Change leaders and practitioners who have been exposed to well-run change initiatives absolutely know the benefits change management brings to the table. We've seen the difference between various scenarios: where change management is present but has been held back from its full potential; where change management has been a complete afterthought or overlooked altogether; but also where change management has been embraced as an integral part of the team, the implementation and the solution.
Why not embrace Change Management?
It could be argued there are many reasons to 'do nothing' where it comes to thinking about the people side of change.
Lack of awareness: organisations, teams or business leaders may not be aware how much the people side of change can benefit from sound planning and appropriately designed change activities.
Budgeting dilemmas: change management isn't always considered during budget discussions, and may therefore not have been included in initial project forecasts. When organisations are already investing a substantial amount in a project, they may view training programs or other change management expenses as costly and unnecessary add-ons.
Low visibility of tangible benefits: it may not be straightforward to draw a direct correlation between a change activity and a financial benefit.
It will happen anyway: for some, change management is only the externally seen outcomes of the change management process; i.e. 'comms and training'. It can be tempting to think minimal efforts to communicate and train staff will provide adequate preparation for adoption of the change.
The Purpose of Change Management
Change management protects an organisation's investment by focussing on adoption.
When introducing something new to the environment like a new system, new product lines, new processes, cultural shifts - organisations are investing. The return on this investment must be greater than the alternatives of investing elsewhere, otherwise it would not be rational or sustainable to undertake the change initiative.
By focussing on the drivers of adoption from the early stages, change management creates a strategy that gets further refined to a plan or series of plans. These plans then outline how the change management levers of communication, training, engagement, organisational design, coaching, resistance management, leadership etc. will be operated to achieve the future state for each impacted group.
It is in marrying this through line from broad planning to specific implementations with the holistic change agenda that achieves the adoption organisations are looking for when they invest in change.
The Vast Majority of Change Initiatives Fail
We've been hearing for decades that 70% of change initiatives fail. We've also seen other alarming statistics like this figure being attributed to inadequate management support for the change, 33% and employee resistance, 39%. And in over 70% of organisations, employees feel their own organisation is facing too much change.
In addition to this, only 37% of companies are getting the full value from their change. This implies that most organisations are not achieving the employee adoption they need to make their investment successful.
The Case for Change Management
In a 2022 predictive analytics study by EY and the University of Oxford, it was found that six key drivers could enhance the likelihood of achieving a successful outcome to 73%. Even when the transformation effort is not necessarily 'high-performing', an increase in likely success of 51% could be achieved. This implies that while excellent change management will yield above average adoption, the application of any change management at all will yield more adoption than would otherwise have been achieved.
The six key drivers identified in the study are clear parts of the change management process. They're drivers of success because they recognise that organisations are made of people, and it's people who make change happen. Further, people are driven by emotions and needs - both stated and unstated. The essence of change management is integrating this understanding of the people side of change: their concerns, behaviours, issues, enthusiasm, resistance - all of it - into a coordinated approach to understanding, building, delivering and using something new in their work environment.
Drivers of Employee Adoption
Change leaders and practitioners who work with these six key drivers are already enhancing the chances of employee adoption of the change they're delivering:
Inspire | Create a vision we can all believe |
Lead | Two-way dialogue about the change |
Care | Understand concerns and address issues |
Empower | A culture of experimentation and fail fast |
Collaborate | Co-create new ways of working |
Build | Recognise the emotional impact of technology change, provide the right learning and support to foster a digital mindset |
Partnering in Project Success
Research published by Prosci in 2023 aimed to validate, through statistical analysis, a phenomenon that project managers and change managers who have partnered well together already know: the practice of change management enhances overall project success.
This study found that the more effective change management was, the more effective were project outcomes in three key areas.
71% of projects stayed under budget
65% of projects stayed on, or ahead of, schedule
88% of projects met their objectives
In this sense, we can draw on the analogy of oil in a car engine. It is an additional cost to purchase oil, there are grades of quality in engine oils, and there are specialist engine oils that are fit for specific engine types. All this is true, and yet we would not attempt to run an engine without the investment in the right grade and quality of engine oil. To do so would result in breakdowns, failures and a complete lack of tangible outcomes.
Change management is an enabler that assists the change initiative, project or program to run smoothly. Where projects are implementing new processes and systems, change management is enabling the people system and preparing it to accept, understand, adapt and adopt the project deliverables.
Side by Side Comparison
In 2022, Prosci Europe published a side by side case study of two separate organisational changes, one with change management and the other without. Both changes were conducted in the not for profit "Personal Care Services" sector.
The benefits of both implementations were similar, they were aiming at resolving accounting problems, creating a higher customer appeal by moving to an app, speeding up data exchange and providing better visibility for funders of the services delivered to customers.
Two different change management approaches were reported:
With Change Management: this included a dedicated team, a dedicated sponsor, an external, expert change practitioner and a network of change agents from among executives and team leaders.
Without Change Management: team leaders were tasked with demonstrating the new technology to employees.
With Change Management
The organisation that took a structured approach to change management, using a dedicated team with an external expert facilitator saw great results. In summary, 500 employees were impacted, the implementation timeline was estimated at 1 month, and the project delivered on time, reporting 88% adoption after 4 months. This group reported initial difficulties with smartphone use.
Without Change Management
This organisation's 800 employees were planned to receive implementation within 1.5 months. The actual duration was a much longer at 6 months - as training solutions were belatedly created to deal with the resistance and difficulties being reported by the field. Individuals saw the new app as a policing mechanism, and had difficulties using both the phone and the app. This included connection issues in rural areas with no alternative solution planned.
The side by side study concluded that having no structured approach to change management was unsuccessful. Equipping people with new technology prior to raising awareness has significant negative consequences for adoption. Impacted groups were not aware of the purpose of the change, or its benefits, and this resulted in early resistance. Where there was no established feedback channels for employees to raise concerns, no attempt to create engaging training materials and no roadmap for leaders, there was no effective way to transfer knowledge to the proposed users of the app.
Because frontline employees had little information and guidance, coupled with having no way to rectify implementation issues, their initial resistance to the new system snowballed into distrust.
Investing in Change
For organisations to contemplate installing a new system or undertaking other changes, they must consider the level investment and return on that investment. Like taking out insurance, or putting oil in the car, change management is an investment that protects the organisation's outcomes by focussing on adoption from the early stages. While it may initially seem difficult to quantify the benefit of investing in change management facilitation, without doing so, the evidence is clear that organisations will not see the level of adoption they're looking for in the time horizon they initially planned.
For help with change management implementations, deliverables or skills uplift, book in a free consultation with Agencia Change.
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