What are the different approaches in deriving a single view of change? And what business impact do they have?
A single view of change is often mentioned as the ‘nirvana’ for change practitioners. Having a clear view of all changes impacting people helps to better plan and execute on the changes.
In our experience there are 3 key approaches:
1) ‘Estimate the pulse’ – A quick and easy way of coming up with a simple heatmap or chart where impacts are estimated overall.
2) ”Periodic pulse checking’ – Periodic work, usually monthly, in documenting change impacts. Some governance and reporting operating rhythms setup. Some element of charting tools used.
3) ‘Hand on the pulse’ – An operating system where the data capture and analysis is embedded within regular business process. Data is utilised by various parts of governance and business planning routines. Fully digital in sustaining data maturity and insight generation.
Organisations may start out in the first or second approach in building on their change maturity and ability to generate change-related insights.
However, to reap the required business impact and to support an agile organisation where change is fast and constant, the first approach is best.
Effective communication is the lifeblood of any successful change endeavour within an organization. It serves as the conduit through which ideas are conveyed, strategies are articulated, and employees are engaged. However, the delicate balance between providing sufficient information and avoiding overload is often difficult to strike. Moreover, how communication is crafted can significantly impact its effectiveness in driving change.
Exploring the Elements of Failure
Delving into the nuances of change communication reveals several common pitfalls that can impede its effectiveness:
Maintaining a Positive or Neutral Tone: In many corporate settings, there is a pervasive tendency to maintain a positive or neutral tone in communication. While this may seem prudent to foster optimism and prevent undue concern, it can inadvertently obscure the gravity of the situation necessitating change. Employees may fail to grasp the urgency or magnitude of the challenges at hand if they are shielded from the realities driving the need for change. Striking the right balance requires a nuanced approach that acknowledges both the imperative for change and the potential benefits it offers. By providing a candid assessment of the current state while articulating a compelling vision for the future, organizations can inspire action and commitment among their workforce.
Impersonal Corporate Speak: The language employed in corporate communications often reflects a detached, impersonal demeanor. This formality, while intended to convey professionalism, can alienate employees and hinder their ability to connect with the message. Particularly in the context of change initiatives, where emotions and uncertainties abound, a more humanized approach is essential.Leaders must endeavor to communicate in a manner that resonates with their audience, conveying authenticity and empathy. By infusing their messages with personal anecdotes, genuine concerns, and relatable language, they can establish rapport and engender trust among employees.
Focus on Reason Over Emotions: Traditional corporate communication tends to prioritize logic and reason over emotional appeal. While facts and figures are undoubtedly important, they often fail to evoke the deeper emotional responses necessary to galvanize action. Employees are more likely to embrace change when they are emotionally invested in its success.Leaders should not shy away from tapping into the emotional dimension of change, sharing personal stories, aspirations, and concerns. By fostering a sense of shared purpose and rallying around common values, organizations can cultivate a culture of resilience and adaptability.
I hear you nod. So what is wrong with these practices if they have been the norm for decades and is adopted as common practice by most organisations?
OK let’s go through these one by one.
Illustrating the Importance of Emotional Engagement:
Drawing from personal experiences underscores the profound impact that emotional engagement can have on driving change: Recalling my tenure at Intel, a pivotal moment arose when rival AMD posed a significant threat to our market dominance. Leaders initiated candid discussions, rallying employees around the emotional stakes of the challenge. This emotional appeal galvanized teams across functions, leading to a remarkable turnaround in our fortunes.
Reimagining Change Communications
In light of the evolving organizational landscape, characterized by rapid technological advancements and shifting cultural norms, there is a pressing need to reimagine change communications: John Kotter, in his book “Change: How Organizations Achieve Hard-to-Imagine Results in Uncertain and Volatile Times,” highlights the imperative for organizations to adapt their communication strategies to meet the demands of the modern era. This entails embracing a more dynamic, inclusive approach that values authenticity, transparency, and emotional resonance.
Change communication is not a static endeavor but rather an ongoing evolution that must adapt to the ever-changing needs and expectations of employees. By challenging conventional norms and embracing innovative approaches, organizations can foster a culture of open dialogue, trust, and collaboration that fuels meaningful change and sustainable growth.
