Success in Sweatpants

An organization I am affiliated with is a change machine. It is really inspiring to see the executives be so willing to break things up and rearrange them, all within the context of the company’s goals and mission. They just announced yet another big change yesterday—a biggie. They are shutting down one of their main locations and selling off the property, in order, they say, to enable them to pursue strategies that will make more progress in the direction they have set. I have no doubt that this is a good move, and expect to see nothing but great things from this latest change.

I know people who have been allied with this organization for a number of years. They invested themselves into the firm, established their own “franchises” based on the company’s brand, and adopted the programs that existed at the time of that establishment. They have been successful, and have made a name for themselves in their own areas because of the excellence of the brand they represent.

They are also extremely resistant to the changes the company makes.

This is not unusual. Resistance to change, I think, is an innate human characteristic (actually, come to think of it, my parrots aren’t too crazy about change either!). It’s in our DNA. There is a healthy industry out there that thrives on helping organizations manage change, and given what’s going on the world, change management as a business service is here to stay.

On a solo business level, this resistance shows in many ways. The franchisees of the ever-changing company are great examples. They aren’t interested in breaking up their own businesses…and they are very “reason-ful” about it. It would cost too much. It would result in loss of customers. I already went through the learning curve and am in a good place…I don’t want to go through that again.

This last is the biggest reason to avoid change for solo businesses. At least it is for me. It makes sense, doesn’t it? We put ourselves through the challenges, mistakes, and lesson-filled victories to get ourselves into a business routine, a brand, a customer population. We DESERVE a rest, we DESERVE to reap the rewards of our hard work, we DESERVE to just stay where we are. The thing is, if we don’t include proactive change in our business strategies, the external environment will force us to deal with change reactively.

Seeing the direction the parent company is going in its proactive approach to change, these resistant franchisees will end up either stagnating or being dragged along. Their businesses will suffer. Maybe not today, maybe not tomorrow…but in the not too distant future.

OK,I promised not to hide behind the coaching shield with these posts, so I need to share why this topic has come up for me. It shouldn’t be too hard to figure out (laugh)….I am resisting change in my own business, in any number of ways.

Like today. It’s Friday. In the pre-recessions days, when my problems were more about abundance of business than lack of it, Friday was a light day. My billable time from Monday through Thursday was more than enough to handle financial needs. If I worked at all on Friday, it was on my own stuff. That doesn’t work anymore. I can’t think of Friday as a “light” day or a day off. It needs to support itself with billable time just like the other days. But I am having a really hard time getting out of the habit, because I’m resisting the situation that is demanding the change.

There are other examples of change, and the resistance of same, in my business. I’m sure I’ll be sharing about others as I progress. For now, I need to go concentrate on logging some billable Friday time!