As a change management practitioner, your mission is to guide organisations through change, building their ability to manage transitions effectively and sustainably. A major part of this work often involves helping organisations develop their “change maturity” — the capacity to continuously and successfully deliver change. Many experienced change practitioners focus on moving organisations along this maturity curve, seeing it as a vital part of creating a culture that embraces and sustains transformation.
However, in this pursuit, there’s a potential risk: becoming too fixated on achieving “change maturity” can cloud your judgment about what the organisation really needs. You may find yourself caught up in the desire to build structured change processes, educate stakeholders on every change theory, or create complex frameworks to assess and elevate change capability. While these elements are important, an over-reliance on them can impede progress. In some cases, your organisation might be more capable of managing change than you think, but your approach could be holding them back.
There are several common areas where change practitioners may become too focused on change maturity — and how this focus can actually hinder their ability to support successful, meaningful change. We’ll delve into how overemphasising change terminology, processes, structures, and risk-averse approaches can become obstacles to progress. By understanding and addressing these potential pitfalls, you can better align your support with the unique needs and readiness of your organisation, enabling a smoother, more effective path to support successful change.
Are You Too Quick to Label Your Organisation as Change Immature?
One of the first traps experienced change practitioners might fall into is quickly labeling their organisation as “change immature.” It’s tempting to assess an organisation’s change capability through the lens of formal change frameworks and models, but by doing so, you may be discounting their informal ability to adapt to change.
In other words, is your ‘label’ placed on the organisation a potential self-fulfilling prophecy? For example, if you see the organisation as mildly change mature, your approach and lens may all be geared around this label and expectation.
Organisations that have not formally defined their change management processes or have not made concerted efforts to assess their change maturity might seem “immature” on the surface. But that doesn’t mean they lack the inherent capacity to change. In many cases, businesses have evolved and navigated transitions without formal change models in place, relying on their leadership, adaptability, and problem-solving capabilities.
Example: Mislabeling the Organisation’s Maturity
Consider a large, successful organisation with a history of navigating mergers, market shifts, and product innovation. While this company may have never formalised a change management function or assessed its change maturity, its survival and success prove that it has navigated complex changes in the past. You, as the change practitioner, might arrive and see that the business lacks a formal change methodology like Prosci or Kotter, so you label them as immature. As a result, you might start recommending a highly cautious, structured approach to “bring them up to speed.”
However, this label can lead to unnecessary delays. Rather than imposing new structures or over-engineering the process, it could be more effective to build on the organisation’s existing ways of working. The business may already have the right instincts, and simply needs to refine its approach to handle more formalised, larger-scale change efforts.
This cautious approach of assuming immaturity often leads to missed opportunities for progress. It slows down the pace of change and leaves businesses feeling that they are incapable of handling large-scale change without significant external help.
Change Terminology and Concepts: Over-Education vs. Practical Implementation
Another common pitfall is becoming too focused on educating stakeholders about change management concepts and frameworks, rather than focusing on practical implementation. It’s easy for experienced change practitioners to get caught up in explaining the intricacies of change theories, but the reality is that many stakeholders may not need or want this level of detail.
Stakeholders, especially those in senior leadership positions, are often more interested in results than in the underlying change management theories. Spending too much time educating them on ADKAR, Kotter’s 8-step process, or Lewin’s model can divert attention from the critical issue: how to implement the change in their specific organisational context.
Using and coaching your stakeholders on implementing change without change methodology is a skill, but one that can be critical.
Example: Change Concepts vs. Actionable Strategies
Imagine working on a digital transformation project where the leadership team is eager to see results. Instead of diving straight into how the change will be implemented, you spend the first few weeks educating the leaders on the theory behind change management, explaining why each stage of the ADKAR model is important and why a structured approach is necessary. While these concepts are valuable, the leadership team is left feeling overwhelmed by jargon and disconnected from the practicalities of the change they need to deliver.
A more effective approach in this situation might be to focus on practical, actionable strategies that are action-based learning. Instead of over-explaining change concepts, walk stakeholders through the steps they need to take, provide them with tools to manage resistance, and give them clear, real-time metrics on progress. In many cases, stakeholders don’t need an in-depth lesson on change theory—they need guidance on how to lead change within their teams, how to prepare and engage effectively, and how to overcome resistance.
Even if you don’t focus on education, and instead label them as change immature. This in itself can be dangerous and unhelpful. As a result you don’t implement the right approaches to support the change required to achieve their business goals.
While it’s essential to help stakeholders understand the principles behind change, overemphasis on theoretical knowledge can take the focus away from delivering the change itself.
Processes and Structures: Building New or Leveraging Existing?
One of the hallmarks of a maturing change organisation is the establishment of formal structures and processes to support change. Communities of practice, change champion networks, formalised governance bodies, and change management offices all play vital roles in building long-term change capability. However, there’s a risk of becoming too focused on building these structures rather than finding ways to work within the current framework of the organisation.
When faced with the task of improving change capability, many practitioners instinctively begin to build new structures from scratch. However, this can add complexity and create parallel processes that the business may not be equipped to handle. Sometimes, rather than introducing new structures, the better approach is to refine and optimise existing business processes and forums to embed change more naturally.
Example: Building New Structures vs. Leveraging Existing Ones
Consider an organisation that already has strong cross-functional governance in place for operational projects. Instead of introducing a new change champion network, you could work with the existing project governance structures to ensure change management principles are integrated into these meetings. By adapting existing forums to include change discussions, you avoid creating extra layers of complexity and leverage routines that are already familiar to the business.
The challenge is to balance the need for formal change structures with the desire to minimise disruption to current workflows. Often, the most effective approach is to enhance existing structures rather than building entirely new ones. This also helps to prevent the perception that change management is an “additional burden” rather than an integrated part of business operations.
‘Babying’ Your Stakeholders: Are You Doing the Change for Them?
As a change practitioner, it’s natural to want to help stakeholders navigate the complexities of change. But there’s a fine line between supporting your stakeholders and doing the change for them. When you step in to handle every aspect of the change process, you risk undermining your stakeholders’ ability to build their own change capability.
The goal of change management is to empower the business to manage change independently. If you are too involved in managing the change, you can inadvertently create dependency, where stakeholders rely on you to handle resistance, communications, or decision-making. This not only stifles their growth but also prevents the organisation from building a sustainable, internal capacity for change.
Example: Over-Involvement vs. Coaching for Capability Building
Suppose you’re leading a change initiative in a large organisation, and you find yourself handling most of the communications, solving problems that arise, and managing resistance from teams. While you may feel that you’re helping, the reality is that your stakeholders are becoming overly dependent on you to manage the change.
A more effective approach is to take a coaching stance. Rather than doing the change for them, help your stakeholders learn how to anticipate resistance, communicate effectively, and manage change within their teams. Offer guidance and support, but resist the temptation to take over. When you empower stakeholders to lead the change themselves, you help them build the confidence and skills they need to manage future changes more independently.
The key is to recognise when your involvement is crossing the line from support into doing the change for them. The more you can coach and mentor your stakeholders, the more resilient and capable the organisation will become.
Setting the Bar Too Low for Your Organisation
The COVID-19 pandemic demonstrated something profound about people and organisations: they are capable of changing far more quickly than we might have thought. Practically overnight, organisations adapted to remote working, adopted new technologies, and restructured their operations. This rapid adaptation showed that many organisations have far more resilience and capacity for change than we often give them credit for.
