Have you ever wondered why change management deliverables as a part of the overall OCM solution are structured and sequenced the way they are in effective change management plans?
Organisational change management deliverables are defined as the data that is put in use in every activity in a change-management. Besides activities, deliverables can form an integral part of any change management project.
There is an inherent logical flow from which change deliverables feed into the next. This means that subpar quality in the deliverable earlier on happens if the work is inadequately carried out. Also, this will likely flow into the rest of the deliverables.
For the change management team, change management deliverables start out very high-level. Earlier in the project development lifecycle, there is a lot of unknown details which stops you from conducting detailed stakeholder management assessment and a communication plan. Moreover, there are lots of questions that cannot be answered about the nature of the change, what the new processes are, and training needs. More details presents itself as the project progresses through each phase. Therefore, the change practitioner is able to populate and document various details, including what the change means and how stakeholders will be impacted (i.e. the change impact assessment).
Eventually, each change deliverable contributes to the next, resulting in a detailed change plan. The change plan is a culmination of a detailed understanding. Also, it’s an assessment of the impacted stakeholders and what the changes will mean to them. Therefore, the respective change interventions within the change initiative that are critical to transition these key stakeholders from the current to future state. Change management communication, change readiness assessment and stakeholder engagement plan as well as effective training plan also form a core part of the change plan.
Along with the change management process as a part of the change strategy, one should create a system for managing scope of the change. Good project managers apply these components effectively to ensure project success through careful planning. Whether it’s a sudden change of personnel, new technology changes, change resistance or an unexpectedly poor quarter; Change managers should be adaptable enough to conduct risk assessment to apply the appropriate mitigations and changes to your plan to accommodate your company’s new needs.
Change management functions encompass planning, implementation, and monitoring of organizational changes. The change process ensures smooth transitions by managing effective communication of change impact, training efforts, and support to ensure positive outcomes. Additionally, it assesses impacts and adapts strategies into change management tasks to minimize resistance, ultimately fostering a culture that embraces change for improved overall performance and employee satisfaction.
What key metrics should be included in a change management dashboard?
A change management dashboard should include key metrics such as project progress, employee engagement levels, feedback scores, and timeline adherence. Additionally, tracking resistance rates and training effectiveness can provide valuable insights into the success of the change initiative, enabling more informed decision-making throughout the process.
A good change adoption dashboard can make or break the full benefit realization of a change initiative. It captures the essence of what stakeholders need to focus on to drive full change adoption. This visual representation of the status and progress of a change initiative provides real-time data and insights into how well-impacted employees are adopting the change and what steps can be taken to improve adoption rates. In this article, we will outline the steps for designing an effective change adoption dashboard.
Change adoption is often only measured toward the end of a change initiative. This is a mistake since the adoption journey can start as early as the project commencement, or when stakeholders start hearing about the initiative. At a minimum, change adoption should be defined and agreed upon before significant change impact happens. If you are implementing a system this will be well before the system go-live.
These are the key steps in building a great change project adoption dashboard.
The first step in designing a change adoption dashboard is to clearly define the objectives of the change initiative. This includes understanding what the change is, what it aims to achieve, and what the desired outcomes are. Understanding the objectives of the change initiative is critical to defining the metrics that will be used to measure adoption and success.
If your initiative has a long list of objectives, be careful not to be tempted to start incorporating all of these into your dashboard. Your task is to pin down the most critical change management objectives that must be met in order for the initiative to be successful. If you are really struggling with how many objectives you should focus on, aim for the top three.
Step 2: Identify Key Metrics
Once the objectives of the change initiative have been defined, the next step is to identify the key metrics that will be used to measure adoption and success. These metrics should be directly tied to the objectives of the change initiative and should provide actionable insights into the progress and success of the change.
Some examples of metrics that can be used to measure change adoption include:
Stakeholder engagement levels (depending on your stakeholder impacts these could be customer, employee or partners)
Stakeholder engagement levels (depending on your stakeholder impacts these could be customer, employee or partners)
User adoption rates
User adoption rates
Process improvement metrics
Process improvement metrics
Time to adoption
Time to adoption
Feedback from employees
Feedback from employees
The key is to locate the few metrics that will form the core of what full change adoption means. As a general rule, this often means a behaviour change of some kind. Here are some examples.
If the goal is changing a business process from A to B. Then you are looking for employees to start following the new process B. Then, identify the core behaviours that mean following process B.
If the goal is changing a business process from A to B. Then you are looking for employees to start following the new process B. Then, identify the core behaviours that mean following process B.
If the goal is to start using a new system, then you would focus on system usage. Also focus on tracking any workarounds that employees may resort to in order not to use the system.
If the goal is to start using a new system, then you would focus on system usage. Also focus on tracking any workarounds that employees may resort to in order not to use the system.
If the goal is to improve customer conversations, then you would focus on the quality of those conversations using key indicators. This may involve call listening or customer satisfaction ratings.
If the goal is to improve customer conversations, then you would focus on the quality of those conversations using key indicators. This may involve call listening or customer satisfaction ratings.
Again, ensure you are not over-extending yourself by picking too many metrics. The more there is, the more work there is. Having too many metrics also lead to attention dilution, and you start to loose stakeholder focus on the more critical metrics compared to less critical ones.
