** the need for people to work differently for greater effectiveness and productivity

** the fact that the company needs to improve the use of technology

** senior managers need to think in new ways to remain competitive and grow

** the necessity to reduce the company's size and staff in some areas and expand in others

** a combination of the above factors

Sound confusing? Even for CEOs and members of the strategic team, change is often a great challenge. It can also be a time of excitement.

Implementing change can be a very frightening experience for those affected -- your employees and your customers. For the purposes of this article, we will concentrate on your employees because their perception and understanding of changes occurring within the workplace will have a bottom-line affect on those customers you serve.

Businesses are faced with the challenge of greater competition while maintaining a quality workforce. This results in the need to be creative and effective in using employee talents. We are all becoming more and more familiar with options beyond traditional employment and standard rules of work. Some of these options may include outsourcing projects, virtual resources, temporary staffing, tele-commuting or re-engineering the work process to include flextime or child care options. Courses should be charted for all employees of the company with the goal of creating greater job satisfaction, efficiency and bottom-line contribution for the success of all.

Take for example two local organizations that recently have dealt with change. Hope Hospice, which has offices in Fort Myers, Cape Coral, Lehigh Acres and Clewiston, took a proactive approach. "Recently, through attrition we decreased our staff in the human resource department by electing not to fill a position," says Samira Beckwith, president and CEO of Hope Hospice. "It forced us to look at more innovative and creative ways to utilize remaining staff."

And at Physicians Health System Incorporated in Fort Myers, I gave a seminar to look at change, with positive feedback from the participating employees. "The attendees walked away from the seminar with the skills necessary to implement changes that come rapidly in today's business world," says Kimberly Munn, practice management director.

One area remains a constant. Communication must take place for change to be understood and accepted in the most positive way possible. In the process of change, often times the most overlooked is the obvious -- lack of communication.

When this occurs, barriers present themselves faster than they can be resolved. The key: plan change with communication being at the top of the list!

Communication, its barriers and its success are universal. In working with a multitude of industries over the last 25 years, I can always count on being told that one of the greatest areas of concern, no matter what the project, is that communication does not seem to be clear to all of the parties involved. This doesn't mean that managers don't make valiant attempts to communicate, rather it generally means that the basics have been overlooked and both management and employees have made assumptions -- ultimately causing confusion and misunderstanding. This, of course, can be devastating to small businesses and large businesses alike in numerous ways such as high turnover, negative or unhappy staff, customer dissatisfaction and financial losses.

So, what are these basic steps in implementing positive, results-oriented change? Here are a few key thoughts to get you started:

1) Assure Organizational Readiness:

Prepare systems for changes ahead of time. Draw in your key players at the very beginning to participate. Systems may include management, technical, quality, feedback, rewards, training and development.

2) Evaluate and Understand How Changes Will Affect Various Areas:

Look at external environment, mission, values, goals, reporting relationships, department/division lines, individual employees and the way work will be done in the future.

3) Design an Action Plan:

Examine why you are doing this, where and how to begin, timing, resources, use of consultants, identifying creative internal talent, level of commitment of staff and back-up plans. Change can be successful when your employees understand it and can identify with the change.

4) Plan for Success:

Involve employees who will be most affected, explain reasons for the change, communicate constantly, provide details of the goal, ensure commitment from the top, create realistic expectations and build in flexibility, then research past experiences to save time, frustration and money. And follow-through on promises in the time-line given.

5) Determine and Gain Support of the Change Agents:

Who will lead this change? Change agents should be great listeners, open-minded, articulate, objective, able to effectively give and receive positive and negative feedback, cultivate an approachable style, be strategic thinkers and decision makers, and be strong team-builders without overpowering and taking over the team. It is important for change agents to understand feelings and emotions employees will have who are affected by changes taking place, because their feelings will have much to do with the effectiveness of the change agents' efforts. Change agents need to help employees make the transition from the current way things are done to the future vision and new goals.

6) Generate Ideas:

Employees will often have great ideas. Encourage creativity and innovation. Have true brainstorming sessions where no idea is considered wrong and each idea is given valid consideration. It may not be used, but considering each idea will tell employees that what they contribute is important. Build on ideas and come up with alternatives together if the thought is sound but the process needs to be modified to fit the goal. Implement step-by-step processes from idea to implementation.

7) Change Takes Time:

Through constant, honest communication employees will begin to accept the new. Remember, though, to celebrate the past (as many of the people and the way things were done are the reason for present success), celebrate the present (the new vision now in place and all who participated to make it happen), and, always continue to celebrate new successes, no matter how small they may seem.

Charlotte King, SPHR, is the principle of Resource Innovations Inc., a Fort Myers-based career and human resource consulting firm. The information provided is not legal advice and employers may wish to consult with legal counsel prior to implementation of any programs, policies or procedures