I do… or do I?

Change Management

Can you remember the last time you had a life-changing process? Me neither! When we talk about all the big events that happen in our lives, you won’t ever hear anyone say ‘that was an amazing process’. I know I have never attended a friend’s wedding and said ‘what a process that was!’

The reality is that people experience events in their lives and change in the workplace is no different. Managing change well and delivering the maximum value possible from the change requires people to be front and centre.

There are plenty of instances in the workplace where we prioritise process over people

Focusing on the investment case numbers and failing to socialise a compelling case for change

Establishing heavyweight governance processes to assure delivery but forgetting to engage & support team members during delivery

Chasing benefits but failing to build capability & confidence in the teams that will deliver the benefits

Leaders being consumed by activities rather than behaviours

Well, let’s take a look at some stats

"Despite aligned leadership, 70% of digital transformation projects fall short of their goals."

Why Transformations Fail And How They Can Succeed With People Power, Forbes

 

 

 

"Only 16% of employees believe their company’s digital reforms have enhanced productivity and are long-term sustainable."

Unlocking success in digital transformations, McKinsey

 

 

 

"Nearly 75% of workers do not feel equipped to learn the digital skills needed in today’s workplace."

Digital Skills Index, Salesforce

Our hypothesis at Equator

These stats reflect the fact that many business leaders default primarily to process rather than people when trying to deliver change. In our experience there are a number of reasons for this.

 

 

Lack of understanding and awareness of what it takes to deliver change well.

Much of what is written about change management focuses on frameworks, approaches, tools & techniques.  However, unless these are combined with capability, experience and preparedness, they are as useful as a hammer when you need a screwdriver.

 

 

There is often a reluctance (or perhaps a level of discomfort) within Executive Teams to talk about people and what it takes to bring them on a change journey. 

Why? Because this plays right into the EQ of leaders when many of them want to stay firmly in the IQ space.  Newsflash – good change management demands both. Managing change requires leaders to simultaneously play a game of chess and Emotional Twister!

 

 

It is easier to focus on the desired outputs – good performance and a fast pace of delivery – than on the people and partnerships required to deliver those outputs. 

Leaders often underestimate the commitment (time and money) required to enable delivery of the outputs they seek. There is no magic wand when managing change – it is tough organisationally and personally.

 

 

Control! One little word that conceals so much.

Processes can be controlled – we understand the activities, the performance standards, the quality expected and the costs. Leaders often map these control mechanisms onto change projects and are disappointed when they don’t work. Projects absolutely demand control, rigour and structure but, when people are involved (and they invariably are), there has to be acceptance that the ‘messy middle’ demands more than process control. Change isn’t linear (even although we have seen plenty of investment cases that would suggest it is!). People react, interact and sometimes overreact when experiencing change. Managing change well therefore demands great communication, regular and consistent engagement and, capability & confidence building.

 

 

Some evidence to back up our hypothesis

We know there will be some cynics out there that say ‘people just get in the way’ or ‘they just have to accept the new order of things’ or ‘if we get the processes right, the behaviours and culture will follow.’  We robustly refute such views but better than taking our word for it, here are some metrics that may help change your mind:

 

 

"Organisations that increased their eNPS (employee Net Promoter Score) during large-scale transformations generated total shareholder returns and EBIT margins twice that of peers."

How to Run a Transformation That Creates More Energy Than It, Consumes Bain & Company

 

 

 

“Change accelerators see 264% more revenue growth compared to companies with below-average change effectiveness.”

The business case for change management when driving organization transformation, WTW

 

 

 

“93% of organisations who report excellent change management effectiveness meet or exceed their objectives”

Benchmarking data, Prosci, Inc

People-centred change management is increasingly important.

Why? Because customer expectations continue to increase, the pace of change is accelerating as the world of work becomes more digitally enabled and Eat.Sleep.Repeat is the mantra for organisational change.

 

Gartner reported in 2022 that the planned number of enterprise changes experienced by the average employee is 10! TEN large scale changes that the average employee will experience in their working life and that doesn’t include the local changes that happen within their team or function. The good news is businesses should get better at delivering change because it is happening more frequently. The bad news is, if they don’t get better at delivering change, then the pain experienced by team members, customers, stakeholders and investors is extended.

We have a key phrase that we use when talking to leaders about delivering change: adopt & adapt.

In a change context – this phrase provides a framework for delivering successful change. Many leaders will say their businesses are quite good at adoption. Often we hear ‘We have implemented MS Teams and it has changed the way we work’ or ‘Our new CRM is amazing…’ or ‘Our new process for customer engagement is brilliant…’ BUT often the use of the words ‘We’ and ‘Our’ actually means ‘I’ and ‘My’! The adoption of new solutions and processes is often overlooked in terms of investment (of time and money) and can therefore quickly become localised and sub-optimal.

