BlueApricot

Many of our clients call us to ask about managing change, “reengineering” or strategic planning. In some cases, they are intimidated. Our approach is to break it down into manageable parts.

At Blue Apricot Solutions we see Strategic Planning and Managing Change as two sides of the same coin: achieving organizational effectiveness is dependent on creating the future and executing on the necessary steps required to establish real buy-in and commitment from all team members and across the organization. According to research, 85% of change management initiatives either fail completely or fall short in achieving desired outcomes. Blue Apricot Solutions offers preventive and proactive processes to put you and your organization in charge of change, rather than allowing change to get the better of you!

Successful change involves a step-by-step process guided by a solid understanding of the challenges one can expect, and the skills required to lead an organization and make change happen. We help our clients overcome barriers such as resistance; develop action plans that have SMART goals; and figure out how clients can realistically track performance. We also believe every change-management effort comes with significant opportunities for learning and adaptation to leverage the talents of the people inside the organization (and, in some cases, the stakeholders that are influencing your work).

First and foremost, we honor where an organization is. Our discovery work helps to identify the various strengths, aspirations and perspectives from key stakeholders inside and outside a team or organization. We believe an essential aspect of successful change management is listening to employees’ ideas and opinions.

Second, we believe any change process calls for the timely and genuine engagement of key personnel in deep dialogue around values, mission, and the BAGS (the big audacious goals) that an organization seeks to achieve within a specified time span. We tend to think this step needs time for real candor to develop so that execution does not get sabotaged or sidetracked later on. The lack of employee buy-in to proposed change is one of the more common reasons why so many change initiatives fail. Effective communication throughout change management initiatives is critical for the generation of dialogue, energy, momentum for action and achieving results.

Third, we help organizations translate strategy into action plans with clear expectations and metrics, assigned staff responsible for deliverables (desired outcomes) by certain timelines, and tracking methods.

Fourth, we pay attention to performance accountability, action learning, and making needed adjustments along the way as new information, knowledge, and experience are acquired or as market forces dictate. Change is never a linear process but involves different processes that can positively influence and support each other to grow organizational capacity and individual skills.

Above all, however, we pay keen attention to how the stakeholders collaborate on vision and implementation. In other words, change management necessitates attention to the cultural environment in support of trust building, candor, of challenging the status quo, and of innovation and motivation.

Workplace culture is not ”touchy feely stuff” in our view. On the contrary, we believe that if you don’t pay attention to culture you’re likely to find even the best strategic plans never get executed. Not only that, you are most likely to be left with a demoralized staff, strained leadership and poor investments. In turn, under those circumstances, productivity suffers and the bottom line is compromised.