Change is the constant thing in both life and business. Nothing stays stagnant. Even if a person stands still, the world is going to pass by you and there is many more clichés like these that we have heard. But the ability to change and the willingness to adapt are the necessities for the long term and stable success is the reality which everything is based on. But changing for the sake of changing is never advised as it is never a good plan. Everything is in the execution where many institutions fail. It is nothing but a wasted expense if the poorly executed changes results in negative outcomes and low employee morale. The exceptional amounts of the changes triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic leaves us with no questions for the financial service industries to be getting disrupted, for that matter the entire global economy too. One certainty the year 2021 brought us was that the change management is very important and had never demanded such importance as it is now. This stands very true for the financial institutions especially as they played a major role in relief efforts in the pandemic. The quick adaptations these organizations had to make in the ways of working or the set ups of new lending schemes to serve their clients. There were two common things between these organizations which were successful. One was, how they deployed the digital transformation and used the technologies that powered their employees and the second is how they accepted the culture of the change management.
Now one might ask, what actually is change management? How can one manage the change? Well, the change management is something which allows its organizations to operate in a smarter and effective way by preparing the employees for a much bigger change before even acting on it, even at the most basic level! For example, whether the institution is planning on a transformation project in 2022 or even if it is just hoping to endure the next few months of uncertainty with the teams and business intact, the actual time to start talking about the change management would be now. If someone is considering a business transformation project or adapting a new software the initial step would be to have a talk with the stakeholders. Starting early, even before the decisions have been make way for the conversations and continue to evolve as the project evolves. This will make the stake holders to have the sense of control in the face of change and will keep them excited about the project and keenly interested. And when the leaders are in the game, build their enthusiasm and win the rest of the organization.
The key is to attain the confidence and make sure that they understand that whatever project is supposed to undergo is not necessarily about the technology itself, but about how that technology can transform the entire business, empowering the employees, and meeting the customers’ needs is way to it. In the present day, it’s more important than ever that people need to feel valued, heard and empowered within their organization, given the impulsive changes they have had to endure. Change is hard, but if it can clearly show its value and how it will benefit both the employees and the customers, people will not only get on board they will also be genuinely excited for what’s to come. In the globally connected digital world, facing continuous and extreme changes, there can be no greater investment to make other than the investment in our people.
