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.
Captured during a 5-day trek in Tasmania’s southwestern wilderness known as the Western Arthurs, this photograph reflects a journey undertaken four years prior, just before devastating bushfires swept through Tasmania, altering its pristine landscapes. The region, notorious for persistent rain and limited sunshine, graced us with consecutive sunlit days, making it a standout global hiking experience, rivaling trails in the Italian Dolomites, the Himalayas, and the Canadian Rockies.
Embarking on a 5-day expedition in Tasmania’s southwest demands self-sufficiency—carrying all your food, drinking from rivers, and sleeping in a tent with no huts or running water. The solitude is profound, with few fellow hikers; most of the time, it’s just you and Mother Nature.
Childhood lessons painted Mother Nature as a battlefield for survival, where each tree competes fiercely for sunlight, nutrients, and dominance over the land. However, this narrative is challenged by Suzanne Simard, a professor of forest ecology at the University of British Columbia. Over two decades of study revealed that a forest’s essence lies not in individual tree struggles but in subterranean partnerships. Simard unveiled the symbiotic relationship between trees and fungi, known as mycorrhizas—thread-like fungi merging with tree roots. They aid trees in extracting water and nutrients, receiving carbon-rich sugars produced through photosynthesis in return. (For more details, refer to the New York Times article.)
Mycorrhizas serve as the connective tissue of the forest, intertwining trees of different species through an extensive web. This transforms the forest into more than a mere collection of trees. In times of crisis, a tree at the brink of death may altruistically share a substantial portion of its carbon with neighboring trees. The forest thus emphasizes cooperation, negotiation, reciprocity, and selflessness alongside survival and competition.
Remarkably, this ecosystem mirrors the principles of effective change networks. A change network possesses the capacity to reach every individual in a company. Unlike being confined to a specific business unit or hierarchy level, a well-designed change network transcends organizational boundaries.
Let’s delve deeper into the characteristics of a robust and efficient change network…
1) Project-agnostic
In the dynamic landscape of change networks, a paradigm shift from the traditional project-specific model to a project-agnostic approach emerges as a strategic imperative. The conventional methodology, with its exclusive focus on single projects, often results in a staggering 69% of projects achieving initial objectives, while 15% are considered failures. This project-specific model, besides its high failure rate, also contributes to significant resource wastage. Identifying, training, and sustaining a robust change champion network for each project frequently overshoots the project’s lifecycle, hindering desired outcomes and accounting for the 70% failure rate in projects.
Contrastingly, a more efficient paradigm involves nurturing change champions with the ability to support multiple projects. This not only optimizes resource allocation but also aligns with the agile principle, as highlighted by the 56% of companies that exclusively use a single project management methodology.
These versatile change champions, akin to Starbucks’ “My Starbucks Idea” initiative, play a pivotal role in connecting the dots across projects, providing invaluable insights, and fostering a culture of collaboration. Starbucks’ successful implementation of change through customer-driven ideas, resulting in over 5 million monthly page visits, is a testament to the power of adaptable change networks.
Drawing a parallel to the natural world, where mycorrhizas take time to strengthen and fortify the forest, change champions undergo a transformative journey with each project involvement. Their sustained engagement refines their change management skills and delivery expertise, enhancing their proficiency with every endeavor.
The diverse and creative approaches observed in change champions, ranging from themed outfits to innovative reminders, reflect the adaptability crucial for effective end-user engagement. This adaptability serves as the cornerstone of a thriving change champion network, where experimentation and varied strategies contribute to its vibrancy and success. Similar to the ever-evolving forest ecosystem, change networks flourish when nurtured with creativity and adaptability.
2) Cuts across layers
In the realm of change networks, adopting a project-agnostic approach emerges as a strategic shift from the traditional project-specific model. The conventional method involves forming change networks tailored exclusively to a single project, with champions disbanded at the project’s conclusion.
However, this model poses inherent challenges, leading to significant resource wastage. The effort to identify, train, and sustain a robust change champion network for each project often exceeds the project’s lifespan, impeding desired outcomes.
