When an organisational change project is delivered on time and within budget, we may deem it a success. But the true measure of success lies in how well the project has delivered the value that the business wants.
If value isn’t delivered, how can we say the project is successful?
Understanding the value that will be delivered to customers, both internal and external, must be considered before a project is initiated.
It’s important to consider the drivers behind your change portfolio. Are external forces such as Brexit or market change propelling your business actions, or are you being driven internally by departments or other branches of the organisation?
With so many factors at play, it’s vitally important that the project team and stakeholders prioritise these change demands in order to understand which change should be delivered, and when.
If you’re responsible for organisational change, here are five steps to delivering business value:
1. Understand what drives value for your customers.
Building relationships is at the heart of every area of business success, but especially so during periods of change. By consistently capturing data and information from key stakeholders and teams from across the business you’ll understand their most important issues, their strategy and vision and, most importantly, the challenges they may face. It’s at this stage you can realise the opportunities that arise to help and support these teams.
2. Align business and technology goals.
A strong relationship between business and technology is essential in order to ensure that strategy and vision are adapted and driven forward together. Technology should be synced with the business and any change within this area must support the delivery of organisational change.
3. Understand your team’s value proposition.
Fundamentally, your proposition should centre around three key areas: (i) Functional – the products and services you offer, (ii) Economic – the tangible benefits you offer such as time or money, and (iii) Emotional – how you want your customers to feel when working with you. (Supported, engaged and understood).
Ask yourself some key questions: How do we add value? How do we contribute to the organisation’s overall strategy and vision? How do we support the business in achieving its goals?
4. Design and implement business change.
It’s important to consider the changes required across people, processes, information and technology, and to consider how you can best support the business through the change process in order to avoid disruption to day to day activity and business goals, both short- and long-term.
5. Deliver business benefits
Benefits for each area of business change should be defined early in the delivery cycle but teams in charge of change should continue to offer support and tracking post- implementation to ensure that benefits are realised and the change becomes permanent. Remember that long-term actions and tracking of benefit realisation should be handed over to business-as-usual.
Ultimately, if you and your organisational change team have an excellent understanding of business operations – including people, processes, risks, issues and opportunities – you will be well placed to talk to them in their language, understand their problems and provide value through each stage of project delivery.
Becky Strafford is the Director of the Business Change Collective with over 20 years’ experience delivering the people side of change for some of the world’s leading organisations. With a deep understanding of how people see and react to change, Becky is passionate about putting people at the heart of change to ensure they readily accept and adapt to new ways of working.
** Business value is the net benefit a customer realises and it can be measured in financial or non-financial terms for example cost savings, automated processes resulting in time saved, improved efficiencies or increased security.