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Guest post by Susan J. Thomas, Ph.D. of IBM Global Business Services

This is a question that we hear more often than we’d like. When we are building proposals for large transformations, some clients look for ways to streamline the work to cut expenses. This is particularly true for technology transformations where the focus is on the IT infrastructure with so many decisions focused on system selection and integration. A recent study by a colleague found a direct and strong relationship between the inclusion of a robust change management plan and success with the technology project.

So we did some exploring and uncovered several issues relating to managing change.

Communication

• Failure to communicate when a change occurs or is about to occur. If processes, procedures, management, or even the redesigning of a workspace is never communicated to employees or staff, you will indeed face anger and resistance. No matter how large or small a change may be, if employees are left out or are never aware of the change, it can be disruptive
• Providing communications – but inadvertently leaving out some employees, especially those a few layers ‘down’ from management
• Implementing a large change all at once rather than through phases.Lack of training
• One of the most common – and challenging – issues. An organization may have a communication plan in place to provide information about the change, but no specific training to enable employees to use the new technology.

Underestimating the impact of change

•  Implementing new technology typically focuses on getting the system up and running. Typically there are many other changes – including new processes, new roles and responsibilities, and often new timeframes in which activities must be completed. It’s only when the new system has gone live do many of these issues surface, often resulting is very frustrated employees and less than optimal use of the new technology

 Involving too many people in the change process

• Involving a ‘cast of thousands’ in planning for the change may cause as many challenges as not having a change management plan! If there are many people involved in the planning, consider the amount of time to gather all the input, get consensus on the plan to move forward, and actually get ready to execute. Remember the adage… “too many cooks in the kitchen spoil the broth”

Lack of follow through on the change management plan

• A change management plan is only as good as its implementation. The many components of a change management plan – identifying change impacts, development a business readiness plan, identifying and managing stakeholders – takes time – a lot of time! When change fatigue sets in, there’s suddenly no time to attend meetings and continue work on the variety of change activities.

So how do we share the vision and value for change management?
Stories or brief case studies typically resonate with clients and that focus on what works and what could have been done better. And these stories show how all the pieces fit together beginning with the change impacts – a topic about which most clients have not considered.

A second approach is to provide an overview of the elements of change management and focus on the value. I’ve also tied in a discussion of change management with plans for value realization activities – with a focus on what’s required within the implementation phase for the client to gain or ‘realize’ the value of their new system.

Join MSBCoach and Susan Thomas for the upcoming webinar Leading Change to Support a Large Scale Technology Transformation on May 15, 2013.  Register here: http://msbcoach.com/leading-change-to-support-a-large-scale-technology-transformation

About Susan Thomas

Susan J. Thomas is Managing Consultant with IBM Business Consulting Services, Human Capital Solutions. She works with a variety of clients and companies to provide consulting services in the areas of skills competency analysis (which includes different types of questionnaires), certification test development and skills assessment, questionnaire development (both paper-based and Web-based), and training evaluation. She also assists clients with data-based decision making by helping them design question-naires and by performing statistical analysis and data mining to help them make recommendations and create action plans. Prior to joining the IBM Corporation, she was a measurement statistician and test development specialist with the Educational Testing Service. She was also an adjunct professor at Rider University, where she taught graduate courses in research methods (including questionnaire design), testing and measurement for teachers, basic statistics, and authentic assessment.

Previously, she was a faculty member at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, and Florida State University, where she taught courses in measurement, research design, and various areas of educational and developmental psychology. She has directed numerous funded research projects, has presented extensively at the annual meetings of the American Educational Research Association and the National Council for Measurement in Education, and has served as a Divisional Vice President of the American Educational Research Association. She has published several journal articles, as well as Evaluation Without Fear with coauthor Roger Kaufman, and Designing Surveys That Work!, a predecessor to the current book. She conducts workshops for teachers on topics related to assessment and has developed many training guides for these workshops. She did her undergraduate work at the University of Wisconsin–Eau Claire and received her Ph.D. from Purdue University.