Various developments during the past few years are causing significant turbulence in the business operations of organisations in almost all industries. And this will only increase in the coming years. It is forcing those same organisations to keep changing, for instance by introducing and developing new IT tools. To make sure changes such as these succeed, the first important step is to have a worked out roadmap. But equally important is managing the changes properly. After all, change management is much more than going through a few steps.
Roadmap as reference for change management
Any change within an organisation – however big or small – cannot happen without a thoughtful and thorough roadmap. The simple reason is that it provides structure in a changing environment. And for the change to succeed. Effective change management increases the chances of achieving project objectives. When change management is poorly applied, only 15% of projects achieve their goals, compared to 77% with good change management. There are excellent traditional roadmaps that can help move the organisation forward. Kotter’s 8-step change model is a reliable and frequently used example. This model assumes the following stages:
- Create a sense of urgency.
- Build a guiding coalition.
- Form a strategic vision.
- Enlist a volunteer army.
- Enable action by removing barriers.
- Generate short-term wins.
- Sustain acceleration.
- Institute change.
Visualise the change
A method like the one above certainly adds value. For example, it can dissect and visualise changes. But it can also show that change doesn’t necessarily have to be radical. Changes in organisations are often equated with complete reorganisations. In many cases, that fear sparks turbulence among the ranks. But that unrest is unjustified, because in most cases the changes are incremental adjustments. By sticking to a good roadmap, change can be presented in bite-size proportions and the right dynamic skills can be deployed.
Involve your people in change management early on
Let’s go back to the implementation of new IT tools, which generally also involves incremental stages. It often starts by optimising the management reporting process in small steps. This way, you can get your staff on board and efficiently achieve a good and relevant end result. Take robotising operational processes, for example. For employees, it means a whole new way of working and thinking. If you’re planning to introduce robotics, be sure to include your staff early on in the change process. By including people in the change process from the very start, you increase the success rate of the project objectives to 51%, compared to 33% if you only include them at a later stage, such as at the implementation stage. And also give them a say in which processes can be robotised. Being open and transparent helps to gain broad support and confidence in the new way of working. More importantly, your employees will join in the excitement! And that is an essential prerequisite for successfully embracing robotic software and other new technologies and IT tools.
The power of the change manager
So the power also (and mainly) lies in properly managing change and expectations. It allows you to limit the risks of change failure and keep costs under control. In addition, good change management undeniably contributes to extracting and creating maximum value in change projects. This means that besides following a well-thought-out roadmap, you will also need to organise the change process in the right way. A good change manager can help you do this from an advisory, initiating, supporting or management role. Our Integrated Finance department employs specialists with the right experience and expertise to take on this role. Your first step towards changing your business is therefore the step to Joanknecht as a prelude to a successful process.
Source: Prosci 2018 Benchmarking Data