Is change management just a job or a career? When you clock in and clock out every day do you ever wonder what is the purpose of all this work? Yes, as a change management professional your natural response could be, well, managing change helps improve employee work experience and we help management teams land initiatives. We help maximise initiative benefits and provide a systematic approach to achieve specific goals. Is this all? And are these the only ultimate outcomes?
For those of us who have made change management a career, we often roll our eyes across initiatives as we see common trends and occurrences across initiatives, including rising project costs during the change management process. What would have been highly stressful or dramatic is just seen as ‘yet again’ more of the same. You know what I mean …
Sponsors who only show up for announcements and ghost the project team the rest of the time, not supporting successful change management and not displaying executive sponsorship behaviour
Corporate communications wrestle you to the ground by taking out factual information about the initiative that are critical to a structured approach in the people side of change
You send out a series of initiative communications and the impacted teams rarely read them during the process of change
Some of your stakeholders including change agents nod and agree furiously in project meetings and do nothing afterwards, despite repeated engagement and consultations
Thanks for corporate-wide budget cuts, your project is now sliced into bare bones, and all the work required to drive behaviour change evaporate into thin air, to be replaced by a pure system implementation
Don’t get me wrong. There is definitely a lot of organisational benefits in managing change. There are definitely ample studies that draw attention to how, without successful change efforts, change initiatives are doomed for failure. We definitely play a key role in achieving those hefty millions in benefits that are targeted. Also, let’s not forget that most of us are in this because we care about people. We truly believe that creating a good experience for people is the essence of what drives successful change.
The big questions is – what is your purpose and the meaning you are striving for when you work in the disciple of change management? Beyond the cheque that pays the bills, why do we work hard to improve how change is managed? What is our north star? What truly motivates through thick and thin, through obstacles that stakeholders put along the way?
This is a personal question and not always an easy one to answer. There are some who are happy to go to work, get paid, ignore the BS within the corporate environment, just to feed their family and pay the mortgage. Others may have stumbled into change management and find it interesting work. However, to really strive in leading change, year after year, initiative after initiative, there would need to be some kind of burning flame inside you that keeps pushing you forward.
Exploring your own motivation in driving change not only helps you to understand your own behaviour and the source of your energy, it also helps you be clear about what you really care about. Clarity about your passion helps you to know what to reach for next time you are feeling down about how the project is going, or none of your change tactics are panning out.
For me, the meaning of managing change is only realised after experiencing a series of bad changes when transitioning from current state to future state in the change process. Let me share more. I’ve worked for organisations where I have seen how hurtful and how traumatic bad changes have been for employees. A typical context is organisational restructuring. These are just a few examples what could happen ….
Employees are marched out by security after having lost their jobs on the day of the announcement, in case they retaliate and ‘steal’ company secrets, in public display for everyone to see
Leaders lie through their teeth about what is going to happen to the restructure in order to keep the workers productive, and eventually everyone realises it’s all been a series of lies and fabrications
Consultants are brought in to do the analysis and leaders basically reference what the message is from consultants, without interpreting what this really means for their people. Employees with years of tenure who have significant insight into how to improve business outcomes are ignored
In order to gain better roles and responsibilities managers backstab each other and even team members to jostle their way to favourite positions in the new org chart
For people undergoing individual change it could be such traumatic experiences that they may be scarred by the experience, which is far from the desired outcome. Counselling may be required and organisational stress levels may be through the roof. It is not just those individual employees, but their families and friends could also be impacted like ripples in a pond.
Even if you don’t focus on the most dramatic of major changes, a series of smaller badly run continuous improvement business changes can still impact employees, their belief in the company, their trust in management, their work life health as well as overall health. Multiple smaller changes can add up and impact the outcomes of changes such as new technology, digital transformation efforts, business process changes, new behaviours, a new set of tools policy updates and change projects from competitive pressures. This is how transformation efforts fail and where enterprise change management adds value.
