weren’t doing anything wrong before. It’s important to celebrate past accomplishments. That way everyone knows that their efforts were appreciated by the organization. This can provide closure to the old way in a positive manner, and prepare everyone for what’s to come.
- Formulate a new strategy. Armed with information about where the organization wants you to go, analyze the gap between where you are and where you’re going. And how to get to the destination. There’s no reason to operate in a vacuum. Instead work with your peers and team to build a new strategy that everyone can agree on. After all, your team can’t be fully bought in unless they have some say in the strategy you’re asking them to implement.
- Be transparent. Transparency will not only arm your team with all of the information they need about why you are implementing a new strategy but it will also keep staff from being concerned about their place in the new framework you’re building.
- Devise tactics. You have a strategy, now you need a plan to implement that strategy. The tactics you choose should be bought in by every level of the organization. These should include any process changes, and the expectation (both inputs and outputs) of the new tactics.
- Communicate, communicate, communicate! Once you’ve developed a strategy and how the strategy will be implemented, communicate the changes to everyone. This includes your team, but also those above you (as they should approve of both the strategy and the tactics) and those lateral to you (as you’ll likely impact them).
Once you’ve spent the time to formulate a new strategy, stop and appreciate the work that’s been done. Publicly thank those who helped you. Think of any time you could have spent complaining about the changes, and how much you could have accomplished in that time had you instead been getting feedback about what is desired of you and how you can deliver. You’ll quickly find that you were much more productive in the time that you would have otherwise spent making yourself look bad to anyone standing around the water cooler that would listen to you.
Complaining doesn’t really help anything. We’ve all done it, though. And it can help us to cope with change. And sometimes you need to do so; especially when you feel like your time has been wasted. But keep it to a minimum and be careful who you complain to; especially if you’re in a position of management. That way you can get on with getting productive again. Once a new strategy is in place that the organization appreciates more than the old strategy, you’ll likely find that you’re better off than you otherwise would have been!