Video: Change Management Strategies You Need Before You Start a Technology Project

What You’ll Learn:

• The power of planning. Understand why addressing change management during the early planning phase is essential to ensure long-term project success.
• Practical tools in action. Explore a proven, actionable tool designed to help your organization think about change strategically and implement it effectively.
• Real-world success stories. Gain inspiration from real-world examples of organizations that prioritized change management and delivered impressive results for their technology projects.

However, this isn’t just another webinar. It’s a masterclass packed with actionable insights, tried-and-true strategies, and practical advice to help you embed change management seamlessly into your technology initiatives. You’ll walk away with a clear understanding of how to foster alignment, engage stakeholders, and set the stage for smooth transitions and successful outcomes.

Who Should View the Presentation?

This presentation is ideal for project managers, technology leaders, nonprofit and association executives, foundation leaders, and anyone eager to master change management strategies. So, if you’re ready to learn how to transform the way your organization implements technology this session is for you.

Start building a solid foundation for your next technology project. Equip yourself with the tools and strategies needed to turn challenges into opportunities and drive lasting change. Take a step toward transformation—because true technology success begins with effective change management.

Transcript

Kyle Haines: Welcome everyone to the first in a really amazing series of webinars about change management, and how you can use change management to align stakeholders, prepare them for change ahead and introduce critical elements of change management into your technology projects.

I’m Kyle Haines, a partner at Build. And before I introduce our presenter today. I wanted to share the dates for our next 2 sessions in this series, and don’t worry, at the end of today’s presentation, I’m going to share the registration link with everyone for the next session on April 9^th. And I’ll be monitoring the Q & A today. So please feel free to add your questions to the Questions section.

And with that I’m so excited to turn it over to my colleague Debbie, partner of Build, who’s going to lead today’s presentation.

Debbie Cameron: Good afternoon, everybody. I’m Debbie Cameron, a partner with Build Consulting. I’ve been a management and IT consultant for more than 25 years. I started my career working for Arthur Anderson, and then Bearing Point, and about 7 years into a career working with very large corporations. I wanted more purpose in my work.

I was at Bearing Point at the time, and I moved into an arm that exclusively served nonprofits. I got to work with clients who had missions I believed in and loved. And it’s during this time that I discovered the discipline of change management, because, like every perfectionist out there, I wanted to make the projects I worked on more successful.

As part of this professional journey, I felt like I needed to see what it was like to work within the walls of a nonprofit. So, I joined the team at World Wildlife Fund for four years to lead the implementation of their Blackboard CRM (Constituent Relationship Management software.) I found that experience, my experience having been a consultant, and now, being on the other side of it, really beneficial, because I was able to advocate and help the organization navigate a large technology project.

I then found Build which for me had the best of both worlds. I got to serve as an advocate for our clients and help them navigate technology projects. And I really got to pursue my professional passion, which is change management.

It’s important to me to see nonprofits be successful in their projects, and so many of them are not successful. And when you do research or read research on why, there are a lot of reasons why technology projects are not successful. But lack of change management is a big one, and it’s one I felt that I could tackle.

Today I’d like to share some knowledge with you all, to help set up your projects for more success, or maybe just learn something new about change management.

Our agenda for today is pretty simple. Let’s reground ourselves on what change management is and why we need it. And then let’s do a deep dive into what tools we can use in the project planning phase that would set a project up for more success from the change management perspective.

At Build Consulting, we have two core beliefs that motivate us both to do this work and to approach it in the way that we do. The first is our belief that technology can empower organizations to work more effectively and to change the world.

The second is that technology fails so often because we treat it like a baseball field in Iowa. We think if we build it, people will come. We get the shiny new technology. But we don’t recognize the need for the organization to get shinier, too.

This is a formula that we’ve used a lot before. Those of you who have worked with Build, I’m sure, have seen it. It’s one of my favorites, and it seemingly never gets old for folks, because everyone has lived a version of this. And as I harken back to the slide that I shared earlier, the fact that they don’t come to that fabulous field we built in Iowa is captured in this formula.

OO plus NT equals EOO, old organization plus new technology equals an expensive old organization.

The key is to find the right things to add to the formula that will make the outcome a transformed organization, because that’s critical to your success.

