The faster you make a change the sooner you can reap the rewards, right? Not necessarily. A lot depends on the type and amount of change and it needs to be thought through carefully.
I’ve worked with companies that took so long to make a change that by the time a decisions was made and the change implemented it had lost the desired impact on the industry, customers or employees. Some companies have such a long process that the process itself gets in the way. Larger companies have a tendency to have a slow process and get bogged down on protocol but I’ve seen small companies have the same issue. This can happen when there is an individual that is responsible for too many decisions and is either unable or unwilling to make the call to move ahead with change. They become the narrow opening of a funnel and nothing gets through in a timely way.
I’ve also worked with larger organizations that pride themselves on being nimble and quick in regard to making changes. That should be a good thing but being too quick can result in unintended consequences to the market, employees or customers. In one instance the organization decided to roll out a major price change without adequately testing the impact on customers. This particular change doubled the operational costs of responding to customers who were calling to complain. Had the organization done a better job of testing they would have better understood the impact and made some adjustments prior to making the change. Although the desire for the change was valid (elimination of less profitable customers) the result was elimination of a wider demographic of customer and higher operational costs.
Somewhere is the middle ground where change is adequately vetted without making hasty decisions while still moving swiftly enough to make a difference. What makes a good change management process? Making sure that an adequate review is done of the changes to be made. What are unintended consequences of the change and what can be done to mitigate them? How do you get early adopters on board including key influencers within the organization. Make sure that the change is communicated to the right people in the right order to ensure messaging is what you want it to be, especially change that is internal in nature. Set a timeline for the change and keep communicating throughout the process updating with early wins and keeping people supportive and in the loop.
Change needs to be managed to ensure the best of all possible outcomes!