So for me, the real meaning behind managing and leading change is about all those individuals that could be impacted, whether it be employees, customers or partners. Each is a person with a set of circumstances. They may be dealing with other stressors in their family or friendship circles already, or that they may be particularly vulnerable. This is particularly the case in our virtual working world.
Every person deserves to lead a happy, healthy work life. And change is such an important and memorable part of working life that every life you touch is a touch of dialling up the happiness/health level. It may not be the jumping up and clicking heels type of happiness. It would be managing risks so that negative experiences are avoided or minimised. Now imagine a long list of multiple changes all effective managed. Such is the power of managing change. We touch working lives in profound ways.
This is why at The Change Compass our vision is to improve the experience of people during change. “People’s work lives shape who we are and bad change experiences can be traumatic. With great change experiences, we can change the world”.
Now, isn’t this something to get motivated about through thick and thin?
What is YOUR meaning in managing change? How have your experiences shaped your approach and belief in managing change? How do you keep going day in and day out especially when times are tough?
Agile Change Playbooks are free practical resources for addressing common agile change delivery challenges and ensuring great change outcomes.
1. Prepare for the play
2. Lead the session
What is an agile change playbook and why is it important?
Like other agile playbooks supporting agile methodologies and agile project management, an agile change playbook is a comprehensive guide and a basis that outlines agile change methodologies, kanban practices, and principles for teams. It is essential because it fosters a shared understanding of agile processes (such as scrum, sprint, backlog), agile principles, enhances team member collaboration, and ensures consistency in project execution. This ultimately leads to improved efficiency and successful project outcomes.
3. Utilize outcomes
The Ultimate Agile Change Playbook for Successful Change
Use change playbooks regularly to maximise initiative and business outcomes.
A solution demo showcases a product’s features and benefits, allowing potential customers to see it in action. It’s crucial because it creates engagement, addresses specific pain points as a part of key business objectives, and illustrates how the solution meets the audience’s needs, ultimately driving conversion rates and building trust in your offering.
Digital collaboration tool (Zoom, Hangout)
IN-PERSON
Whiteboard
Markers
Post-it notes
Timer
Instructions for running this Playbook
1. Background
Solution demo is a critical part of an agile project. It helps to demonstrate to stakeholders what the end solution could look like and ensures alignment by providing them with objective evidence of solution performance and giving them an opportunity to engage and provide feedback on what the project team has been working on.
How do you prepare for a successful solution demo?
To prepare for a successful solution demo, start by understanding your audience’s needs and pain points. Customize the demo to address these specific challenges while clearly showcasing your solution’s unique features. Practice delivering the presentation, anticipate questions, and ensure all technical aspects function smoothly to create a seamless experience.
A key gap for solution demos without change management input is one that is often focused on the technical or process features. Effective solution demos are designed with the customer needs and stakeholders’ needs in mind and is focused to help them easily picture themselves or their colleagues using the solution. The session is ideally a joint-session with the rest of the project team in designing the demo.
2. Prep
The following are critical prior to conducting the solution demo design session:
User journey – To ensure this can be referenced and utilised to illustrate the journey the user will go through in using the solution
User role profiles – To ensure that critical user profiles are clearly understood so that these can be utilised to outline their usage journeys
Change approach or Change Canvas – To help illustrate critical aspects of how users will be engaged be supported to use the designed solution
Scheduling:
Schedule the meeting when you have evidence that the solution is on track to be presented in case the solution
Include key project team members such as the project manager, business owner, lead developer and business analyst. Also include business representatives from impacted business areas.
Organisation:
Prior to the session undertake the following preparation:
Research previous solutions demos and understand key questions and concerns, especially those aspects with a people and change component (vs. technical issues)
Anticipate concerns and sentiments of targeted business representatives
Talk to business representatives to understand the history of changes that they have been through, how the group has evolved over time through changes
TIP: DESIGN
Focus as much on what a typical experience would be like from an end-user perspective versus on the technicalities of the solution itself.
Position the various scenarios and challenges that the user faces and walk through how these are resolved by the solution.
A good way to demo less technically focused solutions would be through role-plays to show what the solution looks like.
