March 29, 2024

Small Business Advice

Small steps are the way to make big changes

"The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step." ~Tao Te Ching

Jerry Osteryoung | 4/27/2015

Change is pervasive, and most organizations will need to embrace it at some point in their life cycle. There are many methods for implementing change, but very few address the fight or flight reflex preprogrammed in us. This is why many of these methods fail.

Since the beginning of the human race, people have responded to change with fear, and where there is fear, very little is accomplished. One way to avoid triggering this automatic response is to make changes in small steps.

Every new year, we make resolutions to change our lives for the better. Whether the goal is to lose 35 pounds or to get physically fit and run a 26-mile road race, studies have shown that, on average, Americans make the same resolution 10 years in a row without ever being successful. In fact, 25% of all resolutions are abandoned within four months.

The reason why resolutions are unsuccessful so often is because they require too much change too quickly. With these resolutions, the risk of failure is very high, and people would rather not try than fail. Small steps are the key to lasting change.

Change is difficult, but there are many books out there that emphasize how easy it is. A classic example is Who Moved My Cheese, which tells the story of a mouse looking for cheese in the same spot in the maze even though it has been moved to a different location. This fable tells us we have to be willing to change. If we ignore change and continue on the same path, dangers will arise. In the case of the mouse, the danger was hunger.

One of the greatest developments in business over the years is the introduction of kaizen, a Japanese concept where very small steps are taken to improve a process or product. Toyota used kaizen then drifted away from it during a period of rapid growth (2002). As a result, the quality of their product declined. When they moved back to this principle, however, the quality quickly returned.

For a personal example, my friend, Pam Butler, the co-owner of Aegis Business Technologies, and I are preparing to walk the Camino de Santiago this summer. It is a 500-mile walk over the Pyrenees in northern France and Spain. This adventure will take 35 days, and we will cover an average of 15 miles each day over all kinds of terrain.

If we thought about the trip as walking 500 miles, it would be almost unfathomable. So instead, we choose to think of it not as 500 miles, but just one step after another. We are going to take it one day at a time, and we are not going to worry about the final destination. Rather, we are going to focus on the much more immediate and semi-controllable goal: the next step.

Big changes in anything, from diets to exercise, require huge levels of will power and are much too dramatic to be sustainable. So, if we are going to successfully make changes in our businesses, organizations, or our personal lives, we must work gradually by taking small but continuous steps.

It is often better to test a new practice and make sure it will work before adopting it, so try experimenting with the concept of making changes via small steps in one part of your organization or in your personal life. I think you will be surprised how effectively it works. If you would like additional guidance on this topic, I strongly recommend reading One Small Step Can Change Your Life by Robert Maurer.

You can do this.

though I was being unreasonable even asking. Every time, their response was that they would let us know when it got close, but they never did. We did not see them until they came to take her to surgery.

The nursing staff was very capable, medically speaking, but clearly they had not been trained in customer service -- or patient service. Had they had this training, they would have known that you always give the customer the best information you have at the time and then keep them updated. The nursing staff could have said that they would monitor the situation and give us updates every 30 minutes to an hour. That would have given us a much better sense of security that someone was keeping tabs on us.

This particular case is from the medical field, but examples of similar communication failures are just as pervasive in business.

One firm had a book of business so large that they were running about a month behind in deliveries. Unfortunately, they never let their customers know about these delays, so many of them just shifted suppliers. In the end, this situation cost the company almost 20 percent in sales the next year.

They could have avoided losing that business simply by informing their customers about the delay and offering them the option to replace their order with alternative products in inventory.

Communications are important to every business. Most issues with communications are easy to fix, but you first need to be aware of the problem. Then you need to act on it.

One way to identify potential problems is to map out each instance when your business communicates with your customers. For every one, figure out what can go wrong with communications or customer service and the steps you can take to fix these issues. This exercise can show you where your company is vulnerable.

A survey of your customers is another way to gauge the effectiveness of your communications. Simply ask them to tell you how well they feel you communicate with them. A survey focusing exclusively on communications is important, but many firms do not do them.

You can do this!

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