To address this, the change champion network needs to cut across not only different parts of the business but also different layers of the organization. A lot of change champion networks are designed at the mid-layer of the organization, typically involving middle managers. While middle managers can influence the outcome of the change more than frontline staff members, relying solely on this layer may not be sufficient.
Here’s why:
Detail Feedback: Middle managers are often not the ‘end users’ of systems or processes, making it challenging for them to provide detailed feedback on the suitability of the change, sentiments of end users, or necessary adjustments in the change solution.
Signal Loss: Depending on the organization, there may be 1-3 layers between middle managers and end users, resulting in potential ‘signal loss’ where thoughts, emotions, and feedback from the lowest layers of the organization may not be effectively communicated.
Limited Testing Input: Middle managers are usually not directly involved in system or process testing, limiting their ability to provide detailed input to shape the change. Their contributions often focus on higher-level strategies for engaging impacted teams.
To build a strong, vibrant, and extensive change champion network, engagement needs to extend to different layers of the organization, not just the middle layers but also the lower layers. While top layers may be engaged through various committees, middle and lower layers require dedicated change champions.
Similar to the mycorrhizas connecting different trees in a forest, the change champion network, when stronger and more extensive, becomes more capable of influencing and driving change both vertically and horizontally across the company. This inclusivity ensures that smaller business groups are not neglected or deprioritized, contributing to the overall success and adaptability of the change network.
3) Routine interfaces
In the intricate ecosystem of a forest, mycorrhizas play a vital role by providing essential sustenance, and supplying critical nitrogen, water, and other nutrients to plants. In the organizational landscape, change champions serve a similar crucial function. Armed with comprehensive knowledge and a deep understanding of the change, along with the latest updates on its impacts, they possess the ability to interpret messages in a way that resonates with those directly affected, using a language that is tailored to each team’s unique history, priorities, and culture.
Unlike program-level communication, which may be too generalized, the interaction with change champions is a dynamic, two-way process. They engage with impacted employees, actively assessing and understanding where individuals stand in their change journey. This engagement leads to a clear comprehension of the specific communication, learning, or leadership support needs of impacted teams. High-performing change champions delve beyond the surface, understanding the motivations and demotivators of the teams they serve. This wealth of insights becomes a powerful set of messages that can be fed back to the central project mothership.
What sets high-performing change champions apart is not just their ability to communicate and collect feedback; they proactively sense-check and virtually “walk the floor” to feel the pulse of the employees. Often, change champions are directly impacted by themselves, fostering a natural empathy that enables them to connect with others undergoing change. In this dynamic, there is a delicate balance between self-interest and selflessness, as change champions strive not only to navigate their own challenges but also to extend support and assistance to those in need. This nuanced approach mirrors the harmony found in natural ecosystems, where organisms cooperate for mutual benefit.
4) Cross-network collaboration
Within the expansive framework of an extensive change network, diverse sub-teams of change champions naturally emerge, often organized by business units or grade levels. While connecting with peers within the same level might be straightforward, establishing collaboration across hierarchies, especially with those perceived as ‘managers,’ can pose challenges.
To overcome these challenges, intentional routines must be established to facilitate frequent sharing and collaboration among different change champion teams. In the natural world, trees emit chemical alarm signals to warn nearby trees of potential danger. Similarly, within a business context, a team from one business unit may sense a looming risk for change failure based on their experiences, which they can share with other teams yet to undergo the change.
Conversely, successful experiments in one part of the business should be readily proliferated in other areas of the organization. For instance, in a large insurance company, a change champion network recognized the need for frontline staff working virtually to have a platform for immediate queries and responses. The solution was a chat channel implemented under Microsoft Teams, approved by IT. In this channel, frontline staff could freely pose questions about system usage, shortcuts, and outages, and addressing customer concerns.