TIP: WHAT TO AVOID
The solution demo is about showing what ‘works’ in a realistic way. It should never be a powerpoint deck walk through.
Following agile principles, the focus is on ‘showing’ versus ‘telling’. The stakeholders need to be able to ‘see’ the solution versus ‘being told’ about it.
3. Run the session
Intro – 5-10 min
Walk through the purpose of the session and why this is required. Emphasise how important it is to incorporate people and change considerations within solution demo design to ensure session success.
1. Discuss overall demo design – 10 min
Overall demo agenda and run-sheet
Length of the demo (normally an hour, or 2 hours for complex solution demos)
Scope of the demo or the portions of the solution to be demo’ed
Roles of team members involved in leading the demo
2. Discuss incorporating user journeys and user profiles in demo design – 15 min
Be focused on the exact portion of the user journey you are going to demo and be precise and clear
Select key user profiles for the demo to illustrate how users will use the solution. This makes the demo much more engaging and real. Ideally use no more than 3 user profiles in most situations for the core demo. For other roles you can also talk through at a high level key usage models
Be focused on the people component in painting a picture of what each user profile is, what challenges they have, and how the solution meets those challenges
Highlight key benefits of the solution as you walk through the user journeys
3. Incorporate change approach in demo design – 10 min
Identify key change approach to call out throughout the user journey:
Focus on painting a clear picture for stakeholders throughout the user journey in how users are supported throughout the change process
Mention key change activities at key junctures of the user journey such as town hall sessions, training sessions, using sandbox to become more familiar with the solution, being supported by change champions, etc.
4. Incorporate key readiness and adoption measurement approaches – 10 min
Identify key change readiness and adoption measurement approaches and call these out and incorporate within the demo. The key is not to go overboard and focus too much on the details. Instead, highlight how solution usage is being measured and behaviours reinforced to achieve overall project objectives. For example:
Overview how change adoption is tracked during the user journey walkthrough
Highlight any behavioural reinforcements to sustain the change as a part of the user journey
Overview how change readiness is measured and reported as a part of the user journey
5. Capturing outcomes and actions required – 5 min
At the end of the session, capture key actions required, timeline required, and a follow up session as required.
What to do with the output?
After you’ve written up key agreements and solution demo run-sheet incorporating those design elements discussed, send these to various project stakeholders. Follow-up with action owners to get ready for the solution demo session.
Finding the right organisational change management software can be overwhelming and daunting. We break down some of the key steps to guide you in the right direction.
To save you feeling innundated by various vendor information, or various relevant stakeholder requests, sit back and focus on what’s the most important.
A key starting point is to decide what will make the most difference to your organisation and where the biggest pains are.
This may go against the standard Procurement process that focused on listing as many features as possible. Instead, its about core strategic focus on the top most critical change management problems.
As you start to explore different change management software solutions. These are the key questions to answer as you go along.
How do I ensure I address the right business problems?
1. Determine which transparent business problems have the biggest impact on the change management process. Key areas to look at include time savings, business value created, benefit realisation, risk assessment, employee experience, and business performance. Which aspect of change does this impact?
2. Avoid having a long and exhaustive list of business problems to address and features to look for. No one tool will address all needs, so it’s about the must-haves versus the nice to haves.
3. Prioritise the importance of various business problems and how they impact change management strategies. Ideally form no more than the top 1-3. This will help you become focused. It also ensures your efforts are targeted.
How do I find out about solutions on the market?
1. Search on Google, using popular search terms such as organisational change management software, change heatmap, single view of change, change management deliverables, enterprise change management software.
Be clear in terms of whether you are after an enterprise or portfolio level tool, or a project delivery type of tool.
2. Review change management software compilation pages such as this, or this.
3. Review any vendor presence in change management associates such as ACMP (Association of Change Management Professionals) or CMI (Change Management Institute). For example, do they have expertise in partnering with the association in developing course materials?
4. Search or ask questions on Linkedin Groups such as those for ACMP, CMI or Organizational Change Practitioners.
How do I get the budget?
