Are you struggling to get users to efficiently embrace a new tool or technology?

Is the unexpected shift to fully remote working creating change management obstacles?

Are you looking to prepare for an upcoming Microsoft Teams implementation for your small or large company?

Just because you implement a new tool, doesn’t mean people will use it or even leverage it correctly. Join us for our next change management webinar in which we will be sharing a success story about how our change management team enabled the adoption of Microsoft Teams for 15,000 users at a large utility holdings company.

We’ll be highlighting real experiences, obstacles, and solutions to explain the importance of change management and why it is so crucial in achieving your desired goals and returns on your investment.

Please join us for the webinar on October 8th we discuss how investing in OCM can help drive user engagement, increase adoption, and maximize your ROI.

The rapidly occurring changes in people’s professional and personal lives during the COVID-19 crisis are not some that many were planning to make (and certainly not all at once). In organizations, change can cause stress to any worker, especially when it was not anticipated at all.

The primary unexpected change impacting many employees today, which I am using as the main example for this blog, is the current obligation to be working remote in order to “flatten the curve.”

While this is a large change for most workers to make, leadership using the right tactics can both minimize disruption to work and guide their teams to adapt and meet their goals successfully.

Here are three ways to help teams quickly adjust to the unexpected transition to working from home.

1. Establish two-way communication with impacted teams

One of the most effective ways to manage change is by leading with empathy. Such a quick transition to working remote can feel very isolating for many employees, especially as levels of uncertainty rise and sense of security goes down. The best thing leadership can do at these times is build trust with employees through two-way communication. Instead of simply sending out a ton of company messages as often as possible:

• Set up a few call-in/video sessions to establish feedback discussions with employees
• Have 1:1 check-ins with direct reports to see how they are doing (but avoid micromanaging!)
• Conduct a quick survey to ask employees “How are you handling these abrupt changes?” or “What might help you adapt?”

Finding a common thread in people’s feedback will help you as a leader accurately highlight strengths of how the change is being handled, communicate the right messages, and prioritize concerns that your team needs addressed.

2. Empower employees with the right tools and direction to work independently

Rather than micromanaging, empower people who are working remote, by giving direction on what’s expected, and equipping them with the tools they need to be successful:

• Create a central hub or dashboard for remote teams to provide progress updates when ready, and reference information like FAQs at any time. If needed during the COVID-19 crisis, quick and free solutions like Google Docs and Microsoft Teams can be used to help teams to stay on top of their work from home and collaborate remotely.
• Implementing a new tool does not equal change success. Set some time afterwards to monitor usage and focus on how to provide any additional resources as needed.
• Keep in mind that working from home requires flexibility. Your teams won’t be available 24/7, and it’s important for them to know that is okay. Once tools and expectations have been set, trust your team to meet their goals remotely and provide support as needed.

3. Still Celebrate Quick Wins

Recognize people for putting in the effort to make these unexpected changes to working remote. Show that, especially in today’s world, having to work from home can still be just as fulfilling, motivating, and fun by doing things like:

• Taking some time in regular meetings to let people know they are on the right track and recognize them for their efforts to adapt. Face-to-face video is the best way to communicate with others on an emotional level and let them know they have your full attention. Otherwise, try to use rich communication methods like videos or celebratory pictures/memes/GIFs to enhance the message
• Encourage remote team building activities and virtual happy hour! I can tell you from firsthand experience that this can be just as fun remotely and is a solid way to boost team morale from home (especially in these tough times)

We understand the current need for us to be physically separate, but we do not have to embrace all of these changes alone. If you’re having change management challenges in the current crisis, please reach out  to our organizational change management team, who can provide expert advice to help get you through these challenging times.

I was watching the new Creed II movie, and in the film, an aged Rocky Balboa slowly climbs the same museum steps that he famously ran up and cheered at the top of in the iconic Rocky movie scene years ago. After he struggles to make the final steps, he celebrates that he’s still able to make the trip again. While watching this I immediately began to wonder. Did he think about still having to make the trek back down those stairs? How long might that take?

We know that Organizational Change Management (OCM) successfully connects both the technical side and the people side of an initiative throughout the entire change effort. But what exactly is the entire change effort and how do you know if it was truly a success?

While some may believe that their work is complete once a new product or technology finally launches and they begin to see desired results, human behavior isn’t as clear cut. According to Prosci ⁽¹⁾, leaders should only know if a change was successful if they can take a step back and be sure that employees are still motivated to work differently afterwards.

When organizations have the mentality of implementation = change success, it causes them to underestimate their own capacity for sustaining people’s adoption of new behaviors. Key members will either move on or be reassigned somewhere else leaving the project team with hope that changes will uphold, and that performance results will continue to improve without their help. As David Chapman, General Manager of Perficient’s Organizational Change Management practice puts it, ⁽²⁾ “ultimately, we shoot ourselves in the foot so close to the end line and we don’t realize the benefits we intended to drive by implementing the new system to start with”.

John Kotter clearly cautions leaders of change to avoid the mistake of “declaring victory too soon” in his Harvard Business Review article on leading change ⁽³⁾. Instead, they should continue support well after go-live to “make the change stick” and help people avoid from falling back to old habits once the excitement has died down.

Now, rather than thinking of sustainment as an added effort to be started once the change has been made, the most successful projects start planning for sustainable change at the beginning.  A benchmark study on sustainment by Prosci ⁽⁴⁾ showed that, “61% of participants reported planning for sustaining adoption early on.  Also, 60% of participants who allocated adequate resources for reinforcement activities either met or exceeded project objectives.”

Below are some examples of the benefits planning for sustainment from the start:

• Know what to evaluate and measure post-adoption
  • If long-term goals of sustainment are developed and success metrics are defined at the beginning, leaders and colleagues will have less difficulty knowing what to assess and how to measure progress.
• Engage with your established Change Network to refocus on post-implementation support
  • Work with stakeholders that you have built a relationship with during the project to continue giving knowledge to support end-users, providing lessons learned, and advocating the change when things tend to slow down.
• Create a long-term rather than interim training plan
  • Develop long-term training plans that designate someone as the owner of making any training adjustments needed after evaluation or updating future onboarding materials.
• Communicate, communicate, communicate
  • Leverage key messages developed during the project to support ongoing communications on any updates made after the change. Show end users the progress that’s been measured and tie it back to the goals they heard so much about before the change. Answer FAQs so end users are aware of any issues or concerns. Most of all, share the successes to gain more credibility and maintain the momentum.

Successful change management goes beyond implementation to ensure that individuals are ready, willing, able, and stable to make a change. Creating a plan for sustainment from the beginning also ensures that project leaders aren’t left shorthanded when allocating the right resources for reinforcement and that employees have the right OCM support to reach business objectives and achieve lasting success.