Initially, the channel had few questions, but as prompt and helpful responses were provided, engagement grew. Today, it stands as one of the most active Teams chat channels in the company, showcasing the effectiveness of cross-network collaboration. This success story has inspired similar initiatives in other businesses, emphasizing the ripple effect of successful collaboration practices within change networks.
5) Nurturing the network
Sustaining a change champion network is an ongoing endeavor that demands continuous nurturing, engagement, support, and leadership. Similar to any community, these networks thrive when provided with the right conditions and resources. Several key activities contribute to the nurturing of a dynamic and effective change champion network:
Onboarding and Expectation Setting: New members need comprehensive onboarding sessions where they receive information about the network’s objectives, core principles, expected time commitments, and other essential details.
Change Capability Sessions: Continuous learning is crucial for change champions. Sessions covering various topics, such as impact assessment, change communication, feedback provision during testing, and engagement with impacted stakeholder groups, help enhance their skills.
Leader Support: The involvement of senior leaders in certain sessions can provide valuable support and visibility to the network’s efforts, emphasizing the importance of their work in the broader organizational context.
Cross-Business Unit Networking: Structured agendas for cross-business unit change champion networking sessions create opportunities for sharing ideas and best practices, fostering a collaborative environment.
Routine Forums: Establishing routine forums for discussing project-specific topics allows members to stay informed and aligned with ongoing initiatives.
Formal Acknowledgments and Prizes: Recognizing key milestones and achievements through formal acknowledgments and prizes not only celebrates success but also motivates members to actively contribute.
Data Access: Providing change champions with access to change data, including impact assessments, readiness metrics, and change roadmaps, empowers them with valuable insights into upcoming changes and their stakeholder implications.
Regular Membership Reviews: Like any dynamic network, regular reviews of membership are essential. Some members may not meet expectations, and their roles might need to be filled by others. Expecting turnover and proactively managing it ensures a continuous influx of fresh perspectives and contributions.
Change champions, armed with comprehensive data on change impact, play a pivotal role in facilitating a clear understanding of impending changes and their ramifications for stakeholders. Regular reinforcement, support, and occasional challenges contribute to the resilience and effectiveness of the change champion network.
6) Supporting multiple initiatives
In the dynamic landscape of organizational change, it’s common for each business unit to undergo multiple initiatives simultaneously. Change champions play a pivotal role in navigating this complex terrain, supporting various initiatives and connecting the dots to form a coherent narrative for the impacted audience. Here’s why having change champions who can support multiple initiatives is crucial:
Holistic Understanding: Change champions, acting as the linchpin between different initiatives, provide a holistic understanding of the changes unfolding within a business unit. This comprehensive view enables them to craft a cohesive story that resonates with the audience, fostering better comprehension and buy-in.
Connecting the Dots: A key function of change champions is to connect disparate initiatives into a unified narrative. By highlighting interdependencies and common goals, they contribute to a more seamless and integrated change experience for stakeholders.
Predicting Crunch Periods: Change champions need to anticipate and understand the crunch periods for their business unit. By supporting multiple initiatives, they become adept at forecasting when the organization might face heightened challenges and risks that could impact daily operations.
Strategic Risk Management: With insights into multiple initiatives, change champions become strategic risk managers. They can identify potential points of friction, overlaps, or resource constraints and proactively address them, mitigating risks that could hinder the success of the initiatives.
Example of a single view of change from The Change Compass
Example of Change Outcome: The Change Compass
In analogy to mycorrhizal networks that span diverse ecosystems, organizations face the challenge of not only developing robust change champion networks internally but also fostering connections with external networks. Just as mycorrhizal networks link various landscapes, change champion networks can extend their impact beyond organizational boundaries.
Research indicates that when change champion networks from different companies link up, a wealth of learning and collaboration unfolds. This interconnectedness leads to a blossoming of reciprocity, negotiation, and even selflessness. Organizations stand to gain immensely by facilitating the exchange of insights and experiences among diverse change champion networks, creating a thriving ecosystem of change management knowledge and practices.
Elevate your change management strategy! Book a weekly demo with us and explore how our solutions can empower your change champion network.