In the group of metrics you’ve chosen, if there is no behaviour measure then it is likely you may have missed the most critical element of change adoption. In most cases, behaviour change metric is essential for any change adoption dashboard.
If your change process involves too many behaviour steps, then focus on ones that are easier to track and report on. In a system implementation project, they could be system usage reports or login frequency.
Step 3: Choose the Right Visualization Techniques
The next step in designing a change adoption dashboard is to choose the right visualization techniques. The visualizations should be chosen based on the data that needs to be displayed and the insights that need to be gained. Some examples of visualization techniques that can be used include:
Bar graphs: to display changes in metrics over time
Bar graphs: to display changes in metrics over time
Pie charts: to display the distribution of data
Pie charts: to display the distribution of data
Line charts: to display changes in metrics over time
Line charts: to display changes in metrics over time
Heat maps: to display the distribution of data on a map
Heat maps: to display the distribution of data on a map
Selection of charts can be technical, and your goal is always to choose the right type of chart to make it easier for the audience to understand and interpret. Minimise on having too many colors since this can be distracting and overwhelming. Use colours carefully and only to show a particular point or to highlight a finding. Choosing the wrong chart can mean more questions than answers for your stakeholders, so choose carefully.
Beyond just having a collection of charts, modern dashboards have a mixture of different types of visuals to aid easy stakeholder understanding. For example, you could have different data ‘tiles’ that show key figures or trends. You may also want to incorporate key text descriptions of findings or trends in your dashboard. Having a mixture of different types of information can help your stakeholders greatly and avoid data saturation.
Step 4: Design the Dashboard
Once the objectives, metrics, and visualization techniques have been defined, the next step is to design the dashboard. The design should be intuitive and user-friendly, with the ability to drill down into the data to gain deeper insights. The dashboard should also be accessible to all stakeholders, including employees, managers, and executives.
Data visualisation is a discipline in itself. For a general overview and key tips on chart design and selection visit our article to learn more about data visualisation techniques.
To reduce manual work in constantly updating and producing the dashboard for your stakeholders think about leveraging technical solutions to do this for you. A common approach is to use excel spreadsheet and PowerBI. This may be feasible for some, but it often involves using a PowerBI expert (which may come at a cost), and any time you want to change the dashboard you need to loop back the expert to do it for you.
The Change Compass has incorporated powerful and intuitive dashboarding and charting features so that you do not need to be an expert to create a dashboard. Reference our templates as examples and create your own dashboard with a few clicks.
Step 5: Test and Refine the Dashboard
The final step in designing a change adoption dashboard is to test and refine it. This includes testing the dashboard with a small group of stakeholders and getting their feedback. Based on their feedback, the dashboard can be refined and improved until it provides the insights and data that stakeholders need to drive change adoption.
A key part of this step is testing any automation process in dashboard generation. Is the data accurate? Is it recent and updated? What operating rhythms do you need to have in place to ensure that the process flows smoothly, and that you get the dashboard produced every week/month/quarter?
Step 6: Continuously Monitor and Update the Dashboard
It is important to continuously monitor the change adoption dashboard and update it regularly. This will help to ensure that the dashboard remains relevant and provides the most up-to-date information on the progress of the change initiative.
The reality is that stakeholders will very likely get bored with the same dashboard time and time again. They will likely suggest changes and amendments from time to time. Anticipate this and proactively improve your dashboard. Does it drive the right stakeholder focus and conversation? If not, tweak it.
Good stakeholder conversations mean that your stakeholders are getting to the roots of why the change is or is not taking place. The data presented prompts the constant focus and avoids diversion in that focus. This is also a journey for your key stakeholders to find meaning in what it takes to lead the change and reinforce the change to get business results.
Summary
Designing an effective change adoption dashboard is a critical step in ensuring the success of change initiatives. By providing real-time data and insights into how well employees are adopting the change, a change adoption dashboard can help key stakeholders make informed decisions and take action to improve adoption rates. Ultimately it is about achieving the full initiative benefits targeted. By following the steps outlined in this article, change managers can design a change adoption dashboard that provides the insights they need to drive change adoption.
Building and executing a change adoption dashboard can be a manually intensive and time consuming exercise. Leverage technology tools that incorporates automation and AI. You will find that this can significantly increase the speed in which you are able to execute on not just the change dashboard, but driving the overall change delivery. For example, you can leverage out-of-the-box features such as forecasting and natural language query to save significant time and effort.
Have a chat to us about what options there are to help you do this.
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Change and transformation initiatives rarely fail for lack of strategy or technical expertise – they falter when leaders underestimate the emotional dimension of change. For seasoned professionals driving organization-wide transformation, understanding how to engage the hearts and minds of employees is the difference between short-lived compliance and deep, sustainable commitment.
The Power of Emotions in Motivating Change
To motivate significant change, it is essential to go beyond the rational case and touch the hearts of employees by appealing to what truly matters to them and what they feel strongly about. Research consistently shows emotionally intelligent leaders are more successful at driving change. One study notes that leaders with high EI are more likely to drive successful change initiatives than those with lower emotional awareness. Leaders who understand their own emotions and those of their teams can inspire, align, and energize people far more effectively than leaders relying solely on logic and process.
Why Emotional Resonance Is Essential
People are moved to action by what they care about. Logic justifies, but emotion compels action. Employees must see the personal significance of change – how it relates to their values, goals, and hopes.
