Bracing for change management in the ‘new normal’

The dynamic nature of businesses today, together with the COVID-19 threat is forcing organizations to change in unprecedented ways. An ambiguous business environment means that organizations must manage the transformation remotely, in a world where typically 70% of major transformation initiatives fail¹. This proves stressful and challenging for change managers.

By harnessing the power of digital platforms to enhance traditional methodologies, managers can convert change capability into a competitive advantage. In this two-part blog, we focus on how Infosys MicroChange^TM can help change managers win by following 5 key steps. We begin by understanding how change-practitioners can set up for change and engage stakeholders remotely.

Steps to drive Hi-touch MicroChange^TM remotely:

 

Setting up for Change

The Infosys digital change management (DCM) platform enables change managers to set up the program digitally and onboard various stakeholder groups within a remote set up, as follows:

1. Leveraging the digital change management (DCM) platform: Infosys DCM² is the first cloud and mobile solution designed to be accessible anytime, anywhere, and on any device. The platform can facilitate a culture of learning and collaboration for the employees as well as enable the leaders to derive strategic insights to track the adoption of new solutions. Recently, the Infosys DCM platform successfully helped a leading global CPG company with a large and complex transformation in product traceability, across the European region, thereby allowing remote and virtual organizational change management (OCM).
2. Recognizing the 3 pillars of implementing remote change:
3. Studying the change impact: Studying the impact of change forms the basis of a change management approach. Here are innovative ways to do this in the new normal.

a) Reinvent fit-gap workshop:  As a change practitioner, we understand that a fit-gap workshop is crucial to assessing the impacts of change. Infosys Panaya and Capsule can expedite this activity. The findings from these tools will help the change team to identify and focus their efforts on the functional and process domains where most of the change is anticipated.

b) Develop a persona journey map: Businesses can develop distinct audience groups or personas, and develop content with details of the anticipated change particular to those groups. The change team can work with business owners to populate the personas with representatives of the project teams. This persona- relevant content and associated tasks can be set up on the DCM platform.

 

Engaging the stakeholders

1. Connect frequently:  Not meeting stakeholders can become a threat to the project over the course of time. Regular online meetings and calls with various user groups getting onboarded to the program can mitigate this. The use of video is advised to bring a sense of partnership. The DCM Platform can create cohorts or various discussion forums to build a strong virtual network.
2. Establish a continuous communication channel:  There is no such thing as ‘excess communication’ in the new normal but it is critical to reinvent the modes of communication and divert from traditional methods. Methods such a ‘virtual coffee catch-ups’, ‘interactive media’, etc. can increase awareness among the team. The communication repository of the DCM solution can be used by the change practitioner to convey important messages to the target group without creating an email overload.
3. Gather feedback to realign and reinvent:  Here the change network plays an important role. Dipstick surveys help us to understand the sources of issues in advance and we can proactively manage the resistance through appropriate interventions. Change practitioners can Conduct market cadence calls with regional key stakeholders to govern the regional requirements and nuances. The intra-social networking platforms like Yammer groups or DCM cohorts can gather inputs from the stakeholders to understand the challenges and the interventions required.
4.  Set up a strong reward and recognition framework: Organize appreciation week to engage the users where they can appreciate one another. This will help to build an internal partnership among the various teams involved. The leaderboard feature of Infosys DCM is a fresh approach to recognizing the commitment of the individual or nudging them to achieve the next target.
5. Focus on the question ‘what’s in it for me?’: While employees navigate through the new normal, a complex business transformation would be too much for them to accept and advocate. Therefore, it is crucial that change leaders focus on bringing the benefits of the change and how that will help users in the future. Run a communication campaign series with each focusing on a key feature of the business process and how it will benefit different roles or stakeholder groups.

As organizations settle into the new normal, the key to successfully managing the organizational change in the virtual world is to look beyond the traditional approach and work towards a paradigm shift to MicroChange™ methodology empowered by digital tools.

In the next part of this series, we will take a look at how organizations can build capability and drive the adoption journey while ensuring the change is sustainable.

Want to learn more? Reach out to our regional leaders:

• Holly Benson, Global
• Bob Ellis, NAM
• Jaya Subramanian, India 
• Sandeep Choudhari, India 
• Mick Burn, EMEA
• Sian Cameron, APAC

 

 References:

1. Business Case for Managing Change, 2007. CEB Corporate Leadership Council.
2. Infosys Wingspan. Retrieved  May 25, 2020 from https://www.infosys.com/products-and platforms/wingspan/documents/infosys-wingspan.pdf