The big idea
Change is coming: How to prepare
It is obvious for many of us: 2025 will be a year of significant changes. Depending on your perspective, you may find some of the changes positive and others negative; another person may feel the same way, but in reverse.
This widening divide in what changes are beneficial–to us, to our organizations, and to society–has only made the process of managing change more difficult.
In customer experience, we have been trying to manage rapid change and even upheaval for the past decade–and the past five years has been nothing short of a whirlwind. The adaptations to COVID, the impact on the supply chain, and the head-spinning advance of AI has meant every organization and every person working in customer experience has had to be prepared for numerous changes, originating from different places, and often happening simultaneously.
This succession of massive changes has come from both the macro environment and industry-wide competitive pressure. No organization or leader wants to get left behind during a technological revolution.
One of the important lessons taken away from the COVID lockdown period was that the organizations that were adaptable and the leaders who were dynamic were the ones who survived and even thrived. From technology to supply chain to labor, those who were willing and able to throw their existing plans out the window and pivot were the ones that emerged stronger from the crisis.
So, what can we do to prepare for a 2025 that is likely to have a macro environment that will challenge us all? Here are three ideas:
Everyone needs to build flexibility into their strategic plans. Of course, the more a strategy requires significant capital investment, the harder this is, but every plan should consider, as much as possible, the potential challenges based on your industry, based on your country or region, and based on macro- and microeconomic conditions.
None of us have crystal balls–and I won't pretend this is easy–but having the conversations about what could happen, within a realm of reasonable possibility, is crucial to being ready to pivot when they do. Black swan events will come when they come, but preparing for foreseeable or possible shifts is crucial to having the flexibility and mindset necessary for successfully overcoming these types of challenges.
One advantage of contingency planning, of talking through potential adaptations to changing circumstances, is establishing a mindset of flexibility with your team and creating a culture of adaptability. To do this, you must make sure to filter high-level discussions down to other levels of the organization.
It can be a balancing act. You have to decide how much to share so as to not overwhelm your team and take away their current focus, while at the same time realizing that most of them are adults and live in the same world you do. They remember the challenges of recent years and realize that more challenges are likely to come. By acting like nothing can go wrong, you seem out of touch and unprepared.
Your team will have more confidence in you when big changes do come and more ready to confront these challenges if they have some sense of what might happen and know that you are on top of things.
Remember, a few sentences ago where we said that your employees "live in the same world you do?" One notable aspect of the COVID response within organizations was an absolute failure of leadership, a lack of understanding of what teams needed and the fact that they were all experiencing the stresses that the whole world was. Many organizations stepped up to protect their teams; others did not.
Part of your contingency planning should involve leadership planning. How will you lead the team? What will you do for them? What will you expect from them? How will you support them? Preparing your organization for massive change means focusing not only on logistical dynamics and customer experience but on employee experience as well.
In conclusion, everyone I've spoken with expects a 2025 full of significant change and disruption. Whatever form it may take, you can better prepare your organization and your team by game planning likely impacts and building and reinforcing a culture of flexibility and adaptability.
Source: The Human Experience Newsletter
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