And maybe some of you have lived through this or are currently living through it. Which brings me to the why of the folks who are joining us today to learn more about change management as part of the webinar registration. We asked folks what brings you to today’s webinar? And it seemingly is kind of split. Half of folks just want to learn more about change and change management, or how to better integrate it into their work. And the other half are looking at an upcoming technology project and thinking, okay, how can I leverage change management at this point to help with the project?

We also asked folks, if you do have a technology project on the horizon or are in one, where are you within it? And it looks like we have a good mix of where people are with their technology project.

Today, we are focused on project planning. And I hope things that we learn today you can bring back to these projects, no matter where you are in them, because I honestly believe it’s never too late to introduce change management to a project. It just can’t be ignored.

Whatever investment you put into it, at whatever stage of the project you’re able to, you will reap the rewards of it.

What is Change Management?

Let’s dive in and let’s ground ourselves in what change management is.

I mentioned earlier that change management is a big component of why we see technology projects fail. And here’s the connection. Here’s the driver of why that’s the case.

A good deal of the failure rate of technology projects is related to the fact that we simply do not do a good job of anticipating the effect of these projects on the people that they’re supposed to help when these impacts hit them, we lose the hearts and minds of the people we’re trying to serve. And as a result, we don’t get the return on the investment we had hoped for and in a lot of cases for our clients the organizations have already introduced a large change without an appropriate level of change management.

So, they’ve already lost trust with their stakeholders, and they come to us looking to change that and part of that is what we’re going to talk about today, which is, when we’re planning that next project, let’s start with change management.

So, what is change management? We like the definition by Prosci, which is a leading research and consulting company in the field of change management. And you’ll notice I’ve highlighted “prepare equip and support individuals to successfully adopt change.”

You will notice, it does not say how we make people, how we make everybody on a project happy. It’s a frequent mistake about change management.  Change management is not about making everybody happy about the change. It’s about making everybody ready for the change.

When we start working with a lot of our clients, we find the culture supports the following statement, and maybe some of this will resonate with you all today. If you have emailed it, you think you have changed it.

What change? What should change management look like at an organization? We at Build believe it’s a concurrent work stream to any project, and it can be done by an internal resource or by a consultant.

What it cannot be is a side job of somebody who’s managing the technical change. Oftentimes there is a technical project manager focused on executing every aspect with the project, and it’s difficult to have one person focused on both a lot of times. Folks will just take the change lead role and say, oh, the project manager can handle it as well, and that’s not always the best way.

Ask yourself, do I need change management?

Here’s the test. If your technology change requires people to adjust their behavior, I’ll say it again, if your technology chain requires people to adjust their behavior, you need change management.

Okay? Fine. But the next challenge is when?

As early as possible, ideally, it should be integrated during the project planning phase even before the technology is selected or implemented.

Strengths for a Change Management Leader

You can tap somebody internally to do this or you can hire a consultant. But what should you look for when you look for a change management consultant, like many professional disciplines, certain strengths lend themselves to being successful at leading change management efforts, and it does require a diverse set of skills and strengths.

Strategic thinking is crucial as it enables leaders to foresee challenges and devise effective intervention techniques.

An organizer’s ability to manage logistics ensures that all elements of the change process come together smoothly as well as making the concept clearer and easier to grasp for folks.

Initiators play a vital role in driving momentum and motivating teams which is essential for gaining buy-in.

Communicator is an obvious one but can’t be left out. Clear and persuasive messaging helps stakeholders understand the rationale behind changes and their benefits and impacts.

Empathy is an important one. It allows leaders to connect with individuals addressing concerns and easing emotional responses. I like to say, knowing how to meet people where they are is a crucial part of successful change management.

Lastly, maintaining a positive outlook is important for keeping teams engaged and inspired, especially during challenging transitions. It doesn’t mean sugarcoating everything. Sometimes we have to acknowledge that parts of the change stink, but the strength is, the positivity can help feed morale.

So, these are some of the strengths that, I think, make a really strong change leader if you are looking to find either a consultant or somebody internally to take it on.

But why do I need it in project planning?

I will be honest. Throughout my career I have been challenged many more times than just once on why change management is needed so early in the project and I get it. Resources are tight budget timeline. But if you want to return on the investment associated with your technology project you need to invest in change management.

I don’t think anyone could argue that effective project planning is crucial for aligning leadership and setting clear expectations from the outset.

By identifying stakeholders early, we can assess risks and ensure that all relevant parties are included in the process.

