Preparing People for Major Technology Transformation
The Situation
World leading scientific organisation needed to prepare its people for a major technology transformation
The Task
The client required advice, guidance and support as it prepared its people for the transformation. This required working across the whole programme providing support to supplier and customer teams as they identified the impact the technology changes being planned would have on the people of the organisation. From these insights, strategies and plans were developed that enabled the client to effectively prepare its people. Working with senior client and supplier stakeholders was essential to ensure there was clarity across the programme on the preparations being made to ready people for the change.
The Action / Approach
Led the supplier Adoption and Change Management (ACM) team that was supporting people change preparation. This work included:
- Providing expert advice and guidance on ACM to the client change team
- Developing samples and templates for change plans and change collateral
- Developed sample new ways of working (Scenarios)
- Developed a portfolio of Personas that represented the people of the organisation
- Implementing a Change Impact Register across the programme that identified the people impacts, who would be impacted, how and when
- Provided ACM support during the Sprints (Agile) being undertaken by all the project workstreams; this ensured an ACM voice was heard across the whole programme
- Worked with the client change team to help them reduce the impact of siloes
- Provided guidance on how to overcome resistance and drive adoption
- Provided guidance on to to measure change success
- Worked strenuously to help avoid unrealistic or conflicting expectations
Replace this leading sentence with an intro into the things you did, if relevant including re-written versions of the bulleted lines below:
- What did you do to help… Enhanced business capability through resilience, agility and adaptability
- What did you do to help… Nurture a culture of engaged people, delivery and achievement
- What did you do to help… Facilitate better alignment to business strategy and plan
- What did you do to help… Create an internal network of ‘champions’ or ‘transformers’
- What did you do to help… Reduce the impact of siloes
- What did you do to help… Remove risk of exclusion of stakeholders at any stage of the transformation
- What did you do to help… Overcome resistance and drive adoption
- What did you do to help… Reduce effect of detractors
The Result
The work on this project resulted in:
Value being realised:
- A flow of clear information from the technology change teams on the impact the technology changes would have on the people of the organisation
- Client change team provided with change plans and collateral that they could develop further
- Enabled to client change team to enhance their capabilities
- Identification of organisation boundaries and siloes, and lack of clarity related to accountabilities; this enabled improved collaboration across the programme
Pains relieved included:
- Clarity provided on the importance of focusing on new ways of working, not technology features and functions; this assisted in ensuring that people were prepared properly for the transformation
- Lack of understanding of people transformation governance and stakeholder accountabilities; avoided a fragmented approach developing
Replace this leading sentence with an intro into the things you did, if relevant including re-written versions of the bulleted lines below:
Typical areas where value is realised:
- What did you do to help… Enabling collaboration beyond the boundaries of an enterprise
- What did you do to help… Increased credibility, confidence and influence across the business
- What did you do to help… More satisfied and engaged employees with increased retention and productivity
- What did you do to help… Creating a culture of involvement, empowerment and connection to the business
Pains typically relieved include:
- What did you do to help… Leaders mandating a change management and implementation approach that’s not appropriate to the organisation
- What did you do to help… Lack of agreement of transformation governance and stakeholder understanding leading to a fragmented approach
- What did you do to help… Lack of transformation, change and agility mindset in leadership
- What did you do to help… Conflict between perception and reality of digital skills, tools, methods and talent required and available
- What did you do to help… Lack of exec sponsorship and ownership
- What did you do to help… Cynicism, lack of buy-in and resistance to change
Focus In On: Responsible for Digital Business Transformation
New Areas of Value:
Enabling collaboration beyond the boundaries of an enterprise
Increased credibility, confidence and influence across the business
More satisfied and engaged employees with increased retention and productivity
Creating a culture of involvement, empowerment and connection to the business
Improvements around:
Leaders mandating a change management and implementation approach that’s not appropriate to the organisation
Lack of agreement of transformation governance and stakeholder understanding leading to a fragmented approach
Lack of transformation, change and agility mindset in leadership
Conflict between perception and reality of digital skills, tools, methods and talent required and available
Lack of exec sponsorship and ownership
Cynicism, lack of buy-in and resistance to change
