By Audra Bianca

 

Managing chaos means different things to different business owners. Why? That’s because business owners have problems on a different scale, such as problems with a small operation of 5 employees and problems with a large operation of 400 employees. The commonality for both types, big and small versions of small businesses, is that the owners must manage the workforce so chaos does not diminish productivity.

 

Small business owners may turn their attention to performing their administrative functions and to business strategy. If they are lucky, they can afford to hire one or more managers to supervise employees. Even with managers in place, small business owners need to ensure the working environment is productive and not chaotic.

 

If you are a small biz owner worried about managing chaos, even if it is productive chaos, try these tips to ensure your company employees can help achieve your business goals:  

 

1. Study the causes of chaos in your company. This step might require taking an employee survey or bringing in outside consultants to evaluate your workforce, organizational structure, and operations. If you know what is stopping employees from working together in a pleasant workplace environment, you can move to the next stage of planning.  

 

2. Use planning models such as the SWOT analysis or the priority matrix to select which real causes of workplace chaos your company will solve. Planning is a complex process requiring input from multiple people in the company. This planning may be part of strategic planning or it might be conducted as a special project. Using a model such as SWOT (identifying strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats) in relation to workplace conditions ensures you and your staff will consider sources of chaos from multiple perspectives.  

 

3. Create an implementation plan. The goals identified through the planning process must be achieved through stages of implementation. Each stage should include a map of how managers will structure the workplace activities, performance measures, assignments, and other aspects of organization differently to create a less chaotic environment.

 

4. Communicate the plan to all employees. You need employee buy-in for your plan to work. Therefore, you might need an incentive plan to motivate workers. Also, show employees how each stage of implementation leads to achieving the objective of a better workplace. Hold employees accountable for their roles under a new plan. 

 

If you have a very small staff, you may conduct most of these steps yourself. Keep yourself organized and focused on the stages of studying the problem, planning solutions, implementing solutions using a plan, and communicating the plan to all employees. If you use this type of structured approach, you can slowly transform the workplace into a more pleasant environment and increase productivity.

 

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