Change is akin to navigating through the skies; it requires careful planning, clear communication, and the ability to adapt to shifting conditions. In the same way that a well-orchestrated airport ensures the safe and efficient movement of passengers and cargo, organizations must design a robust system for change management to achieve success in today’s dynamic business environment. As we explore the intricacies of designing such a system, we’ll draw parallels to the meticulous planning and execution required in airport operations.
Data Currency: Reinforced by System Reminders
Imagine an airport where flight schedules are constantly updated to reflect changes in departure times, gate assignments, and weather conditions. Similarly, our change management system employs reminders to ensure that change initiatives are regularly updated by initiative representatives. This emphasis on data currency mirrors the real-time updates necessary for smooth operations in an airport, enhancing agility and equipping stakeholders with the latest insights to drive informed decision-making.
Source of Truth for Both Change Drivers & Receivers
Just as an air traffic control tower serves as the central hub for coordinating flight information, our change dashboard serves as a centralized source of truth for all stakeholders. This dashboard provides change drivers and receivers with comprehensive insights into ongoing initiatives, fostering transparency and alignment across the organization. Much like how clear communication among air traffic controllers, pilots, and ground staff is essential to avoid chaos in an airport, our centralized repository facilitates collaboration and empowers stakeholders to navigate the change journey with confidence.
Data-Enabled Early Detection on Impacts
Modern aircraft are equipped with advanced sensors to detect potential issues early and prevent disruptions during flights. Similarly, our change management system leverages data to anticipate and mitigate impacts before they escalate. By providing stakeholders with the tools to self-assess and identify potential disruptions, surprises are minimized, and proactive measures can be taken to ensure a seamless transition. This proactive approach mirrors the preventive measures taken in aviation to maintain safety and efficiency in flight operations.
Assigning Business Reps as “Change Custodians”
In an airport, ground staff play a crucial role in ensuring the smooth flow of operations and addressing potential issues as they arise. Similarly, designating business representatives as change custodians facilitates the exchange of critical information and ensures that potential impacts are identified and addressed in a timely manner. By acting as the frontline support for change initiatives, these representatives serve as the linchpin of change maturity, fostering a culture of accountability and ownership throughout the organization.
Continual Access to Change Success Metrics
Much like pilots rely on instruments to gauge their progress and make informed decisions during flights, stakeholders require access to real-time metrics to assess change readiness and adoption. Pulse checks and regular tracking throughout the change journey provide stakeholders with the insights needed to course-correct and adapt as necessary. Additionally, change governance routines, akin to strategic planning meetings in aviation, provide a forum for reviewing upcoming changes and fostering alignment with organizational goals.
Designing a system for change maturity requires careful planning, clear communication, and a commitment to continuous improvement, much like orchestrating the intricate operations of an airport. By embracing the airport analogy and drawing inspiration from its principles, organizations can navigate the complexities of change with confidence and achieve sustainable success in today’s ever-evolving business landscape.
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Measuring change is no longer a nice to have. It’s a must-have for a lot of organisations. A lot of stakeholders are now demanding to see and understand what is happening in the world of change. With the enhanced volume of change and therefore the increased investment made by the organisations, it’s no wonder.
Why are stakeholders demanding to see change data?
When we look across the room amongst the various disciplines, data forms an integral part of any function. Finance – tick. HR – tick, yes pretty much all aspects of people are tracked and reported. Operations – tick, as we have all types of performance KPIs and efficiency indicators. Technology – tick, since every part of technology can easily be measured and reported. Marketing – tick, as marketing outcomes are tied to revenue and customer sentiments.
With Covid it is even more the case that data is integral. We can no longer ‘walk the factory’ to sense what is happening. To see what is happening and what is going to happen stakeholders revert to data. In our virtual working environment, stakeholders require a constant dashboard of data to track how things are progressing.
Why is measuring change not an activity?
In the past it used to be that measuring change is only something you do in a project when you want to see if stakeholders are ready for the change. No more. Most organisations have a multitude of changes running concurrently. There is no choice to select 1 or 2 changes to roll out. With significant business challenges, most organisations are finding that running with multiple changes is the norm.
With multiple changes, increased stakeholder demands and appetite, measuring change is no longer just an activity. Measuring change takes a set of structured routines. It requires effective governance design. It takes experience and analytical expertise. Most of all, it is not a once-off event, it is a continual building of organisational muscle and capability. We are heading into the world of change analytics capability.
What is change analytics capability and how do I attain this?