This proactive approach enhances communication and transparency which are vital for your project success.

When team members are informed about changes and their concerns are addressed, it fosters a culture of adaptability, adaptability, and trust.

Who doesn’t want that for their organization?

Think about what those feelings do to folks, productivity and collaboration and the efficiencies gained when your team has those types of sentiments.

Engaging team members through various methods, such as workshops and surveys, not only boosts their ownership and commitment, but also encourages collaboration, additionally establishing feedback loops. Early in the change management process allows for necessary adjustments, ultimately increasing adoption rates and ensuring overall smoother transition.

What Does Change Management Look Like in a Project Planning Phase?

There are a number of really cool change management tools for each phase of a project, and I’m sharing my top 5 favorites on this slide, and while I look forward to future opportunities in another webinar, or maybe a fireside chat or a future blog post that I’m sure, Kyle, who you met earlier is going to nag me to do today, we’re going to focus on 2 of them today.

We’re going to focus on diving into the stakeholder matrix and the change readiness survey.

So, I’ll pose a question to you all.

Have you ever felt excluded from decision-making processes related to a project or experienced challenges in staying informed about project changes that impact your day-to-day responsibilities?

And I think Kyle is putting up the poll for folks.

Kyle Haines: I did. I just launched it.

Debbie Cameron: Thank you, Kyle, and I encourage you all to reflect on your experiences to answer the question and consider how these feelings might have impacted your productivity on that project or the teamwork on that project.

Kyle Haines: Results are flying in, Debbie. I’m going to give another 5 seconds or so. If you haven’t voted yet, please vote – one time, not early and often. Alright hopefully, Debbie, when I end the poll, everyone should see the results.

Debbie Cameron: Thank you. Okay, so overwhelmingly Yes.

I wish I could say I was surprised. But the good news is, those who did answer yes are not alone. Look at these statistics.

Why do you think this is? There’s a number of contributing factors. In technology projects we often spend so much time going into details around a budget, a timeline of functional requirements, and technical requirements that we don’t spend time going into detail about the people.

Those who work with me know that one of my most used sayings is, people are the hardest part of any change, any project.

Yes, we need a budget. Yes, we need to understand the details of what we need from the technology. We need a timeline that we can manage to.

But do we know what we are asking of our people? And who are the people that are affected by this? And have we put some thought into how they might receive this? And do we know much about their dynamics right now?

Kyle Haines: Debbie. We got an interesting comment in the QA. Somebody wondered if it was possible that the people who answered “no” to the poll are the ones that are actually doing the implementation of the projects? And they acknowledge that was the case with them at least. That, you know, maybe the way they answered is because they’re the ones doing the implementation.

Debbie Cameron: That’s interesting, and a very good point. Thanks for sharing that.

Kyle Haines: There’s also another question. I think you touched on this earlier. How to think about budgeting for change management if you’re at the planning stage, and you haven’t undertaken the project already?

Debbie Cameron: That’s a great question. And I know the most frequently used tool is, folks do a percentage of the project, and that percentage is somewhat aligned to the size of the project. So, if you’re doing a $25,000 project, or something that you’re estimating to be $25,000, you should take 15% of that. And as the dollar amount of the project grows, the scale in the percentage grows.

Additionally, some people like to look at it at how many people are affected. But in the second tool in this webinar, we’re going to focus on the change readiness survey. That is a tool, I think, that folks should actually use to inform the change management effort, because it really shows where you are with regards to change management at your organization if you’ve done it well, or if you haven’t lost your team, or if your team has a lot of faith that this is going to be done well, or they cite a lot of organizational strengths.

Then the investment in change management doesn’t need to be as large as if you’re really going to struggle to regain your stakeholders.

Or, if the survey doesn’t indicate a lot of organizational strengths to leverage for change management, and other elements of that. So, I’ll circle back to that when we get to that part of the webinar. But that would be my answer.

The Stakeholder Matrix

So, we know the problem. And we want to help leadership and project leaders. And you all address this. And so, what can we use to do that?

I will introduce you to the stakeholder matrix.

So, what is it? This tool helps us identify our project stakeholders, those people who will be impacted by the change that the project represents.

We use this to categorize them, based on their level of involvement, interest, and influence, and figure out the best way to engage and communicate with each group throughout the project.