 

Good adoption demands:

 

  • The development and use of universal standards. To realise benefits, there has to be some consistency in how a new solution or process is used. Lots of ‘unique’ flowers blooming across teams is not OK. Maximising the potential of a solution or process is a key part of all investment cases. A great example of this is in the area of mergers & acquisitions.  Businesses often acquire other businesses in order to build a platform business for growth but, if they don’t ensure good adoption of new technologies, services, processes and ways of working then their vision of a platform business quickly becomes a franchise business with a real challenge in driving out value.

 

  • Retiring the old - all the hidden spreadsheets, local record keeping and workarounds need to be dumped (appropriately of course!).

 

  • Application & learning. The new solution or process needs to be used in anger and changes made quickly based on the lessons learned.

 

  • A centre of excellence – in whatever form this may take – that can guide, nudge, support and challenge. It is also important that adoption measures are put in place and monitored. These need to go beyond simple ‘take-up’ and push into areas such as efficiency, productivity and customer satisfaction.

But, adoption alone will not deliver the change envisaged. It needs to be coupled with adaptation to be truly impactful.

We can hear the questions now ‘But surely getting to grips with a new solution or process is enough?’, ‘What do you mean we need to do more?’, ‘The technology implementation is the hard part, right?’ The answers – No, No and No.

 

What do we actually mean when we talk about adapting? In the delivery of any change (whether it be a new digital solution or process or operating procedure), there needs to be time and resource committed to support team members to adapt to the impacts of the change.

 

For example:

 

  • New roles may be created or new objectives for team members
  • New targets and KPIs
  • Different data and information sources to manage
  • Changed managerial responsibilities, and
  • Behavioural and cultural changes.

“89% of large companies globally have a digital and AI transformation underway, yet they have only captured 31% of the expected revenue lift and 25% of expected cost savings from the effort.”

The Value of Digital Transformation, Harvard Business Review

Let’s talk about adaptation

Much is written about what organisations spend on digital transformation.

 

The IDC Worldwide Transformation Spending Guide is estimating that global spending on digital transformation is expected to hit $3.4 trillion in 2026. You read that correctly - $3.4 TRILLION! But how much of that is spent adapting the environment, structures, roles, capabilities, ways of working and behaviours to truly realise the value from new digital solutions?

 

People (both team members and customers) and their skills, knowledge and experience are the main drivers of value in businesses.  There is no doubt automation and AI will alter the balance of ‘tech to people’ but, arguably, the people that remain in businesses will be even more important than now. They may be fewer in number but their impact, influence and skill level will be higher than what we experience today. So, if people are the main driver of value, then people-centred change management needs to be the sister accompaniment to digital design and delivery.

“the people that remain in businesses will be even more important than now”

It is about going beyond implementation of a new solution. It is about supporting people to:

 

  • Understand the new vision and ambition for the business

  • Redesign work, roles and team structures

  • Upskill/reskill to leverage the power of digital and optimise the benefits to be delivered

  • Live and breathe new behaviours and ways of working

  • Engage with data to monitor new solutions, services and standards

  • Build confidence to manage and lead both new operations and change.

 

And it is about supporting leaders to:

 

  • Communicate, engage and consult often and transparently to reduce the level of uncertainty that inevitably accompanies change activities

  • Establish the right governance mechanisms that support quick and effective decision-making to match the pace of change delivery

  • Create the right environments (physical, financial and cultural) to support team members to deliver at their best

  • Develop personally and collectively as an Executive Team to build confidence that the business can deliver change well. Senior behaviours set the tone for businesses; particularly during change activities therefore additional care and attention is required.

Adopt & Adapt? I Do

The takeaway that we want to end with is that you can do amazing discovery work, you can design & build the best solution ever but if you don’t support people to adopt & adapt then you will never realise the true potential and value from the change.

 

The good news is that if you learn to do this well and build confidence & capability in the delivery of change then you have the makings of a truly agile organisation – one that has track record and experience that enables it to:

 

  • Plan and react

  • Manage operations & lead change

  • Focus on process, focus on people and focus on impact

  • Design, build & deliver

  • Maximise value & reduce risks.

“if you don’t support people to adopt & adapt then you will never realise the true potential and value from the change”

Need help or want to share success?

If you are struggling with change delivery or not realising the value from your investment or are absolutely knocking it out the park and just want to boast about it, contact us.

Contact Mark Bell & Lesley Fordyce