Emotions shape perception of risk and opportunity. Change often triggers uncertainty and ambiguity, which are interpreted emotionally before logically.
Emotional connection breeds trust and reduces resistance. Employees are more open to change when they feel understood and valued by leaders they trust.
Infusing the Change Journey with a Range of Emotions
Rather than viewing negative emotions as obstacles and positive emotions as side effects, the most effective leaders intentionally inject a spectrum of emotions across the change journey to drive engagement and build resilience.
Key emotions to strategically leverage include:
Excitement: To create early momentum and interest.
Curiosity: To encourage exploration, learning, and openness to new ideas.
Hope: To sustain long-term belief in the value and attainability of change.
Contentment and Relief: To mark progress, celebrate milestones, and reduce fatigue.
Amusement and Awe: To humanize the process, provide psychological relief, and highlight significant achievements or breakthroughs.
Each phase of change management – from initial awareness to adoption and reinforcement – presents opportunities to leverage different emotions that collectively build engagement and adaptability.
Example Applications
Kick-off communications: Stir excitement and curiosity by spotlighting new opportunities, challenges, and the bigger “why.”
Development stages: Use hope and inclusion, showing progress and involving teams in solution-finding.
Launch and transition: Celebrate success, recognize effort, and use amusement (e.g., gamified elements) to keep spirits high amidst disruption.
Emotions as a Strategic Lever for Change Leaders
Transformational leaders understand that orchestrating change means intentionally managing and harnessing emotions, not suppressing or ignoring them. By tuning into emotional undercurrents, leaders can:
Detect subtle signs of resistance or fatigue early.
Celebrate emotional wins, not just operational ones.
Adapt messages and interventions to journey stages and emotional climate.
Model openness, normalizing emotional conversations within professional spaces.
Emotional intelligence is thus not a “soft” skill, but a strategic lever – “a must-have asset for those leading change initiatives,” as highlighted in leading change management research.
Managing and Addressing Negative Emotions to Sustain Change
Leading successful organizational transformation requires more than amplifying positive emotions; it necessitates the proactive recognition and management of negative emotions that naturally surface during times of change. For senior change and transformation professionals, skilfully navigating this emotional terrain is fundamental to minimizing resistance, reducing risk, and supporting sustainable behaviour change.
Negative Emotions: Predictable, Powerful, and Manageable
Significant change – even when ultimately beneficial – disrupts established routines, identity, and psychological safety. Anxiety, fear, stress, anger, guilt, disappointment, and similar emotions are not anomalies; they are predictable responses rooted in uncertainty and perceived loss. Ignoring or dismissing these emotions increases the likelihood of disengagement, resistance, or project failure.
Why Negative Emotions Matter
Change is experienced subjectively. Even positive shifts generate discomfort as people relinquish familiarity and control.
Unaddressed negative emotions magnify resistance. If left unmanaged, anxiety and fear can evolve into cynicism, mistrust, or apathy.
Negative emotions can serve as signals. They often highlight real obstacles (lack of understanding, perceived injustice, capacity constraints) that demand attention.
Core Approaches to Managing Negative Emotions
Surface and Validate Emotions Early
Encourage open dialogue about fears, frustrations, and uncertainties.
Normalize emotional reactions by acknowledging that these are shared and expected responses to change.
Create Psychological Safety
Foster an environment where employees feel safe expressing concern and doubt without fear of retribution.
Equip managers with tools and language to hold empathetic conversations and demonstrate genuine care.
Targeted Communication and Transparency
Address the why behind change – and spell out the risks of staying the same as well as the intended benefits.
Clarify what is not changing to provide anchors of stability.
Share updates honestly; trust is maintained by admitting what is unknown or still evolving.
Provide Resources for Coping and Adjustment
Offer training and practical support to build the competence and confidence needed to adapt.
Promote peer support networks and employee assistance programs focused on emotional well-being.
Monitor and Respond to Hot Spots
Use quantitative (pulse surveys, sentiment analysis) and qualitative (focus groups, direct feedback) methods to identify departments or groups experiencing heightened stress, anger, or disengagement.
Intervene promptly: tailor strategies (coaching, workload adjustment, additional support) to the specific root causes surfaced.
Practical Example: Driving Compliance Change
Consider a regulatory compliance initiative requiring strict behavioural shifts. Some employees may react with resistance, resentment, or guilt over past practices. The leader’s role is to:
Clearly communicate the rationale (“why this matters”), using real-world consequences rather than just abstract directives.
Create opportunities for employees to voice concerns, ask questions, and seek clarification.
Provide a safe pathway for adaptation – acknowledging initial frustration while offering positive reinforcement and practical support as new behaviours are adopted.
Recognize and celebrate progress, even when small, helping shift the emotional story from “mandated pain” to “shared achievement” over time.
Leveraging Negative Emotions as Catalysts
At times, driving behaviour change may involve activating negative emotions briefly to disrupt complacency and spur action. For example:
Highlighting risks and consequences can use fear productively to achieve urgency.
Allowing discomfort during difficult reflections (e.g., on ethical or compliance gaps) to motivate honest self-appraisal and commitment to new standards.
However, expert leaders then quickly pivot towards hope, support, and a shared vision, ensuring negative emotions serve as catalysts rather than chronic obstacles.