Why do we use it? It helps us connect people to the project. It helps us see the people impacted by what we are about to embark on. It ensures those impacted have representation on the project which is so important. It helps us identify any early champions, especially if any of them have high influences within the organization. It also helps us get a sense of any resistance, so we can acknowledge it and begin efforts to reframe it. It also helps inform the various audiences that we need to communicate with, because, as I’m sure you all know, communication is key success factor in every project.

Kyle Haines: Debbie, somebody asked if they could get a copy of that, or if we had an example, and I can just answer that. It’s available on the Build Consulting website under the Resources section.

Debbie Cameron: Thanks. Kyle.

Understanding the outcomes of using the stakeholder matrix may further underscore how crucial it is for project success.

First, we need to identify all groups or individuals affected by the project and assess the level of impact on each. It also helps us tie stakeholders to our project or selection team to ensure it’s well represented and that we’re reflecting the interests of all stakeholders that are impacted. It’s essential that every stakeholder has access to a project team member or an executive steering committee member to facilitate feedback mechanisms and open communication. I will say, if you use the stakeholder matrix for any one thing, use it for that.

Additionally, we must evaluate leadership, alignment, and readiness to support the project. It allows for an inclusive approach to building our change plan and creates a data repository to help us track stakeholder sentiment over time. This also helps allow for adjustments.

Like many change management tools, it’s a living, breathing document, and should be revisited and managed throughout the project.

Lastly, I would say, if you’re using it for only two reasons, this would be the second thing – I would make sure you track identifying change agents within the organization. Change agents can significantly enhance our change network. Sometimes you call them super users. Some people call them department captains. There’s lots of fun names for them, but ensuring that we have influential advocates to support the project goes a long way to success.

Case Studies and Examples

So, I’d like to share some stories of the stakeholder matrix in the real world.

Misaligned Decisions and Communication Around Functionality

In this case, neglecting to engage stakeholders had significant repercussions for this museum that I worked with. The organization aimed to upgrade its CRM and membership and ticketing systems. But the IT department made unilateral decisions without consulting stakeholders. It was not done maliciously. They thought they were helping the entire goal, and they were very dedicated to making their end users happy, and they really, truly cared about those they served. They just thought it was an IT decision, and they wanted to get the project going quickly.

This led to a pilot project that failed to address users’ needs and resulted in panic when key functionality was overlooked or not well communicated and discovered when end users were brought into testing, which was way too late in the process.

The project was ultimately halted, and we were brought in to do a fit gap analysis. Our instructions were to perform discovery and find out where the system lacked functionality the end users needed, and assess whether the system could be reimplemented to meet their needs, or if the system was not a system that could meet the end users’ needs.

What we discovered, and maybe some of you have already guessed that this is where we’re going, is that the core issue was not the technology itself or perceived lack of functionality, but rather the lack of effective change management.

So, we had to take several steps back and engage with our stakeholders at the beginning of a reimplementation project. And where did we start? We started with a stakeholder matrix and ensuring we had a representative group to move forward with.

The fast-paced decision making may have felt effective at the time, but cost the organization not only time and money, but also eroded trust among stakeholders, which can be far more damaging in the long run.

Bringing in Users Too Late in the Implementation

Another example is an organization I worked with who rushed into implementing a new CRM without a thorough stakeholder analysis and faced significant challenges because of it.

In this case our client’s leadership made a quick decision to address what they saw as a fixable problem. Their old solution was being sunset. They chose a new solution, and they ran with it, and it led to a lack of representation from critical teams that felt part of that decision, and in the end, it resulted in a system that the users said did not meet their needs. So, the end users rejected the new system, claiming it was ineffective, and they used their voices to let leadership know about it.

We were brought in to analyze the end user processes in the hopes that we could re-engineer them to work with the new system, and that that would solve the problem. However, the process analysis revealed that neither the processes nor the technology was the problem. It was the lack of engaging users early in the process that was impacting acceptance.

Additionally, when users were brought into the process which was a bit too late, the team didn’t assess the user sentiments and treated the group in a one size fits all kind of way which ignored a pocket of resistance that, if identified earlier, even at that point could have been reframed and brought along.

And I say this confidently, because that’s what our work did with them. But the intervention techniques implemented post-launch not only consumed additional time and resources but also eroded trust within the organization. There were a lot of negative emotions around the experience, and even though when we left the team and system were working efficiently and effectively together, the impact of the loss of trust some folks experienced will have a long-lasting effect on that organization, and likely cost time and money in a future project.