But in the post-pandemic world, are you still setting the bar too low for your organisation? Are you approaching change cautiously because you assume the business is not capable of rapid adaptation? If so, you may be underestimating their ability to handle larger-scale change or more ambitious transformation initiatives.
Example: Underestimating Organisational Capacity
Imagine working with an organisation that wants to implement a large-scale digital transformation. You might assume that because the business has not undertaken such a significant change before, they will need to move cautiously, taking small steps toward change maturity. However, given the right leadership support, clear communication, and resources, the organisation might be able to implement the transformation far more quickly and effectively than anticipated.
The key is to challenge your assumptions about the organisation’s capacity for change. Instead of setting the bar too low and taking overly cautious steps, consider where you can stretch the organisation’s potential. Businesses often have far more adaptability and resilience than we might assume, and by aiming higher, you can help them achieve more ambitious outcomes. Again, COVID was a clear demonstration of what can be possible.
Caution vs. Progress: Finding the Right Balance
One of the biggest challenges for change practitioners is finding the right balance between caution and progress. In many cases, particularly with organisations that are newer to structured change management, a cautious approach may feel like the safest route. But taking overly cautious steps can prevent the organisation from achieving the level of change it needs to succeed.
The other side of the equation is pushing too hard, too fast. While organisations may have a greater capacity for change than we give them credit for, they also need time to adapt and build their change capability. The trick is to strike the right balance between ambitious progress and thoughtful pacing, especially iterative paced learning.
Example: Caution vs. Ambition in Portfolio-Level Change
Consider an organisation that is managing a portfolio of change initiatives. One approach is to take small, incremental steps to build change capability, slowly rolling out new processes and frameworks. While this approach may feel safe, it can prevent the business from keeping up with the volume and pace of change it needs to manage.
A more ambitious approach might involve embedding change management principles directly into business planning, governance, and decision-making. By integrating change management into existing processes, the organisation can manage a high volume of change more effectively without creating new silos or delays. This approach pushes the organisation to operate at a higher level, while still allowing time for adaptation and learning.
Adjusting Your Lens on Change Maturity
While change maturity is an important goal for any organisation, becoming too fixated on achieving it can inadvertently cloud your judgment and therefore negatively impact outcomes. Overemphasising change models, frameworks, and cautious steps can slow down the pace of change and underestimate the organisation’s capacity to evolve. As a change management practitioner, your role is not just to assess change maturity but to empower the organisation to grow and adapt.
By adjusting your lens and focusing on the organisation’s immediate needs and strengths, you can support more effective, sustainable change. This means balancing formal change processes with practical implementation, empowering stakeholders to lead the change themselves, and setting higher expectations for what the organisation can achieve.
The goal is not just to build change maturity, but to help the organisation experience navigating change in a way gives them confidence and meets their business goals.
Managing a set of change initiatives through a portfolio management approach is relatively new for some organizations. This approach is drawn from the portfolio project management approach by dividing a set of initiatives into different groups and by viewing various initiatives in unison. By doing this things then become more manageable from the perspective of planning how to organise the planning and sequencing of these changes.
Portfolio project managers are focused on investment funding, program management, governance, project execution, and resource management. For portfolio change managers, there are similar focus areas such as change program management, change initiative execution, resource management, and quality assurance. However, there are also several marked differences, including a focus on business change governance, business change capability, change leadership, and change tools and methodology.
In practice, there is often a wide range of practices in the service delivery and model of portfolio change management. Some focus purely on supporting project delivery, and in the process fail to uplift business change capability. Others tend to focus on general change capability through training and development and very little on change governance and supporting strategy implementation.
So, what are some of the best practices in change portfolio management? How does the change portfolio management function position itself to be strategic, value-adding, and seen as a driver of business results? Here are 10 best practices.
1. Use hard data.
A lot of change professionals often shy away from data. We prefer to focus on behavior, leadership, mindsets, norms, and culture. Whilst the ‘soft’ things may matter we need to be comfortable in working with data. Peter Drucker’s famous saying goes ‘What gets measured gets done’.
Disciplines with a strong focus on data usually have a strong seat at the business table. For example, Finance, Operations, and Sales. Even Marketing is not just about creative ideas and concepts, but there is a strong focus on cost, revenue forecast, and customer responses. Armed with data that drives business decisions you get a strong seat at the decision-making table.
What types of data should portfolio change managers focus on? The standard change measures include training attendance, stakeholder ratings, and arbitrary business readiness ratings. To really demonstrate value, portfolio change managers need to turn change management into a science and be able to quantify change. Change Impacts is one great example. By quantifying change impacts into discrete units one can start to measure and understand what changes are and how they move over time and across different parts of the business.
2. Link change practices with business outcomes
Continuing from the previous point – armed with quantitative change impact data, the portfolio change manager is able to analyze the data to find any correlations between change impact data and business performance data. This can become a very powerful picture to take to the senior management team – drawing out the impact of changes on business performance.
Based on data from The Change Compass. An organization has been able to draw significant correlations between change impacts and customer satisfaction levels. This has since raised meaningful discussions regarding the approach of implementing changes and how to mitigate any potential negative impacts on the customer experience. It does not necessarily mean minimize on change impacts on the customer. Instead, it challenges the group to think through how to better engage and prepare for the customer to transition through changes. This is a great example of demonstrating the importance of linking change impacts with business outcomes.
3. Focus on building change capability more than just execution
A lot of organizations treat change management as only discrete pieces of work that need to be carried out as a part of a project. With this approach, these organizations have hired mainly contractors with some permanent change managers purely focused on project execution. Whilst this work is absolutely required to successfully land initiatives, these resources come and go and in the end, the organization is often no better off in managing change.
Instead, there needs to be a continual focus on developing business change capability. This may be carried out in different ways. With each project implementation, the change manager may focus on uplifting change management capabilities in the business within its leaders. Effective engagement and learning channels can be established to better aid the deployment of change initiatives. These include self-paced training systems, know-how regarding establishing and measuring various learning interventions, and different types of employee engagement channels, both face-to-face and digital.
As change portfolio managers, a concerted focus on embedding business change capability can ensure that the business becomes more mature at undergoing change. A strategic plan can be developed that includes different ways of targeting capability uplift and change maturity. This requires business sponsorship and focus. It is also a critical part of effective operational management.
4. Design and manage change governance
Establishing effective change governance does not mean complicated multi-level governance with lots of documentation, policies, and procedures and lots of headcounts to manage the processes. Change governance means having the right processes to ensure there is sufficient oversight and visibility on what changes are going to happen and the effectiveness of change delivery.
Different organizations will establish different governance processes to suit the particular cultural and business environment. However, at the most basic level, there should be a regular cadence where managers can see and visualize the changes that are going to happen, and discuss any risks and issues with the picture they are seeing. At the same cadence, there should also be a review of the previous changes and how they’ve been rolled out, with a view to identifying opportunities for improvement.
There should also be different levels of change governance for larger organizations. For a business unit, there should be a change governance focusing on changes within the business unit. There should also be an enterprise-level change governance focused on changes across the organization. At the enterprise level, the discussion will be on strategic initiatives that run across the company. There should also be discussions on any risks and issues with business readiness and the progress of the change.