The Role of Senior Leaders: Empathy, Agency, and Boundaries
Senior leaders modelling vulnerability and self-regulation are essential. They:
Empathize openly with teams facing anxiety, stress, or loss.
Set clear boundaries for expected behaviours while also communicating flexibility in adaptation paths.
Use their own emotional intelligence to intervene early – elevating what’s working and constructively addressing blocks.
Measuring and Managing Emotional Impact
Regularly track employee sentiment to spot growing pockets of overwhelm or anger.
Use behavioural markers (e.g., engagement levels, change adoption rates, incident reports) to triangulate emotional health.
Deploy targeted interventions – adjusting timelines, providing additional resources, or recalibrating expectations – to mitigate chronic negative emotional load.
As discussed, negative emotions are not inherently “bad.” When surfaced, addressed, and used purposefully, they become signals and even agents of necessary transformation.
Monitoring Emotional Signals, Using Data, and Modulating Change for Sustainable Success
Delivering transformation at scale isn’t just a matter of visionary leadership and responsive management – it requires robust, ongoing mechanisms to listen to, measure, and respond to the emotional currents within your organization. In a world where the pace, complexity, and uncertainty of change are unrelenting, senior change and transformation professionals must treat emotional management as an integrated, data-driven discipline.
Systematically Monitoring Employee Sentiment
Modern change leadership goes beyond intuition and anecdotal evidence. To ensure lasting adoption and minimize emotional fatigue, organizations must deliberately monitor employee sentiment throughout the change journey. This involves using both qualitative and quantitative approaches:
Quantitative Tools
Pulse Surveys: These regular, short surveys quickly capture shifting moods and concerns. Questions can focus on confidence in the change, perceived impact, stress levels, and sense of involvement.
Sentiment Analysis: Analysing words and phrases in internal communications (e.g., survey responses, emails, chat forums) can provide a broader, real-time picture of organizational mood.
Engagement Metrics: Analysing participation rates in change-related forums, training modules, and events offers clues to energy, buy-in, and resistance.
Qualitative Signals
Focus Groups and Open Forums: Small-group discussions allow deeper exploration of emotional drivers, uncovering underlying issues not surfaced in surveys.
Leader Check-Ins: Regular, open conversations between managers and team members provide space for direct feedback, concerns, and suggestions.
Observation of Behaviours: Changes in productivity, absenteeism, collaboration, or informal communication patterns can signal rising stress or disengagement.
These monitoring tools aren’t just diagnostic; they are intervention triggers, providing data to adjust the pace, content, and support structure of your change efforts.
Using Data to Manage Change Stress and Adapt Strategy
The volume, velocity, and cumulative impact of simultaneous change initiatives (often called “change saturation”) are major contributors to employee stress and emotional overload. Without hard data, leaders risk pushing teams past breaking point or missing signs of silent disengagement. With data, leaders can:
Identify At-Risk Groups: Data might reveal a specific business unit showing sharp increases in stress or declines in engagement, warranting targeted support or pacing adjustments.
Monitor Change Readiness: By tracking readiness markers (self-assessed confidence, perceived adequacy of training, clarity of roles), leaders spot where additional communication or upskilling is needed.
Triangulate Qualitative and Quantitative Insights: Married together, these data sources validate concerns and prevent rash conclusions from isolated anecdotes.
Practical actions could include:
Staggering change roll-outs for overloaded teams.
Providing extra resources or temporary relief for units under strain.
Adjusting expectations or timelines when signs of emotional burnout emerge.
Moderating the Volume of Change
It is now well-established that organizations don’t fail from “change incapacity” but from unmanaged change saturation. Leaders must make strategic decisions about how much change the organization, and specific groups, can absorb at once. This means:
Maintaining a Change Portfolio View: Map all concurrent changes affecting each employee group to avoid overlap and collision.
Pausing or Sequencing Initiatives: Delay less urgent projects if sentiment or adoption data suggest people are stretched too thin.
Prioritizing High-Impact Efforts: Focus energy on the few changes that truly matter, reducing “noise” and amplifying clarity.
Deliberate modulation of change volume – supported by real-time emotional and performance feedback – ensures that energy and positivity are not drowned out by chronic overwhelm.
Leveraging Emotional Intelligence – The Leader’s Ongoing Responsibility
Great change leaders constantly model emotional transparency, empathy, and resilience. But they also harness data and employee signals to:
Acknowledge All Emotions: Routinely communicate about both positive and negative experiences, recognizing the reality of stress, pride, frustration, and hope within the journey.
Elevate Successes and Learnings: Celebrate milestones publicly and use stories of difficulty overcome to build confidence and shared identity.
Recalibrate Quickly: Show willingness to adjust approach based on feedback, which builds psychological safety and trust.
In this way, leaders shape not just the process but the collective emotional journey – moving the organization from mere compliance to ownership and advocacy.
Behavioural Signals: Tracking Readiness and Adoption
Emotional monitoring must be paired with vigilant observation of behavioural adoption. The ultimate goal is not just feeling better about change, but actually embedding new ways of working. Leaders should:
Track participation rates in new processes, training, or systems.
Observe peer-to-peer advocacy – do employees champion the change organically?
Routinely assess performance metrics and qualitative feedback for signs of embedded change or reversion to old habits.
Where behavioural adoption lags, revisit the emotional journey – are people experiencing unresolved anxiety, lack of hope, insufficient relief, or overly prolonged stress?