Organisations invest significantly in change management tools, yet many find themselves asking, months after go-live, why nothing seems different. The data is being entered. The dashboards are populated. But decisions are still made the same way, change fatigue is still invisible until it’s too late, and the PMO is still reacting rather than anticipating. This is not a technology problem. It is a capability problem, and it is far more common than most implementation teams acknowledge.
Research from Prosci’s longitudinal benchmarking studies consistently shows that projects with excellent change management are six times more likely to meet their objectives than those with poor or no change management. Yet the same research reveals that capability gaps, not tool shortages, are the primary reason benefits go unrealised. Buying a platform is the easy part. Building the human systems around it – the habits, the conversations, the governance rhythms – is where organisations tend to stall.
This article is for change leaders and PMO heads who have implemented, or are implementing, a change data tool and want to understand what genuine value realisation actually requires. It maps the journey from basic data collection through to mature, embedded change intelligence – and it is honest about why so many organisations plateau at stage one.
Value realisation in the context of a change management tool is not simply the act of using the tool. It is the degree to which the organisation’s decision-making, planning, and risk management are genuinely improved because change data is now informing them. This is a meaningful distinction. An organisation can have complete data entry compliance and still make exactly the same poorly-timed, poorly-sequenced change decisions it made before the tool existed. Compliance is not value.
Genuine value realisation looks like this: a senior leader reviews change load data before approving a new initiative’s go-live date and decides to defer by six weeks because the data shows three other significant changes landing in the same business unit at the same time. A PMO uses change saturation trends to have a credible, evidence-based conversation with the executive team about sequencing. A business unit manager notices that their team has been in continuous high-change load for four months and makes resourcing decisions accordingly. These are not data entry outcomes. They are decision-making outcomes, and they require capability that goes well beyond knowing how to log a change in a system.
Gartner’s research on technology value realisation notes that organisations typically capture only 30 to 40 per cent of the expected value from technology investments, with the primary gap being adoption depth rather than feature availability. The same principle applies here. The question is not whether your tool has the right features. It is whether your people have the capability and the habit of using those features to change how decisions are made.
Why benefits are often unrealised after implementation
The most common reason change tool benefits go unrealised is not resistance, poor data quality, or insufficient training – though all of those contribute. The deeper reason is that organisations treat tool implementation as a project with an end date, rather than as the beginning of a capability-building journey. Once the system is live and people know how to log changes, the implementation team moves on. No one owns the question of whether the data is actually being used to make better decisions.
A second common failure pattern is the absence of senior sponsorship for the behavioural change required. Implementing a change data tool asks leaders to do something genuinely difficult: make their change load visible, accept that sequencing decisions may not go their way, and participate in a discipline that feels like overhead before it starts feeling like an advantage. Without a senior champion who models this behaviour and holds others accountable for it, the tool rapidly becomes a compliance exercise managed by a small team that no one senior engages with.
McKinsey research on transformation success identifies leadership commitment as the single most consistent differentiator between transformations that sustain their gains and those that revert. This holds equally true for the more modest but still significant transformation required to embed data-driven change governance. If the executive team is not seen consulting change load data in their own planning forums, the message to the rest of the organisation is that this is an administrative system, not a strategic one.
There is also a coaching gap that is rarely discussed. Change data tools surface information that most organisations have never had before – aggregate change load, saturation risk, sequencing conflicts. Making sense of that information and translating it into action requires analytical capability and organisational confidence that take time to build. Without deliberate coaching of PMO staff, change managers, and business stakeholders on how to interpret and act on change data, the dashboards become wallpaper: visible, but not seen.
The stages of the change value journey
The journey from tool implementation to embedded change intelligence is not linear, but it does follow a recognisable sequence of maturity stages. Understanding where your organisation sits on this journey is the first step toward accelerating progress.
