Organizational Change Management That Drives Real Adoption.
Why?
Statistics: Pain and Failure or Pain and Success
Change is inevitable. Pain is optional — if you plan for it. The difference between projects that fail and projects that succeed almost always comes down to the same five factors.:
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Executive Support and Project Sponsorship
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Collaboration - Involvement Plan
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Vision, Scope, Goals Alignment
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Effective Project Management and Methodology
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Knowledge Transfer Plan
Note that all of the top five factors are PEOPLE related
and NOT
Technology related.
What?
ADOPTION is the
Goal
Change management is not just a communication plan and a training plan — though those matter. It's planning and executing on every opportunity to achieve the highest possible return on your investment of time and money. The communication and training strategies are important. But there is far more that must be considered to truly achieve adoption.
Failing to plan is PLANNING TO FAIL.
When?
Everyday. Always. Every meeting. Every conversation.
There are formal activities that occur during every phase of the project.
These include: Strategic alignment, stakeholder analysis, project charter, project communication plan, project training plan.
ADOPTION requires more than these. ADOPTION also requires KNOWLEDGE TRANSFER.
Knowledge transfer requires:
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Consultants with experience and expertise who are capable of listening.
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Client engagement.
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A common and collaborative objective to work and progress together toward ADOPTION.
The Bottom Line
30% of projects fail.
70% are 'successful.'
Of the 'successful' projects, how many were over budget, over time, or defective in function upon completion?
The path to success is challenging but
it is not mysterious.
You just have to
protect all of the investment.
The
Three
Legged Stool
Every technology initiative rests on three legs:
Leg One — Your investment in new technology Leg Two — The expertise to implement it correctly Leg Three — The people component
Leg Three is almost always the one that gets shortchanged. It's also the one that determines whether the other two pay off.
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Leading: Sponsorship from Leadership throughout the effort
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Supporting your SMEs (Your subject matter experts)
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Managing expectations
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Planning for and promoting change (hide the sledge hammers)
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Monitoring the pulse - The change journey and pace are individually unique
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Celebrating successes along the way
Change management should be included in every conversation, and by the way,
the "Go-live" isn't the finish line for this leg of the stool. It is just a milestone for the
change management effort.
Giving equal attention and support to all three legs is
the difference between
30% and 70%.