Five Pillars of Successful Change Management

Positive and constructive feedbacks will help change management leaders promote the implementation of the new approach and method. Another successful strategy is to launch an internal newsletter that honors workers who use the system the most.

Fremont, CA : The greater the rate of end-user adoption of digital transformation programs, the greater the organizational effect. Change leaders should concentrate on the five pillars of change management success: policy change, marketing, and communications, employee experience, rewards and promotions, and legacy platforms to build a path to digital adoption.

Policy Changes

Change leaders must develop an organizational policy that emphasizes the solution's importance to drive internal cohesion at the outset of the change initiative. An effective strategy begins with the assignment of roles and obligations to all stakeholders, followed by establishing measurable objectives and accountability. Getting the information right now will help you prevent conflicts later on when putting the technology in place.

Marketing and Communications

Establish a Center of Excellence early on in the project that involves members from end-users, lines of business, IT, and executives. This team will help develop adoption plans and communications, making them essential internal evangelists in the transition process.

The executive sponsor should communicate the improvement plan to the whole company. This will reaffirm that the solution has executive support and that upper management expects it to be adopted. Have unique benefits and functionality that will help workers be more productive in these communications. After these initial communications, include feedback on growth, key indicators, and business results regularly.

Leaders may also use the technology solution to explain the importance of the change plan by using it as a communication platform.

Employee Experience

Organizations should use their Center of Excellence to direct solution creation, training, and documentation, ensuring that critical indicators are aligned and that the solution is tailored to current business processes.

Change leaders must develop a rigorous training program as the next step in ensuring a meaningful employee experience and eventually driving acceptance. Develop role-based sessions that cover multiple use cases instead of one-size-fits-all training. Enable trainees to interact with the solution rather than listening to a lecture. After the initial training, provide retraining sessions as new product features and integrations become available.

Rewards and Promotions

Positive and constructive feedback will help change management leaders promote the implementation of the new approach and method. Another successful strategy is to launch an internal newsletter that honors workers who use the system the most.

Executive sponsors may also reach out to non-adopters to persuade them to improve their actions or even reassign their backlog of work. They can also set an example by sharing information on the change initiative during leadership meetings using reports.

Legacy Platforms

Change leaders should schedule weekly, monthly, or quarterly check-ins to monitor adoption and compare legacy solutions used as the new technology deployment progresses. They can then change the plan to deprecate legacy solutions as required based on these metrics.

Collecting stakeholder input is an essential aspect of any change management plan. Employees should be able to send reviews, request features quickly, and recommend process improvements for the new solution, whether by a survey, brown bag lunch meeting, or the use of an in-product form. The Center of Excellence can then use these findings to improve the change management approach.