In my role at Prosci, I have the privilege of working with senior executive teams across all different sectors and geographies. Reflecting on the last two years, one thing that’s stood out is how the language and tone of the dialog has changed. I’m hearing far more leaders say they are going through an unprecedented amount of change. Comments like, “We’ve got more change coming in the next three years than we’ve experienced in the last 20 and our future depends on the success of their transformation efforts,” are becoming commonplace. This means it’s an exciting time to be engaged in the change management discipline.
Interestingly, when I ask these leaders if they have an established approach for budgeting, hiring and onboarding, ramping up new clients, closing the books at the end of the month, inbound marketing, process improvement, etc., they always say “yes, of course.” When I ask what kind of common approach they use to address the people side of their most important changes, I get some interesting looks... everything from blank stares to multiple requests to rephrase the question. All of this points to the fact that the need to establish a robust change capability still lives in many leaders’ blind spots.
It’s no secret that value comes not from what gets built, but from what gets used. And in the last two years, I’ve seen multi-million-dollar projects get totally scrapped because of lack of user adoption. It’s not an isolated issue; I’ve seen this happen in telecom, healthcare, higher education, utilities, consumer products, travel, insurance and retail sectors, just to name a few.
We coach clients that these ‘glorious belly flops’ are only really mistakes if they fail to harvest lessons from them. We’ve been hearing “fail fast and fail forward” for many years, but most big organizations don’t have a culture that supports this kind of thinking. Instead, lots of companies spend more time on finding who they’ll blame if things don’t work and not nearly enough time ensuring impacted employees are able to adopt the new change they are trying to make.
On the bright side, the risks and trade-offs associated with not building organizational change capabilities are starting to become a C-suite discussion topic. One of our multi-billion-dollar global clients even gave us feedback that their board identified change adoption as a top enterprise risk.
I believe organizations are forced to pay for change management whether they know it or not. It’s much easier and more prudent to pay a small dose proactively with some intention than paying a multiplier downstream to clean up a mess. Through the numerous failed changes that organizations have experienced, they are starting to view change management less as an optional ‘nice to have if time permits’ approach to a ‘must-have step on the critical path to value realization.’
We’re seeing leaders grasp the understanding that adoption of new ideas doesn’t happen by accident – and it takes intention and investment to achieve the desired outcomes. It’s getting easier for leaders to make the case that big project budgets need to include dedicated investment in change management activities. One of my favorite quotes of the last year comes from a CFO who said, “We need to start investing at least as much in change management as we are willing to put into contingency budgets.”
So what does it mean to build a change-capable organization? Here are a handful of tips I’d put forward to anyone brave enough to tackle the task of growing organizational change capability:
Change is no longer an episodic event, sequenced out in a manner that organizations can absorb. Instead, change is a constant that’s here to stay, and the only way for organizations to thrive in times of change is to build a change capability. Senior executives are starting to realize that the ability to out-change the competition is the way to win in competitive markets.
What steps is your organization taking to build a robust change capability?
Scott McAllister is a results-oriented leader with a passion for individual and organizational transformation. With experience living on three continents, Scott leads Prosci’s growth efforts by partnering with clients to architect results-driven change management solutions. Scott has spent the last 15 years helping clients initiate transformational change with a combination of strategy, operational excellence and innovation platforms across a broad range of industries, from healthcare and biotech to financial services and telecom.
Speak with a Prosci professional to learn more about our research, training, resources, advisory services or how to partner with us.
+1 970 203 9332
Considering working with Prosci to build your change capability? Let’s talk! We can define your goals, review your strategy and provide actionable insights to drive your organization forward.
Create a free account and access a wealth of online resources and research-based tools to help you succeed at each level of your change management journey.