Here are 7 core components of building and maturing change analytics capability:
1. Establishing change data management procedures and practices
This is about setting up the right steps in place so that change data can be identified, collected, and documented. This includes identifying the types of change data you would like to collect and how to go about collecting them. It will be easier to start with the core set of data required and then build from these as needed. This will reduce the risk of overwhelming your stakeholders.
After the right metrics and collection channels have been identified then it’s about building the regular routines to collect and document the metrics.
2. Sponsorship and leadership of change analytics
To really reap the value of change analytics you will need to gain the blessing and sponsorship of your leaders. Well, at least in time. In the beginning, you may need some time to come up with compelling data that tell the story that you want them to before you show your leaders. Eventually, without strong leadership buy-in, change data will not be effectively leveraged to make business decisions.
Getting your leaders’ blessing isn’t just a verbal exercise. It means that they are signing-up to regularly review, discuss and utilise change data to realise business value.
3. Build talent and organisation to support change analytics
Think about the various stakeholders and what you need them to understand in terms of change data. The way you educate stakeholders will be different to how you educate operations managers or the PMO. Plot out how you plan to help them get familiar with change data. Do you need particular roles to support data analysis? Is it a Change Analyst who is focused on the regular upkeep and consolidation of change data? What roles do you need other team members to play?
4. Insight generation
With a full set of change data infront of you, it’s now time to dive into them to generate insights. What is the data telling you? How do they support other data sources to form a clear picture of what is happening in the workforce? Is the data accurate and updated? Generating insights from the data takes skills and experience. It takes the ability to integrate different sources of data outside of change data themselves.
5. Insight application
This is about setting up the right routines and processes so that any insights generated may be discussed and applied. It could be through various governance forums, leadership or planning meetings that insights are shared and socialised. An integral part of this step is applying the insight by making business decisions. For example, do we delay the initiative roll out or invest more to support leaders? Are there reasons for us to speed up roll out to support the workforce?
6. Change analytics capability development
Change analytics is a capability.
With good change data emerging, you also need to have the right people with the right skills to collect, process and interpret the data. You may also want to think about which teams need what analytical skills. Do you have people in the team who are sufficiently analytical and data-oriented? Do they know how to interpret the data to form trends and predictions?
You may want to think about organising capability sessions or training to strengthen data analysis skills. Are there members in the different governance bodies that need support to be more confident in using change data?
7. Realising business value through change analytics
The last part of the equation is realising business value through change analytics. This is about tracking and documenting the value realised through using change analytics. It could include incidents where the business decision made has lead to significant risk reduction or operations protection. It could be enhanced leadership confidence mitigating risks in negative customer experience. Tracking value generated is critical to make clear to stakeholders the value of the overall investment.
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The term “single view of change” is starting to gain more popularity and organisations are starting to understand why they need this and what it looks like. The term refers to an artifact that shows the different change initiatives being mapped together. This is usually presented in a calendar format that shows when the initiatives will impact the organisation over time. In this article, we will look closely at what the single view of change is, what stakeholders are looking for in this artifact and how to use it.
Typical formats for single view of change
Red, amber and green cells for each project across time
Business unit based heatmap across time
Here are some examples from The Change Compass as reference.
Different views may be selected for the HeatmapThe data may be grouped/ordered by different fields (Go-Live is shown as a star)
In the past year there has been increasing interest from organisations talking about single view of change (SVOC) and wanting to derive this view. What we’ve observed at The Change Compass are the following trends:
Senior managers or executives are often the ones who are requesting the SVOC.
This usually arises as the number of change initiatives starts to increase and there is feedback that there could be too much change for employees to handle or change fatigue. This is not a surprise given the companies are already struggling to keep up with competitive, technology, and regulatory changes. Covid has added to these changes and compounded the overall change load.
Senior managers are after data to make decisions on. And managing change is no exception. Gone are the days when managers can make decisions based on opinions and hunches. With Covid, there are employees working remotely and so performance needs to be managed based on data – there is simply no other way. In a similar vein, change data is integral to making business decisions.
An example of stakeholders requesting SVOC
When I was the Head of Change at National Australia Bank there was a strong focus on deriving a single view of change. This was not always the case. There were constant complaints from employees that there was too much change. On the other hand, senior managers often responded with “we’re still able to run the business and the business has not broken, so let’s keep going”.