Kyle Haines: Debbie. Somebody asked a question in the Q &A. I’m guessing this person might be thinking about a CRM project or in the middle of one.

They’re wondering what stakeholders in this story got missed. They were just curious about how it got missed.

Debbie Cameron: So, this was again an IT driven decision. IT and leadership. And the two teams that were not involved were fundraising operations and the marketing team, and they had a membership program. So, the marketing team was a heavy user of the CRM. Hopefully, that helps.

Starting Change Management Early for Success

But let’s focus on a story of success. So, this was project that involved a recent CRM selection project. In this project leadership knew they wanted to invest in change management having been burned before, and we were brought in to help them and engage with them. We started in the project planning phase by working with leadership to complete the stakeholder matrix and engaging various team leads in the completion of the stakeholder matrix.

We ensured diverse representation in our selection team which is so crucial for us to succeed in developing buy-in and support. It also gave us windows into some pockets of resistance early, which allowed us to tailor our coaching interventions as part of the selection project, and that ended up being really effective. And note, all of this was done before we started the technology selection. It is incredibly valuable to identify resistance in the early stages of a technology project and begin intervention techniques as soon as you can. The more you can bring folks along before the technology is introduced, the more successful the implementation of that technology will be.

That’s why it is important to use these tools in the project planning phases. It also facilitated our ability to create a proactive communication plan from the project start, and that we were told later through feedback. It really fostered transparency and a feeling of transparency, and it enabled us to address concerns and gather valuable feedback through some listening sessions that we thought would be an appropriate early intervention technique.

This approach not only informed our future communications, but also built trust among stakeholders, ultimately leading us to a smoother implementation project.

So, I am curious if folks have used a version of a stakeholder matrix in the past or on a current project.

Kyle Haines: Debbie. I launched the poll.

Debbie Cameron: I’m waiting. With bated breath.

Kyle Haines: Results are flying in. Looks like almost everyone’s answered. Give it another couple seconds; alright, I’ll end the poll and share the results.

Debbie Cameron: Oh, that’s great. So, 53% of our participants have used a stakeholder matrix, 33%, no, and I’m not sure is 13%. So that’s great to see.

I’m curious. This is where I wish we were all having coffee together, because I’d love to dive in and see what the successes and pitfalls you found with your stakeholder matrix and how it compares to the one that Build uses. But hopefully, we can have that conversation in the future.

So, let’s move on to our second area of focus.

But first, I want to ask folks another question. Have you ever heard of a project that leadership was taking on, and you had immediate concerns or thoughts about the project, but no mechanism to raise them?

And as folks answer this, I encourage folks to reflect on their experience with where you felt concerns or thoughts but lacked a way to express them and the implications. If it wasn’t you or other folks feeling that way and not feeling like they had a voice because there was no clear mechanism for feedback.

Kyle Haines: What I think is interesting about this poll is the slowness with which people are responding. So, we still have a few more people that are going to respond. It looks like, people didn’t immediately know the answer, know they were going to answer this.

Debbie Cameron: I can tell you; I have definitely felt this way when projects have been implemented in my world, and it definitely led me to frustrations, and maybe some misunderstandings.

About 60, yes, so 60 have felt that way. 40 nots. So that’s good news.

But I will say that if you were on the 60 that said Yes, you’re not alone. Once again, the statistics say that folks are driven by the unknown and they actively resist change, and these negative emotions and sentiment impact productivity and the ability to work effectively within and across teams. And so, by addressing these concerns proactively by fostering the culture of trust and open communication, organizations can mitigate this form of resistance and enhance overall performance during these transitions. Looking at it from the organizational perspective and some research.

If we’ve already had a project where change management wasn’t done. Well, we’re creating a less agile and scalable organization. And let’s be honest, there’s no slowing the pace of change in this day and age. So, we have to become an agile and scalable organization.

Using a Change Readiness Survey for Change Management

And so, what can leaders and project leaders do to address this component?

They can use a change readiness survey, which is designed to assess how prepared and open the organization is for the upcoming change. It’s a temperature check. But most important, it’s a way to give your team members a voice early in the project.

So, what’s the purpose of leveraging a change readiness survey?

