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Preparing Your Company For Change
Index
- The Evolving Game
- The Cost of Losing
- Coach or Manager?
- Choose the Playing Field
- Know Your Players
- Pick Your Lines
- Assign Your Captains
- Draw Up the Game Plan
- Play the Game
Know Your Team
It is commonly understood, yet important to remember that there is no more difficult environment in which to to forge change than the service industry. The reason this is the case is very simply tied to the type of employees that work in the field for most service companies.
Field service employees, whether service technicians, construction workers, commercial vehicle drivers or virtually any other service worker share a common personality profile. Just as most sales people share similar personality profiles or most accountants share similar profiles.
Each general personality profile classification has a set of strengths that make them generally well suited for the career path they chose. In the case of service workers, those same strengths that make them dependable, logical, task-oriented individuals who work well in a daily, routine-prone environment, also make them dislike change or instability.
Service people most often fall into the "High S" or "Steadiness" personality profile category, otherwise known as "Steady Relaters". Do these traits look familiar?
| Key Traits |
Explanation |
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| Easy-going |
Calm, measured low-key behavior |
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| Slower Paced |
Wait until they know the steps or guidelines |
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| Patient |
Tend to define themselves by their desire for stable relationships with others, often view problems as workable |
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| Predictable |
Favor routine and stable conditions and practices |
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| Persevering |
Likely to stick to a project for longer periods of time or at least until some concrete results are produced |
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| Modest |
Less likely to blow their own horns, but are appreciative when others sincerely acknowledge their contributions |
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| Accommodating |
Like to get along with other through predictable role relationships |
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| Neighborly |
Prefer friendly, pleasant, helpful working relationships |
The key to preparing "steady relaters" for change is to prepare them. Sound strange? In the case of field service people, preparation, reasoning and logical guidelines are keys to obtaining their buy-in. Can you imagine sending a service technician to repair a product without training or manuals? Similarly, can you imagine sending a driver to pick up a passenger or package in an unknown area of the city without driving directions or a city map? Doing so would only create frustration and take away the security and stable conditions that they thrive in.
Implementing a new workforce solution without preparing your service people for change and obtaining their ownership in the solution, in advance, is asking for trouble. Understanding the personality traits of your workers and adapting your plan to suit them will help the entire change process immeasurably.
The following chart demonstrates hot to prepare your employees to change, according to their common personality characteristics. A wealth of information is readily available on this subject, as are simple personality tests, via the internet.
| Characteristics |
Action Plan |
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| Concerned with stability |
Show how your idea minimizes risk - explain how the technology will stabilize the company and their jobs |
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| Think logically |
Show reasoning - involve one or two key field people in the initial product selection process, explain to all of them why you have chosen this solution and what it will do for the company |
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| Like personal involvement |
Demonstrate your interest in them personally |
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| Want documentation and facts |
Provide data and proof related to the benefits and the return on investment to the company |
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| Need to know the step-by-step sequence |
Provide written, step-by-step instructions on how to use the new system. |
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| Want others to notice their patient perseverance |
Compliment them sincerely for their support and follow through |
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| Avoid risks or changes |
Give them personal assurances |
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| Dislike conflict |
Avoid aggression, focus on common interests and your need for their support |
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| Accommodate others |
Allow them to provide service or support for others. Involve key field people in assisting administration workers who work with the system |
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| Look for calmness and piece |
Keep the atmosphere relaxing and friendly. Do not conduct a wholesale change to the new system at once. Run parallel systems or invoke a pilot system first |
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| Enjoy teamwork |
Provide them with a cooperative group, make sure they are involved |
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