By: Judy Butler, Principal
My first exposure to workplace strategy involved implementing a plan determined prior to my involvement. It was for a large, well established consulting firm that took a lot of pride in its people. After a year of research and a pilot program, they set out on an endeavor that would forever change the organization, but unfortunately not in a positive way. Being on the forefront of this undertaking made me understand how workplace strategies can go wrong and how important change management really is.
I don’t believe you have to physically change your space significantly in order to implement a workplace strategy, although it does help. Providing more transparency, access to natural light, and allowing people to choose the type of space they want to work in greatly impacts people’s desire to come to work every day. Ensuring that people have the technology tools to stay connected and be productive is an important part of a strategy, but communication is the key factor and something that needs to be an integral part of the workplace strategy from the start. It is important to educate your people and establish advocacy among all levels of employees. By providing transparency of the goals for the change, the importance of your organization’s culture (establishing, changing, or keeping it intact), setting expectations, and providing management tools that support the strategy, holistic change can be very successful, increase productivity, and better the company’s culture as a whole. It can also help better position the organization’s flexibility for change in the future.
No matter what size your organization is, positive change can happen. Employees at all levels need to be reached and heard. In the case of the firm I worked with, there was very little communication or education directed at middle management and the buy-in at that level didn’t really occur. They were the ones who communicated directly to the levels below them, and many staff were left to their own devices when it came to understanding this enormous change. Having no real context or education of the company’s mission and goals, there was a large disconnect. The negative cultural shift that occurred afterwards took its toll and many of its prideful employees were lost.
Every organization has the power to implement change, but how you go about it is the key for success. When exploring any type of change, especially if it impacts culture, put change management at the top of your agenda.
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