A standard meeting agenda for change governance would include the following:
Review the previous month’s changes including callouts of highlights, challenges, employee engagement, results, and overall progress
Examining metrics around the amount of change and to what extent the level of changes can be digested by the business appropriately
Identifying potential contentions of concurrent changes within the plan. If concurrent changes are being released into the business, discussions should zoom in on the quantum and nature of change contention, rationale as to why the business may not be able to handle the volume of changes, and implications if the releases were to proceed
Examining the data to ensure that all changes are captured and there is nothing missing. Change data should contain key projects being implemented, BAU changes, and other corporate programs from groups such as IT or HR
Examining the overall upcoming change slate and identify upcoming risks and opportunities. Opportunities may include potential gaps where there is very little change, and where there may be opportunities for initiatives to land
5. Leverage digital tools
Project portfolio managers manage the slate of projects using a structured process of funding, prioritization, analysis, and review based on data. In a similar vein, so should change portfolio managers. The power that change managers have is not around cost or schedule data, it is on change impact and change readiness as discrete data points. The challenge is how to collect, analyze, present, and leverage the power of these data.
The Change Compass is a digital tool that quantifies and packages change impacts into data that can be easily analyzed and presented in a visual format to decision-makers. Initiative owners who own the source of the information update change impact data. Up-to-date change impact data can be accessed at any time with reporting generated automatically. The portfolio change manager can easily dissect, drill down, and cut data to find out the change health of the portfolio:
Is there too much change?
How is our staffing resource impacted by change activities (especially for resource-sensitive areas such as call centres)
What’s the change tolerance level for the business?
How are various stakeholder groups impacted by the changes?
How are initiatives under particular strategic themes impacting the business?
How are customers and their respective experiences impacted by our initiatives?
6. Examine customer impacts
At a portfolio level, it is not sufficient to just focus on internal employee and stakeholder impacts. The change portfolio manager also needs to place focus on how are customers impacted by the planned changes. This drives at the core of the focus of a lot of the organizations on the customer.
One large financial services organization that was focused on customer experiences started analyzing data on customer change impacts across initiatives. Through this, there was a significant realization that the same group of customers was impacted by 6 significant initiatives at the same time. Across each of these initiatives, there was no coordination and the silo approach meant that poor synchronization and coordination could lead to a very poor customer experience. Subsequently, new roles and remits were created to manage this customer experience through facilitating a coordinated approach to planning and implementing initiative rollout.
7. Iterative planning
Iterative planning is a core of agile ways of working. At the core of iterative planning is the belief that we don’t always know the solution that we are striving for at the beginning of the change initiative. It is when we start testing and getting feedback from users that we are able to refine our proposal and be able to come up with a solution that suits the organization.
To truly support agile ways of working, change management needs to be able to develop prototypes of the change approach, and be able to morph or tweak the approach as required based on feedback. For example, a change approach can be tested on a particular team, the change champion group, or a selected trial group. Communication and engagement approaches as well as learning approaches can be tested in these groups.
Want to learn more about managing change portfolios?
If you’re ready to start to manage a portfolio of change initiatives using data and insights, have a chat to us about how to leverage The Change Compass capabilities to help you pinpoint key risks and opportunities in managing across initiatives. To book a demo click here.
In today’s fast-paced business environment, most organizations are engaged in numerous change initiatives simultaneously. These initiatives might range from digital transformation efforts to restructuring, new product launches, or cultural shifts. For change management practitioners and leaders, the challenge is not only to ensure each initiative succeeds but also to align these efforts strategically to maximize overall business benefit. Let’s explore practical strategies for aligning multiple initiatives and measuring change adoption, providing actionable insights for change practitioners and leaders.
The Complexity of Multiple Change Initiatives
The complexity of managing multiple change initiatives lies in the potential for overlap, conflicting priorities, and resource strain. Each initiative, while aiming to deliver specific benefits, competes for attention, time, and resources. Moreover, when several initiatives target similar business outcomes, it becomes challenging to attribute success to any single effort. Most business units are only measuring a certain number of business metrics, and with a large number of initiatives there will bound to be overlaps. This makes it essential to adopt a strategic approach that ensures alignment and optimal resource utilisation.
Measuring Change Adoption Across Multiple Initiatives
One of the most critical aspects of managing multiple change initiatives is measuring the adoption of each change. This involves not only tracking how well each initiative is being implemented but also understanding its impact on the organization. The following strategies can help you effectively measure change adoption across various initiatives:
1. Establish Common Metrics
Establishing common metrics across all change initiatives is a foundational step in ensuring that change adoption is measured consistently and effectively. Common metrics provide a standardized way to evaluate progress, compare the success of different initiatives, and gain a holistic view of the organization’s overall change efforts. This approach allows for “apples-to-apples” comparisons, enabling senior leaders to make informed decisions about resource allocation, prioritization, and potential adjustments needed to maximize business benefits.
By identifying and applying a set of core metrics consistently across all change initiatives, organizations can better track the adoption process, identify areas where additional support may be needed, and ultimately ensure that changes are embedded successfully and sustainably.
Here’s a deeper look at some of the common metrics that can be established (note that we take a holistic and strategic lense in ‘adoption’, and not limiting adoption to the end of the project):
Employee Awareness and Understanding of the Change
Employee awareness and understanding are the first critical steps in the change adoption process. Without a clear understanding of what the change entails, why it is happening, and how it will impact their work, employees are unlikely to fully embrace the change. Measuring awareness and understanding helps ensure that communication efforts are effective and that employees have the necessary information to begin adopting the change.
Awareness Surveys: Regular surveys can be conducted to assess employees’ awareness of the change initiative. Questions can focus on whether employees are aware of the change, if they understand the reasons behind it, and if they can articulate the expected outcomes.
Knowledge Assessments: Beyond awareness, knowledge assessments can help gauge how well employees understand the details of the change. This could involve quizzes, interactive sessions, or discussions that test their understanding of new processes, tools, or organizational structures.
Communication Effectiveness: Track the effectiveness of communication campaigns through metrics such as email open rates, attendance at town halls or webinars, and engagement with internal communication platforms. High levels of engagement can indicate that employees are receiving and processing the information about the change.
Employee Engagement and Buy-in
Employee engagement and buy-in are essential for successful change adoption. If employees are not engaged or do not buy into the change, they are less likely to put in the effort needed to adopt new behaviours, processes, or tools. Measuring engagement and buy-in provides insight into how committed employees are to making the change successful.
Engagement Scores: Use engagement surveys to measure overall employee engagement levels before and after the change initiative. These scores can help you understand the impact of the change on employee morale and identify any groups that may need additional support.
Feedback Channels: Monitor and analyse feedback from employees through formal and informal channels. This includes responses to surveys, comments in focus groups, and feedback collected through suggestion boxes or digital platforms. The sentiment expressed in this feedback can be a strong indicator of buy-in.
Participation Rates: Track participation in change-related activities such as training sessions, workshops, and change champion programs. High participation rates typically indicate strong engagement and willingness to adopt the change.
Utilisation of New Systems, Processes, or Tools
The utilisation of new systems, processes, or tools introduced by a change initiative is a direct measure of adoption. If employees are not using the new tools or following the new processes, the change initiative cannot deliver its intended benefits. Measuring utilisation helps ensure that the changes are being practically applied in day-to-day operations.
System Usage Analytics: For technology-driven changes, track the usage of new systems through analytics. Metrics such as login frequency, time spent on the system, and the completion of key tasks can provide a clear picture of adoption.
Process Adherence: Implement tracking mechanisms to monitor adherence to new processes. This could involve audits, self-reporting, or the use of process management tools that track whether employees are following the new workflows.
Tool Adoption Rates: Measure the adoption rates of any new tools introduced as part of the change. This could include tracking the number of users, the frequency of use, and the breadth of functionality being utilised.
Proficiency in Applying the Change
Proficiency in applying the change is a crucial metric because it not only indicates whether employees are using the new systems, processes, or tools, but also how effectively they are using them. This metric helps ensure that employees have the necessary skills and competencies to fully leverage the change and achieve the desired outcomes.