The Emotional Science of Lasting Change
Seasoned change and transformation professionals know that successful change is as much an emotional journey as it is a strategic or operational one. Organizations that put emotional monitoring, data-driven adaptation, and emotionally intelligent leadership at the core of their change efforts improve not just adoption rates, but employee well-being and long-term resilience.
By appealing to what matters most, systematically addressing and harnessing the full spectrum of emotions, leveraging both human insight and hard data, and moderating the pace and load of change, leaders create a climate where people aren’t just surviving change – they’re thriving through it.
This is the new mandate for transformational leadership: bring science and heart together, and make emotions a central lever of lasting change.
The Strategic Blind Spot in Enterprise Change Management
In today’s volatile business environment, enterprise change management (ECM) functions are under mounting pressure to prove their value. Despite the proliferation of change initiatives – ranging from digital transformation to operational restructuring – many organizations still treat ECM as a support function, primarily focused on capability building and project resourcing. This narrow focus, while important, leaves a critical gap: ECMs are often missing the opportunity to deliver the highest value services – enterprise change measurement and strategic/operational planning.
The Current State: A Tactical Focus
Most ECM functions have evolved to emphasize two core activities:
Capability Building: Developing change skills and mindsets across the business, often through training, coaching, and establishing communities of practice
Project Resourcing: Supplying skilled change practitioners to projects, ensuring adequate coverage for major initiatives.
While these activities are foundational, they tend to position ECM as a cost centre rather than a strategic partner. When business conditions tighten, these functions are often among the first to face budget cuts or downsizing, as their value is often perceived as indirect or non-essential to core business outcomes.
The Consequence: Vulnerability in Uncertain Times
This tactical orientation creates a paradox. As organizations face more frequent and complex change, the need for robust change management increases. Yet, when times are tough, ECM functions are often scaled back precisely when their expertise could be most valuable. This cycle undermines organizational resilience and readiness, leaving businesses exposed to greater risks during periods of transformation.
The Missed Opportunity: High-Value Services
The most significant gap lies in the underutilization of ECM’s potential to deliver high-value, strategic services. These include:
Enterprise Change Performance: Systematically tracking and analyzing the impact, readiness, and adoption of change across the organization.
Strategic and Operational Planning: Partnering with strategy teams and business leaders to anticipate change impacts, model scenarios, and inform decision – making.
By not prioritizing these services, ECM functions miss the chance to influence the organization at the highest levels – where decisions about direction, investment, and risk are made.
Why the Gap Exists
Several factors contribute to this strategic blind spot:
Historical Positioning: ECM has traditionally been seen as an “enabler” rather than a “driver” of business outcomes.
Lack of Data: Without robust change measurement, it’s difficult to provide the insights needed for strategic planning and governance.
Resource Constraints: With limited budgets and headcount, ECMs often default to immediate project demands rather than longer-term, enterprise-wide priorities.
Digital Immaturity: Many organizations lack the digital tools to capture, analyze, and sustain data-driven change insights, further limiting ECM’s strategic contribution.
The Path Forward
To break this cycle, ECM functions must reposition themselves as indispensable partners in enterprise strategy and planning. This requires a deliberate shift from a narrow focus on capability and resourcing to a broader remit that includes measurement, insight generation, and strategic advisory services. The following sections will explore how ECMs can leverage data and digital tools to deliver these high-value services, and how this repositioning can fundamentally enhance their role in change governance and business planning.
Elevating Enterprise Change Management – From Tactical Support to Strategic Insight
The Power of Change Measurement
To become a true strategic partner, ECM functions must anchor their value proposition in robust, enterprise-wide change measurement. This means moving beyond anecdotal feedback and isolated project metrics to a disciplined, data-driven approach that captures the full spectrum of change activity, impact, and readiness across the organization.
What Is Enterprise Change Measurement?
Enterprise change measurement is the systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of data related to all change initiatives within an organization. This includes:
Change Volume and Velocity: How many changes are occurring, and at what pace?
Cumulative Impact: What is the aggregated effect of concurrent changes on teams, processes, and customers?
Readiness and Adoption: How prepared are stakeholders for upcoming changes, and how well are new ways of working being adopted?
Risk and Saturation: Where are the pressure points? Which business units or functions are at risk of change fatigue or resistance?
By establishing a comprehensive measurement framework, ECMs can provide leaders with a “change performance dashboard” that highlights risks, opportunities, and areas requiring intervention.
Why Measurement Matters
Objectivity: Data – driven insights replace subjective opinions, enabling more informed decision – making.
Prioritization: Leaders can see where to focus resources for maximum impact and where to pause or sequence initiatives to avoid overload.
Accountability: Clear metrics enable tracking of change outcomes, supporting continuous improvement and demonstrating the tangible value of ECM.
Proactive Risk Management: Early identification of adoption risks or readiness gaps allows for timely mitigation, reducing the likelihood of failed initiatives.
Leveraging Digital Tools for Continuous Insight
The digital revolution has transformed every aspect of business, and ECM should be no exception. Modern digital tools – ranging from enterprise change management platforms to advanced analytics and AI – make it possible to capture, analyze, and visualize change data in real time.
Key Capabilities of Digital Change Platforms
Automated Data Capture: Streamline the collection of change activity and sentiment data with less manual effort.