One of the key reasons that senior managers were requesting SVOC was that initiatives are by design in silos. Each initiative team designs the initiative independent of other initiatives. From a technical perspective, there are various architects who are accountable for advising on what the technology stack should look like and what is in the best interest of the organisation across initiatives. However, from a people change perspective there were no practices in which changes across the board are harmonised and sequenced.
Eventually, at National Australia Bank we built a clunky way of capturing change impact data that did meet stakeholder needs. My realisation was that stakeholders that request SVOC were not after the artifacts per se. In fact what they were after most were:
Determining when there would be too much change saturation leading to change fatigue
Ability to determine what needs to be moved and how/when initiatives can be moved if there is contention
Understanding key risks that could arise in executing on a range of change initiatives that could disrupt the business or impact initiative benefit realisation
Understanding what change activities are organised and how they are impacting business-as-usual operations so that effective resourcing can be in place
What this means is that stakeholders are asking for SVOC, when they are really asking for a way to manage the change portfolio in a way that reduces risk for the organisation and maximise benefits targeted. Managing change at a portfolio level is a new concept and discipline for most organisations.
Over the years in working with organisations through The Change Compass, I’ve noticed the following trends across different organisations when it comes to creating and using SVOC.
Change saturation can mean different things to different stakeholders. This reflects on the different parts of change management focus areas for organisations. Some focus on the humanistic aspects of change for individuals. This includes the personal experience and stress of change fatigue. Others focus on the impacts of business performance and resourcing.
Some of the presented reasons for change saturation
“Our employees tell us there is too much change”. This needs to be carefully considered when providing feedback to senior managers. Some could be skeptical of the feedback and respond with comments such as “there are always complaints about too much change”. A balanced view including employee feedback as well as other business indicators would be advised. For example, efficiency levels or absenteeism.
Not adopting a change portfolio approach – Just seeing the risks and business problems with SVOC will not necessarily resolve the issues. It is about making business decisions with the information that will create impact.
Poor portfolio management – If this is the reason then most companies have poor portfolio management because change portfolio management is still in its infancy for most organisations.
Responses of execs determine the outcomes – some still insist on persisting with change in the face of change saturation. From what we have seen a lot of senior managers usually learn from the aftermath of change saturation before they will make decisions to avoid it in the first place. Help your senior managers to understand the consequences and what it means to business data. Of course, the more detailed data you can provide the more convincing your argument is going to be.
Because companies haven’t invested in people capability – Having better change capability can impact the way employees perceive and undergo the change journey. More change mature teams tends to be able to absorb more and faster changes than those who are less mature. However, change maturity takes time and investment to build and is not a lever that can be pulled overnight.
Not effectively setting expectations and agenda for what is coming. Setting clear expectations is the first step. Without knowing what changes to expect the change outcome could be impacted. However, this is only one part of the change equation. Having achieved clarity of expectation is just the first step. There are lots of other steps to take to create an effective change journey.
External factors affecting the load of change may not be easily filtered by the organisation. Lots of organisations are facing multiple impacts of change from different arenas, technology, regulations, competition, and other industry changes. In many cases, the changes piled on top of each other creating a significant change load that cannot be easily moved out. In this case, organisations need to be realistic about what can be achieved given this load of change. Would investing in capability help to lift the ability to undergo a heightened change volume? Can we package changes so that they are more streamlined and integrated, and thereby reducing cognitive load for impacted employees?
The role of change practitioners
Through using a SVOC change practitioners can play different roles in adding value to the organisation.
Change portfolio management: Managing a portfolio from a change impact perspective is a role that can add significant value. The benefits of adopting a portfolio approach can result in initiatives being harmonised. From the user perspective, changes are better linked and grouped versus being isolated from each other.
Architecting and designing delivery: With better alignment and synchronisation, initiative rollout can be better designed as a whole, with a convincing set of strategies and themes that make sense for impacted employees.
Executive consultation and influencing: Armed with data it is much easier to influence senior executives. The trick is to select the few data visualisations that tell the story of key risks to the organisation, and the size of the problems involved. This also needs to be paired with recommended solutions.
Business change capability building – With SVOC change capability building is not just about rolling out generic skills, but targeted content delivered at the right junctures to equip the business with the right skills to be better equipped for a targeted set of changes
Next steps
Are you working on a SVOC? Do you have questions? If you would like to talk to us to understand how others have fared in their SVOC journeys click the following button to book time. We’re happy to share with you some of the tips and tricks in deriving SVOC.
