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Tips to Know and Pitfalls to Avoid, Essay Example

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Changes come to an organization sooner or later. This happens regardless the managements’ or shareholders’ wishes. The environment is extremely dynamic, as the majority of factors that influence business might change overnight. The competition is also very intense in basically any sphere, which makes the necessity for change even more obvious. In fact, remaining static means facing a decline. Any company should keep developing new products, search for the new markets, diversify or even update the entire structure. It is definitely much better when the changes come expected: especially when a company strives to grow from simply good company, towards a great company. Such changes require a lot: wisdom, energy, great business ideas, motivated staff, etc. Still, everything listed above makes no sense without a vision.

But what is a vision after all? Is it a list of financial numbers that the company is supposed to achieve by the end of some period? The Answer is surely “No”, these are simple indicators. Is it a set of unrelated projects that should improve the effectiveness? No again – these can be defined as business plans. Vision is the direction in which the company is supposed to move and the plan of general actions that have to be taken in order to reach the final goal. Quite obviously, before deciding on implementing any changes, it has to be figured out where these changes should bring and how they will improve the situation. This brings us to the definite fact that a well-developed vision is the core of any changes in business. If the company wishes to grow and evolve into a truly great enterprise, a clear vision has to be developed, so that the managers know where to lead.

Setting up a vision is definitely a complicated task, as it extremely hard to set up the exact rules. In fact, it is basically impossible to realize whether the vision has been established correctly before the time proves it to be right or wrong. There is no exact criteria that can evaluate the vision: if it works and the company slides in the correct direction, it is a success, if extra problems arise – the attempt failed. Everything else is insignificant. Taking all this into consideration, it becomes rather hard to figure out certain tips on how the vision should be established and implemented. Based on a situation, the same solution may or may not work. I would still like to try to discuss several ideas over which practices should and should not be implemented while creating and implementing a vision.

This is the list of some tips that may be used by a leader that is implementing changes:

1) Build strong values	Vision and values are in fact very closely interrelated. Values figure out what is important for the company, what do the stakeholders expect, how great the responsibility is. Without strong predetermined values it is impossible to figure out final goals and consequently establish a vision.
2) Lead with questions	Informal meetings and debates are exceptionally important. People on the team would love to share their opinion, and it may be a great idea. A true leader should uncover the employee’s potential, always stimulate them with questions, demonstrate interest and willingness to contribute.
3) Engage in dialogue and debate	Several people surely will have more ideas than an individual. Manager, leading a company through changes is supposed to be open to every idea. The vision which is formed at the corporate meeting will predetermine the strategy of the company in the years to come.
4) Study the failures without any blame	Quite surely, the company will have unsuccessful periods, the entire vision may prove to be wrong. It is important to not simply hunt for the people that can be blamed for the previous failure, but rather search for the reasons for such failure to occur and figure out how to learn from the mistake. At times, the company may follow a wrong track for several years, before the mistake is realized and certain changes are made to adjust vision. If this happens, the mistake should be acknowledged and carefully analyzed.
5) Vision should not remain static	As it already has been said, the external environment is very dynamic and changes occur overnight. Vision should be flexible and be adjust to the modern realities. Traditions and history certainly matter, but ability to comply with the fast paste of progress is surely critical.
6) Be able to face the most brutal facts, but keep faith	Winston Churchill used to say that facts are much better than dreams. A leader, setting a vision for a change should be well informed of all the difficulties that await the company, but has to still keep faith in the success of the changes. Confidence in the final result, combined with total awareness is surely a great asset.

There also is a list of practices that is better to avoid while setting up a vision for the company that is about to change:

1) Make the solution using a limited number of people	This is entirely wrong, as vision will influence the life of all the stakeholders of the company and they have the right to discuss the issue and should be allowed to do so
2) Jump to fast conclusions	Though speed is definitely important for a transformation process, taking some decisions too fast is extremely dangerous.
3) Fail to go till the end	Once the direction is chosen, there should be no turning back. The leader should have faith in his team and his company and remain sure that the goal will be achieved at whatever costs.

These tips are certainly very relative, as they can not be apply to any business situation. Managing changes and setting the vision is a very tough and highly creative task and not set of rules exists. Some pieces of advice may nevertheless be useful.

References

Collins j. (2001) “Good to great: why some companies make the leap forward and others don’t”. New York: HarperCollins Publishers Inc. ISBN 0066620966.

Kottler, J.P. (1996) “Leading change”. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. ISBN: 0875847471

Senge, P. (1994). “The fifth discipline fieldbook: Strategies and tools for building a learning organization”. New York: Doubleday. ISBN: 0385472560