Skill Assessments: Conduct skill assessments to measure employees’ proficiency in using new tools, systems, or processes. This could involve practical exams, simulations, or peer reviews where employees demonstrate their competency.
Performance Metrics: Monitor performance metrics related to the new processes or tools. For example, if a change initiative involves a new sales system, track metrics like sales conversion rates, the accuracy of data entry, or the speed of customer service resolution.
Certification Programs: Implement certification or accreditation programs where employees must demonstrate a certain level of proficiency to earn certification. Tracking the completion rates of these programs can indicate overall proficiency levels.
Realization of Expected Business Benefits
The ultimate goal of any change initiative is to realize the expected business benefits, whether they be financial, operational, or strategic. Measuring the realization of these benefits provides a clear indication of the success of the change initiative and its impact on the organization.
Benefit Tracking: Establish specific, measurable business benefits for each change initiative, such as cost savings, revenue growth, improved customer satisfaction, or increased productivity. Regularly track these metrics to assess whether the change is delivering the expected outcomes.
ROI Analysis: Conduct return on investment (ROI) analysis for each initiative, comparing the costs of implementation against the benefits realized. This helps quantify the financial impact of the change and determine its overall value to the organization.
Outcome-Based Metrics: Focus on outcome-based metrics that align with the organization’s strategic goals. For example, if a change initiative aims to improve customer experience, track customer satisfaction scores, retention rates, and repeat business.
Note that these may not be activities that change practitioners are leading within a project setting, however they should play a key part in contributing to the design and tracking of the adoption which then leads to the ultimate benefits.
Implementing Common Metrics in Practice
Implementing common metrics across multiple change initiatives requires a coordinated effort and a strong governance framework. Here are some practical steps to ensure that these metrics are applied effectively:
Alignment with Strategic Goals: Ensure that the selected metrics align with the organization’s broader strategic goals. This alignment helps prioritize initiatives and ensures that all change efforts contribute to the organization’s overall objectives.
Centralized Data Management: Establish a centralized data management system to collect, store, and analyze metrics across all initiatives. This system should allow for easy comparison and aggregation of data, providing a comprehensive view of change adoption.
Consistent Methodology: Develop a consistent methodology for measuring and reporting metrics. This includes standardized survey questions, data collection tools, and reporting formats to ensure that metrics are comparable across different initiatives.
Continuous Monitoring and Reporting: Regularly monitor and report on the metrics to track progress and identify any areas of concern. Use dashboards and scorecards to provide real-time visibility into change adoption across the organization.
Feedback and Adjustment: Use the insights gained from these metrics to provide feedback to initiative leaders and make necessary adjustments. Continuous improvement is key to ensuring that change initiatives remain on track and deliver the expected benefits.
Implementing metric tracking can be a very manual and labour intensive process. However, there are various digital tools that can be leverage to automate the data capture and streamline the data analysis and insight generation process. Chat to us to find out how The Change Compass can help.
2. Conduct Regular Assessments
Regular assessments are critical to understanding how well each initiative is being adopted and its impact on the organisation. These assessments should be scheduled at key milestones and involve both quantitative and qualitative evaluation.
Pulse Surveys: Conduct pulse surveys at regular intervals to gauge employee sentiment and engagement with each initiative. These short, focused surveys can provide real-time insights into how changes are being received and where additional support may be needed. However do note that pulse survey in themselves may only provide very superficial insights without the depth that may be required to understand the ‘why’ or ‘how’.
Performance Reviews: Where possible integrate change adoption metrics into regular performance reviews. This ensures that the impact of initiatives is continuously monitored and that any issues are addressed promptly.
Change Audits: Periodically perform change audits to assess the effectiveness of each initiative. This involves reviewing processes, outcomes, and feedback to determine whether the change is being adopted as intended.
3. Leverage Existing Channels
Leverage existing communication and feedback channels to measure adoption. This approach ensures that you are not overloading employees with new processes and allows for seamless integration into their daily routines.
Employee Feedback Platforms: Utilise platforms already in place, such as intranet forums like Yammer, suggestion inboxes, or regular team meetings, to gather feedback on change initiatives. This feedback can provide valuable insights into adoption levels and potential areas of resistance.
Usage Analytics: For technology-driven initiatives, use existing analytics tools to monitor system usage and user behaviour. This can help identify adoption rates and areas where additional training or support may be needed.
Regular Check-ins: Integrate adoption tracking into regular team check-ins. This allows managers to discuss progress with their teams and identify any challenges early on.
4. Quantify Qualitative Data
While quantitative metrics are essential, qualitative data provides context and deeper insights into how changes are being adopted. It’s important to develop methods to quantify this qualitative data to better understand the impact of your initiatives. Quantitative data are easier to present, and may be more memorable to your stakeholders.
Sentiment Analysis: Use sentiment analysis tools to analyse employee feedback, comments from surveys, or even social media mentions. This helps quantify the overall sentiment towards each initiative, providing a clearer picture of adoption.
Focus Groups: Conduct focus groups to gather in-depth feedback on specific initiatives. While this data is qualitative, you can quantify it by categorizing responses into themes and measuring the frequency of each theme.
Narrative Metrics: Develop narrative metrics that capture the stories behind the numbers. For example, if an initiative aims to improve customer service, track success stories where employees went above and beyond as a result of the new changes.
5. Analyse Trends and Patterns
Analysing trends and patterns over time is essential for understanding the broader impact of multiple initiatives. By looking at adoption data longitudinally, you can identify which initiatives are driving long-term change and which may require adjustments.
Adoption Trajectories: Track the adoption trajectories of each initiative. Are there certain initiatives that show rapid early adoption but then plateau? Understanding these patterns can help refine strategies to sustain momentum.
Cross-Initiative Analysis: Compare adoption trends across different initiatives. Look for correlations or conflicts between initiatives. For example, if one initiative shows strong adoption while another lags, investigate whether they are competing for the same resources or if there is confusion about priorities.
Predictive Analytics: Use predictive analytics to forecast future adoption trends based on historical data. This can help in proactive decision-making and resource allocation. This is absolutely the value of data, when you have historical data you can easily forecast what lies ahead and provide an overlay for change portfolio consideration during business planning cycles.
6. Communicate Progress Transparently
Transparent communication is vital for building trust and ensuring that everyone in the organization is aware of the progress of each initiative. This helps in aligning efforts and maintaining momentum.
Regular Updates: Provide regular updates on the progress of each initiative. Use a variety of channels such as newsletters, town halls, or internal social media to keep everyone informed.
Success Stories: Share success stories that highlight the benefits of adoption. This not only celebrates achievements but also reinforces the value of the initiatives and encourages further adoption.
Dashboard Reporting: Develop a dashboard that tracks and displays adoption metrics for all initiatives in real-time. Make this dashboard accessible to key stakeholders to ensure transparency and accountability.
7. Establish a Governance Framework
A governance framework is essential for coordinating multiple initiatives and ensuring that they are aligned with the organization’s strategic goals. This framework should provide structure, oversight, and guidance for all change efforts.
Steering Committees: Establish steering committees composed of senior leaders who oversee the progress of all initiatives. These committees should ensure that initiatives are aligned with business objectives and that resources are appropriately allocated.
Change Champions: Identify change champions within the organization who can advocate for adoption and provide support to their peers. These individuals play a crucial role in driving change from within and ensuring alignment across initiatives.
