Going Digital? First digitalize the way you manage change

We believe that change management for a transformation project requires digitalization to anchor change in the long run, and to be a game-changer in adoption.

When thinking about your change strategy, you probably focused your efforts and resources on formal on-site trainings, to happen a few days before your expected go-live, and hoped for the best buy-in from your end-users.

Unfortunately, this approach does not address any of these recurring pain points:

• Formal trainings are time-constrained and therefore limited to the basics: how to help users get the full benefits of the transformation in the long-run?
• Processes and solutions keeps evolving: – how to adapt change methods to support employees on an on-going basis?

Following the four recommendations below will put you right on the path to success.

1. Drive an initial impact analysis and onboard stakeholders from the field

Done at the very beginning of the project, impact analysis will inventory the initial status and spot change management challenges to overcome. It can be done through on-the-field interviews, but digital will make results more reliable and enable larger scale analysis: digital surveys, serious games, dedicated apps, digital challenges have proven their efficiency in building a first vision of future end-users’ expectations, to build a suitable path for change.

2. Manage change from the very beginning, inside project teams. Federate and grow a community so that it remains sustainable, long after the project phase.

Digital offers state-of-the-art platforms, mixing enterprise social network and multimedia capabilities, that will enable to build and sustain centers of excellence for years. These communities welcome global and local leaders to convey vision & key messages and maximize impact, in project and deployment phases, as well as in the run mode (Networks of Excellence). They are also a fun way to share with a community and get collaborative feedback.

 

3. Favor continuous improvement and consider stakeholder’s natural learning pace

As employees attribute only 10% of their work skills to traditional onsite training and reading, the relevance of this model is questionable.

Of the remaining 90%, only a fifth are attributed to learning from others, while the largest share is associated with informal and continuous learnings that accompany the user way beyond the initial trainings.

If initial training sessions are a no-miss, digital can bring a richer and more efficient experience:

• Dedicated digital apps during trainings to interact with Trainers and the community will help users overcome reluctance to change by providing quick answers and supporting end-users in their learning curve. It is now extremely quick to build and deploy such a support app to your audience.
• eLearnings will offer flexibility in learning, letting users decide when to be trained and propose always available learning resources as capitalized assets
• Skill validation tests will eventually complete the trainings and inform end-users of areas of improvement
• All along the learning path, gamification, incentives and rewards, supported by digital platforms, will consistently increase the learning experience and motivation to learn.
• For communication and knowledge sharing, Video Telling, user success stories and testimonies are perfect ways to broadcast the key messages to a large and watchful audience.

The stake of change management in a digital project resides in a continuous, diffused, blended, all-along-the-way digital change strategy that will be the sherpa guiding end-users through their change journey.

4. Adoption is not enough. Business Value Realization is the ultimate goal.

Most of current market’s SaaS solutions (CRM, ERPs, Finance, HR) propose embedded reports and dashboards capabilities.

The first step is to monitor adoption and to ensure that Management is committed to it by organizing monthly adoption follow-up committees. Set adoption objectives and make them part of employees’ objectives with associated rewards and incentives. Make adoption a challenge and an objective for all employees.

But the mere measurement of number of logins and tool usage is not enough. The ultimate goal is to measure the business value realization through dashboards that stick to your Business Case ambitions: data quality, NPS increase, upsell & cross-sell, sales pipeline increase, conversion rate improvement, etc.