New technologies and software solutions, especially large-scale solutions, typically mean changes to operations, business processes, employee learning, reporting, and even the way a company interacts with its customer base.

If your organization is facing significant change, you may want to consider undertaking a change facilitation process to help ensure that all those affected can play a role in effecting the change effectively and efficiently.

Effective change facilitation requires optimal user engagement, especially in relation to how their particular roles and responsibilities will be affected by a new application or business process. Our change facilitation starts with ensuring the right people are at the table reviewing business requirements and working together to determine the appropriate user interfaces, reporting requirements, help screen requirements, and training needs.

We also believe that line users require appropriate involvement in adjusting business processes, where necessary, to better utilize the new system.

Executive leadership is paramount Employees look to executive management for leadership and inspiration when faced with major changes in the business environment. While the CEO and other key management personnel do not necessarily have to lead the facilitated change process, they should be clear with their employees and other stakeholders about the goals and anticipated benefits of the changes. The role of executive leadership should include articulating the vision, leading group meetings at key milestones, ensuring ongoing communication channels are in place, and providing clear guidance to those with change design responsibilities.

Identify concerns and aspirations in advance. When we engage a client in this work, we emphasize the importance of working with all stakeholders early on to identify the worries, concerns, resistance, and aspirations they have regarding the many changes ahead. Such analysis helps create an appropriate change strategy.

The stages of a change project A change project occurs in stages, from the identification of business needs to the implementation of the project. For those affected by change, they need to be “helped” along the change journey by first increasing their awareness of the need to change, which is usually best achieved by involving them appropriately in the initial stages of the project or initiative.

This involvement builds their desire to find solutions to their needs and challenges. As the project progresses through its conceptual stage, your knowledge grows in terms of needs and solutions. They begin to learn about the new abilities they will have, which require regular reinforcement well beyond implementation. An appropriate change process will address these stages in an effective and timely manner.

the change team Since software applications are often rolled out in conjunction with business model changes, we recommend creating a change team that involves key vendors/vendors and relevant representation of the organization’s staff. This core team is responsible for working with all affected employees and often key customers to ensure optimal management of issues and solicit important feedback throughout the project.

For large-scale initiatives, it may be useful to hire an outside consultant to coordinate, if not lead, change management activities.

Communication is key An integral part of a stellar change process is regular, informative, and clear communication throughout all phases of the initiative. If a technology initiative is impacting many employees in multiple locations, it might be wise to create a website dedicated solely to the project, where staff and other stakeholders can go to get the latest news on progress, provide feedback as needed, download relevant materials as they develop and communicate with each other in functional groupings.