Standardised Processes: Develop standardized processes for planning, implementing, and measuring change initiatives. This ensures consistency and allows for more effective comparison and integration of efforts. In establishing the right routines they become embedded within business practices and are not seen as an ‘additional effort required’ on top of their day-jobs.
Aligning Multiple Initiatives for Maximum Business Benefit
While measuring adoption is crucial, aligning multiple initiatives to maximize business benefits is the ultimate goal. Here are key strategies to ensure alignment:
1. Prioritise Initiatives Based on Strategic Value
Not all initiatives are created equal. Prioritising initiatives based on their strategic value ensures that resources are allocated effectively and that the most critical changes receive the attention they deserve.
Value Assessment: Conduct a value assessment for each initiative to determine its potential impact on the organization’s strategic goals. Focus on initiatives that align most closely with these goals.
Resource Allocation: Allocate resources based on the strategic value of each initiative. This may involve dedicating more resources to high-priority initiatives while scaling back on others.
Phased Implementation: Consider implementing high-priority initiatives in phases. This allows you to focus efforts on achieving quick wins, which can build momentum for broader change.
Integration of change initiatives is essential to avoid duplication of efforts and to ensure that all initiatives are working towards common goals. This requires a coordinated approach and effective communication across initiatives and stakeholders.
Change Integration Plan: Develop a change integration plan that outlines how different initiatives will work together. This plan should identify potential overlaps and ensure that all initiatives are aligned. It could be that lower prioritised initiatives be pushed out making the runway for more strategic initiatives with higher priorities. It could also be ‘packaging’ change releases across different initiatives where they make sense to deliver change to the impacted teams in a more cohesive and easier-to-digest manner. This may be due to the nature of the changes or the volume and capacity required in the impact of the changes.
Cross-Functional Teams: Establish cross-functional teams to oversee the integration of initiatives. These teams should include representatives from each initiative to ensure collaboration and alignment. Ideally cross functional forums already exist and this is just tapping into an existing channel.
Unified Communication Strategy: Create a unified communication strategy that aligns messaging across initiatives. This helps avoid confusion and ensures that employees receive consistent information. To do this, data is required to be able to have a clear view in terms of communication content and planned releases.
3. Monitor and Adjust in Real-Time
The business environment is dynamic, and change initiatives need to be adaptable. Monitoring progress in real-time and being willing to adjust strategies is crucial for success. At a minimum, set up routine reporting timelines so that data and reporting are harmonised and embedded within the operating rhythms of those involved.
Real-Time Monitoring: Use real-time data to monitor the progress of each initiative. This allows you to identify issues early and make adjustments as needed.
Agile Approach: Adopt an agile approach to change management, where initiatives are continuously reviewed and adjusted based on feedback and changing circumstances.
Flexibility in Execution: Be prepared to pivot if an initiative is not delivering the expected results or needs to be adjusted based on the challenges of impacted business teams. This might involve reallocating resources, adjusting timelines, or even pausing initiatives that are not aligned with current business needs.
Successfully managing and aligning multiple change initiatives is a complex but achievable task. By establishing common metrics, conducting regular assessments, leveraging existing channels, and quantifying qualitative data, you can effectively measure adoption. Aligning initiatives for maximum business benefit requires prioritisation, integration, and real-time monitoring. For change management practitioners and leaders, these strategies are essential for driving organisational success in a world of increased rate of change. By strategically aligning multiple initiatives, you can ensure that the organisation not only adapts to change but thrives in it.
Though not elaborated, what is inherent in this article is the importance of behaviour in adoption, understanding it, and measuring it. To read more about driving behaviour change check out The Ultimate Guide to Behaviour Change.
A lot of change practitioners are extremely comfortable with saying that change management is about attitudes, behaviours, and feelings and therefore we cannot measure them. After all, a big chunk of change folks are more interested in people than numbers. This metaphor that change management is ‘soft’ extends into areas such as leadership and employee engagement whereby it may not be easy to measure and track things. However, is it really that because something is harder to measure and less black and white that there is less merit in measuring these?
“If you can’t measure it you can’t improve it” Peter Drucker”
In today’s fast-paced business environment, measuring change is no longer about static reports or manual tracking. With advancements in AI and automation, organisations can now leverage real-time data analytics, predictive tools, and automated insights to manage change effectively. This guide explores how these technologies are reshaping the way we measure and manage change.
The ‘why’ behind a lot of industry changes in our day and age come from the fact that data is now dominating our world. Data is a central part of everything that is changing in our world. Since we are now more reliant on the internet for information, the data that can be collected through our digital interactions around our lives are now driving change.
Data and measurement is all around us. In fact our world would not exist without them. Without data and measurement our phones would not work, our home security features would not work, TV stations would not function, the internet would not be on, lifts would not work and even traffic lights would not work.
At the workplace, most corporate work functions and departments rely on data to run and manage the business. HR, Finance, Operations, Manufacturing, Risk, Procurement, IT, etc. The list goes on. In each of these departments data is an essential part of the day to day running of the function, without which the function cannot be run effectively. They would not know if the performance is hitting targets.
Now with AI, companies are focused on data at an even greater level more than ever. Without data, AI cannot work nor add value to organisations. The backbone of AI is the ability to access vast amounts of data so that this can be used to automate and help us with our lives.
So if our world is surrounded by data, why are we not measuring it in managing change? To answer this question let’s look at what we are or are not measuring.
Starting at a project level, these are some of the common ways in which change is often measured:
1. Change readiness surveys
Change readiness surveys are usually online surveys sent by a project owner to understand how stakeholder groups are feeling about the change at different points in time throughout the project. It can be in the form of a Likert scale or free text. Most results are summarized into a quantitative scale of the degree in which the group is ready for change. A simple SurveyMonkey or Microsoft Form could be set up to measure stakeholder readiness for change.
It used to be that change readiness surveys were quite long and wordy. Nowadays, a lot of change practitioners prefer to have shorter ‘pulse’ surveys as a way to regularly check on the stakeholder sentiments for readiness. However, shorter surveys could mean a lack of depth in the feedback you are receiving and limited data to use to pivot as necessary to address any concerns. So, you may find out if your stakeholders are ready for change, but not why. Ensure you balance ease and speed with insight and outcome.
The purpose of using change readiness surveys is to assess the stakeholders’ readiness for change. The results from the survey will definitely inform the levels of readiness. However, the survey itself may not be sufficient to conduct the assessment. Simply asking what stakeholders feel may not be a holistic way of assessing their readiness. To read more about conducting change readiness assessment strategically check out our article Beyond the Survey: A Strategic Lens on Change Readiness Assessment.
2. Training evaluation surveys
These evaluations are normally based on participant satisfaction across various categories such as content, instructor effectiveness, usefulness, etc. In a face-to-face training format, these surveys are normally paper-based so as to increase the completion rate. For online or virtual training, ratings may be completed by the user at the conclusion or after the session.
Considering that most organisations use virtual training formats, it is good practice to incorporate training evaluation at the conclusion of the session before the participants leave (after which it is almost impossible to get the satisfactory level of participant responses).
With the range of digital/AI-enabled tools on offer now, you can design training sessions in a way that requires much less and effort and gives you better results (to read more check out this link from Forbes). Some of these features include:
– gamifying training content to make it more engaging, interesting and fun
– easily creating micro-courses with little instructional design expertise
– incorporate a range of media such as videos and pictures with little effort
– using avatars as instructors to host the content
– easily create quizzes and assessments (check out Change Automator feature to conduct assessments)
3. Communications metrics
One way in which communications may be measured is the ‘hit rate’ or the number of users/audience that views the article/material/page. This may be easily tracked using Google Analytics which not only tracks the number of views per page but also viewership by the time of day/week as well as audience demographic information as such gender and geographical locations.
