Brandee Fantini – Principal A critical component of every successful system implementation is people readiness, usually driven by an effective change management team. Too often, though, the focus is largely on system readiness, and people readiness can sometimes take a backseat when it comes to funding, prioritization, and even understanding its value.
Far from being the “soft stuff,” people readiness can and should be defined, managed, driven, and measured. It belongs on the project scorecard, in every project update, and as a topic in every steering committee meeting. At TiER1, we believe investment in people is THE critical success factor in system implementations.
After all, it’s people who:
Every member of the project team has a role to play in driving change, readying people, and creating the environment for successful implementation. Let’s take a quick look at some key roles in the project team AND the change management team, and how those roles can work together most effectively to drive change.
Dan Clark, Oracle Project Lead, PPG Industries, Inc., provides this guidance: “When issues arise, escalate early and often. Don’t have more than a couple of meetings on any subject because spinning on decisions wastes time and money. Make a decision and move on.”
In your role as Project Lead, you have a lot on your plate: delivering a solution that works, budget and time constraints, the engagement and wellness of the project team, engaging the business, adapting plans to new requirements and constraints, and keeping executives in the loop. It might be misleading to say that all these responsibilities are easier with an experienced change management team leading people readiness for your system implementation. But it is completely fair to say that your effectiveness in driving business outcomes is greatly enhanced by engaging an experienced change team to support you.
Check out these tips to learn more about the Project Lead’s role in driving change.
In your role as Project Manager, you oversee all aspects of the system implementation, with goals related to budget, timeline, and quality, and you’re responsible for integrating and coordinating all timelines and milestones. A key benefit for Project Managers when partnering with a strong change team is that, while the change team isn’t the tech or process expert, they are the people readiness expert. Risk is inherent in any large system implementation, and your change team plays a significant role in identifying and mitigating a host of risks before, during, and after Go Live. From process and workflow to system design, the change team is well positioned to understand risks and work with project team members, the business, and leaders to identify and implement solutions for people readiness.
To learn more about the Project Manager’s role in driving change, check out this article.
“I’ve worked with some great project managers,” says John Patton, Change Management Specialist. “The best are the ones who do two things: 1) they see people knowing what to do, why to do it, when to do it, and how to do it as critical as the core functionality of the system they are delivering, and 2) they view the change management team as experts in people just as a developer is an expert in code and configuring. The worst are the ones that only ask for a quick update, ‘Did you send an email to everybody? Did you complete the training?’ Be like the first.”
As Sponsor of a system implementation effort, you make or strongly influence budget decisions, sit on the steering committee, and have significant influence on project decisions, including people resourcing. The change team is your ear to the ground across the organization. Odds are good that they understand aspects of your business that you don’t fully understand (that’s normal and perfectly okay).
When the change team is external, generally the understanding is even greater because it’s easier to ask questions, dig deep, spot trends, and see impacts to project and people readiness. If you’re getting all your information from PowerPoints, meetings, and the Project Lead, broaden your sources for heightened awareness and a wider perspective.
Check out these tips to learn more about the Sponsor’s role in driving change.
Depending on what type of system is being implemented, you could be the primary sponsor or one of many who will be adopting the new system and related processes. You’re also juggling competing priorities to meet the objectives of your department/site/function while simultaneously supporting the project.
Change management is critical for minimizing risk to your post-Go-Live productivity and ability to meet internal and external demands. There will be times that the change team will ask for access or time from some of your most critical team members. The concept of “pay now or pay later” is super relevant to you. It’s hard to justify shifting people’s time and focus to something that could happen years from now (Go Live). In our experience, though, most business sponsors wish they had dedicated more upfront resources to people readiness once they get past Go Live, when lack of preparedness is most obvious and incredibly challenging to address quickly.
To learn more about the Business Stakeholder’s role in driving change, check out this article.
As a developer, your focus is the system, processes, and making it all work as expected for end users and business leaders. You might not be directly involved with people readiness strategies and activities, but you play a significant role in both. Change management is valuable to you because it drives adoption of the process improvement you poured blood, sweat, and tears into creating.
Check out these tips to learn more about the Developer’s role in driving change.
“The change team understands some of the critical tips and tips for better user adoption. Efficiency often lies in a few small details that allow the business to achieve the desired results,” says Doug Whiting, Global SAP Practice at DXC.
Of all the roles in a system implementation, yours is arguably the most important. If and how you choose to use the system and adopt new business processes will make or break a successful Go Live.
Change management is your champion—they are your advocate in all things, and they often act as the voice of the end user to the project team, sponsors, and business stakeholders. That doesn’t mean change will be easy or that some roles/individuals won’t have more system clicks or different responsibilities than before. But it does mean having a team dedicated to your success every step of the way.
To learn more about the End User’s unique role in driving change, check out this article.
1. Tension will inevitably arise regarding which critical path tasks are most important at any given time. Work with other project leaders to ensure a healthy balance between system readiness tasks (such as testing) and people readiness tasks (such as documenting and communicating change impacts).
Roles impacted: Project Lead, Project Manager, Sponsor
2. Gaining support for adequate project, SME (subject matter expert) and Super User resources is not easy. It can be incredibly uncomfortable and time-consuming persuading senior and front-line leaders that resource investment is needed. The business is usually under pressure to deliver different outcomes, making it challenging to focus on people readiness early in the process. However, implementing a new system requires a resource lift, and there comes a point where that lift can’t come from the existing team alone. Early involvement from Super Users is critical to long-term success (and a smooth Go Live). Extra resources (contract, part-time, etc.) are often needed to backfill existing team members and get through a Go Live successfully. Project leaders can support End Users and Business Stakeholders by gaining approval for additional resources and creating time and space for Super Users to engage in a meaningful way.
Roles impacted: Project Lead, Project Manager, Sponsor, Business Stakeholder
3. Balancing deadlines and project team health can feel like walking a tightrope at times. Timeline delays mean budget impacts, but the health and well-being of the team is critical. Short-term pushes are often needed, but you can’t let your team members burn out. Balance motivating and inspiring the team to high performance with knowing when team members are overwhelmed, pushing too hard, getting sick, or burning out.
Roles impacted: Project Lead, Project Manager, Sponsor
4. When it comes time to Go Live, you lead the team in making the call on whether you’re ready—or not. Delaying Go Live is a big and unpopular decision. A lot of factors need to be weighed, and all major stakeholders need to share their perspective on “go or no go.” If the risk to business continuity is too great, have the confidence and influence to help others understand a “no go” decision. Defining “go” criteria early in the project and making that decision multiple times leading up to cutover, can help tremendously.
Roles impacted: Project Lead, Project Manager, Sponsor
5. Tensions between system and people readiness are inevitable and healthy. It helps to be balanced in prioritizing. Great people with a positive mindset can often make a bad system work, but rarely will people make a system work when they don’t want it to work.
Roles Impacted: All
6. There will come a time when you need to make a decision about quality versus timeline/budget. Don’t let perfect get in the way of moving forward. However, don’t sacrifice business continuity and trust in the project team by pushing forward when the right answer is to take more time to do it right.
Roles impacted: Project Lead, Project Manager, Sponsor
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If you’d like to connect with our team to learn more about driving systems adoption across roles, give us a call at 859-415-1000 or reach out through the form below.