The growth of technology and the internet has brought with it many changes to how businesses operate. Many of those changes are for the better, though that doesn’t mean they aren’t difficult to embrace. However, being able to make those changes can help your business continue to improve operations and grow as a company. If you have trouble getting your company to embrace disruption, you have a few options to try. That way, you can choose a method that works well for your business and employees.
1. Keep an Open Mind
Many people don’t like change, especially after doing things a certain way for years. However, you and your team members have to try to keep an open mind. The better you can do this, the easier it will be to accept the changes as they come. While it can be hard to maintain an open mind, think of any new change as a challenge rather than a huge issue. If you can think of things as a challenge or puzzle, you can turn it into something fun instead of something stressful.
2. Beat Disruption
If you know a change might be coming soon, jump on it before you have to. Willful disruption will give you some feeling of control over the change, which can help you deal with the new method or system. You won’t have to worry about feeling forced to change how you do things, so you can focus on enjoying whatever it is. When you can will the disruption on yourself, you can determine what changes you make and when. That sense of control can take away the stress of the change itself.
3. Treat Failure as a Positive
It can be all too easy to look at failure as something negative. Losing a sale or having to restart the computer network can seem like a huge problem. However, if you can look at these things in more positively, you can embrace the problem and solve it. That way, you can get back to the more important tasks in your business. It can also help you learn how to tackle future failures since failing is hard to avoid when you’re in business.
4. Readjust Prices for Customers
When your business faces a lot of disruption, it may also require you to change the prices you charge customers. In some cases, this could mean lowering prices on some of your products or services. Lowering prices can be a great way to drive business, which can make the disruption feel less problematic. Even though you may charge less to customers, more people may buy your products or services than before. That could drive the growth of your business, even if you may need to raise prices in the future.
5. Make the Disruption Part of the Company
Perhaps you face a disruption that only affects one department of your company. That can be especially frustrating for the people it affects, but you can integrate the change to other areas. Training your entire company on the new system or method can help other departments prepare for if they have to face a change. It can also help your employees who face the change feel like they’re not alone. You can use this to build company morale, and it can be an excuse to cross-train some of your higher-level management.
6. Follow Industry Trends
One of the best ways to prepare for potential disruption is to follow the trends in your industry. Have everyone, or at least managers, keep up with trends that could affect your company. IT professionals can follow changes in technology, while accountants can stay up to date on accounting methods and software. The more you know about where your industry is headed, the easier it will be to plan for potential changes. Changes won’t come as a shock to you or your employees when you know what could come about.
7. Don’t Stop Changing
Disruption probably won’t stop for a while, so you can’t stop either. Even if you make a ton of changes to the methods or software your company uses, you can’t expect those systems to last a long time. New technology is always being developed and released, so you might face another disruption for all or part of your business sooner than you think. If you can continue to make changes and understand future changes, you can embrace disruption for the future.
Change can be hard for many people, but it’s also a necessary part of growing a business. Being able to embrace disruption within your company can help increase your chances of success, so consider different ways you can get yourself and employees to make necessary changes.