In the earliest stage, the focus is almost entirely on data collection. The organisation is establishing what changes are in flight, who owns them, and what populations they affect. This is foundational and necessary, but it delivers almost no direct business value on its own. It is the equivalent of a hospital installing patient record software and counting it as an improvement in patient outcomes before any clinician has changed how they practice.
The second stage emerges when the data is sufficiently reliable for reporting. Change load dashboards start to be reviewed in governance forums. The PMO can show the executive team what the aggregate picture looks like across the portfolio. This stage produces genuine value, particularly in organisations that previously had no visibility of the overall change burden on their workforce. However, reporting is passive. Stakeholders see the data but do not yet routinely use it to change decisions.
The third stage is where organisations begin using change data to inform planning. A proposed initiative is assessed not just on its own merits but on its cumulative impact alongside what else is already scheduled. The PMO uses saturation data to negotiate sequencing with project sponsors. This requires stakeholders to accept that their change data is subject to collective oversight, which is a behavioural shift that takes sustained coaching and governance support to achieve.
The fourth and most mature stage is embedded change intelligence. At this stage, change data is a standing input to strategic planning, resource allocation, and business unit operating rhythms. Leaders consult it as naturally as they consult financial forecasts. The organisation has built genuine capability – not just in the PMO but across business stakeholders and the senior leadership team – to use change data as a management tool, not just a monitoring tool.
Engaging business stakeholders in data-driven decisions
Business stakeholders – the heads of business units, functional leaders, and operational managers whose teams absorb the impact of change – are frequently the most underserved audience in a change tool implementation. They are asked to provide data, and occasionally shown reports, but rarely coached on how to use change data to manage their own operational risk. This is a missed opportunity, because business stakeholders are the ones who feel the consequences of poor change sequencing most acutely.
Effective engagement of business stakeholders starts with reframing the value proposition. The tool is not asking them to do more administrative work for the PMO. It is giving them a new capability: the ability to see what their team is being asked to absorb, to flag when that load is becoming unmanageable, and to make that case with data rather than anecdote. That is a genuinely useful thing for a business leader to have, but they will not perceive it that way unless someone spends time with them helping them understand what the data means for their specific situation.
Research published in the Harvard Business Review on behavioural change in data-rich environments confirms that simply providing people with data does not change behaviour. What changes behaviour is combining data access with clear guidance on what to look for, coaching on what actions the data should prompt, and accountability mechanisms that make using the data the expected norm rather than the exceptional practice. This is exactly the model that needs to be applied to business stakeholder engagement in a change tool implementation.
Practically, this means running regular working sessions with key business leaders – not to show them dashboards, but to work through a specific decision together using the data. What does the change load for their business unit look like over the next quarter? Are there conflict points they should be aware of? What would they want to escalate or negotiate? When leaders have experienced using change data to make a real decision, the abstract value of the tool becomes concrete, and their engagement typically increases substantially.
Building PMO and leadership change capability
The PMO is often the primary steward of a change data tool, and its capability to interpret and present change data credibly has a direct bearing on how seriously senior leaders engage with the information. A PMO that can only report what the data shows – without offering analytical insight, identifying risk patterns, or recommending sequencing options – will eventually find its change data reports treated as informational rather than actionable. The capability gap here is analytical and advisory, not technical.
Building PMO capability in this area requires deliberate investment in three areas. First, analytical literacy: the ability to look at change load and saturation data and identify what it means for the business, not just what it says about individual projects. Second, stakeholder influence skills: the ability to take an uncomfortable finding – say, that the organisation is planning to deliver seven significant changes to a single business unit in one quarter – and present it in a way that generates a productive conversation rather than defensiveness. Third, governance integration: the knowledge of how to embed change data review into existing planning and decision-making forums rather than creating a parallel governance track that adds overhead without producing change.
For senior leaders, the capability requirement is different but equally important. Leaders need to understand what questions to ask of change data, not how to produce it. A chief operating officer who asks “what is the change load across our customer-facing operations over the next six months, and are there any quarters where we should be deferring new initiatives?” is using change intelligence effectively. Getting leaders to ask those questions habitually requires them to see that the questions get useful answers – which circles back to data quality, PMO analytical capability, and the governance structures that make change data review a standing expectation.
