Dears,
“CRM projects are all about culture, ownership, control and resistance, direction, management, vision, communications, structure, process and people… people… people.”
Today every organization understands the need of an efficient CRM system and processes in place to take them to the next level. They cannot just do it with CRM and what they need most is the organization change to adopt the new crm system and this article will guide to better organizational change management (OCM) program.
Natural reaction to change: Resist
“This is a waste of time.”
“Why change if it was working just fine before?”
“If it ain't broke, don't fix it.”
“They never tell us what’s going on!”
“How soon will this happen?”
“How will this impact me?”
“Will I receive new training?”
“I doubt they are really serious about this.”
Large organizational-change management programs are notoriously difficult to run: they involve changing the way people not only behave at work but also think about work. Sometimes, however, changing individual mind-sets is the sole way to improve a company’s performance. . First your employees must see the point of the change and agree with it, at least enough to give it a try. Then the surrounding structures—reward and recognition systems, for example—must be in tune with the new behavior. People must also see colleagues they admire modeling it and need to have the skills to do what is required of them.
What it takes to Change:
What’s In It For Me (WIIFM)?’ is continually asked, answered and effectively communicated to each system stakeholder and user – in a purposeful effort to guarantee the acceptance of, enthusiasm for and correct use of the final product at all appropriate levels of the organization.
The top management vision must ensure acceptance of CRM Application by its users by managing the organizational change the system will bring to organization. Specifically, the vision focuses on the following change management interventions:
Sponsorship
The top-down support for the project with clearly defined and communicated messages and intentions. The goal is to create the need for change and to articulate the solution: the desired state. Sponsorship at the executive level needs to be established within COMPANY’s different departments (Sales, Marketing, Finance, IT, etc...).Sponsorship interventions focus on demonstrating the sponsors’ own commitment to the success of CRM Applications and building that commitment in others. Sponsorship will continuously communicate “Change Message” to their direct reports, who, in turn, cascade the sponsorship down the formal reporting structure of the organization.
Ownership
The bottom-up process that builds commitment to the change amongst all stakeholders. Ownership interventions are a mixture of communication, involvement, and marketing. The objectives are to make people aware of new system and help surface resistance, so, resistance can be addressed. Ownership interventions focus on the entire user population (including managers) with the intent to show to the users “where the pain is” in the current situation, describe how CRM will affect their “day in a life of a user@ COMPANY”, as well as clarify “what’s in it for me”.
Strategy
· Secure executive support in the effort
· Enable managers to coach their people
· Precondition users to accept changes
Tactics
· Implement “hands on” change management discipline by utilizing OCM best practices as much as possible
· Focus on communications to carry the load of our change management effort
Ø Analyze current state (pre-CRM era), desired state (CRM era), as well as the transition state (the Delta) (people, process, technology)
Ø Define the communication messages that describe the future as well as the transition states
Ø Strategically plan communications by source, audience, vehicle, frequency, etc.
Ø Prepare communication materials and tools. Ensure we provide a closed-loop feedback mechanism to capture the concerns of the users
Organizational Change Management Approach
The Organizational change management approach consists of three major work-streams, detailed in the paragraphs below. They consist of the following:
1. An “MRI” Assessment;
2. Change Plan Construction;
3. Change Management Execution.
The Change Management resource will own the MRI Assessment and Change Plan deliverables. For the execution this individual will likely own a subset of the interventions/ actions and act as an expert resource/coordinator to COMPANY resources (e.g., communications, HR, intranet, etc.), who will own the execution of other interventions. This arrangement allows execution of the change interventions to be the most efficient, leveraging the skills and strengths of the various resources.
A useful change management approach is dependent upon several key organizational “situational” factors, which we call the “Change Management MRI Environment.” The MRI acronym derives from the following definitions:
1. M - Magnitude: The specifics and magnitude of the change required;
2. R - Readiness: The preparedness of the organization for change;
3. I - Impact: The tangible impact of the change on system stakeholders and users, across all organizational levels.
When an organization’s MRI environment is understood, an appropriate Change Plan (a documented set of change management “interventions”) can be constructed to support the business objectives of a new system. Therefore, the first logical step in executing a change management project is to perform an “MRI Assessment” (work-stream #1) – used to clearly understand the existing state of the three MRI variables listed above.During the MRI Assessment, close attention is paid to the second variable, “Change Readiness.” Change readiness is defined as an organization’s ability and willingness to implement change. To baseline change readiness, the following factors are assessed:
· Perceived change drivers (i.e., the “perceived need” for change across levels);
· Expected stakeholder reactions, expectations and resistance;
· Ownership & commitment across levels;
· Sponsorship & leadership concerns;
· Skills resident and required;
· Current organizational culture (i.e., current specific behaviors);
· Existing communication approach;
· Change history (i.e., experience with previous change);
· Infrastructure and support (i.e. available systems, personnel and other resources).
Each of these factors is evaluated as either a potential enabler of or barrier to change. Enablers are factors that can be leveraged to make change successful, while barriers inhibit change and must be overcome to achieve program goals.
“Change Impact,” the third MRI variable listed above, is defined as the difference between the way stakeholders and users work today and the way they will need to work post-implementation. Gaps between as-is and to-be states, as well as sheer “level of impact” implied by the difference, are measured in the following areas:
· Process (i.e., tasks, jobs and skills);
· Knowledge (i.e., awareness, understanding and intellectual capital requirements);
· Culture (i.e., behaviors and attitudes);
· Structure (i.e., roles, responsibilities and governance);
· Tools (i.e., applications and performance support);
· Metrics (i.e., rewards, incentives, motivational tools and measurements).
The Change Plan (work-stream #2) outlines the set of interventions that are most appropriate to the situation and achievable in the timeframe available. This will be documented in a “roadmap” format, i.e., a set of activities laid out on a timeline together with the first iteration of the task level plan for each intervention. Change Plans usually consist of a number of different types of interventions, depending on the scope of the implementation effort, including some or all of the following:
· Sponsorship sessions;
· Ownership sessions;
· Organizational/job/role design sessions;
· Learning, Training and Performance support;
· Culture/behavior design sessions;
· Performance management incentives and rewards realization;
· Communications (the most prevalent intervention type throughout the program, growing in number intensity with time).
Determining what interventions are appropriate will be based on the results of the MRI Assessment and significant practical experience of the Expert change management representative. The completed Change Plan identifies which interventions are the most appropriate, prioritizes them, determines when they should be executed, who should be involved (the “what, when, how and who” of each intervention).
Note that while the COMPANY and Expert team believe that Communications almost certainly will constitute one of the interventions, it is impossible to say at this stage exactly what other interventions may be appropriate. Based on some of the “change history” COMPANY has shared with us, the Expert team has hypothesized that leveraging the existing commitment of the sponsors in an effective series of events, appearances and actions is a likely scenario, however the outcome of the MRI may indicate that one or more other interventions may be more appropriate. The communications program can begin prior to the completion of the Change Plan, as all stakeholders will need to go through an awareness building stage.
Change Management Execution (work-stream #3) is fairly self-explanatory. Once the completed MRI Assessment leads to a finished (or even partially-finished) Change Plan, execution on that plan can begin. As the plan is dealing with human reactions and emotions the specifics of the interventions need to remain flexible enough such that the team can react to actual outcomes and feedback and iterate on the task plan to ensure the key issues are being addressed and the desired outcomes achieved. The majority of the actual work done within a change management project resides in this work-stream, which stretches the length of the program and effectively manages the “change” of the organization from start to finish.
Be the Change You wanna be and Good Luck
Your Partner and Companion
Dinesh Chandrasekar - DC*
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