Implementing successful organizational changes requires a strategic approach, a wide and unified vision across all the people who are impacted, and a deep understanding of the variables that can affect the expected outcomes. It’s always challenging because change requires people to leave their comfort zone and embrace new things. It requires an open mindset and commitment at both the executive and operational levels.
Let’s explore five success factors that are critical when you’re implementing change:
- Executive, tactical, and operational alignment
There needs to be solid end-to-end alignment, starting at the very top strategic and executive levels and extending through tactical and operational teams. Every single person who will be touched by the transformation must know the global objectives and have a clear understanding of how they need to contribute to achieving these goals. Strong sponsorship and empowered leadership are essential to create this mindset and keep everyone aligned.
- Continuous communication
Communication is essential throughout the change implementation journey. To keep everyone focused on the objectives, your communication needs to be clear and consistent, and it’s most effective when it speaks to the target audience in their own language and addresses their interests and needs. Open two-way communications is also crucial, since this helps to anticipate questions and get feedback on changes.
- System familiarity and continuous learning
Every member of the change project team needs to learn about the new system or tool before implementation starts. Even very basic knowledge results in a higher-quality implementation since people make richer and more relevant contributions. If they understand the potential of the tool, this triggers creativity and leads to innovation. Knowing the basic features, terms, and concepts of the new tool in advance also helps people to get the best out of its features. Even if you’re using expert external consultants for implementation, they’ll never understand your company’s processes and business challenges as well as your own people do.
Continuous learning is also essential for successful adoption of new tools and systems. People must keep evolving and growing in maturity after “go live” so they can take advantage of additional, high-value features that weren’t included in the initial implementation. This is critical for maximizing long-term return on investment.
- Governance: the right people at the right roles at the right time
A project, by definition, has a beginning, middle, and end. But, once a new system is implemented, it keeps evolving. It must be upgraded to new versions and new users need to be configured. There are also ongoing operational and maintenance tasks, such as cleaning up old data and monitoring performance. That’s why it’s important to have your own people ready to assume system governance once the initial implementation project is complete. Have these people join your project team as early as possible so they learn and are ready to take over. Implementing a new system also often creates new roles and responsibilities—these organizational adjustments are good career development opportunities.
- Clear business value targets and metrics
Demonstrating the benefits of an implemented change is as crucial as the change itself—it justifies the investment. This is probably the most challenging success factor. To paraphrase Lewis Carroll in Alice in Wonderland, if you don’t know where you want to get to, it doesn't much matter which way you go. It’s essential to have a crystal-clear vision of the business value you want to achieve, and this business value must be aligned with your company's strategic goals. Whenever you adopt a KPI as a transformation success measure, the KPI formula and measurement criteria must be very well defined. And, you must be able to measure the KPI both before and after the transformation. For instance, if the transformation requires you to implement a new tool, the same metrics must be available before and after implementation. Otherwise, comparisons are impossible.
The take away
These five success factors span the entire lifecycle of a change, starting before implementation and continuing once the change is live. It’s good practice to take control of these key factors throughout the entire journey by establishing a diverse and representative steering committee that has autonomy and is empowered to take decisions when there are questions or conflicts. This creates a forum where you can listen to, understand, and discuss issues—and make the best decisions for your company.