To gain the budget and stakeholder approval you are looking for to invest in a change management tool, you need to ensure you have a very clear business case.
1. Estimate the size of the problem. How much cost is the problem causing? If not cost, then time saving, benefit achieved, or business performance levels impacted.
Be as quantitative as possible so that it is easy for your stakeholders to see the importance of the problem and how it aligns with the company’ss key performance indicators. If you would like to calculate the financial benefit of managing a change portfolio across change plans and types of changes visit this article.
E.g. Performance drops can be 10-20% (which can translate to millions of $) from the impact of changes. Managing change across the portfolio is one of the few ways to manage this significant risk. Read more here.
2. Identify the top stakeholders most impacted by the business problem and involve them. For example, if you are dealing with change saturation from change management activities, find the senior business leader most impacted by this pain and involve him/her in the process to gain their support.
3. Involve relevant departments that may impact the budget decision such as PMO, business heads, Procurement, IT, etc.
Some examples include:
– Cost savings in change management efforts including analyst support/resources, and manual time required in data collection, cleansing, data entry, data analysis and report production.
– Cost of business disruptions resulting from lack of data to support business decisions. We’ve found that often one individual instance of using data to make the right business decision can create millions in value
– Building business change capability through the ability to see and prepare for change, and iterate change interventions based on data
– Support speed of decision making and insight generation from weeks to minutes
How do I ensure the features will meet my needs?
1. Link desired features to your prioritised business problems. In this way you are focused on the most important features that will make the most difference for your organisation. Don’t be tempted to have a super long and exhaustive list of requirements with all aspects of change since this may increase cost, narrow down your vendor choice considerably, or worse, end up with a tool where you may not use most of the features. For examples, if the need more about workflow automation software or change project management software in coming up with templates for the change management plan for a change program, or about solving business leader problems?
2. Balance current urgent business needs with emerging business challenges. By choosing an organisational change management tool you are choosing to leverage this in the future for scalability. Be considered in understanding what is needed today, versus what may be needed in 1 or 2 years time. Ensure your change tool will support your emerging needs. For example, as you start to build more data and insights, does your tool have AI features to support trend analysis and forecasting?
3. Determine what is right for your business in terms of their change management capabilities and maturity. Depending on the tool that you select, it may support your change maturity focus in managing the impact of change initiatives. Decide not only whether the tool is easy to use for your business stakeholders (who may or may not be familiar with change management terms and practices). Also, ensure that as you build business change maturity, that the tool can continue to provide value to further the maturity.
4. Build your requirement list, again focused on must-have first before nice to haves before more advanced features. Examples include: service performance levels, data and security, risk management, ease of data access, modes of data input/export, automation, AI/machine learning, ease of integration, etc.
Which provider is the best for me?
Other than technical features and product design, there are other considerations in determining whether the software is right for you and your organisation. Here are some examples:
– How long has company been in operations for?
– What’s the background of the founder and how knowledgeable about the subject matter is he/she based on experience?
– Is there a structured onboarding process including training programs?
– Are the tangible outputs and documentation of the tool overly simplistic? And is there a range of proven analytics visuals that draw out the visibility of key risks and support different types of decision making
– What are the support channels? (e.g. self-help articles, digital Q&A support, user community, etc.)
– Is there a sandbox to trial the tool before signing up?
– How easy is it to administer and maintain? (e.g. if the org. structure changes). Are there automation features or do I need to do manual data entry?
– Must I purchase consulting along with the tool? And is it methodology agnostic?
– What is the annual system down time and what is the notification process?
– Does the tool support the capture of range of change types, including IT change management, operations changes, BAU normal changes, or standard change that happens seasonally during the year
– Do I need integration? Does it integrate with Microsoft Azure, Atlassian Jira Service Management, etc.?
– Is there continuous improvement improvement in the tool roadmap?
– Is the tool more designed for project teams, or from the lenses of business stakeholders?
