In the previous article I’ve suggested the success drivers of many business change initiatives. Full article here. In summary they were:
A) Build a functional system everyone can use;
B) Deliver those ‘products’ on time and on budget;
C) Mitigate the impact on the business whilst communicating the value of it.
What’s the biggest mistake?
One of the common mistakes I see change teams face across industries is that they place the entire focus of their initiative on developing a functional technology. They invest in developers, process experts, functional consultants and others whilst paying relatively little attention to whether the value of that work is actually being recognised by the business audience it intends to reach or whether the extent of that impact and involvement by the business is fully understood.
An analogy comes to mind. Sales professionals can be unfairly framed for being too pushy, invasive or downright disrespectful. Although some’s methods can be debatable the job of these professionals is to understand their prospects’ needs and highlight products and solutions whose benefits can greatly enhance the quality of the customers, in one way or another. The keyword here is ‘benefit’, and the focus is ‘customers’. Not product, no solution, but customers.
Similarly, business change initiatives always create positive ‘change’, in various shapes or forms, be it a collaboration platform, a dashboard, a reporting tool, an automation or a system upgrade, a cloud solution etcetera.
Is your business on board?
Another significant challenge these teams face is about clearly identifying what those visible benefits are, not just inefficiency, control or commercial terms but also in ‘operational terms’. In other words, what do the people ‘on the ground’ really ‘think’ about the strategic initiative? Can they relate to it? Do they want to be part of it? Will they support it?
Relentlessly pursuing hard commercial metrics always comes at the detriment of actual value realisation and technology utilisation. This is because unnecessary pressure is placed upon teams to achieve KPI objectives, arbitrary deadlines which, in extreme cases, start suffocating your business’ ability to deliver change. You are destroying your change capability.
What’s the alternative?
Organisations can instead start focussing on identifying, describing and clearly communicating clear operational benefits to the business as a whole and the individual contributors. It’s clear that senior ‘leaders’ do get it. The problem is: very few others do. And you’d need many more people to be on board with it. Any change initiative is a team effort and the team is, in this case, the entirety of the business.
Yes, but how?
This is not an impossible pursuit. If one is not naive by ignoring that many peoples’ immediate concern is job security and minimal impact to their personal and professional lives, we also have to recognise that no change initiative can be successful with a short term delivery mindset. People are people and can commit to a change and/or organisation if given a reason to.
How can you create a compelling narrative?
These few steps can help:
- Look at your business case and draw out use cases for each benefit area;
- Sit with your change team and handpick those use cases that are most likely relatable and understandable by the majority of the impacted business area;
- Choose three of them for each impacted area. Example: marketing, HR, Finance etc.;
- Draft a benefit statement. Include everyone in your team. Memorise it, print it out, talk about it;
- Create a robust communication and engagement strategy that can leverage all available channels. This is a multichannel strategy, possibly both offline and online. Think creatively: use podcasts, posters, town halls, conference calls, newsletters, bulletins, screens, physical letters, brochures, print-outs, slide decks etcetera;
- Unclutter the communication channels: assign a capable person – a finisher – to update your distribution list, set up your site, draft templates, design beautiful graphics;
- Communicate, communicate, communicate your benefit statement;
- Be consistent and authentic in your communications by allowing trust to build, being truthful and transparent.
Additional resources:
- Podcast: Leading Your Change Initiative
- White Paper: Inside Out: 3 change capabilities for successfully executing strategic initiatives
- Blog: Principles of Change