Dashboards and Visualizations: Provide leaders with intuitive, up-to-date views of change activity, risk hotspots, and adoption trends.
Scenario Modelling: Use predictive analytics to model the impact of proposed changes on different parts of the organization, supporting better planning and resource allocation.
Feedback Loops: Enable continuous input from stakeholders, surfacing emerging issues and opportunities for course correction.
Building the Digital Foundation
To realize these benefits, ECMs must:
Invest in the Right Tools: Select platforms that fit the organization’s size, complexity, and digital maturity.
Establish Data Governance: Ensure data quality, security, and privacy, with clear ownership and processes for managing change data.
Build Analytical Capability: Develop skills within the ECM team to interpret data, generate insights, and translate findings into actionable recommendations.
Partnering for Strategic and Operational Planning
Armed with robust data and digital insights, ECMs are uniquely positioned to partner with strategy teams and senior leaders in both strategic and operational planning cycles.
Strategic Planning
Change Impact Modelling: Collaborate with strategy leaders to model the implications of major strategic shifts – such as mergers, restructures, or technology rollouts – on people, customers, partners and culture/behaviours.
Resource Forecasting: Advise on the change management resources required to support planned initiatives, ensuring adequate capacity and capability.
Risk Assessment: Highlight potential adoption risks and readiness gaps, enabling proactive mitigation and more resilient strategic execution.
Operational Planning
Change Portfolio Management: Work with business units to sequence and prioritize initiatives, reducing change saturation and maximizing adoption.
Readiness/Adoption Assessments: Provide data – driven readiness assessments to inform operational plans, ensuring teams are prepared for upcoming changes.
Performance Tracking: Monitor adoption and impact metrics post – implementation, feeding lessons learned back into future planning cycles.
Unlocking the Full Value of ECM
By moving up the value chain – from tactical support to strategic insight – ECMs can fundamentally reshape their role within the organization. This shift not only enhances the effectiveness of change initiatives but also positions ECM as a critical enabler of business strategy, resilience, and long-term success.
Embedding Enterprise Change Management in Governance and Planning – Unlocking Strategic Value
From Insight to Influence: The New Role of ECM
When enterprise change management (ECM) functions leverage robust measurement and digital insights, they move from being tactical enablers to strategic influencers. This transition is not just a shift in activity but a fundamental change in how ECM is perceived and positioned within the organization. The true value of ECM emerges when it is embedded in the core governance and planning processes, shaping decisions that drive business performance and resilience.
Integrating ECM Into Change Governance
Change governance is the system by which organizations oversee, prioritize, and manage change initiatives. Traditionally, ECM’s role in governance has been limited, often reactive – providing support when asked or responding to issues as they arise. However, with access to enterprise-wide change data and predictive analytics, ECM can now play a proactive, advisory role.
Key contributions of ECM in change governance include:
Portfolio-level risk assessment: By providing a “change performance dashboard,” ECM can help governance forums visualize where cumulative change is creating risk, enabling more informed decisions about sequencing, prioritization, and resource allocation.
Evidence-based recommendations: ECM brings objective data to the table, shifting conversations from opinion-based debates to fact-based decision-making.
Continuous monitoring: Real-time dashboards and feedback loops allow governance bodies to track adoption, readiness, and business impact, supporting agile responses to emerging issues.
This approach aligns with the Unified Value Proposition for change management, which emphasizes the integration of technical and people aspects to achieve both project objectives and organizational benefits. When ECM is seen as a structured, data-driven discipline, its credibility and influence within governance structures increase significantly.
Shaping Strategic and Operational Planning
The value of ECM is amplified when it is involved early in the strategic and operational planning cycles. By partnering with strategy and business leaders, ECM can:
Model change implications: Use scenario analysis to forecast the impact of strategic decisions on people, processes, and culture, identifying potential bottlenecks or adoption risks before they materialize.
Inform resource planning: Advise on the change management resources and capabilities required to support the planned portfolio, ensuring adequate investment and reducing the risk of under – resourcing critical initiatives.
Enhance readiness and adoption: Integrate readiness assessments and adoption metrics into operational plans, increasing the likelihood of successful outcomes and accelerating benefit realization.
This proactive involvement transforms ECM from a “nice-to-have” support function to an essential partner in delivering business strategy and managing risk.
Real-World Impact: Lessons from Leading Organizations
Organizations that have successfully repositioned ECM as a strategic partner demonstrate tangible business benefits. For example, a large financial services leader, integrated change management and project management, prioritized sponsorship, and leveraged data-driven insights to support multiple simultaneous transformations. The results included reduced risks of change saturation and release clashes, enhanced speed of planning and reduced operational disruptions.
This underscore the importance of:
Early and ongoing ECM involvement in planning and governance
A unified approach that combines technical and people – centric change management
Data-driven decision – making as the foundation for ECM’s strategic contribution
Sustaining the Strategic Role of ECM
To ensure ECM’s strategic value is sustained – even when business conditions become challenging – organizations must:
Institutionalize ECM’s seat at the table: Make ECM participation in governance and planning forums a non-negotiable part of the operating model.
Continue investing in digital tools and analytics: Maintain and evolve the digital infrastructure that enables continuous measurement and insight generation.
Develop ECM talent: Build analytical, advisory, and business partnership skills within ECM teams to match their new strategic mandate.
