Conducting my own lockdown retrospective over the last week has led me to contemplate not only how life and work have evolved during lockdown but also how change itself has transformed over the years. And to ponder on how change management will need to transform to support a new world of agility, customer-centricity and digital transformation.
My first change role back in 1995 involved rolling out Windows to replace dos systems and opening a cyber café in the basement of our office building to showcase this brave new thing called The Internet. Our goal was to secure a seat on the Board for the IT Director, elevating his reporting line from the Finance Director to the Chief Executive. Lower down the chain of command, the changes were new and exciting, if not a little frightening, and so communication was largely focused on 'show and tell' in a one-way, take-it-or-leave-it-type model to engage a broadly internal audience.
In the years that followed the change programmes I worked on invariably focused on outsourcing or offshoring - bringing the importance of shared culture and remote teamwork to the fore; or on implementing powerful enterprise systems that would support core internal functions such as Finance and HR to go global. Organisation change, process re-engineering, knowledge transfer and systems training were the order of the day for change managers, opening up the scope of change communications to encompass more two-way dialogue and stakeholder engagement that would facilitate and embed new ways of working. Insights and 'value add' became the currency of change.
Fast forward to 2020 and the nature of change itself has, well, transformed. More often than not, the term 'transformation' is substituted for 'change' to denote that many of today's projects and programmes are focused on truly radical shifts in operating models, systems and tools. Transformation transcends the traditional 'people - process - technology' paradigm to touch every corner and every aspect of the organisation. No longer a solely internal focus on streamlining operations, globalising systems, increasing productivity, reorganising org structures or delivering cost benefits; transformation today also drives external, customer-centric, commercial benefit through collaborative product development, data-driven insights, innovation, automation and digital disruption.
Underpinning all of this is technology, which has matured into the term 'digital' for many of today's business transformation programmes. Technology is no longer just a siloed internal corporate function and the domain of the CIO: it's everybody's job. Digital is the business. Without sharp focus on digital in every aspect of its manifestation, companies and brands will be seriously, potentially fatally, disrupted by the disruptors.
Don't be fooled, however, that this brave new world is all about robots and automation. People are at the heart of today's transformations. Think customer-centricity in product development, remember how vital employee-centricity is to attracting and retaining talent, see how the 'us and them' distinction between a company and its strategic partners is fading as organisations rely increasingly on co-located teams and partner ecosystems.
It's an all-too-frequently referenced statistic that 70% of change initiatives fail. Considering the evolution of business change, we need to evolve the way we manage change accordingly to avoid the boosting the numbers with yet more wasted investment and disappointed expectation. Here are eight of our tips for transforming the way we manage and communicate change, and engage people - successfully - in transformation...
Agility. As transformation programmes increasingly incorporate Agile, Scrum and progressive product development, change management needs to mirror the same. For example, communication and engagement activities need to drop in frequent, multiple, iterative bursts rather than as major campaigns with long lead times.
Pace. There's no argument that the pace of change is universally accelerating. Linked to agility, change teams no longer have years or even months to prepare for the next big go live or industry development. Ditch perfection in favour of speed, timeliness and being responsive to the programme pace.
Pivot. Having a plan will never go out of fashion but what's clear is that we all also need to plan to pivot. Lengthy programmes may still endure but the journey is likely to take many twists and turns along the way, so openness to change within change and speed of response will be vital. Be flexible and prepare to pivot - frequently.
Customer-centricity. More than ever, employee audiences need to be considered as consumers - with infinite choice - rather than 'users'. When setting change foundations speak to scenarios that are driven by real customer stories to achieve positive engagement and adoption. Tailor and target your engagement according to audience characteristics.
Storytelling. Linked to customer-centricity, the way we communicate and engage people in change needs to be liberated from static slide decks featuring figures and models - and leverage consumer insights instead. Weave authentic stories that resonate. Better still, give consumers platforms to share their own stories and recommendations with other consumers.
Culture. Today's extended partner ecosystems, featuring smaller, niche, start up suppliers as well as global players, make shared values and cultural assimilation essential. Culture eats strategy for breakfast, as the saying goes, so be deliberate and make sure everyone - from the top down - demonstrates what good culture looks like in their behaviours.
Inspired channel mix. The old mantra of saying it seven times in seven different ways still stands in this new world of transformation, only now it means diving into new channels and features. Borrow from the B2C world; podcasts and vlogs, virtual assemblies, open webcasts and social platforms, to vary the mix and give your audience choice.
Agile change toolkit. Stakeholder mapping, change impact analyses and change readiness assessments will all endure as valuable tools in transformation, even as the change landscape changes. Now they need to be leveraged intelligently and flexibly: adapted, upgraded and tailored to emerging scenarios. And enriched by all these new change management imperatives.
Lockdown has shown us how quickly we can change, and how suddenly plans and markets can change. What change practitioners need now is to transform themselves too. In so doing, and above all things, we need to focus on people, on listening and on earning trust. This is central to future change management, not only because the features of digital transformation like automation, AI, big data and remote working can create distance, but because the pace, scope and uncertainty of change needs the human race to keep up.
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