In a world where there is a new, shiny thing around every corner, there’s something to be said for the tried-and-true change management tools we have used for years. Regardless of whether the change is a technology implementation or organizational restructuring, there are a few change management tools that will always set you up for success. These core change management tools deliver consistency within the change management practice and industry.
In my experience, there are generally five change management tools that are the foundation of all change management efforts, regardless of the scope and size of your change effort. Additionally, which tool template you use isn’t as important as ensuring the tool yields the appropriate purpose and results for what you are trying to accomplish.
The five change management tools I can’t live without are:
- Change storyboard
- Stakeholder assessment
- Change impact assessment
- Communications plan
- Sustainment plan
A change storyboard should clearly articulate the basic elements of the change – who, what, when, where, how. There are many ways to create a change storyboard, but as long as it illustrates the high-level details of the change, it can be a highly effective tool to quickly inform others and drive conversation and decisions.
In my opinion, the stakeholder assessment is the most critical tool when supporting a change. Knowing who is impacted by the change, when they’re impacted, and the severity of impact will drive the majority of the change management support and planning activities. Getting to know your stakeholders on a granular level will yield the greatest return on investment in change management. The stakeholder assessment is an easy tool to convert into a visual graph to illustrate the impact of all groups. Assigning a numeric value to the severity scale and then building a simple heat map can be a very effective tool to use with the project team and senior leadership.
When supporting a portfolio where there are multiple projects, a change impact assessment is a powerful tool to illustrate the comparison of projects on an “apples to apples” basis. The change impact assessment shows which projects fall into the various quadrants of scope and complexity to identify the level of support needed for each change. This view can lead to determining change management resource allocation as well as risk identification.
A communications plan may seem obvious but is often overlooked in terms of thoroughness. A communications plan should be more than a tactical list – the tactics should have thoughtful cadence and should ensure there is a healthy balance of frequency and span across impacted stakeholders and influential leaders. Remember, this plan should also include opportunities for employee feedback on the progress of the change.
Often times, the “end goal” is seen as the go-live date; however, we know in change management that the end goal is adoption, and sometimes, the adoption timeline has a longer timeline than the go-live date. This is why the sustainment plan is so critical to understand early on in the project and has appropriate buy-in from project and stakeholder leadership.
It’s easy to get caught up in the shiny headlines of “new tools” or “new technologies to measure change”, when it always boils down to the basics – articulate your change story, know your stakeholders, intimately understand the impacts change will bring, communicate along the journey in many different ways, and support the users all the way through adoption.
If you are ready to start exploring these change tools and more to ensure you are set up for change success, reach out to the Avaap change management team!
Tashira Bommer has more than 16 years of professional experience, with 11 years of focused experience in the change management industry working with a variety of clients in insurance, retail, healthcare, government, and utilities. Currently at Avaap, Tashira has a focus on bringing data analytics to the change management practice to provide more informed decision-making and enhance the tactics used to drive better adoption.