Managing Change – a Survival Guide

A post from our Management Skills Development blog

Many years ago whilst at university, I read Alvin Toffler's book Future Shock (1970). At the time, it blew my mind and I have often thought back to some of his predictions because I have seen them coming about.

Not all of his predictions have been accurate but the central premise of his book was that just like people can experience culture shock when travelling somewhere new, people can suffer from shock if change happens too quickly because they try to come to grips with everything that is new and what implications that has. This is in fact accurate and true-to-life.



When encountering much change, people can struggle to cope. With the modern business environment changing so fast, it seems almost inevitable that people will be struggling with something. If your company is now going to have to undergo change of any kind, it is probably worthwhile if you look at how to manage the process because you could find yourself struggling to overcome the momentum of keeping things as they were.

So, whether you are planning to roll out a new IT programme, restructure the entire company, move geographically or any other type of change, you are going to encounter certain reactions. Without undergoing a business management course, what can you do about it?

The first thing that you can do is expect that there will be reactions. These can include:

• Fear
• Anger
• Stress

All of these will lead to resistance to the change itself. The key to Change Management is how to anticipate these reactions and what you can do to overcome any obstacles thanks to many different coping strategies. ZandaX has done most of the difficult work for you. Instead of having to wade through any number of business courses and models, we have taken the key concepts and summarised them for you. All that you have to do is plan how to implement our coping strategies.

The course is most successful when as many key people as possible are able to attend. The first step in starting the Change Management process is to get a team of people together that are committed to the change and who will be rolling it out. They will then keep the momentum going. Once you have identified this as a probable first step, this is the team that we would normally suggest going through the training together.



If the plan is to get directors, or managers, to roll out the change in their various sectors, why not have all of them involved so that they know how to manage this properly? That will solve untold problems later because, as each department has rolled things out in the same way, any possible obstacles are dealt with in a similar fashion.

If your company is about to undergo any kind of large change that could cause stress, fear or anger why not contact us to see if we can help? A small amount invested in preparing properly can save vast amounts later if the change is not implemented well. Your endeavours will go a long way to make sure that the change is actually made and not abandoned or altered during the process because obstacles were not overcome successfully.