Get ahead of dis­rup­tion with the right change partner

As gov­ern­ments relax COVID-19 con­tain­ment mea­sures and peo­ple cau­tious­ly return to their offices, we may be lulled into think­ing that life is return­ing to nor­mal. But now is not the time to relax or to be pas­sive, warns the World Eco­nom­ic Forum (WEF).

In a recent WEF sur­vey, risk experts iden­ti­fied the top fall­out risks from the pan­dem­ic. They includ­ed a pro­longed glob­al reces­sion, bank­rupt­cies, indus­try con­sol­i­da­tions, sup­ply chain dis­rup­tions and anoth­er out­break of disease.

The ques­tion is not if change is com­ing but when. What­ev­er the dis­rup­tion, com­pa­nies can­not remain pas­sive to these poten­tial threats.

Instead, they should put mea­sures in place now so that they can get on top of the dis­rup­tion when it inevitably comes.

A change ini­tia­tive is often a com­plex oper­a­tion. Rop­ing in a change part­ner to sup­port the trans­for­ma­tion is a good strat­e­gy as they pro­vide the nec­es­sary insights and skills to piv­ot quickly.

Tap the right expertise

The right imple­men­ta­tion part­ner can help com­pa­nies to swift­ly pre­pare and plan strate­gi­cal­ly. Here are some ways they can help:

1. Make the tough decisions

To build a more resilient com­pa­ny, tough deci­sions must be made. Some com­pa­nies may need to trim down a bloat­ed work­force. Salaries or ben­e­fits may have to be cut. Major oper­a­tional and strate­gic shifts will be made.

Under­stand­ably, many senior man­agers find it dif­fi­cult to make these hard deci­sions. Some may lack the nec­es­sary expe­ri­ence and end up caus­ing more harm to the organ­i­sa­tion dur­ing the exercise.

Man­age­ment con­sul­tants can assess the sit­u­a­tion objec­tive­ly and lead the decision-making process. This can pro­vide pro­tec­tive dis­tance, or polit­i­cal cov­er, as well as reas­sur­ance that the deci­sions are made based on sol­id analysis.

2. Embed best man­age­ment practices

Con­sul­tants have wide expe­ri­ence serv­ing com­pa­nies across dif­fer­ent indus­tries and solv­ing a mul­ti­tude of prob­lems. This gives them unique per­spec­tives and deep insights. As a result, they can spot oppor­tu­ni­ties and come up with rel­e­vant solu­tions quickly.

Every con­sult­ing firm has this knowl­edge kept in data­bas­es, white papers, case stud­ies and post-project reviews. How­ev­er, the most valu­able insights exist in the heads of part­ners and senior con­sul­tants and nowhere else.

Tap­ping into this exper­tise will give organ­i­sa­tion access to the right ideas, solu­tions and imple­men­ta­tion methods.

3. Add ana­lyt­i­cal horsepower

Some organ­i­sa­tions may lack the skill or in-house knowl­edge to solve a prob­lem or exe­cute a strat­e­gy. With their knowl­edge, capa­bil­i­ties and wide exper­tise, man­age­ment con­sul­tants can boost an organisation’s resources in a short period.

For exam­ple, con­sul­tants can per­form a thor­ough analy­sis of an organisation’s resources, process­es, sys­tems and struc­tures to iden­ti­fy the right strategies.

4. Plug a skills gap and act as inter­im management

Dur­ing a cri­sis, con­sul­tants can act as inter­im man­age­ment for a short time. This allows com­pa­nies to quick­ly plug a skills gap cre­at­ed by an expan­sion or con­trac­tion and steer the team to the right direc­tion. This also ensures con­ti­nu­ity of process­es and services.

5. Guide employ­ees through the emo­tion­al roller coast­er of change

Change is dif­fi­cult for peo­ple, which is why trans­for­ma­tion is dif­fi­cult for organ­i­sa­tions. The work­force goes through a roller­coast­er of emo­tions dur­ing a change ini­tia­tive. Often there is a drop in morale and a temp­ta­tion to aban­don efforts. Just as a per­son­al train­er keeps you in shape, change man­age­ment con­sul­tants are expe­ri­enced in pulling employ­ees out of the dips, pro­vid­ing the nec­es­sary on-the-job coach­ing to adapt to the new ways of working.

6. Gain fresh perspective

It can be dif­fi­cult for front­line employ­ees, caught up with day-to-day respon­si­bil­i­ties to have clar­i­ty to look at things with a crit­i­cal eye.

The val­ue con­sul­tants bring because of their out­side per­spec­tive can be invalu­able. Often, the insights are sim­ple, and this is only made pos­si­ble by their per­spec­tive as an out­side expert.

Some­times the insights may seem like com­mon sense, but unfor­tu­nate­ly, com­mon sense isn’t that com­mon. Some­times, we can’t see the for­est for the trees.

When some­thing seems like “com­mon sense” it is a strong indi­ca­tion that it is the right thing to do.

Choos­ing the right change partner

Here’s what to look for in your change partner:

1. Spe­cial­ist expertise

Large con­sul­tan­cies may have a greater breadth of resources to solve prob­lems (for exam­ple, data min­ing and pri­ma­ry mar­ket research). Bou­tique ones, on the oth­er hand, may have unique, spe­cial­ist expertise.

2. Tai­lored solutions

Boil­er­plate solu­tions will not be ade­quate for your goals or needs. Make sure that the strate­gies are tai­lored to your organisation’s unique char­ac­ter­is­tics, needs and goals.

3. A hands-on approach

Organ­i­sa­tions should work with a con­sul­tan­cy that is hands-on. They shouldn’t just tell you what to do or what not to do and give you lists of actions for your team to car­ry out.

A con­sul­tan­cy that stays with your com­pa­ny from plan­ning to imple­men­ta­tion and beyond will ensure that changes have a high­er chance of sticking.

Renoir Con­sult­ing is some­where between big and bou­tique. Our com­pa­ny has the col­lec­tive expe­ri­ence, in-house knowl­edge and resources, and spe­cial­ist exper­tise to deliv­er deep insight. We excel at cre­at­ing bespoke solu­tions and deliv­er­ing sub­stan­tial ben­e­fits for clients.

What­ev­er rea­sons a client has for an engage­ment, the best change part­ners deliv­er not only out­stand­ing results, they deliv­er sus­tain­able out­stand­ing results.

We see one of our pri­ma­ry roles as pro­vid­ing train­ing and coach­ing to equip an organisation’s employ­ees with the nec­es­sary knowl­edge, skills and mind­sets to ensure the engage­ment results in an ongo­ing pos­i­tive impact.

If this res­onates with you, con­tact us for an appoint­ment today.