It’s the same message week in, week out; SteerCo are discussing implementation issues again. 6 / 12 / 18 months down the line, the project is going no-where and implementation is still not within sight.
Eventually, the people heading up the project realise the underlying problem. They didn’t see the importance of using business change strategies to deliver a technology solution, after all it’s a technical delivery not a people-driven initiative. And so, no thought was given to understand the changes that employees across the organisation were being asked to make.
Budget, time and resources are often seen as the main culprits for delayed implementations, but in reality are commonly a secondary issue. The real problem? Resistance to change. The people the change impacts weren’t actively engaged or involved; they didn’t understand why, how and what they needed to change. And so they don’t.
The solution?
Business change.
Any change that impacts how someone will do or use something differently is behavioural change. And that means that you have to think about things from their perspective. Easier said than done… maybe? But maybe not. Because if you do the work to understand how they work now and how they will work in the future, all you really have to do is connect the dots and help them adapt. Or as I like to call it, A.D.A.P.T.
A.D.A.P.T is a simple acronym for five steps that will help you enable employees to adapt their behaviour and support and adopt technology change.
- build Awareness and engagement with the right people at the right time, sharing why there is a need for change and why it is necessary. It’s about involving them in identifying what they will have to do differently as a result.
- create Desire and motivation for the change so that employees choose to support it.
- develop the Ability and knowledge of impacted employees so that they know what they need to do to stay operational before, during and after the change has been implemented.
- ensure impacted teams are Prepared and ready for implementation. Whether it’s big bang or a roll-out, they need to be ready to hit the ground running without it impacting engagement.
- Transition impacted employees to a place where change becomes the norm; reinforcing the use of the change and instilling the right behaviours.
Getting employees on board with new technology and ensuring that they are willing and able to change their behaviours to use systems, applications and processes is vital to implementation success. Don’t fall into the trap of dismissing business change activity because you’re implementing tech; embrace it and help colleagues across your organisation A.D.A.P.T and thrive.