There is also a range of digital tools on offer to track the effectiveness of communication efforts. With Microsoft applications such as Yammer and Teams, there is already rich analytics capabilities on offer. These include user/group activity, device type usage, etc. Speak to your IT counterpart to access Microsoft Viva Engage which help you measure your community’s reach and engagement. You can find out more about the people, conversations, and questions & answers that make up your targeted communities.
There are also ways to A/B Test your communications message, whereby you have 2 different messages and test this with a smaller group fo audience to see which ones resonate or lead to more action. You can also create 2 different versions of the same intranet page and test messaging this way. When you have concluded the test you can then select the ‘winning’ version to the broader set of audience. Speak to your corporate communications colleague to get their help to implement this.
4. Employee sentiments/culture surveys
There are some organizations that measure employee sentiments or culture over the year and often there are questions that are linked to change. These surveys tend to be short and based on a Likert scale with fewer open-ended questions for qualitative feedback. Since these surveys are often sent across the entire organization they are a ‘catch-all’ yardstick and may not be specific to particular initiatives.
There is now a range of AI tools to do text and sentiment analysis if your survey contains text items. AI-powered tools now enable organisations to measure change through advanced metrics such as predictive capacity analysis to forecast resource strain, sentiment analysis to gauge stakeholder emotions in real time, and automated risk assessments that identify potential bottlenecks before they occur All the major technology providers such as Microsoft, Amazon and IBM already provide these tools (some are even free).
These are some of the ways you can use AI tools right now:
– detect a range of emotions such as anxiety, anger, and disgust and based on response statistics through sentiment analysis
– cluster topics based on key response themes
– identify any data anomalies that you may want to exclude
– identify and label tone of voice of the responses, and classification such as positive, neutral, negative
– analyse trends over time
Data analysis and reporting can also be easily leveraged with the range of digital tools on offer. Data analysis tools using AI can automated generate charts and dashboards for you with little effort. Change Automator contains rich survey features that do exactly this, including:
– Easily selecting chart type with one click
– Leverage from AI-suggested data insights
– Generate predictive trends based on existing data
– Easily share charts and dashboards using different ways, including using a URL link
5. Change heatmaps
Some organizations devise change heatmaps on excel spreadsheets to try and map out the extent to which different business units are impacted by change. This artifact speaks to the amount of change and often leads to discussions concerning the capacity that the business has to ‘handle/digest’ change. The problem with most heatmaps is that they are usually categorised and rated by the creator of the artifact (or a limited number of people making judgments), and therefore subject to bias. Data that is based on 1 person’s opinions also tend not to have as much weight in a decision-making forum.
In fact, we highly recommend that you don’t use change heat maps as the only way to track change volume. Instead, there is a range of other visuals such as bar charts, and timeline charts that are just as easy to interpret and are more insightful from a decision-making perspective.
Heatmaps are also by design categorical and not particularly precise. It may be useful at a high level for understanding hot spots, but not one to use to make specific decisions concerning business capacity levels and corresponding challenges.
The following is an example of a Change heatmap that uses the standard red, amber green traffic light coding scheme. This may play into the psychological bias of your audience interpreting red as bad and only focus on ‘alleviating’ the red.
6. Change initiative benefit tracking
In addition to typical change management measures, there are various initiatives-specific measures that focus on the actual outcome and benefit of the change with the goal of determining to what extent the change has taken place. Some examples of this include:
System usage rates
Cost reduction
Revenue increase
Transaction speed
Process efficiency
Speed of decision-making
Customer satisfaction rate
Employee productivity rate
Incidents of process violation
Non-initiative based change management measures
There are two other measures that are used within an organizational vs. initiative-specific context, change leadership assessment and change maturity assessment. In the next section, we will discuss these two areas.
Change leadership assessment
David Miller from Changefirst wrote about 3 types of change leaders.:
1. The sponsor whose role is to drive the initiative to success from the beginning to the end. This involves possessing competencies in rallying and motivating people, building a strong network of sponsors, and communicating clearly to various stakeholder groups.
2. The influencer whose role is to leverage their network and influence to market and garner the traction required to make the initiative successful. Four types of influencers as identified by Changefirst includes:
a) Advocates who are great at promoting and advocating the benefits of the change
b) Connectors who are able to link and leverage people across a part of the organization to support the change
c) Controllers who have control over access to information and people and these could include administrators and operations staff
d) Experts who are viewed by others in the organization as being technically credible
3. The change agent is someone who is tasked with supporting the overall change in various ways, including any promotional activities, gaging different parts of the organization on the change and be able to influence, up, down and sideways across the organization to drive a successful change outcome. Some call this the ‘change champion’. They can be your key to influencing across the organisation.
Whilst there isn’t one industry standard tool for assessing change leadership competencies and capabilities. There are various change leadership assessment tools offered by Changefirst as well as other various smaller consulting firms. Some of the ways in which you can assess change leadership may include categories such as Goal Attainment, Flexibility, Decision Making, and Relationship Building.
Some of the key competencies critical in change leadership have been called out by Pagon & Banutal (2008), and include:
Goal attainment
Assessing organizational culture and climate
Change implementation
Motivating and influencing others
Adaptability
Stakeholder management
Collaboration
Build organizational capacity and capability for change
Maneuvering around organizational politics
There is a range of change leadership assessment offerings from various consulting firms. Whichever one you choose, ensure that it is not overly simplistic and not ‘tested’ and therefore not reliable. Assessments will only be useful if they have gone through the rigour of being tested, with the results showing that they are reliable can be trusted. Anyone can ‘invent’ a simple survey with various leadership categories, but this does not mean they are actually valid. Afterall, if you are asking your leaders to spend time to fill in an assessment survey, you want to be confident that the outcome of the assessment will provide sufficient insight.
Change maturity assessment
Organisations are increasingly realising that managing change initiative by initiative is no longer going to cut it as it does not enable organizational learning and growth. Initiatives come and go and those who rely on contractor change managers often find that their ability to manage change as an organization does not mature much across initiatives, especially across time.
Change maturity assessment is focused on building change capability across the organization across different dimensions, whether it be project change management, operational change or change leadership. The goal of conducting a change maturity assessment is to identify areas in which there may be a capability gap and therefore enable structured planning to close this gap. The meaning of ‘capability’ does not just refer to people skills, but also to process and system capabilities.
Change maturity assessment results may prompt focus and action to improve change management capabilities if used in the right channels to influence the leadership and the business.
There are 2 major change maturity assessment models available in the market. The first is by Prosci and the second is by the Change Management Institute (CMI). Read up more about CMI’s Organisational Change Maturity Model here. To read more about change maturity assessment read out article A New Guide for Improving Change Management Maturity, where we outline how to improve change maturity throughout different business units across the organization.
A comprehensive model of Change Management Measures
In this diagram various change management measures are represented along two axes, one being the different phases of the initiative lifecycle, and the other being different organizational levels of project, business and enterprise in which change management measures fall into.
In the broad initiative phases of Plan, Execute and Realise there are various change measurements and assessments that may be applicable. At the Business and Enterprise levels, these measurements and assessments are not so much split according to initiative phases. Instead, they may be conducted periodically, for example change capacity and impost tracking may be done on a monthly basis, with change maturity assessment conducted at an annual basis.