– Looking at the blog section, does the provider show advanced change management understanding and experience? Or is it superficial?
– What are the AI/Automation features? How are data insights obtained? Are there potential issues if my team has low capability in analytical skills?
When is the right time?
It depends on your business priorities. Most businesses will always have multiple priorities. You need to be clear to what extent the business priority you are solving is critical to the success of your role.
For example, if the business priority is change saturation and limited capacity, then this priority will likely no go away. Even if there are other important business priorities, your role in the longer term may be measured by to what degree you have solved the organisational pains related to change.
We’ve seen lots of examples where the business directly intervenes to solve their pains, if this was not solved by the change team.
Using a software is like eating a buffet. Yes, it might take a long time to be able to sample all the various dishes and feel full and satisfied. However, you don’t need to eat everything in the buffet to start to enjoy the food. Pick your low hanging fruit, the ones that will directly address your business pain quickly. The rest, including building capability, can wait, and will take time.
Should I build in-house or buy?
Again it depends on where you are and the business problems you are trying to solve. If you have a mature change practice, and what the needs are
Be clear about the time you have to solve the business problem. What is the cost of not solving the business problem swiftly? How does this af
However, note that to build a tool in-house there are several considerations:
– Time and resources it takes to design, and continually improve the product. Like any system products it needs constant attention and resources for improvement and gradual maturity. The first iteration will usually not satisfy all your requirements
– Technical resources to design the user interface, technical development, infrastructure alignment, and testing for the product
– Ongoing total cost of ownership including technical development and support, product development, architecture support, infrastructure/system maintenance cost
– Business stakeholder resources for input and testing
– Risk of building a tool that is overly detailed and cumbersome to maintain
– Disadvantage of not being able to leverage industry best practices from constant user feedback that external tools have
As the global landscape continues to evolve, so too does the field of change management. The 2020s promises a shift in the way organizations approach change, driven by a combination of economic factors, continued technological advancements, and the ever-increasing need for adaptability. In this article, we explore the background factors influencing the upcoming changes, and delve into seven key predictions that are set to reshape the realm of change management in the coming year.
Inflation Continue to Drop: A Ray of Economic Hope
One of the pivotal factors shaping the economic landscape in mid 2020s is the anticipated drop in inflation. After grappling with economic uncertainties, organizations can breathe a sigh of relief as the pressure from rising costs eases. This economic respite paves the way for strategic investments and initiatives, creating a conducive environment for change.
Avoiding Recession: Building Resilience Through Change
The specter of recession has loomed large in recent years, casting a shadow on organizational stability. However, as we step into the mid 2020s, the concerted efforts to avoid recession is forecasted to have paid off. Organizations have become more resilient, honing their ability to weather economic storms through strategic change initiatives. This backdrop sets the stage for a transformative year in change management.
Background
Agile Change as Business as Usual
In the 2020s, the concept of Agile Change is no longer a mere ‘work in progress’ but rather an integral part of Business as Usual (BAU). Organizations have recognized the need for agility in the face of rapid change, and Agile change methodologies have transitioned from experimental to foundational. This shift represents a change in mindset, emphasizing iterative processes, collaboration, and responsiveness to evolving circumstances. After more than 10 years of agile project methodology in the market place, agile change practices are starting to become ‘the norm’.
The Rise of Adaptive/Hybrid Change Models
Building on the previous point, agility applies beyond at an ‘intra-methodology’ perspective, but also how change approaches and methodologies need to be mixed and matched to work.
The increasing pace of change demands a more flexible approach from change practitioners. The dichotomy between structure and flexibility, innovation and process-focused strategies, gives rise to adaptive and hybrid change models. The emergence of terms like “wagile” (a fusion of waterfall and agile) underscores the need for a balanced approach that combines the best of both worlds. Organizations must strike a delicate balance between structure and flexibility to navigate the complexity of modern change initiatives.
For example, in regulated business functions there may need to be quite rigid planning of exactly when the changes must take place as well as the level of consultation and engagement required. However, the actual design of different engagement, positioning and employee involvement strategies may be tested in an iterative way.
