How much change are you expecting in your organization this year? Will there be changes in manufacturing processes, products, people, your customer base, or the business environment? Of course there will.

Some of the changes may seem simple from the “top” yet can appear complex and overwhelming to the people in your organization who are producing the products, working with the customers, and selling your solutions. Equipping your people to embrace the impending known and unknown changes that are bound to come may be the most complex challenge you’ll face with the changes.

Your team’s ability to adapt, evolve, and even suggest changes is critical to your company’s ability to stay competitive. Too often change agility isn’t given the attention it needs, but when it does, the payoff is huge!

In 2014 a smart President of a manufacturing company reached out to us for help in equipping his leaders to be more effective in leading their teams in the coming year. The changes he knew the company would face included a plant relocation, change in leadership at the top, and shifting demands from their customers purchasing agents that would lead to manufacturing process changes.

After learning of their situation and goals, we worked with his leadership team to identify a plan to help shift the culture of the organization to embrace change. This meant equipping the entire organization with knowledge and skill to implement, accept, own, and act on changes as quickly as possible. Then the leadership training would focus on the skills for leaders to support those behaviors and attitudes.

Eighteen months later this President states that equipping his team for change was one of the key ingredients to a successful 2015 where:

• On time delivery was almost 100% (99.9%) and
• Lead times were reduced 50%.

All that success was realized in a year where his people relocated, new processes had to be learned, and leaders were challenged to coach in a way they never had before.

[Tweet “Equipping your people to embrace impending changes may be your most complex challenge.”]

Change is nothing new, of course, yet the speed of change in the business environment seems to have accelerated making the achievement of company objectives more complex. Organizations need to be more nimble than ever. Simply stated, the companies with an entire culture and team able to tackle the complexities of change will outperform those that don’t.

How do you strengthen this "Will" among your sales associates? How does the lack of drive impact your daily life? I discussed this and so much more on a recent virtual training event you can access below. It's valuable information for any business leader who needs to maximize performance of their people to grow their company.

Click here to access the replay.