Project level measures
1. ‘Plan’ phase
In this phase of the project, the team is discovering and scoping what the project involves and what the change is. As a result, the details are not known clearly at the commencement of the phase. Later in the phase the scope becomes much clearer and the team starts to plan what activities are required to implement the change.
The change complexity assessment evaluates how complex the project is. It looks at how many people could be impacted, what the size of the impact could be, how many business units are impacted, whether multiple systems and processes are impacted, etc.
Change resourcing costing. At the planning phase of the project cost required for the change management stream of the work is required. This includes such as any contractors, communication campaigns, learning cost, travel, and administration cost, just to name a few.
Change readiness assessment is usually conducted prior to the change and during the change. Usually, the same set of questions is asked of various stakeholder groups to assess their readiness for change.
2. ‘Execute’ phase
The execute phase is one of the most critical parts of the project. Activities are in full flight and the project is busy iterating and re-iterating changes to ensure successful execution to achieve project goals.
Communication and engagement tracking. Effective engagement of stakeholders in the change is absolutely critical. Stakeholder interviews, surveys, communication readership rates are all ways in which engagement may be tracked.
Learning tracking. Measuring learning is critical since it tracks to what extent the new competencies and skills have been acquired through learning interventions. Typical measurements include course tests or quizzes in addition to course evaluations. On the job performance may also be used to track learning outcomes and to what extent learning has been applied in the work setting.
Change readiness assessment continues to be critical to track during the execution phase of the project
3. ‘Realise’ phase
In this phase of the project the change has ‘gone live’ and most project activities have been completed. It is anticipated in this phase that the ‘change’ occurs and that the benefits can then be tracked and measured.
Change benefit tracking measures and tracks the extent to which the targeted benefits and outcomes have been achieved. Some of these measures may be ‘hard’ quantitative measures whilst others may be ‘soft’ measures that are more behavioural.
Business level measures
Business level measures are those that measure to what extent the business has the right ability, capacity, and readiness for the change.
Change heatmaps can help to visualize which part of the business is most impacted by 1 project or multiple projects. The power of the change heatmap is in visualizing which part of the business is the most impacted, and to compare the relative impacts across businesses. As the number of change initiatives increase so would the complexity of the change. When facing this situation organisations need to graduate from relying on excel spreadsheets to using more sophisticated data visualization tools to aid data-based decision making. To read more about change heatmaps and why this is not the only way to understand business change impact, go to The Death of the Change Heatmap.
Sponsor readiness/capability assessment can be a critical tool to help identify any capability gaps in the sponsor so that effort may be taken to support the sponsor. A strong and effective sponsor can make or break a change initiative. Early engagement and support of the sponsor are critical. Both Prosci, as well as Changefirst, have sponsor competency assessment offerings.
Change champion capability assessment. Change champion or change agent are critical ‘nodes’ in which to drive and support change within the organizational network. A lot of change champions are appointed only for one particular initiative. Having a business-focus change champion network means that their capability can be developed over time, and they can support multiple initiatives and not just one. Assessing and supporting change champion capability would also directly translate to better change outcomes.
Change leadership and change maturity assessment – refer to the previous section
Change capacity assessment.
In an environment where there is significant change happening concurrently, careful planning and sequencing of change in balance with existing capacity are critical. There are several aspects of change capacity that should be called out in the measurement process:
1. Different parts of the business can have different capacity for change. Those parts of the business with better change capability, and perhaps with better change leadership, are often able to receive and digest more changes than other businesses that do not possess the same level of capability.
2. Some businesses are much more time-sensitive and therefore their change capacity needs to be measured with more granularity. For example, call centre staff capacity is often measured in terms of minutes. Therefore, to effectively plan for their change capacity, the impacts of change needs to be quantified and articulated in a precise, time-bound context so that effective resourcing can be planned in advance.
3. The change tolerance or change saturation level for business needs careful measurement in combination with operational feedback to determine. For example, it could be that last month a part of the business experienced significant change impact across several initiatives happening at the same time. The operational indicators were that there was some impact on customer satisfaction, productivity, and there were negative sentiments reported by staff that there was too much change to handle. This could mean that the change tolerance level may have been exceeded. With the right measurement of change impact levels for that part of the business, next time this level of change is seen, previous lessons may be utilized to plan for this volume of change. Utilise measurement and data visualization tools such as the Change Compass to track change capacity.
AI-driven systems such as Change Compass can now detect change saturation hotspots across teams or departments by analysing workload data in real time. These systems also provide actionable recommendations on how to sequence or prioritise initiatives to minimise disruption while maximising performance outcomes.
Enterprise level change measures
At an enterprise level, many of the business unit level measures are still applicable. However, the focus is comparing across different business units to sense-make what each part of the business is going through and if the overall picture is aligned with the intentions and the strategic direction of the organization. For example, typical questions include:
Is it surprising that one part of the business is undergoing significant change whilst another is not?
Is there a reason that one business unit is focused on a few very large changes whilst for other business units there is a larger set of changes each with smaller impacts?
Is the overall pace of change optimum according to strategic intent? Does it need to speed up or slow down?
What is the process to govern, report and make decisions on enterprise level change, prioritization, sequencing and benefit realization?
Is there one business unit that is able to manage change more effectively, faster with greater outcomes? How can other business units leverage any internal best practices?
As mentioned in the Change Management Measures diagram, some enterprise level change measures include:
Change capacity assessment – Does one business unit’s change capacity limits mean that we are not able to execute on a critical strategy within the allocated time? How do we create more capacity? Ways in which to create more capacity could include more resources such as staff, or initiative funding, more time is given, or more talent to lead initiatives
Change maturity assessment – At an enterprise level, the concern is with the overall change maturity of the organization. How do we implement enterprise level interventions to build change maturity through programs, networks, and exchanges, such as:
Enterprise change capability programs
Enterprise change analytics and measurement tools
Enterprise change methodology
Enterprise network of change champions
Strategy impact map – Change management need not be focused only on project execution or business unit capability. It can also demonstrate value at an enterprise level by focusing on strategy execution (which by definition is change). The way in which different strategies exert impact on various business units may be visualized to help stakeholder understand which initiatives within which strategic intent impact which business units. To illustrate this please refer to the below diagram which is an example of a strategy impact map. In this diagram, each of the organisation’s strategy is displayed with different initiatives branching out of each strategy. The width of each initiative correlates with the level of impact that the initiative has on the business over a pre-determined period of time. Therefore, the width of each strategy also indicates the overall relative impact on the business.
This data visualization artifact can be valuable for business leaders and strategic planning functions as it depicts visually how the implementation of various strategies is impacting business units. This helps planners to better understand strategy implementation impacts, potential risks and opportunities, and balancing change pace with strategy goals at various points in time.
Predictive indicators on business performance – We started this article talking about how data is all around us and we also need to better manage change using data. With quantitative data on change impact, it is possible to ascertain any correlations with operational business indicators such as customer satisfaction, service availability, etc. For those business indicators where there is a significant correlation, it is possible to hence use predictive reporting to forecast performance indicator trends, given planned change impacts.
In the below graph you can see an example of this whereby using historical data it is possible to establish correlations and therefore forecast future impact on business indicators. This example is focused on the customer contact centre (CCC) and key business indicator of average handling time (AHT) is utilized as an illustration.
This type of predictive performance forecasting is extremely valuable for organisations undergoing significant change and would like to understand how change may impact their business performance. By demonstrating the impact on business indicators, this puts the importance of managing change at the front and centre of the decision-making table. At The Change Compass, we are developing this type of measurement and reporting function. This is the frontier for change management – to be established as a key business-driving function (versus a standard back-office function).