Expanding Skill Sets for Change Practitioners
To meet business needs change practitioners will need to have a broader range of skills beyond ‘people skills’. In the 2020s, the demand for change professionals with a broader skill set encompassing strategic thinking, digital/data literacy, and business acumen will continue to be on the rise. As change initiatives become more complex, practitioners must equip themselves with multifaceted skills to address the diverse challenges that emerge during the change process.
For example, stakeholders are increasingly looking for data for reporting purposes to get a clearer sense of how changes are tracking. Beyond sentiments and opinions, stakeholders are looking for adoption indicators as well as precise indications of the nature of impacts across the employee population.
The Ascendance of Change Portfolio Management
Change portfolio management will continue to gain increasing visibility and importance in the 2020s. Organizations are recognizing the need to manage change initiatives collectively, aligning them with strategic objectives. The holistic oversight provided by change portfolio management enables organizations to prioritize, monitor, and evaluate change initiatives in a comprehensive manner, ensuring that resources are optimally allocated for maximum impact.
Whilst stakeholders may not be clear of the differences between transformation, portfolio management and change portfolio management, they are clearer of the benefits required in managing people impacts, against the need to maximise business performance and change adoption.
Leveraging Change Data for Informed Decision-Making
In the evolving landscape of change management, data is no longer just a nice-to-have; it’s a necessity. In the 2020s, the norm becomes leveraging change data to make informed decisions. Organizations recognize the value of data analytics in understanding the impact of change, identifying patterns, and proactively addressing challenges. This data-driven approach enhances the efficacy of change initiatives and provides a foundation for continuous improvement.
It is no longer that the expectation for data-led decision making rests in project functions such as technical development, business analysis, testing and user-experience. Change management teams are also expected to demonstrate the impact of their work through data.
Increasing Use of Software in Change Implementation
The leverage of software in change implementation should see an uptick in the 2020s, along with general increase in software usage rates in organisations. Organizations are leveraging technology to streamline and enhance various aspects of the change management process. From change project management tools, change measurement platforms, as well as change portfolio management tools the role of software can accelerate the pace of change initiatives and supports the realisation of benefits.
AI for Change: From Wait-and-See to Full Adoption
As new technologies, Artificial Intelligence (AI technology) and machine learning for change management is no longer a ‘wait-and-see’ proposition; it’s a reality in the 2020s. In terms of use of technology, at early 2020s a lot of users have sat on the fence as others argue about the risks and data privacy and intellectual property in using AI and data security. The launch of Microsoft Co-pilot and the continued adoption of Chat GPT 4 signal a paradigm shift in how organizations approach AI. Users will over time be used to asking a chat bot, using prompts to form analysis and other AI features to augment their work. Advanced AI change tools incorporating generative AI and automation can also assist in decision-making, predictive analytics, and even virtual facilitation, revolutionizing the efficiency and effectiveness of change processes.
In addition, there will be significant interest in change management tools that have incorporated AI features, from data and trend analysis, risk analysis to recommendations on change approaches. Though the accuracy of current models of AI including ChatGPT and other OpenAI models may not be 100% accurate and may feel that there is a long way to go, natural language processing algorithms continues to improve quite quickly.
How will technology shape our lives in the next decade?
In the next decade, technology will significantly reshape our lives by enhancing connectivity, automating tasks, and enabling smarter decision-making. Advances in AI, IoT, and sustainable tech will drive efficiency and innovation, ultimately transforming industries and the way we interact with our environment and each other.
As organizations navigate the complexities of the 2020s, change management emerges as a critical linchpin for success. The predictions outlined in this article reflect an emerging shift in the approach to managing change, from the integration of Agile methodologies to the widespread adoption of AI. Change practitioners must equip themselves with a versatile skill set to thrive in this dynamic environment, where strategic thinking, digital literacy, and adaptability are paramount. As we stand on the cusp of a transformative year, organizations that embrace these predictions are poised not only to weather the winds of change but to harness them for sustained success.
