Change Happens! - Learning to master the Seasons, Tasks and People

[Jason Stevens]

Seasons change across the world and the business world changes just as much and as dramatically sometimes!

 

What is the impact of “seasonal” change on your business?

 

Are you changing your garden plan, layout / design, look, feel or output?

Gardeners constantly evaluate the performance of the garden to identify things that are not working or could work better, whether that be plants or processes (people and task in our world).

They are not afraid to make changes or continuously improve things. When decisive changes are required the gardener makes them for the benefit of the garden as a whole. No individual plant is bigger than the whole garden and sometimes it takes courage and conviction to reach that picture of perfection or vision that you have put a lot of work and energy into.

 

Maybe losing a flower bed to grow more vegetables with a higher yield or return on investment means a more sustainable future and so continuous evaluation and change should be encouraged in your garden as well. Sometimes you have to lose one “business objective / project” to gain a better “business objective / project”. And sometimes we have to do the same with people.

 

A gardener can rely on the seasons to come and go.

You won’t see a gardener look in bewilderment or shock as the leaves start to fall from the trees in autumn or the first Daffodil appears out of the frosty ground in February.

Likewise, a good manager knows what the “seasons” are in their business.

They know when things get busy or quiet, when customers come and when they go, when productivity peaks, budgets get tight and when the key events are.

If a manager has planned and researched as well as a gardener then there shouldn't be many shocks or surprises. This planning can be as simple as mapping out the key business events on a year planner and building the key gardening tasks around them.

 

It can take years for a gardener to hone certain “Change Management” skills and because the chance to develop them depends on the time and events of that year and / or the weather, gardeners record and remember / recall previous experiences in order to improve their performance next time around.

 

For more details on Change and other Management Topics download the ebook or contact Ican Development at [e-mail] or [e-mail]