Measuring progress along the value journey
One of the practical challenges in capability-building programmes is that progress is hard to see in the short term. Unlike a technology go-live, which has a binary completion point, building organisational capability is incremental and the signals of progress are behavioural rather than systemic. This makes it easy for momentum to dissipate without anyone noticing until the change tool has quietly reverted to a data entry exercise.
Measuring progress along the change value journey requires a set of leading indicators that track behaviour, not just system activity. Useful measures include the frequency with which change data is referenced in executive planning discussions, the number of sequencing or staging decisions that were demonstrably influenced by change load data, the proportion of business stakeholders who actively review their unit’s change profile prior to major planning cycles, and the quality of PMO analysis as assessed by senior stakeholder feedback.
These are not metrics that come out of the change management tool itself. They require deliberate observation, conversation, and periodic review of whether the intended decision-making behaviours are actually occurring. Organisations that treat capability maturity as something to be actively monitored – rather than assumed – tend to progress through the value journey stages significantly faster than those that do not. A quarterly maturity assessment, conducted honestly with senior stakeholders and PMO leadership, can surface stagnation points before they become entrenched and redirect coaching effort where it is most needed.
How The Change Compass accelerates value realisation
The Change Compass is designed with the value journey in mind, not just the data collection problem. The platform provides real-time visibility of change volume, velocity, and saturation across business units, which creates the foundation for stages two and three of the value journey – reporting and planning – much faster than organisations typically achieve with manual methods or generic project management tools.
Beyond the platform itself, the Change Compass approach includes deliberate support for the capability-building work that determines whether the technology’s potential is actually captured. This includes coaching frameworks for engaging business stakeholders, templates for integrating change data into governance forums, and guidance on how to structure the PMO’s analytical and advisory role. The goal is not a well-populated system. The goal is an organisation where change data informs the decisions that matter – resourcing, sequencing, risk management, and strategic planning – and where that capability is distributed broadly enough that it does not depend on one or two individuals to sustain it.
For organisations that are further along the journey and looking to reach stage four, the platform’s trend analysis and forecasting features provide the inputs for the kind of strategic change intelligence that senior leaders find genuinely compelling. When a chief executive can see not just today’s change load but the projected trajectory over the next twelve months, the conversation about change capacity shifts from reactive to proactive, and the PMO moves from reporting function to strategic adviser.
Frequently asked questions
What is change value realisation?
Change value realisation is the degree to which an organisation actually captures the intended benefits of its change management investment – tools, processes, and capability – in the form of improved business decisions and outcomes. It is distinct from adoption or compliance. An organisation can have high system usage and still fail to realise value if the data being collected is not influencing how sequencing, resourcing, and planning decisions are made.
How long does it take to move from data collection to embedded change intelligence?
Most organisations take between 18 months and three years to move from initial data collection to genuinely embedded change intelligence, depending on the pace of capability investment, the strength of senior sponsorship, and the organisation’s existing change maturity. Organisations that invest deliberately in stakeholder coaching, governance integration, and PMO analytical capability tend to progress significantly faster than those that treat tool implementation as the end goal.
What role should the PMO play in building change capability?
The PMO’s role in change capability building is both analytical and advisory. It should move beyond producing change data reports and develop the capacity to interpret that data, identify risk patterns, and facilitate planning conversations with business stakeholders and senior leaders. The PMO is also typically responsible for embedding change data review into governance rhythms, which is the structural mechanism that makes capability-building sustainable over time.
How do you engage senior leaders in change data?
The most effective way to engage senior leaders is to use change data in the context of a real decision they care about. Rather than presenting a dashboard in isolation, work through a specific planning question – such as the change load on a key business unit during a critical operational period – and show how the data changes the recommendation. Leaders who experience change data as something that gives them better answers to questions they already have tend to seek it out; leaders who only see it as a reporting obligation do not.
