Change Management Tips: Lessons from Heavy Industries for Small Teams

Shipbuilding. Manufacturing construction vehicles. Deploying rockets. Producing chemicals. Strip mining. What does your small team have in common with all these forms of heavy industry?

A lot, as it turns out.

To some extent, business is business, no matter the sector. Every business needs to navigate issues like labor, clients, and competition. Every business needs to keep its profits above its losses to survive and thrive in the future.

Of course, there are some differences: Teams working in heavy industries need to be exceptionally efficient to keep costs, waste, and risks low — even during times of change.

Change Management Is Crucial in Heavy Industries

Change management is the art and science of preparing for and supporting changes within an organization. Changes can take all forms: implementing a new technology, merging with another company, introducing a new CEO, or navigating unfamiliar economic conditions. With thoughtful planning and follow-through, change managers can increase productivity in the workplace during these potentially turbulent times and ensure changes allow the organization to be stronger, faster, and better than ever.

Management always keeps an eye on change in heavy industries, where every error can be disastrous. Change management processes can be particularly challenging within heavy industries. Businesses tend to use expensive equipment, work with large teams of highly skilled employees, and operate in dispersed locations, so implementing widespread change isn’t always easy. Successful change management in heavy industries requires discipline — something that your small team might also benefit from.

Your team might not be wielding several-ton heavy machinery or constructing structures that reach higher than the skyline, but you still have plenty to learn from businesses in heavy industries. Here are some top lessons in change management that you can implement within your small teams today.

Clear and Focused Communication Is the Most Important

Change tends to make people uneasy, and uneasiness can lead to all sorts of problems in heavy industries. Workers uncertain about imminent changes might look for other work, worsening labor shortages; remaining workers might feel so stressed about unknown changes that they make dangerous mistakes. Meanwhile, other company stakeholders, like board members and the C-suite, want to know that certain changes are necessary because changes in heavy industry tend to carry a high cost.

Therefore, heavy industry leaders need to know how to communicate change clearly and competently across different groups. Regardless of the type of change you are planning, you need to be able to explain why a change is needed and assuage any fears your team members may have that could interfere with successful implementation.

Not Everything Will Go According to Plan

A plan is a fundamental component of basic change management. Even before you were familiar with the concept of “change management,” you likely knew that successful change requires a detailed plan, defining a change’s scope, and outlining steps to project completion. Yet, no matter how carefully you adhere to your precious plan, you should expect something — if not several things — to go wrong.

Change managers within heavy industries understand the importance of flexibility. Heavy industries rely on so many moving components, many of which are mostly outside of business leaders’ control, such as natural disasters, laws and regulations, and economic behavior. To keep planned changes moving forward in the face of unpredictable obstacles, managers in these industries tend to diversify. For example, instead of relying on one contractor to complete a project, they coordinate with several; instead of partnering with one supplier, they look for multiple sources of necessary materials.

Your small team should be more agile than most businesses within heavy industries, but that doesn’t mean you don’t need to plan for problems with your plan. Early in the change management process, you might identify potential weaknesses in your plan and develop alternate solutions. Again, communicating with your team will be essential to navigating unforeseen challenges flexibly and successfully.

The Newest Tech Isn’t Necessarily the Best Tech

Technology is advancing at a breakneck pace, and many businesses are racing to adopt the most cutting-edge devices and symptoms in the hopes of becoming more competitive — or at least avoiding obsolescence. You, too, might be tempted to enter a state of near-constant technological innovation and change.

However, in heavy industries, technological shifts are much slower and more considerate. Because the equipment utilized in heavy industries is big and expensive, few businesses want to pay for upgrades whenever newer models are released. To keep costs low and reduce the disruption associated with integrating new technology, leaders in heavy industries tend to wait to see how radically new tech will improve processes. Then, if a new technology does show promise, businesses in heavy industries roll out the tech slowly to mitigate the risk of poor outcomes.

Again, your smaller team might be better at adapting to new technology than a massive company in a heavy industry. Still, you should think twice about trying to stay ahead of every new tech release. Your team won’t function well if it’s constantly striving to adapt to a new technology. If you take the time to assess a technology’s effectiveness and practicality, you will see greater success.

You Can Learn More From Heavy Industries

In general, heavy industries tend to enact change more slowly than other industries. Though we live in a fast-paced world focused on making quick and powerful business moves, there are advantages to approaching change with more consideration and care. Enacting change like organizations do in heavy industries allows you and your team to understand the consequences of changes and alter plans when necessary to improve outcomes. It reduces the opportunity for costly mistakes, which, in big industries, could easily cause a business to fail.

Your small team can be swift and speedy when it needs to be — but it doesn’t always need to be. The next time you need to enact any kind of change, you might consider what you have learned from change management in heavy industries.