Our clients keep asking 'How do I make the change stick? How do I do this in a way that
builds capability in my organisation? How can our people be more nimble and adaptive
to change?'
They are starting to recognise that good change management is a key enabler of competitive
advantage. Whilst there are many models out there, but
what is important is how you apply it. Baringa's model focuses on the key things
that you need to get right: * Strong leadership and business engagement
* A rigorous approach to understanding change impacts and planning business readiness
* Getting stakeholders to adopt the change, and
* Embedding a continuous improvement and change capability.
The key to making change stick is having leaders that are personally motivated to make the
change happen and are motived to bring their teams along with them. Get your leadership
team aligned around the common vision and strategy and help them to articulate it in
a compelling story that can be communicated in a way that is inspiring but also meaningful
to individuals.
Recognise that what you measure drives behaviour. Align incentives and objectives. It's also
really important that leaders drive the right behaviours and walk the talk. The business
must be engaged throughout the program. Involve them from the start, starting with the high
level design and requirements.
People don't mind if it is going to be difficult for a while, but don't paint it as something
that it isn't. Timing is key and the messaging must be authentic. People are going to lose
trust if you are saying they are getting a Rolls Royce, but all they get is an old banger
with lots of issues.
And finally, focus on people managers. Equip them with the information, tools and skills
to lead their teams on the ground through the change.
There is a science to managing change impacts well. Simply put, change impacts are about
understanding all the things you need to change. Understanding their dependencies, and prioritizing
them.
At Baringa we have had huge success in manually trialing the solution early, before you sign
up for an extensive and multi-year design and build program. Paper-based exercises and
testing have their place, but really there is no substitute for early trialing with real
customers on the ground. Trials are a great way to test the design and learn what works
and what does not. Importantly, generate success stories to prove the business case and to
gain momentum.
Good business readiness and transition planning is about organising the change so it can be
implemented in the business. At times, this involves challenging conversations with delivery
teams in order to implement the change in an order that makes sense.
Your business needs to be ready to embrace the change. The use of piloting, governance,
check lists and scenario planning are the sorts of tools we use.
Getting buy in and adoption are critical to making the change stick. People need to own
the change, and understand why it is important. You also need to be quick with the tools to
make it happen. How often have you seen programs that need people to change but don't give
them training, coaching and the tools and time to learn to apply it. This is what happens
when people view change management simply as part of a bit of training and comms. There
are two things to get it right here:
1. Building capability: this is about developing people and training them so they have the
skills and resources to be effective. Specifically, understanding what skills and capabilities
are required, and defining a clear way how to fill gaps. To be effective, training needs
to be role-based, and place equal emphasis on desired behaviours as well as providing
the skills and the tools.
2. Involve your stakeholders in designing the new ways of working. This is about agreeing
behavioral and performance expectations, agreeing handoffs and interactions between teams, but
also about getting clear connections between leadership, line managers, and individuals
on the ground.
Change is far more likely to be adopted when change management competencies are infused
in your organisational DNA. The ongoing benefits of a change program are really reaped when
continuous improvement and change capability are embedded. Companies that get this right
put their best people forward to develop business change and readiness skills on the job. They
also have a culture of continuous improvement where individuals feel like they are empowered
and incentivized to suggest and make improvements. Embedding a can-do mindset and a desire to
improve processes in a quick and agile way won't happen on its own. It requires really
strong sponsorship, performance metrics and incentives to be aligned.
So the wrap-up when people ask you 'How do I make change stick?' - you can tell them
there are four key ingredients to think about: leadership and engagement, change impacts
and business readiness, stakeholder adoption and training , and change capability and continuous
improvement.