The change readiness survey is designed to assess the organization’s preparedness for change, identify potential challenges, and inform strategies on how best to approach the people side of the project

Just as importantly, it also provides a baseline measurement of where the organization is, such as stakeholder, alignment, sentiment, organizational strength, workforce capacity, project management, capabilities, overall change, and agility.

Learning where we are in each of these areas at the beginning of the project, allows us to measure against them as the project moves forward.

And I think more important than both of those things, it’s a way to give your team and your staff a voice in something that affects them. It is important that you know, when a change readiness survey is introduced, that it be given the right messaging around it. That it is important to participate.

The insights gathered from the survey, ultimately you want them to help shape change management intervention, techniques like coaching plans, communication, planning, training, support strategies, messaging leadership, presence. All of these intervention techniques are levers you can pull to ensure a smoother transition.

And then continuous participation with much smaller versions of this survey throughout the project lifecycle, and maybe with a smaller group of stakeholders, allows for comparisons against the initial baseline to help track progress, identify emerging risks that your change management plan is not mitigating, and adjust that change management approach as needed. Because you have that data to understand, okay, I thought we were addressing this. But we’re really showing no progress in that area.

I would also note, it’s really important to encourage honest and open feedback, and the way to do that is to make this confidential and provide anonymity. The results are really to be used solely for the purpose of improving change management strategies.

You’re not using it to, you know, gain insight into how somebody specific feels about it. So, you really want to treat it confidentially and let staff feel safe and being able to answer it.

And so, what questions should I ask, when I develop my change readiness survey?

The thoughts and research around this tool have really changed and evolved over the past decade. And in my experience these areas, these colored boxes on the slide. They’re the areas you really want to focus your questions in.

The Build change readiness survey has 2 to 5 questions in each of these sections that we work with project leadership to refine, based on the type of project, the organization, structure, the size of the organization and what project we’re undertaking.

So, as you design your organization’s change readiness survey, I encourage you to focus on these areas and know it’s important to ensure that the questions that you put in each one of these buckets align with your organization’s specific needs and project goals, your size and what your organizational priorities are.

You really want all of that to help the goal. The outcome is to surface key insights that will guide your change management approach. That’s specific to the project you’re taking on.

And I really believe utilizing a change readiness survey offers significant, advantageous outcomes for organizations facing change. It allows us to pinpoint potential risks by gauging employees, perceptions and their confidence in the organization’s ability to manage change effectively by identifying organizational strengths. We can leverage them to enhance our chances of successful implementation.

Additionally establishing a baseline of change readiness is crucial. As I was alluding to before, it really helps provide insights into the overall mindset, skill levels, and comfort levels with the change among staff. Once we know those, we can select the right intervention techniques to address those and make them feel like they are going to be prepared for that, and that we are going to be supportive in them during of them during this transition.

This understanding enables us to really customize those intervention techniques and strategies.

The most common things that folks always talk about when they talk about change management are communication, planning and training. But there’s so much more to change management beyond communication and training. There’s a lot of tools out there. And the more we understand the people that we’re impacting and what they need, the more we can pull on those different tools and also get creative right? Because this is about people.

Additionally, the survey helps clarify the support needed from leadership and change agents and help inform the scope and investment required for the effective change management. So, going back to that great question in the first half of the webinar – How do I know how much change management I need? The outcome of this change readiness survey is really going to help you understand how much change management you need, because it’s going to see not only what the sentiment is of your stakeholders, what their belief is about the organization’s strengths and ability to support them in this change.

But it’s also going to show you how much they need. If you’re asking about their capacity, and they’re indicating they don’t have any, that’s going to represent a bigger need from change management perspective than a team that says we’re ready. Our priorities have been made clear, and we know that this project is a priority, and we’re willing to dedicate the time to it.

Those are two very different answers. And those projects are going to go to in two very different ways. So, you’re really going to want to put more of an investment in change management to one of those.

It also helps guide our communication strategy and allows for timely adjustments to our change plan based on that real time feedback. Those checkpoints that we continue to do throughout the throughout the project to see if we’re making progress, or if things we’re doing are not landing for our stakeholders, and they’re not effective. And that intervention technique was a miss. So, let’s change it additionally, depending on where you are in the project that might introduce a risk that needs to be mitigated.

And so, it gives leadership the opportunity to develop a mitigation strategy for that risk. Before that risk becomes an issue that we have to deal with.