With AI-powered platforms, stakeholders can now ask natural language questions like ‘What is the current adoption rate of Initiative X?’ or ‘Which teams are at risk of exceeding their capacity?’ Platforms such as Change Compass provide instant answers backed by real-time data analysis, saving time and enhancing decision-making accuracy.
Change can be measured and this article has outlined various operational and strategic ways in which change measurement can demonstrate significant value. Most corporate functions cannot exist without data and analytics. For example, Human Resources relies on people and pay data. Marketing cannot function without measurement of channel and campaign effectiveness. For Information Technology, pretty much everything is measured from system usage, to cost, to efficiency. It is time we start utilizing data to better visualize change to better plan and make business decisions.
Have a chat with us if you are looking for ways to streamline how you capture, visualise data for decisions, and leverage AI to easily generate insights. This includes the ability to easily do forecasting, ask data questions using natural language and get instant answers.
Disruptions are all around us. First, the various disruptions with Covid on all aspects of people’s lives around the globe. Now we have the riots across the US as well as other countries about racial inequality. With these, we have the backdrop of constant technology changes that constantly challenge how we run our lives. What next you may ask?
Disruptions to how change initiatives are managed seem to never cease. You think you’ve been through the worst with Covid impacting the budget expenditure on projects and the implementation timeline thrown up in the air due to lack of business capacity. The racial riots are disruption normal business operations and it is back to business continuity plans for some organisations. How might we continue to manage our various change initiatives amongst these constant disruptions?
Strategic approaches
In being able to effectively respond to constant business disruptions on initiatives a set of routines and practices need to take place prior to the individual disruptions.
Use the three horizons of growth as a framework to focus efforts on initiatives
A brief description of the Mckinsey 3 horizons model
McKinsey’s three horizons of growth describe 3 horizons of which initiatives should be clustered. Each horizon forms a critical set of initiatives from which the organisation may continue to develop and grow. If all focus was placed on horizon 1 that are focused on the here and now shorter-term initiatives, then the organisation is not placed to deal with emerging challenges addressed under horizons 2 and 3. Vice versa if all the effort is placed on horizon 3 and not 1.
With business disruptions, the effort and expenditure placed on initiatives can be evaluated in light of which horizon they are in. For example, if the Covid disruption is so significant on the business that it’s a matter of survival, then all efforts should focus on horizon 1 initiatives that contribute to organisational survival in terms of revenue and cost management. If the disruption is significant but not debilitating then it may be wise to spend half of the effort on horizon 1 with the rest on horizons 2 and 3.
Adopt a portfolio approach to manage changes
When initiatives are treated in isolation it is very difficult to flex and adjust to changes compared to a portfolio approach to manage change initiatives. Individual initiatives have limited resource capacity and project activities will have limited impact compared to multiple initiatives.
Having a portfolio approach to manage changes means having established the following:
Data-based approach to manage change impacts with a view of change impacts across initiatives
Ability to visualize and plan the change impacts from a business-unit-centric and stakeholder group centric perspective
Ability to manage resourcing across initiatives so that as required resources may be flexed up or down across the overall portfolio based on prioritisation
Ability to guide and prepare each business for multiple changes across initiatives
Key stakeholder messages may be synchronised and packaged across initiatives versus an initiative by initiative approach
Improved ability to map out clearly the various skills and capabilities being implemented across initiatives to avoid duplication and improve synergies
What can change practitioners contribute in planning for disruptions?
Derive different change scenarios
Scenario planning as a technique is rarely used in a project planning context. However, it is especially critical and relevant within an agile environment. Agile project practices mean that changes keep iterating and therefore it may be hard to anticipate what the end solution or changes will look like. It may also be hard to anticipate how the business will respond to the changes being proposed if we don’t know what the changes will look like.
To allow adequate time to plan for changes it is very helpful to derive at least 2 scenarios. In an agile environment, change practitioners need to adopt a hypothesis-based approach to deriving change approaches. Let’s take an example of a standard system implementation project. In rolling out a new system these could be 2 likely scenarios based on the hypothesis being posed.
Hypothesis: The system being implemented is easy and intuitive for users and therefore the change approach will be sufficient with awareness raising and a 1 hour training session
Scenario 1: The hypothesis is true and all users have found it easy and intuitive to use and therefore the change approach proposed is sufficient to prepare the users for this change.
Scenario 2: The hypothesis is only partially true and there are some user groups who struggled to understand all features of the system and need additional help and guidance. Additional training sessions with coaches are proposed
A different way of contrasting different scenarios will be to derive different project expenditures and funding requirements and resulting change delivery work. For example, under the system implementation project, a ‘Toyota’ approach of delivery could involve minimum training and stakeholder awareness generation. For a ‘Rolls Royce’ approach of delivery which will cost significantly more could include tailored coaching sessions for each stakeholder group, 1:1 coaching for senior leaders, a long awareness campaign, and an extensive measurement system. This helps stakeholders understand the cost of delivery and will help them to select an appropriate delivery model.
The usefulness of planning ahead to anticipate for different scenarios mean that steps may be taken to be ready for either of the scenarios and so the project team will not be caught off guard in case the hypothesis proposed is proved false.
To be able to visualize different scenarios it is important to show the different impacts of the scenarios. This includes the impact of time, sequencing, and impact levels on stakeholder groups. With a different rollout approach will stakeholder groups have better bandwidth and ability to adopt the change or will the bandwidth be more limited?
Here is an example of a scenario planning visual where the user can simply drag the impact bars to different times and be able to save this as a scenario. After saving the scenario the next activity will be to analyse the scenario to make sense of the potential impacts of this scenario on the business and impacted stakeholders. Are there project dependencies that need to be taken into consideration? What is the overall change impact across initiatives as a result of the changes in this scenario? How does this impact the customer versus internal stakeholder groups?
A scenario planning example from The Change Compass
For scenarios to be used in a practical way it is important to be able to list any ‘proof points’ that outline how we can tell that the scenario is becoming true or not. These proof points can include anything ranging from stakeholder reactions, the timing of the implementation, the complexity of the features or solution, cost, and other tangible measurements such as system response time, time taken to perform the process, etc.
Agree on decision making principle with stakeholder
Prior to any disruptions, it is important to agree with stakeholders key decision-making principles. Having clear, agreed decision-making principles means that key decisions can be made without subjecting to personal opinions or preferences. During any times of disruption Decision-making principles can be organised as ‘trade-off’ principles with a prioritised order of importance. Below are some examples:
Cost
Time
People resource bandwidth
Benefit realisation
Stakeholder readiness and acceptance
External media implications
Factor in critical path in project planning
The critical path method is a way in which a project’s key interdependencies are linked and mapped out in a linear way so as to understand the key logical points along the project. From this any potential disruptions, slippages or delays in project deliverables and how they impact the remaining deliverables can be clearly understood and planned for.
A clear understanding of the critical path within a project means that with any disruptions to activities the impacts of this on the rest of the deliverables can easily be articulated. To deal with the disruptions to the project a longer implementation may need to be negotiated with the impacted businesses, or depending on the nature of the disruption, a different project approach with different deliverables may need to be derived.
An example of critical path planning
Here we discussed multiple ways in which the change practitioner can help the organisation get ready for various disruptions to change initiatives. During periods of disruptive change, it is even more critical for change practitioners to demonstrate their value to lead and maneuver around and plan for uncertainty. Agile organisations are well placed to deal with disruptions, however, an effective set of routines, practices, preparations, and capabilities are all critical to building overall organisational readiness.
