How To Navigate a Business Transformation

“To survive and succeed, every organization will have to turn itself into a change agent. The most effective way to manage change is to create it.”
—Peter Drucker

The creator and inventor of modern management had it right about change—the best way to manage change is to create it.

Of course, I believe Drucker was talking about larger organizations when he offered that very sage advice. But I think the same advice can helpful to one-person businesses and independent contractors. If you create change for yourself, it’s easier to manage when it comes along—even when the change is not something you initiated. And you can create change for yourself by continuing to diversify—no matter what market conditions are doing.

That said, I think having some conversations about managing change is important right now. Many people don’t have the luxury of creating change right now—they’re just having to deal with it.

From my corner of the world, it seems that economic conditions are forcing most people I know into some kind of lifestyle or career change. Increasingly large numbers of people are having to accept and adjust to changes they didn’t foresee a year or even six months ago. And many people, hard-pressed to find a job, are starting to realize that the only immediate option to create an income of any kind is to create their own job and start their own business. Make no mistake about it: the ranks of independent contractors and freelancers are growing.

But even those of us who are well-established as freelancers and independent contractors are finding that the landscape looks sharply different than it did even six months ago. Work is harder to come by, clients are cutting pay rates, and people are taking longer to pay for services. Some companies we’ve always worked for are simply shutting down.

I’d be willing to bet that most Bizzia.com readers also are experiencing economically induced change of some sort.

A few days ago, I talked about fears and how to manage them when they’re attached to changes we don’t ask for or market conditions that force us to consider different business models. But learning how to manage fear is only part of the change management equation. Learning how to accept and even embrace change is the ultimate goal. And it can take a long time to get there. Like the grieving process, change also can come along with all kinds of unpleasant emotions—anger, feelings of loss, powerlessness, and depression. And like the grieving process, it takes as long as it takes. The only way to get over it is to go through it.

When I was working my last corporate job, part of my function was to help teams buy in and adapt to needed changes in processes and software. It was one of the most difficult parts about the job—because even when change is needed, it’s often not easy. Thankfully, my job was made a lot easier by some forward-thinking managers who had participated in change management training.

I was very fortunate to have the opportunity to attend change management training as well. But few self-employed people have the time or the funds for that kind of training—especially right now.

If you’re self-employed, you have no choice but to adapt quickly and keep moving forward so that money continues to flow in the right direction. So there’s not a lot of time for adjusting and adapting—you just have to do it while you’re juggling everything else in your business.

So how do you get to that final, desired state of acceptance in the change management process if you hardly have time to catch your breath as it is?

I certainly don’t claim to have all the answers. And despite my change management training, I still struggle to accept some changes as much as the next person—especially when I’m not the one initiating the change. But there are a few things that have helped me learn how to manage change—both wanted and unwanted—in my work and personal life.

Here are some things that have helped me:

1) Find the silver lining. Like most people, I have stood at several crossroads in my life. Times when what I was doing was no longer right for my career path or my personal life. And there have been a couple times when I chose the change, knowing full well that I had no other option. A couple of those should-I-stay-or-should-I-go decisions were agonizing on several different levels. But the blessing is that I can now look back on my career and recognize that everything happened the way it was supposed to. And had those other situations worked out, I wouldn’t be standing where I am today. And where I’m standing is a really good place right now. So now, when I’m confronted with change that I find hard to understand or accept, I think about those instances I just mentioned and remind myself that great opportunities and significant personal and professional growth sometimes originate from painful or difficult circumstances. So with any change I’m having a hard time accepting, I try to find as much silver lining as I can—and then I focus on growing it. You know, the lemons-to- lemonade approach.

2) Feel the feelings. You may have to run at lightning speed right now to keep up with the demands of your business—especially in this climate. But make sure you set aside some time for yourself to reflect on some of the changes you’re going through—both on the personal and professional levels. Because one doesn’t live without the other—a change in your professional life affects your personal life, and vice versa. I find that writing is the salve I need to work through and process change (in fact, it’s probably why I started writing in the first place). Over the years, I’ve kept personal journals. But I’ve also processed a lot of these personal and professional changes in Word documents on my computer. My message is this: Don’t be afraid to feel some of the feelings that go along with change—even good change. Processing change can be a lot like the grieving process because you’re actually working on letting go of something and moving onto something new. As you adjust to new market conditions, you may have no choice but to change your business model. And having to change your business model away from sectors you’ve always enjoyed working in may be very difficult. So cry, scream, pound your fists if you have to. And then move onto the next thing.

3) Take a step back and assess. The good thing about change—particularly the kind you don’t choose—is that it forces you to step back and take a macro view of your life. Perhaps you’ve long considered venturing into a new market or pursuing a new type of client, but for whatever reason, you just never had time or the inclination before. But if one of your longtime clients starts having budget problems and cuts back on the work they’re jobbing out, you’ll have no choice but to diversify. That happened to me several months ago. And it forced me to move in some new, very positive directions. For some people, getting laid off can actually be freeing for that very same reason. Sometimes change forces your dreams into reality. If you keep doing what you’re already doing five years from now, will you be satisfied with your life and your business? Now is the time to zig when you’ve always zagged. Take time to reassess what you’re doing and then reset your personal and professional compass according to where you’d like to be one year, five years, and 10 years from now. Take time to honor your dreams and then start laying the foundation underneath them.

4) Develop a plan. If you don’t know where you’re going, you’ll end up someplace else. I think that’s a title of a book I read once, but it’s always stuck with me. Even if you’re a one-person operation, you have to have an overall business plan and mission that informs your daily decisions and the assignments you pursue and accept. How do you want to specialize as a freelancer or independent contractor? Are you there yet or is there still more work to do before you can attach that specialty to your name? Map out a plan and attach timelines to goals related to your overall business plan. Revisit your plan at the end of every quarter (or more frequently if needed), and make any needed adjustments. It works. It really does. Try it as an experiment for a year and let me know what happens.

5) Focus on the learning process. This kind of ties in with the find-the-silver-lining advice, but every change that comes your way—either personally or professionally—is an opportunity for growth and learning new skills. If you can focus on the opportunities that the change will bring you—and then capitalize on those—you’ll emerge from this downturn much stronger on a personal level and as a business. For example, I know that in order to attract new kinds of business and clients, quite a few freelancers I know are delving into social media, blogging, and learning how to provide multimedia story packages that include written stories, podcasts, and videos.

6) Have faith. I alluded to this above, but sometimes we don’t know why change happens. We only know that it’s arrived and that we have to accept it. Fortunately, I can now look back at all of the significant turning points in my personal and professional life and see the gifts that sometimes came from difficult circumstances. And because I’ve had those experiences, I’m better able to accept change when it happens today. Even when the change is unpleasant. Because I now recognize there’s a bigger plan at work and it’s not mine. I don’t know what your spiritual leanings are, but I think that tough times and difficult changes can increase your faith—that inner knowing that even though things may appear bad on the outside, everything is going to be okay in the long run. And probably much better than okay.

I realize this is one of my longest posts, and I hope at least a few readers have made it to this sentence. But in my opinion, this topic of change and how we’re managing it on a personal and professional level is one of the most important discussions we need to be having right now. And how we manage it will determine our success going forward.

I always love hearing from my readers, and I’m very interested in hearing how you’re managing all the changes in your life right now. Is there anything you’re doing that you think will help others? Please drop me a line and tell me about it!

Photo credit: GroggyFoggy (Flickr)