Change Management
Guiding people, process and technology
Shifting Ground
Today’s digital transformation is creating a culture shift toward agile, intelligent ways of doing business powered by technology. Spurred by market pressure, global investments in digital transformation are expected to double from 2022 to 2025 from 1.8 trillion U.S. dollars to 2.8 trillion. Employees are hungry for this now, with more than 70% globally saying they are interested or very interested in digital skills training in the next two years (Source: Statista)
Where desire and need is high, change follows.
Change management, done well, can transform and prepare people to shift wisely, tolerating discomfort and moving with acceptance and curiosity with the culture of innovation. Change management done poorly slows energy and productivity and destroys projects. It is the source of 70% of project failures, according to one report.
A good Change Manager keeps a constant trim of the sails
Organizations with an excellent change management strategy are 6 times more likely to meet or exceed objectives. (Prosci)
143% of the expected ROI is achieved from organizations with an effective change management program, while organizations with little or no change management only achieved 35% of expected ROI. (McKinsey)
What is Change Management?
It is the process, tools and techniques to manage the people side of change to achieve required business results.
Increase probability of project success
Mitigate and manage employee resistance
Build change competency into your organization – handling change well, adaptability
Help minimize the payback period and maximize ROI – speed of adoption, ultimate utilization and profiency of stakeholders
People
-
The vision and purpose is tangible in daily team activity. The team is empowered with shared goal setting, SCRUM approaches.
-
Qualitative and quantitative stakeholder assessments
Insightful, clear user personas
Frequent cadence of listening sessions
Healthy conflict discussions – surface the full picture of the situation
-
Create team relationship building opportunities in-person and remote
Use milestones to make shared memories
Be creative with software tools and virtual team-building
Make use of communities of practice
Process
-
Project sponsorship relationship based on trust and mutual respect
Meeting structure, reporting, collaboration and communication channels to be aligned and agreed at project outset, evolved as necessary
Procurement, contracting, monitoring and controls for vendor partners to be aligned across team
-
Change Impact workshop
Change Impact report
Education and alignment on decisions
Working product demonstrations
-
Managing library of beneifts
Synchronized news updates
Access and training for toolkit use
-
Work is informed by several influences, including:
Dr. Armin Trost, lecture at Hochschule Furtwangen University 2014; author of Human Resource Strategies
ProSci
ADKAR
Lean Six Sigma
McKinsey 7S
Technology
-
I was on the IT launch team for Connected Lab and ERP
I was the accountable leader for full life cycle development and management of many corporate brand omnichannel programs with multiple digital development assets, including Web sites, software apps, data dashboards, data visualization stories, digital ads and social media assets
-
Proficient in several project software management tools, including JIRA, Microsoft Project, WRIKE, Smart Sheet, Asana, Monday.com and Basecamp
Also skilled with communication and branding software and AI tools
-
Technology-curious mindset, participant MIT Grand Hack 2020 and judge MIT / Berklee Music + Health Hackathon
“In short, I help organizations and projects to put their why front and center, and then I give stakeholders the right nutrition to feed their own naturally occurring growth mindset.”
Through more than 25 years of building culture and engagement programs, I have learned to lead through ambiguity and help others to do so as well.
There will be natural resistance anytime you have a powerful idea. Resistance is an invitation to deepen relationships through dialogue and shared understanding.
Finding common ground is the skill of diplomats, CEOs, politicians, marketers and project managers. I have extensively studied many change management authors and consultants, incorporating best practices along the way. So far, without fail, I come back to the core principles outlined here and learned so long ago. My own personal brand of change management is human-centered, building from strengths and empowering people to feel informed, safe and ready to adopt new ways of thinking. In short, I help organizations help people to fuel their growth mindset.
Change Well
People adopt new ways of working when they feel safe, understand why and are given the simple clear information they need.
Understand user personas
Involve them along the way
Identify your champions and leverage them
Engage resistors and give open forums to gain insights. Listen.
Engage emotions and build culture through omnichannel strategy
Arm leaders with concise, impactful stories and data and create platforms for them to engage with stakeholders
Create urgency
Show what’s in it for them & provide strong skills training
Skills Building
As author Armin Trost describes it, imagine your child cries out in the night, believing there is a monster under the bed. You must accept your child believes there’s a monster in the room. How would you act if your child believed that? Would you berate the child for believing in monsters at their age? No. You would help the child through it. You might even role play, pretending you are in their world with the monster. You might give facts or turn on lights.
As a changemaker, I strive to meet individuals and stakeholder group from their vantage point with dialogue, knowledge and tools. Adaptability and curiosity are more readily accessed when people feel they belong and are understood.
During times of large-scale transformation, the ability to withstand the discomfort of the unknown can be aided by the principles of dialectical behavior therapy (DBT). Skills like radical acceptance, mindfulness, distress tolerance and interpersonal effectiveness, given in context with the project, bring learning & development growth and foster stability during the messy middle stage of the program.
