Organizational change is inevitable for a business’s survival. It is the only constant that allows you to develop, evolve, innovate, and climb to the top of the ladder.
To strengthen this statement, Harvard Business Review started a regular survey asking their clients about change. In 2018, 47% of managers revealed that in order to survive, they needed to reinvent their businesses every three years or less. Two years later in 2020, the results were even more spectacular. The number has increased to 58% of respondents who had the same response.
But what exactly does organizational change imply? Further in this article, we will explain everything you need to know about organizational change and how it benefits you as a business.
What Is Organizational Change?
Organizational change refers to actions a company takes to make major shifts. Some of the best examples are culture change, implementing a different business model, repurposing departments or creating new ones, hiring fresh minds, and even upgrading outdated technology. As a general rule, the purpose of these actions is to boost the growth and success of the company.
According to Harvard Business School, there are two general types of organizational change:
- Adaptive change, which refers to minor alterations and adjustments managers do on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. For example, upgrading the operating systems to a more up-to-date version.
- Transformational change, which involves more impactful changes happening simultaneously. These can include remodeling the company structure, reshaping the organizational culture, modifying business processes, and other significant alterations.
How Organizational Change Benefits You?
There are many benefits it can have for a business. For example, organizational change:
1. Attracts Innovation
The American entrepreneur Jim Rohn pointed out that “Life does not get better by chance, it gets better by CHANGE.” We believe the same principle successfully applies to business. We innovate when we change.
2. Creates Movement
You need to run at least twice as fast to keep up with your competition. And that is what organizational change does. It helps you move forward to the next level by changing behaviors, mindsets, and other relevant mechanisms.
3. Boosts Creativity
People are continuously improvising and reacting to what’s going on, and that’s when they get creative. The human brain is built to solve problems. As such, giving people an end goal or a problem to solve, they will inevitably find the solution.
4. Contributes to Developing New Skills
Organizational change usually implies a lot of training and new tasks. Both require learning new things, which results in expanding the existing knowledge, achieving invaluable skills, and even developing different behaviors.
5. Increases Your Revenue
Exposing your business operations to impactful changes can make a huge difference to your financial outcome. Take, for example, creating a new company culture that promotes inclusion and diversity. It will lead to attracting top talent and forging a sense of belonging among your existing employees. A culture like this is bound to have better results which later show in your revenue report.
6. Gives a Better Understanding About Your Employees
As we mentioned before, change in an organization can be a difficult task. However, in the long run, it will give a better understanding of how they work, what their talents are, the way they think, and how they solve problems.
In other words, you’ll get meaningful insight into your workforce and will be able to establish where you are, your weaknesses and strengths, and how to approach the organizational change process.
7. Strengthens Belief in Company Culture
Belief is a powerful tool. It can cure, grow and achieve a healthy state of mind, as long as an individual has a purpose and something to believe in.
Giving your employees something to strive for will inevitably result in a more proactive and effective workflow.
8. Promotes a Unified Identity
As a general outcome, change in the workplace can establish a sense of unified identity, encouraging people to work towards a common goal — the growth of the company.
9. Improves Internal Communication
One of the benefits of organizational change involves technological advancement, including communication tools. These enable your employees to communicate more efficiently. Moreover, it can facilitate more personal communication between them, which leads to better understanding and conviction.
10. Keeps You Ahead of the Competition
As you advance technologically, gain fresh perspectives, and new skills, you make better decisions and have more opportunities to choose from. These constant transformations make your organization evolve, putting it in front of your competitors.
Final Thoughts
Adopting organizational change can be frightening and intimidating. It can also have a massive impact on your teams and everyone directly connected to it.
However it may be, only by shifting our paradigms and modifying our behaviors, habits, and strategies, we evolve. And therefore do better – equally as individuals and organizations.
At the Marlo Companies, we understand every challenge and fear that comes with a complex process like this. But most importantly, we have the relevant experience and tools to help you develop the necessary skills.
Contact us now to discover how we can help you support organizational change.