So really, I just believe the use of a change readiness survey helps us prepare and ensure a smoother transition overall.

Change Readiness Survey Project Examples

So, let’s take the change readiness survey out into the real world.

Change Readiness Survey Shows Change Management Arrives Late

In one project I was involved in the organization, believed initially that all focus should be on discovery and design and change management would come in later. This was a very big training, and then, they wanted a very large communication plan around rollout.

So, when that time came to focus on change management, or when they believed the change management should really turn on, it became clear that there was some impact to ignoring change management for that long, and that we had already lost some key stakeholders in the work, and that we were going to have a pretty big hill to climb, to get to launch and to really get adoption where we wanted it to be. And that was even after we lowered expectations a little bit of where we wanted adoption to be at the start.

So, we were requested to put a lot of focus on change management asap. But the problem is, you can throw in a lot of change management, but if you’ve already lost folks, you need to be very thoughtful in how you do it. And you need to really be able to measure if it’s working in some way or another.

And just like any leader, if you put that kind of investment into anything, you want to hear how it’s going. You want a status on how it’s going. But because of the initial oversight and coming to the table too late in the process, we lacked any baseline data to measure readiness in a kind of concrete data driven way, which led to uncertainty about users, needs, and concerns, and how best to address them. And were we addressing them? There was no temperature check we could do to see if we were making progress, and addressing the concerns that they communicated at the time that we came in.

And so, as go live approached, leadership sought clarity on change management progress, and the team struggled to provide data driven insights. We were really only able to rely on subjective information that didn’t provide the confidence they were looking for to ensure stakeholders’ concerns were being addressed.

So, it was a situation where leadership had anxiety about the change and weren’t feeling like they were in a good place, and stakeholders were definitely having anxiety and not feeling like they were in a good place, and nobody wants to be in that situation.

It underscores the necessity of engaging stakeholders early and continuously throughout the process to inform the project’s change management and create a feedback mechanism to ensure the intervention techniques being leveraged are effective and money and time well spent to avoid that situation.

Early Change Management Readiness Survey Reveals Surprises

More of a success story; we were brought into lead change management at the onset, and we were able to utilize a change readiness survey during the project planning phase, and this was a really interesting project, because the project involved the migration to a new CRM platform. It was framed as a very strategic move for the organization. Everyone had been clamoring to make this move for years. Everyone was excited. Everyone was ready. This is the messaging that we received when we, you know, partnered to take on this work.

And we released the change readiness survey, and the survey not only highlighted employee concerns and some concerning readiness levels but also pinpointed some deep pockets of resistance.

Now the good news is it allowed for a tailored change management strategy right from the start. With survey results in hand, we presented to leadership, who agreed with us that it was in the organization’s best interest to delay the start of the project.

And what that delay allowed us to do is we conducted two leadership alignment sessions, a unique intervention technique. And we held several listening sessions with different audiences, another unique intervention technique. And those different audiences, guess what, were informed by our handy dandy stakeholder matrix.

By addressing some of the concerns and working to reframe some of the resistance and focusing on that leadership alignment, which the staff knew they thought there were concerns and they were right – we started the project off on a better foot. The staff felt heard and acknowledged, because that effort was made. In the post-launch survey and the lessons learned meetings that happened at the close of that project, both of those things were really celebrated by staff. because that built some trust and said, okay, they’re (leadership is) willing to take the time and effort to hear us and address the concerns we have before diving into this project. So, this is really a gold standard success story for the change readiness survey.

I will say, with the added information we had through the survey, but through not only the survey, also with those leadership alignment sessions and the listening sessions, we were really able to create specific coaching plans. Our communication plan was very diversified. Training and our adoption plan were really developed in a way that resonated with user with user needs.

The intervention techniques we employed in that project really landed and really worked very well, which was really exciting and great to see. Leadership and I believe wholeheartedly that the proactive identification of resistance facilitated a smoother transition overall and establishing that baseline at the start, enabled ongoing measurement of our progress and change management. So, we could see the intervention techniques we were using were working, and they were progressing in the way that we had wanted them to.

And so, leadership gained crucial visibility into the change management process which fostered improvements along the way. We could still pivot, and there were always creative suggestions of what we could do better even if we were progressing in the way that we were excited to see. But ultimately it set the stage for a much more successful project outcome. And if we hadn’t done those things I can’t imagine what the launch of that CRM in particular would have been.

