An old saying has it “The fool learns from his mistakes. The wise man learns from other people.” It is common practice to hire knowledge when legal advices are required and when specialised financial services are needed. However, when confronted with complex managerial practices, organisations tend to believe that management skills come naturally, emerging from experience, practice, and common sense.
Organisations rely on their managers’ knowledge to run the day-to-day aspect of the business as well to anticipate and prevent challenges which distract the organisation from delivering to its clients.
Managers rely on the organisations own knowledge, memory and culture to alert them when time for modernisation and change is required.
The path to modernisation begins when managers identify improvements required to remain competitive. Technological upgrade is a common investment made by organisation – acquisition of a new CRM, set-up of Cloud Computing, upgrade of the telephone system to VoIP. Many 2016 budgets are currently being drafted to invest in one or more of these upgrades.
Managers are requested to be able to assess the need correctly, ensure that the organisation knowledge and culture is also upgraded by acquiring skills linked to the adoption of the new technology. Managers will manage the implementation and also will work into drafting new processes and performance metrics, tasks reviews and milestone identification. Modernisation will bring an organisation to assess its establish career advancement, mentoring and coaching programs. New talent acquisition will stem from the investment in new generation technology.
It is therefore astute for all organisations currently finalising their 2016 budgets and plans to modernisation, to include investment for acquisition of knowledge, directed towards change management. Reliance on common sense or experience brings risks to the organisation which will inevitably delay the successful implementation and adoption of new technology and processes. Assessment of success, validation of investment and ROI calculations will suffer from the bias presented by the challenges arising from unplanned change management. High incidence of mistakes will be recorded and frustration arising from a delayed implementation will affect the organisations’ business goals for the quarter or even year.
Training & Development Providers equip management teams with methods and techniques that guarantee successful planning, appropriate risk assessment, effective communication strategies for both internal and external clients. The benefits of a structured and professional learning experience include motivation and commitment of the management teams. who will feel supported and encourage to drive the organisation during the stages of change – from natural resistance to growth: the ultimate objective of modernisation.
