Transform or Fade: How to Inspire Continuous Change

Change is a necessity for every organisation, it allows you to stay up to date with current trends, customer demands, and essentially grow (and accept that growing pains are part and parcel of having a business). 

We’ve spoken in depth about the need for change, but inspiring continuous change - especially in fast-growth businesses, can be a difficult pill to swallow. As humans, we are creatures of habit, and although change is natural (and the only thing that is guaranteed in life) - continuous change can be even harder to process.

Within fast-growth organisations, change happens at a frequent rate, and as the business grows over time, this change will subside and become less hectic. But, how do fast-growth organisations keep employees engaged and inspired during continuous change? Is it achievable? How can you combat fatigue caused by change?

The key is in your hiring

We’re used to hearing the phrase fast-paced when we think of start-ups and high-growth businesses. It is arguably the household buzzword associated with these two types of organisations, but there is truth in this phrase when you look at it through the lens of transformation as well as talent acquisition. 

Inspiring continuous change within a fast-growth business can be easier when you’ve got the right talent driving it. Employees become resistant to change for a number of reasons, but within fast-growth businesses, a precedent is set from the get-go that change is going to be a core characteristic of the business.

Hiring individuals who are used to change, or are at a stage in their careers where they can adapt to business change is crucial. This is why the demographics that you tend to see in start-ups or fast-growth businesses are inherently different from larger, more established organisations. You need a specific personality to help inspire continuous change, and the key is hiring the right mixture of individuals who will work harmoniously to deal with different transformations over time. 

For example, if you’re a fast-growth business looking to expand into different geographies - what type of individual do you need to hire to make this happen? This doesn’t mean that you’ll eliminate employee resistance, but ensuring that people know what they’re getting themselves into is crucial if you know that you’re a business that will be going through continuous change.

Values, vision, and purpose

Inspiring continuous change (whether you’re a fast-growth business or not) can also be achieved through ensuring that you’ve got well-defined values, visions, and purpose that are rooted within transformation. What this means will differ depending on what your organisations’ goals are. But if you’re able to create links between the goals of the business, the change you’ll encounter, and how that ties into the wider values of the business - there will be a clear method of communication and understanding for employees. 

Particularly for continuous change, employees can show resistance or even fatigue from the change because they don’t understand the end goal. Ingraining change and transformation into the DNA of your organisation can help to mitigate this. 

A great example of this is Apple - they’re an excellent example of a brand who are in a consistent state of change. Whether this is producing new products, developing new technologies, or creating new brand partnerships - it’s clear that this continuous state of change is no stranger to the employees of Apple. This is clearly reflected in their values as a brand and how they are perceived by their consumer market, too.

Apple is always ahead of the curve (rather than falling short) and they’ve achieved this by inspiring continuous change. From doing so, they are the brand that seemingly sets the tone for others within the space.

Aim to have an end-date

Finally, all change must come to an end. Knowing how to approach this within a business of continuous change can be difficult, but the trick is within creating a project-based approach to change. 

Employees become fatigued or have a lack of buy-in for a number of reasons, but a key reason is that the change goes on for too long. Continuous change should be seen as a set of mini projects, all of which are prompt, effective, and with an end date in place. This allows you to still have a culture of continuous change without it feeling like a melting pot of loose ends that never become tied!

Inspiring continuous change is difficult, and there are few organisations out there that have found the “magic recipe” for it. However, following simple principles, hiring excellent people and having a strong sense of purpose can all be beneficial things to enable you to have an organisation that is rooted in change and transformation.