It’s often said that the only constant in business is change.  This means that owners and directors need to make sure their businesses can respond well in an environment which is itself constantly in a state of flux.

This article looks at ways to improve how change is managed in your company, without swallowing the manual!  To do this, it’s helpful to use an example of how other firms manage change.

It's considered that there are five levels of 'maturity' to the way companies manage change, where 1 is the most ad-hoc or 'least mature' and 5 is the most mature and organised level (see diagram below - but if you're really keen on this stuff and you've time to spare you can read more about it on the Office of Government Commerce web site).

Now, larger organisations tend to be further up the ladder – but speaking from personal experience, they still have enormous room for improvement in many instances.

For the smaller business, a similar way of looking at the way changes are managed in your own firm can be employed.  Level 1 starts simply with a recognition of changes as ‘projects’.  Next we move up the levels towards getting really smart at how changes are managed by moving towards an atmosphere of continuous improvement of your change management, according to what’s needed to deliver your own business vision.

On the right hand side of the ladder, I've indicated some simple examples of what a particular level of maturity looks like in a firm.  You can pretty much work this out for your own company by asking yourself the following questions:

• Do we have a list of the projects we’re working on?
• Do we know which are the most important to us?

Level 2

• When we manage projects, does each person involved understand what their role is and what they are responsible for?
• Do we have a few templates for important project documents like plans that we can draw upon?

Level 3

• Do we consider how the projects we undertake match the strategy our company has chosen?
• Do we plan how the cost savings or other benefits the projects need to deliver will contribute to the performance the company needs to achieve?

Level 4

• Do we measure the benefits that projects are meant to deliver?
• Do we have or are we anywhere near a quality management standard such as ISO9001?

Level 5

• Do we go over and above the requirements of ISO9001?
• Are we always looking to improve our processes and do we take action to do so?

If you can honestly answer ‘yes’ to the questions, then it’s a good indicator of how your company is doing.  When you reach the point where you start to answer ‘no’, you can consider and perhaps start to see how looking at what your business currently does to implement change can be improved upon.

OK, so this isn’t entirely straightforward to do when you’re up against the production schedule and aged debtors list; once again you need to find the time to do it, but consider getting some help at this point:  an effective independent advisor will have spent a considerable proportion of his/her career working with such tools and can help in the following ways:

• by getting to know you and your business and taking an independent look at how improvements to how change is managed can work in your particular case;
• by using his/her knowledge of the tools, models and techniques that larger organisations employ to really bring out the essence of what’s needed – an what’s not – for the smaller company;
• by using practical experience and facilitation skills to negotiate a way through any difficult situations that are likely to arise in the workplace when changes are needed.

As always, the trick for the small and medium sized company to getting this right so that the management of it doesn’t detract from day-to-day operations is to make it work for you and don’t swallow the manual!  This is where getting outside help can deliver real value.

As UK economic data and other indicators continue to paint a shaky picture of economic growth (according to Gordon Brown's latest warning, not to mention recent data including industrial output, balance of trade and house prices), it may seem like the green shoots of recovery are still some way off (although I'm wondering in an election year, which politician will be the first to overlook Norman Lamont's premature optimism in the early 90's recession and start to over-promise recovery at this time of of economic under-delivery).

An email I received from a contact this morning brought the message home to me - as if it were needed - that many real companies doing real work and employing real people really are struggling in the current climate; it really sounded like a cry for help.

Part of our role as Business Doctors is to provide a link between private sector SMEs and public sector bodies who are responsible for implementing economic policies aimed at stimulating and regenerating businesses - in fact, it's the Business Doctors' mission to help bring companies back to health and I for one believe passionately in that.

So without beating about the bush, the point of this blog is quite simply and unashamedly to make you aware that there's a strong possibility that Yorkshire companies who need help to grow may be able to benefit from a fully funded project worth £3000, which can be delivered by Business Doctors, to provide a full strategic review, implementation planning and support for your business operations.  This really is a fantastic way to get a clear picture of where you're going in business in these difficult times and get some help to make sure projects to deliver change are properly set up.

The funding is provided by Yorkshire Forward, and brokered by Business Link and there are certain criteria which companies should fulfill in order to qualify (namely your company should be based in Yorkshire, have been operating for a few years or so and be looking to grow).

Let us help you get your ideas off the ground - together we can beat the recession!