Q&A

So now that we’ve taken a deep dive into 2 of my favorite change management tools, and hopefully you all have gleaned some way and that they’ll support your project. I’d love to open the floor for any questions you might have.

Kyle Haines: Debbie. There were a ton of questions that came up towards the end. I held them all. Do you want to take a deep breath as I just pepper you with the questions that we got along the way?

Debbie Cameron: Sip of water and go.

Kyle Haines: While you do that, here’s a link to the next webinar in the series which we’ll talk about towards the end of today’s presentation.

The first question is, would you recommend doing a change readiness survey if the project’s already well underway?

Debbie Cameron: 1,000% absolutely.

Kyle Haines: The next question is:

We tend to get a lot of surveys. Is there anything you’d recommend if we already do a bunch of surveys and people might just not pay attention to this?

Debbie Cameron: That’s a great question, and I will say you’re not alone. I mean survey fatigue is a thing, and I know some leadership hesitates to do it.

I do think the framing of a change readiness survey is really important, because I know all the surveys are “We want to hear from you. We want to hear from you. We want to hear from you.” This is really about gaining information, so we can make life better for you. It’s not about gaining an opinion that we’re going to use to inform decisions. We’re going to take this information, and we’re going to act in a way to make your life better.

I think that messaging is not making your life better. That’s a little bit of a dramatic statement. But make your transition in this project, and with what we’re going to be asking you to do and change, we’re using this information to help you do that, so there is an outcome.

All I can suggest is, keep them as short as possible. That first one you really will benefit if it’s a little lengthier, but it still doesn’t have to take very much time. The ones that as you go along the way should be super short, and now people can do them on their phones. I know some clients where to motivate for the project the first three people that completed it got a Starbucks gift card. So those incentives are always fun if you have the resources to do that. But I know resources can also be tight.

But again, I think the framing should make it fun. Some organizational cultures are very competitive, so they would give shout outs and have competitions. But I would just say the messaging that this is information we are trying to collect to act on your behalf to make things better. That is really important to deliver with the survey.

Kyle Haines: And the last question, and if anyone wants to add any additional questions in, please feel free to so. This person said:

We get giving people anonymity in surveys. But our project will impact hundreds of users. Should we ask for the department that people are in?

Debbie Cameron: Definitely. If your organization is that size, then they’re going to feel okay sharing their department and still feeling like it’s confidential.

The other thing you can do is just, you know, be very clear about who’s reading these results, right? Like it’s going to be certain members that they might be scared to share an opinion with within the organization and so caveating it with who’s actually going to be reading the specifics of the surveys is important.

And what I like to always say is when we’re brought in, I always say that, you know, even if we ask the departments, we’re not sharing very specific feedback with leadership, we share thematic feedback. And so, if folks are worried about being called out, or something that they say is going to be attributed to them because it sounds very much like them, they will hesitate. Anything you could do to make them feel like they’re in a safe space helps. But I do think, especially on a project that’s affecting that many people, knowing the department is going to be huge, because your communication audience, your training, all of those things are going to be very different for your various stakeholder groups. So, I do think that’s very important and great question.

Kyle Haines: So, I’ll come off video, Debbie, because I think that’s the last question for today. And I really appreciate this incredible presentation. As always, I learn a ton from hearing it, even if I’ve heard it before. And it just makes me reflect on how I can be a better change manager and change leader in the work that I do

On the next slide. I want to share a link that you can follow to some of our change management content. That includes the stakeholder matrix. It also includes some sample change readiness survey questions that you can use, and I also wanted to share with you our Linkedin information. We share information there also. Our colleagues post a lot of great information. We promote it there. So, it’s just an encouragement to follow Build on Linkedin.

A little bit more about our next webinar. It’s going to be the second in the series. Debbie is graciously volunteered to do the next two. It’s on April 9^th. You’re going to be getting an email from us with a registration link in the coming weeks would love for you to block out the time, love to have your return, come for the next in the series.

And lastly, if there’s any way that we can be helpful, please feel free to reach out to us. If you need help thinking through how you can align your stakeholders and think about how you’re going to prepare them for the change ahead, and introduce change management into a project, we would love to hear from you.

And with that I’m going to sign off. Debbie, thanks again. Thanks to everyone else who is here today, and we hope to see you in our next webinar. Have a great day.