The Future of ECM Is Strategic
As organizations navigate increasing complexity and accelerated change, the need for strategic, data-driven change management has never been greater. By focusing on high-value services, enterprise change measurement and strategic/operational planning, ECM functions can secure their place as indispensable partners in business success. This shift unlocks their full potential to drive sustainable transformation and competitive advantage.
Wrestling with Pigs – Why Change Leaders Get Stuck in the Mud
As change and transformation professionals you know the feeling: you’re deep in a change initiative, but progress is elusive. No matter how many workshops you run, how many stakeholder meetings you hold, or how many communications you send, the same issues keep resurfacing. The team feels exhausted, yet the problem remains – like wrestling with a pig, you end up covered in mud and no closer to a solution.
This vivid metaphor, drawn from Pete Lindsay’s Pig Wrestling, captures the frustration of grappling with persistent organizational challenges. The core message is clear: wrestling with problems using the same perspective and tactics only leads to fatigue and frustration, not progress. The mud represents the confusion, emotional drain, and sense of futility that accompanies repeated, ineffective attempts at problem-solving.
Recognising the Signs of “Pig Wrestling”
Before you can escape this cycle, it’s crucial to recognize when you’re stuck in it. Lindsay and Bawden describe several telltale signs:
You’ve tried every solution you can think of, but nothing works.
The problem feels endless – no matter what you do, it persists.
You and your team feel drained, demotivated, and stuck.
These symptoms are not just signs of a tough challenge – they’re indicators that you may be framing the problem incorrectly from the outset. When we approach issues from a limited or habitual perspective, we inadvertently block ourselves from seeing new angles or opportunities. As a result, our efforts amount to little more than wrestling a pig: exhausting, messy, and ultimately unproductive.
The Trap of the “Wrong Frame”
Every organization has its share of recurring “problems”:
There are too many change resistors.
Too many stakeholders aren’t informed about the changes.
Leaders are not supporting the change.
Stakeholders are not owning the change.
These statements are familiar to anyone leading transformation. Yet, according to Pig Wrestling, these are often not the real problems but rather symptoms of a deeper issue: a restricted or flawed framing of the challenge. When we define the problem too narrowly or accept it at face value, we limit our ability to find effective solutions.
Why We Get Stuck
The reason we get trapped in this cycle is psychological as much as organizational. Humans are wired to seek patterns and rely on past experiences. When faced with a stubborn issue, we tend to double down on what we know, trying variations of the same approaches. This creates a feedback loop: the more we struggle, the more entrenched we become in our current view, and the less likely we are to see the problem from a fresh perspective.
Pig Wrestling challenges us to step back, question our assumptions, and “clean” our thinking. Only by reframing the problem – by stripping away the mud of our biases, stories, and habitual responses – can we unlock new solutions and drive meaningful change.
Cleansing the Problem – Reframing the Four Classic Change Challenges
Transformation leaders are often confronted with recurring “problems” that seem intractable: too many change resistors, uninformed stakeholders, disengaged leaders, and lack of stakeholder ownership. According to Pete Lindsay’s Pig Wrestling, these are often not problems in themselves, but symptoms of how we’ve chosen to frame the challenge. By cleansing the problem – stripping away assumptions and viewing it from new angles – we can unlock more effective solutions.
1. “There Are Too Many Change Resistors”
The Trap: It’s easy to label widespread resistance as a people problem or a sign of cultural inertia. This framing assumes resistance is an obstacle to be overcome, rather than a signal to be understood.
Reframe the Problem: Ask: What are people really resisting? Are they lacking information, skills, or a sense of security? Is the pace or nature of change overwhelming? By reframing, resistance becomes a source of insight rather than frustration.
Recommendations:
Listen and diagnose: Use structured listening sessions and feedback tools to uncover the root causes of resistance. Often, resistance points to unmet needs or unaddressed fears.
Clarify the “why”: Ensure that the business reasons for change are clearly communicated and tailored to different groups.
Empower ownership: Shift focus from “overcoming resistance” to “enabling participation.” Involve resistors in solution design, making them co-creators rather than obstacles.
Invest in training and support: Resistance often stems from a lack of confidence or skills. Comprehensive onboarding, upskilling, and just-in-time support resources can ease anxiety and build capability.
2. “Too Many Stakeholders Aren’t Informed About the Changes”
The Trap: This framing assumes information alone is the issue, and the solution is simply to communicate more. But information overload, unclear messaging, and lack of targeted communication can all contribute to the problem.
Reframe the Problem: Ask: Are stakeholders receiving the right information, at the right time, in the right way? Is the communication two-way, allowing for feedback and clarification?
Recommendations:
Segment and tailor communication: Not all stakeholders need the same information. Map stakeholder groups and customize messages to their interests and concerns.
Engage early and often: Involve stakeholders in the planning and decision-making process from the outset, not just during rollout. Use surveys, focus groups, and regular updates to foster transparency and trust.
Enable dialogue: Move beyond broadcast communication to two-way channels – Q&A sessions, feedback loops, and forums for open discussion.
Leverage data: Track engagement with communications (open rates, feedback, participation in sessions) to identify gaps and adjust strategies in real time.
3. “Leaders Are Not Supporting the Change”
The Trap: It’s tempting to see lack of leadership support as a personal failing or lack of commitment. This framing can breed frustration and blame, rather than constructive action.
