Taking Stakeholders on the Change Journey

Taking Stakeholders on the Change Journey.

Author: Senior Consultant, Claudia Chavis.

Organisations must constantly adapt to shifting market conditions, customer demands, technologies, regulations, and competition. The TOM is a way to stay ahead of these demands and may be introducing new technologies, adjusting processes, or impacting an organizational structure. Change is necessary so businesses remain relevant and competitive.

Yet despite change being rooted in every project, people often don’t like change very much. Change comes with uncertainty, more work for everyone involved, the feeling of lost control.

Neglecting the human aspect of a change initiative can cost you the success of the project. Even the best technical and operational solutions are of no value to the organisation if the intended customers are not adopting them.

We recommend planning and executing your change focused activities early with continued iteration throughout the project phases.

Start with a stakeholder engagement plan.

The foundation of a stakeholder engagement plan is stakeholder analysis. It provides important input into overall plans for business readiness strategy, communications, training, and support.

We recommend collecting both quantitative and qualitative data for the stakeholder analysis. This will establish a clear understanding of the stakeholder, how the change will impact them, and how the impact can be best managed. Lastly, it’s crucial to understand how impacted stakeholders are feeling about the upcoming change, and what their concerns are.

Examples of Quantitative inputs are system statistics, business role descriptions or user personas, geographic locations/time zones, department structure, and governance.

Qualitative inputs may come from surveys or stakeholder interviews. They provide information on change readiness, stakeholder likes and dislikes of the current state, and sentiment about the future state.

Plan pro-actively with the future state in mind.

Anchor the stakeholder engagement plan around pro-actively addressing anticipated challenges. You can do this by setting clear objectives on what needs to be achieved and how to reach the goals. Establish stakeholder governance early on, align with leadership for support, and recruit change champions and change sponsorship.

It is natural to be drawn to champions who are ‘friendlies’ and supportive of the change. We recommend recruiting champions from a wide range of stakeholders to represent both friendly and critical views of the upcoming changes. Support from critical change partners can be more powerful when bringing change-adverse stakeholders on your journey!

Don’t forget to partner with appropriate support teams in the organisation. These include technical support, training, corporate communication, administrative and operational support teams.

Put yourself in your stakeholders’ shoes.

Tailor your activities around the stakeholders and where on the change journey they are.

Awareness: “I have heard that there are going to be changes.”

Early in the project, articulate a compelling case for change: “Why is this happening and why it is important.”  Leverage clear and concise communication to inform and drive action. Prepare an elevator pitch.

It’s vital to communicate through your sponsor and champions to your stakeholders whenever possible. Messaging coming from a peer is more powerful and relevant than from the project team.

Understanding: “I know why we are doing this and how it impacts me.”

Once there is general awareness, develop a good understanding of the requirements for every stakeholder group. Communicate early and often with purpose. Tailor messaging, delivery of information, and the feedback mechanism to each specific stakeholder audience.

Be careful not to over-communicate or include points that aren’t relevant to the audience. Providing unnecessary information can frustrate or confuse the audience, and over-repeating information can make your audience ignore critical news in the future.

Stakeholders want to know what’s in it for them, or why they should care. Often the benefit or need for the change is less apparent to the individual stakeholder, who may be impacted with role changes or changes to their typical routine. These benefits can be explained to them by describing the risks of not changing the organisation.

Preparedness: “I know what I need to do, and I am ready for it.”

Once stakeholders understand the change, remember to perform frequent pulse checks to ensure that teams are ready. This can be done through formal channels, like pulse surveys or feedback gatherings. It can also happen informally through your champion and support networks, or leadership channels.

Adoption: “I am going to make this a success.”

In the final stage of the change journey, continue to facilitate open and direct communications with all stakeholder groups and leadership. Foster two-way communications and provide feedback opportunities – which will provide vital information on solution and people readiness.

It cannot be stressed enough that engaging your stakeholders is about bringing people along on a change journey. Coordinate and align early and often with leadership and stakeholder groups, provide support, and empower team members. As a delivery and change agent, your job is to facilitate changes. Your stakeholders, ultimately, are the ones who own the change.

For more information on how Liqueo can help with your change efforts, please contact us.