I have never believed in "one-size-fits-all" change management approaches. Many initiatives have tried and failed. Listening to voices on reasons for failure of large IT-related transformation initiatives, such as ERP implementations, will tell you that change management topics are key success factors. Nonetheless, companies seem to not be willing or not able to learn from other's and their own experiences.
Stakeholder group specific approach
My strong belief is to use stakeholder group specific approaches to allow for tailored information, involvement, and enablement activities. I am convinced about this, considering the different timing and information requirements of various stakeholder groups.
Just as one example, process owners in ERP initiatives will need to understand, accept and actively support the to-be situation much earlier than the end-users. Why?
Because process owners will need to be involved in decision making during design phase and might play an important change agent role during implementation phase.
In contrast, end users will need to understand the to-be situation during the final weeks before go-live and it is to be expected, that some will accept but never really actively support the to-be situation.
Typically, end-users will have some weeks of training plus some weeks of hypercare to reach this understanding and acceptance.
Process Owners, however, will need to get to the active support stage within a much shorter time.
Change Journeys
Defining stakeholder group specific change journeys can help to tailor fitting change facilitation activities.
The idea of change journey and to connect them to phases of process-driven Business Transformation projects, I've elaborated back in 2019 and 2020 together with Dr. Russell Gomersall. The similarity to Customer Journeys is not a coincidence.
Just like customers have touch points with a company, employees are having touchpoints with transformation initiatives.
Fig1. Defining touchpoints of the change journey and linking them to work packages of transformation projects (Customer Journey Map modeled with Signavio)
The idea is that each individual involved or affected by a transformation is somehow traveling along the change curve. The classic Kübler-Ross change curve consists of seven steps. However, using the curve not for individuals but rather stakeholder groups, we found it easier to use and explain when summarizing these steps into three stages: (1) become aware, (2) understand & accept and (3) actively support.
In the last stage of that journey, some will start actively supporting the transformation not just because they need to, but because they are convinced of the objectives and benefits.
Coming back to the Change Journey, you could ask yourself the following questions to start with:
What should be the first "touchpoints", which make them aware?
How do the next touch points need to be designed to give them the chance to understand?
Can certain information, involvement or enablement activities increase the likelyhood for them to accept required changes?
How can we create the opportunity for those who not just accept but actually support the changes to actively support the transformation?
Same as for Customer Journey Maps, you can design the stages of the Change Journey best by putting yourself into the shoes of the different stakeholder groups. Using personas could be a way to ease the switch of perspectives while trying to foresee:
how certain touchpoints will be perceived,
how these could be designed to address the needs and,
whether additional touchpoints for specific stakeholder groups should be planned for.
Let's be honest: You will never satisfy every individual's need during a transformation. But, by planning the change journeys of various stakeholder groups and tailor them to their needs, you can get closer to it.
Looking forward to your thoughts and comments.