As a change practitioner, one of the things you often pick up when you start working with a new client is the sentiment that ‘we know how to do our jobs – why do I need an ‘expert’ to tell me how to do it?’. A recent personal example reminded me of why this can be a misguided assumption.
The Problem
Being an ex-rugby player, a friend of mine has exercised all his life. He was used to being trim and toned so he got the shock of his life when, after retiring, he noticed that even though he was still exercising he was developing a bit of ‘tummy’. The answer, he thought, was to step up the exercise. To his dismay, after a couple of weeks, the ‘tummy’ was still there. Feeling very frustrated he decided the cure would be to do even more exercise. A few weeks later and to his disappointment, the ‘tummy’ was still there.
The Solution
The actual solution was in the shape of an expert. After a bit of coaxing (he was an ex-rugby player, he didn’t need help!) he engaged a personal trainer. This expert made changes to the exercise regime and guess what? In a short space of time the ‘tummy’ started to disappear to be replaced by firm muscle – result!
The problem was not a lack of enthusiasm or focus for the task, it was simply that some expert assistance providing an alternative approach was the key to getting the right result.
This is similar to our role as change practitioners, and here are several reasons why it pays to use services like ours rather than carry on without expert help:
- Time: We’ll often work with companies who don’t have established change functions. Change can be hard and needs dedicated time and effort to really deliver and sustain it. Nine times out of 10, you’ll need to focus on BAU (or you’ll at least get pulled into BAU whether you want to or not!), whereas we can dedicate 100% of our time to delivering change
- External perspective: Even the best of us can become inward-facing over time, but because we work with a range of different companies across different industries with different problems, we amass knowledge, experience and best practice and can bring these perspectives to your organisation
- Accelerating change: Because we’re experts in what we do and have experienced your problems for ourselves, we can help you make change happen much quicker than it otherwise would
- Results: We’re not into wishy-washy. We’ll help you through your business problems to deliver tangible benefits – be they cost savings, an increase in customer satisfaction, better colleague engagement scores or process efficiencies – because we have a track record in delivering similar results time and time again