Reframe the Problem: Ask: What barriers are preventing leaders from engaging? Do they lack clarity on their role, feel excluded from planning, or have competing priorities?
Recommendations:
Clarify expectations: Define and communicate the specific actions and behaviours expected from leaders at each stage of the change process.
Provide support and resources: Equip leaders with the information, tools, and training they need to champion change. This includes regular briefings, leadership coaching, and peer support networks.
Model the change: Leaders must visibly demonstrate the mindsets and behaviours required for success. Celebrate and publicize leadership actions that align with the change vision.
Create accountability: Build change leadership into performance objectives and reward systems, ensuring leaders are recognized for their role in driving transformation.
4. “Stakeholders Are Not Owning the Change”
The Trap: This problem is often framed as a lack of motivation or engagement among stakeholders, leading to frustration and disengagement among change leaders.
Reframe the Problem: Ask: Have stakeholders been given real opportunities to shape the change? Is there a sense of shared ownership, or are they passive recipients of decisions?
Recommendations:
Co-create solutions: Involve stakeholders in designing and implementing change initiatives. Collaborative decision-making builds ownership and accountability.
Foster shared purpose: Communicate how the change aligns with stakeholders’ values and goals. Make the benefits tangible and relevant to their daily work.
Recognize and celebrate contributions: Publicly acknowledge stakeholder input and successes, reinforcing their role as partners in the change journey.
Monitor and adapt: Use data to track stakeholder engagement and adjust strategies as needed. Regular feedback and course correction keep stakeholders invested and empowered.
By cleansing and reframing these four classic problems, transformation leaders can move from wrestling with pigs – stuck and exhausted – to leading purposeful, energizing change.
The Practical Application – Problem Cleansing in Action
For transformation and change professionals, the real power of Pete Lindsay’s Pig Wrestling lies in translating the “problem cleansing” mindset into daily leadership practice. The framework is not just a metaphor; it’s a practical toolkit for breaking free from the mud of persistent challenges and unlocking new pathways to change. Here’s how to apply the principles of problem cleansing, step by step, to the four classic change problems.
Step 1: Step Back and Observe
Before diving into solutions, pause. Take a step back from the “mud” and observe the problem objectively. Ask yourself:
Is this truly the problem I need to solve, or am I reacting to symptoms?
What assumptions am I making about this situation?
Have I seen the reality on the ground, or am I relying on second-hand accounts?
This initial pause is essential for gaining perspective and avoiding the trap of habitual responses.
Step 2: Remove the Frame – Challenge Your Assumptions
Every problem is surrounded by a “frame” – the stories, biases, and judgments we attach to it. To cleanse the problem, deliberately remove that frame:
What labels have I applied to people or situations (e.g., “change resistors”)?
What if my current framing is limiting my options?
How might others involved describe the problem differently?
Empathy is critical here. Seek to understand the perspectives and motivations of all stakeholders, especially those you might have labeled as obstacles.
Step 3: Gather the Facts – Separate Data from Story
With the frame removed, focus on the facts:
What is actually happening, as opposed to what I believe is happening?
What data do I have, and what data do I need?
When does the problem occur, and when does it not?
For example, if you believe “too many stakeholders aren’t informed,” review actual communication metrics, feedback, and engagement data. Are there patterns or exceptions that challenge your assumptions?
Step 4: Explore Exceptions – When Is the Problem Not a Problem?
One of the most powerful techniques in the Pig Wrestling approach is to look for exceptions:
Are there times or contexts where the problem doesn’t appear?
What’s different about those situations?
Can those conditions be replicated or scaled?
If “leaders are not supporting the change,” are there instances where certain leaders are engaged? What enables their support, and how can those enablers be extended to others?
Step 5: Define a More Solvable Problem
After gathering facts and exploring exceptions, redefine the problem in a more actionable way:
Instead of “too many change resistors,” the problem might become “we lack early feedback loops to understand concerns.”
Instead of “stakeholders are not owning the change,” it could be “our process does not provide meaningful opportunities for stakeholder input.”
A well-cleansed problem statement is clear, specific, and focused on factors you can influence.
Step 6: Experiment and Iterate
Apply new solutions based on your cleansed problem definition. Use data to monitor outcomes and remain open to further reframing if progress stalls. The Pig Wrestling framework encourages short cycles of experimentation and reflection, rather than long, exhausting battles with the same muddy challenge.
Integrating Data and Evidence
Throughout the process, data is your ally. Use it to:
Test assumptions and challenge stories.
Identify patterns, exceptions, and leverage points.
Measure the impact of interventions and adapt in real time.
For example:
Track resistance levels before and after targeted listening sessions.
Measure stakeholder engagement with different communication channels.
Analyze leadership behaviours and their correlation with team adoption rates.
Building a Culture of Problem Cleansing
Finally, embed these practices into your team:
Encourage curiosity and challenge habitual thinking.
Reward reframing and creative problem definition.
Use coaching and reflective practices to help teams step back, remove frames, and focus on facts.
Problem cleansing is not a one-off exercise but a continuous discipline. By applying these steps, you’ll move from wrestling with pigs to leading purposeful, sustainable transformation – no mud required.
“When you wrestle with a pig, you get dirty and the pig enjoys it. But when you clean your thinking, you create the change you need.”
