Embracing change as an integral part of our lives has always been difficult and it is likely that it will stay like that forever. Despite all the highly sophisticated literature, all motivational gurus and even the ideas within this article, we, as human beings, don't like change.
Anyhow, there have always been some of us, who dare to try something new, or even more, yearn to step on terra incognita. They are following a vision and they seem to understand, that doing more of the same does not change the circumstances for the better.
It's not surprising that we admire these adventurers. Mary Kingsley, Amerigo Vespucci, Mae Jemison, just to name a few. We dream about their adventures and for sure, we will never forget them. At least those, who did survive and could tell their stories. Those who failed, died, or were lost without trace are used to confirm the dogma of persistency.
In light, of this, what can we do as business leaders, to deal with change in our organizations?
This is the question that the Vetoquinol team in Germany, Austria and Switzerland has been facing since March 2016.That was when the decision to move the office from Ravensburg to Munich was disclosed to the team.
There are no magic tricks or clever words, that can take away the frustration of a 64 year old employee, who carried the hope to end her career at the same place, where she had lived and worked for her whole live. Neither is it possible to ease the situation of those, who loose their jobs, only because private circumstances do not allow them to follow to the new location.
Although the management team acted with the best intentions and was willing to search for individual solutions, the trust had been broken.
As I said, there is no magic trick. It's all about communication. Talking to each other, even if or especially if, it it is an uncomfortable conversation. Communicating in a clear, transparent and empathic way is key.
We actually had to learn some of that along the journey. No one is born with the necessary skills and all of us continue to learn every day. l
So we held a workshop with the whole team to define a shared vision, what our future should look like and who we want to be for our customers and the market. We formed project teams to dig deeper into the most important topics, in which individual team members took the lead.
Through this, we, as a team, started to embrace the change.
But since it's not all about work, we wanted to create a fun project, too. We decided to create a Football Table. Our design, our work, our pride as a team, is now sitting in our new office, offering a break whenever needed.
Besides having fun in doing this, we wanted the entire team to share the experience of creating something together. Hand in hand, discussing the plan, starting to work, refining the plan and so on.
With Steiger&Lankes, we found a carpenter, who was willing to open his shop floor for 3 events, spanning 2 days each. During this time everybody had the chance to participate. The final design, as well as the materials used, were decided upon by the whole team. We began with the rawwood which was sawed, planed, drilled and ground.
Everybody also created their own, individual football player.
The carpenters guided us along every step of the process so we never lost sight of the meta level of the project.
This experience left an impression in all of us. None of us is a carpenter, but we learned and had fun in trying something new. We learned to see the talents of our colleagues, to listen and to acknowledge our ideas. And - very important - we celebrated our result.
The whole project may serve as an analogy for the work we are doing within our organization. We are building the future of Vetoquinol and we will do it hand in hand, sharing the same vision.
Change can therefore be a much more enjoyable process, if it is done together with others. This strongly resonates with our company motto: "Achieve MoreTogether"
Now, 18 months after the announcement, we are working in our new office. Most of our boxes are unpacked. Despite having left Ravensburg with a heavy heart, today we are looking forward to our new Vetoquinol. We are working hand in hand to change our company fot the better, for the sake of all employees and the customers.
And whenever it's getting tough, we take a break and kick the change.