3 tips on managing the ripple effect

I was at a well attended networking event and overhead two conversations which couldn't have been more different.


The first conversation was between two women, talking about their colleague who'd just given birth to her first child.  Mum was feeling fit and proclaiming it would soon be business as usual with her back at her desk.  There was an element of indulgent scepticism in their critique of this new mother's intentions.


The second was a woman talking about her mother's terminal illness and how they wanted to ensure that this last Christmas would be her best one ever.  Her mother was similarly determined that it would be business as usual and wasn't letting the illness prevent her from her usual Christmas routine.  There were murmurings of support from the people around her.

The ripple effect   

This led me thinking about how changes in our personal lives, and when it happens, inevitably impact on our working ones.  Even when we're focusing on business as usual there will be a ripple effect and how as managers, as leaders we cope with the changes that arise.


With these two cases there's the obvious processes and procedures that we go through, some enshrined in law, some just good practice.  Any good management tome will take you through the classic models and help you factor in various scenarios about appropriate leave, dealing with workloads etc.  What it won't help factor in is the individual's response to the changes they have been faced with and the organisational impact of that. 




Here's 3 tips to think about when change comes into your environment.

1.  Everyone's view of the world is different.

Even though it appears that we share the same experiences, our interpretation of those experiences will each be different depending on our backgrounds.  Our emotional responses to those experiences will also be different, so it figures that our behavioural responses will similarly be different.  What works for one maternity returnee won't necessarily work for another.  What support you put in place for one person dealing with a family death won't be the template for every other employee facing that situation. 

2.  Adjust your response

Be aware of your own reaction and then put it to one side.  To make the most effective impact in a change scenario requires emotional intelligence.  To engage with emotional intelligence requires an element of 'standing in their shoes'.  Unless and until you do that and listen with all of your senses you'll only be at the edges of helping people cope with change.

3.  It's about more than the individual

Because we're not hermetically sealed even for those that return with the outward air of business as usual, things will have changed and that will seep into their work.  It might be obvious, it might be hidden; either way colleagues will pick that up and react to it in their own way.  There will be a subliminal shift as the workforce settles into a new view of the world.  Stay tuned to those shifts and  you can help direct them to a positive outcome. 


Simple yet complex.  Which is only right because that's what human behaviour is all about.  Sitting underneath that simplicity is a complexity which provides a rich hinterland of opportunity when handled well.  When the opposite is the case...


The key then is to be aware and develop the skills required to manage the myriad of behavioural responses people will have regarding change.  As you look to the future what conversations will you be having and with whom? 


To find out more about how mtc2 ltd can help you manage change, go to our website www.mtc2.co.uk

How to Survive Black Friday

If you're starting to plan for Black Friday today, it's too late.  You've missed the boat.  Coming up with something off the hoof today is a sure-fire recipe for failure and here's why.


Marketing

Black Friday isn't a one-off in that it's not going to be a panacea for a poor trading year.  Doing a blitz campaign a few days before will raise a modicum of interest but if it's not part of your annual marketing campaign and integrated into the rest of your trading plan it's ultimately worthless.  If you're participating in Black Friday with good effect it takes time to decide the best marketing approach, to research your customers and market segments, to determine what marketing channels you're going to use.  Having a solitary flash on your website doesn't constitute an effective and efficient marketing strategy.

Supply

Are your stock levels adequate?  Are your supply lines and distribution channels secure?  Have you chosen the correct items to be part of Black Friday?  Yes, there'll be the big ticket items such as sofas, TVs and white goods; what about smaller items?  Some outlets are offering greatly reduced cups of coffee for example.  There's the service industries too.  I've seen half-price membership of associations for today.  The latter is easier to manage, in that it doesn't require a physical transportation of goods but just because something is small, such as the cups of coffee, don't be fooled into thinking there's no need to consider your supply lines and distribution channels.  If you run out of coffee beans or paper cups, or the queues stretch around the corner because your staff can't cope with demand, you'll seriously damage your reputation.  If you're providing an on-line service, are the systems secure?  Can they cope with tens of thousands of people wanting to log-on to your website at the same time?  If you've not planned for all of this, your Black Friday offer will crash.

Customer expectations
It's always about managing customer expectations.  If the website crashes you've lost them not just for Black Friday; you've lost them for Christmas, New Year and Easter trading.  You'll remember the chaotic scenes from last year with mob frenzy as customers piled into the shopping centres.  Black Friday had been hyped to such a degree that it raised completely unrealistic expectations of what was available and how it could be obtained.  What's your strategy for managing expectations?  Of course, if this is something you've just thought about today, that won't be a problem because your customers won't know about your offers and won't have expectations.  In the case of the stores featured last year however the staff were overwhelmed.  Which leads us onto...


Staffing
It has to be part of your larger strategy that you've anticipated the customer demand by carefully managing expectations, your stock levels are balanced against that demand, you've got the marketing right and now you need to ensure you have the correct staffing levels to effectively manage the buying process.  This equally applies to on-line trading.  Ensure they're adequately trained in customer care and managing crowds if it's a physical activity, and managing phone or internet queries if it's virtual.  It takes time to recruit additional staff and to train everyone.  You have a responsibility to ensure the safety of your staff and exposing them to mob frenzy with inadequate staffing levels or training isn't the best of moves.


Pricing
What is your pricing policy?  Have you segmented your pricing appropriately?  If you run an incentive scheme, will this change for Black Friday?  Whatever policy you have it has to comply with the law so if you've said it's been sold for £x for x weeks previously, then make sure it has!  Be canny about your pricing.  If you've priced it too low and generate extreme levels of demand how is that going to affect your cash flow and profit margins?  A few years back a well known company got it spectacularly wrong and it nearly brought them to the brink of closure. 


Post Black Friday
It doesn't stop once Friday is over.  Inevitably there'll be customers who bought in extreme haste and will regret their purchases.  They'll want refunds, whether they're legally entitled to or not.  Keep your focus on after sales customer care and ensure your returns policy is water-tight.


And finally, the ultimate survival tactic is not to participate.  There's a recorded backlash this year with some shops closing down today, others are giving money to charity rather than offer discounts.  Some report that actually all it does is shift customer purchase from one part of the year to another, it doesn't actually add to their profit margin in the longer term.


And of course, there's Cyber Monday in just a couple of days!




For more ideas on how to manage your business go to www.mtc2.co.uk