OCM for Transformation to Drive Business Value

Jennifer Martindale, Director, Organizational Change Management, J.R. Simplot Company

Make a snack, grab some water, and a comfy seat before you Google Lessons learned from failed digital technology projects because you’ll have a lot of reading to do. The change model utilized by the Enterprise Organizational Change Management (OCM) team at the J.R. Simplot company incorporates these lessons and emphasizes the heavy hitters of stakeholder management, change impact assessments, organizational readiness, and sustainment. Where are communications and training, you might ask? They are there as two of the many supporting tactics necessary to deliver the people side of change, but they are not the heavy hitters themselves, and they certainly don’t represent the sum of OCM.

Stakeholder Management

Change happens at the individual level. The key objective of stakeholder management is managing the expectations and requirements of individuals who are directly impacted by the change and the individuals who influence them, in particular, people leaders. People leaders are a superpower in Organizational Change Management. As boots on the ground, they are in the best position to identify and mitigate resistance to change, identify change impacts, communicate information (particularly if it’s less than ideal), and support individuals through the change curve. When managing stakeholder expectations, emphasize reality over-optimism in regular cadence communication and engagements. Magic words won’t make stakeholders buy in if they otherwise wouldn’t, but surprises can create resistance that can be counterproductive to transformation. Be intentional to confirm stakeholders understand reality through feedback loops and correct misconceptions quickly.

“People leaders are a superpower in Organizational Change Management”

Change Impact Assessments

To prepare, equip, and support individuals through the change journey requires understanding the impact of change on individuals and/or stakeholder groups. This work begins with impacts from technology and process change then dig deeper to uncover impacts on mindsets, attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors necessary to drive transformation. Context is critical for right-sizing support efforts because change may impact stakeholders differently and to varying degrees. Do not underestimate the effort to do this effectively nor the powerful influence it can have on digital transformation objectives.

Organizational Readiness

Transformation initiatives are about doing something differently and end users must be psychologically and behaviorally prepared for that. Training plays an important role here, but for true transformation, we must go deeper into changing mindsets, changing behaviors, changing cultures, leadership coaching, and other skills. There is a lot of cultural work in a transformation project that requires a focus on the journey from the current to the future state. Behavior changes like ‘...trust the system...’ is just three little words on a PowerPoint but a big shift for individuals to make. Time devoted to this effort can have a significant influence on adoption and vice versa.

Sustainment

If you build it, they will come only works in the movies. OCM doesn’t end with “go live.” It will take time for individuals to adapt to new ways of working and for productivity to return, typically three to six months post-go-live. Utilize a sustainment plan with intentional actions to support, monitor, and reinforce changes until there is evidence that individuals are employing the right behaviors and tools in the right business context…aka adoption. Adoption is where the business value is. Don’t fall into adoption traps, such as assuming turning off old technology or training at go-live will make adoption happen.

Embedded Workstream

One final word related to the placement of OCM in a change initiative. For OCM to be effective, it must be embedded in the project to provide a holistically coordinated approach that supports the implementation effort. This team brings expertise that complements the efforts of functional leads, business leads, and other members of the project team. OCM might seem like a lot of effort, but the ounce of prevention from sound, current generation OCM practices is worth a pound of cure toward realizing the business values from digital transformation efforts.