Whether you are adopting best practices or new technology, the odds of your project being successful without your staff and your customer changing their behaviors are about 30%.  Even if your initiative has a strong start with the value proposition understood, senior leadership support, and a fully defined organizational change plan in place, your project isn’t out of the woods. 
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With our dependence on technology and the rapidly changing environment, the IT staff and customers are inundated with change.  It is overwhelming.  It is critical to understand that your communications about the project are just noise when there is so much change in the environment.  In today’s workplace, on average you have to convey the same message at least six times before it has an impact. 

When you stop to consider the amount of change taking place in your environment, is it any surprise that the IT staff and their customers are experiencing change fatigue?  Is it surprising that your standard email, intranet posting, or newsletter article is no longer effective?  Is it any surprise that many projects which have notable returns never achieve the intended value?  Probably not but this doesn’t alleviate the frustration experienced by IT leadership and the customer.

But you had a strong start….What went wrong?

In today’s world, the environment you are working in changes on a daily basis.  The business may have a new product they need to develop.  IT may have a new security related project.  You may experience a restructure.  Critical resources may no longer be available. 

The changing environment you work in will impact whether your project is successful.  You can choose to slog through it.  You just want to implement this project and move on but this is one of many scenarios that causes a failure to reach the intended return.  If your goal is to implement at all costs, your project will become another statistic.

What steps should you take to effectively manage organizational change throughout the lifecycle of your best practice or new technology adoption initiative?

1)  Start strong – Be sure to understand the value proposition for each stakeholder group.  Consider the required behavior change and develop your organizational change plan ensuring that you focus on changing attitudes and behaviors.

2)  Recognize that communication is important but to be effective you will have to be a “broken record” ensuring that you relay the same message in many different formats and venues. 

3)  Recalibrate your initiative at routine intervals.  Adjust the milestones and timeline to account for other changes in the environment.  Revisit your initial goals and objectives to ensure they still apply.  Ensure your organizational change plan is adjusted as well.

4)  Conduct routine stakeholder analyses throughout the initiative.  Are stakeholders resisting change?  If so, why?  Have their needs changed?  Research the root cause of change resistance and take actions to immediately address it.

5)  Evaluate unintended consequences of your change.  Publicly acknowledge the fallout and take action to minimize the impact.

6)  Ask for feedback throughout the life of the initiative.  Establish feedback mechanisms and solicit the IT staff and customer views on both successes and challenge areas.

7)  Consider how the changes will be sustained once the project is over.  A project has a point in time implementation.  True adoption requires ensuring the change is embedded in the organization. 

Managing change and achieving the intended outcome is difficult.  Whether you are adopting the latest best practice in hopes of improving efficiency or implementing technology to support the latest business objective, it requires a structured approach and focus throughout the life of the project.

At AdOPT, we are transformation consultants focused on strategy, innovation, process, and culture to increase effectiveness, improve efficiency, and optimize costs.  We wrote the book on organizational change in IT.  For more information about our Change Adoption course, vision and strategy development, or other services, contact us at info@adoptitsm.com or by calling 520-591-2427.

​Organizations don’t change but people can change the organization.  Your staff and customers are critical to success.  A recent survey indicated that 83% of organizations believe change resistance is inhibiting the organization from realizing the value of their ITSM initiative.

With technology changing rapidly, if an IT organization is unable to harness change and leverage it to the organization’s advantage, they will continue to struggle with customer and employee satisfaction.  If organizations are to recognize the value of an ITSM related initiative, they must take steps to minimize change resistance.

What are the top 3 actions you can take to minimize change resistance?

1. Recognize that organizational change must be effectively planned and managed.  Organizations that develop and execute plans to influence the attitudes and behaviors of both the IT staff and the customers are four times more likely to achieve a successful outcome.  Focus on adoption which includes both short and long term behavior changes rather than implementation which is merely a point in time.
2. Invest time in the development of your IT leaders.  Managers are vital to the success of your ITSM initiatives.  The IT staff and the customer are working directly with this leadership team on a daily basis.  Research from McKinsey shows the 50% of efforts to transform are negatively impacted as managers are defending the status quo rather than acting as role models.   The senior IT leaders should spend time on a weekly or at least monthly basis with all of the supervisors, managers, and directors discussing their ITSM vision and why ITSM is important to the organization. 
3. Engage those closest to the work in determining the solution.  Explain the vision and the current challenges and get out of the way.  The IT staff that do the job are often the best qualified to determine the solution.  If you provide them with the opportunity to determine the right course of action, you will often have a stronger solution and you will minimize change resistance.

Take steps to minimize change resistance and make 2016 the year your organization finally recognizes the value of your ITSM strategy.  By planning and managing change, investing time in your management team, and engaging employees in determining the right solution, you maximize your opportunity to achieve results!

At AdOPT, we are transformation consultants focused on strategy, innovation, process, and culture to increase effectiveness, improve efficiency, and optimize costs.  We wrote the book on organizational change in IT.  For more information about our Change Adoption course, vision and strategy development, or other services, contact us at info@adoptitsm.com or by calling 520-591-2427.

At AdOPT, we are transformation consultants focused on strategy,  innovation, process, and culture to increase effectiveness, improve efficiency, and optimize costs.  We wrote the book on organizational change in IT.  For more information about our Change Adoption workshop, vision and strategy development, or other services, contact us at info@adoptitsm.com or by calling 520-591-2427.

Organizational shifts in IT such as adopting various good practices and building them into the organizational DNA are a slow process.  They require culture change that often takes years to complete.  Along the way the IT employees experience highs and lows often accompanied by periods of intense pressure to demonstrate forward momentum and resolve issues.  In the midst of these changes, the IT organization must continue to be effective with the day to day operations associated with supporting their customers. 

The relentless pace of change over a long period often creates change fatigue leaving employees feeling exhausted and wondering if it is all worthwhile yet the organization must continue to move forward to achieve their objectives and they must continue to support their customers effectively and efficiently.  This scenario is tricky to manage.  If change fatigue goes unmanaged, the organization faces several risks relating to employee retention and engagement which will ultimately have a negative effect on the transformation initiative.

Change during periods of IT transformation must be calibrated to account for both the goals and objectives of the organization and the culture.  The development of strategic plans and subsequent projects as well as day to day operational management must consider how to revitalize fatigued staff throughout the entire transformation initiative. 

To maximize the opportunity for success with an IT transformation, leaders must carefully observe the organization focusing not only on transformation and employee engagement metrics but other key indicators of change fatigue such an increase in attrition, a decrease in customer satisfaction, and the frequent reallocation of resources.  Organizational change and project plans must be recalibrated throughout the initiative with the schedule and resource allocation being adjusted as necessary to allow for the IT department, key resources, and customers to take a break from the constant momentum of change to recognize and celebrate the progress to date.  ​