What's the best way to create a change management plan?

Another point is to assess the impact on different user groups. Is a particular group highly impacted, where their day-to-day will be highly disrupted during this change? They will need more involvement along the journey including communications and training. If a user group is impacted very minimally, maybe only a brief communication is needed. How each user group is impacted will also help determine the different strategies to bring them along the change journey.

Based on my learning and experience, creating an effective change management plan involves several key steps. Make a plan for change like this: - Look at the change and understand it - Figure out how to make the change happen - Get everyone ready for the change - Put the change into action - Keep the change going strong - Check how things are going and make them better

Also, think about these: Talk a lot to everyone about what's happening: - Teach people new things they might need - Get ready for problems and have backup plans - Get bosses to support the change - Ask for feedback and change things if needed - Celebrate when good things happen - Make sure the change fits with how things are normally done - Keep an eye on how well the change is working and be ready to change the plan

In addition to defining impact, the change management plan needs to include the definition of success for the specified change. Ask the question, "What are we trying to achieve?" For example, if this is a new software application success might be defined as "80% of existing users will be proficient in the new software within 30 days of go-live date." Defining success gives a measurable component that can be checked along the change journey.

The real first step is to find your templates! How does your organization do change management? What documents have they used in the past? What output documents do leaders expect to see? Find your starting materials. Then do your assessments to fill in the information you need.

Another aspect to include is ongoing adoption and engagement plan of the change. Once the change is "live", what is the change intervention plan to mitigate any ongoing adoption issues? Are people changing their behaviors or using the new application in the way they were intended? Are their metrics set up to track the longer term goals of the entire initiative and how it fits into the organization's wider strategy? It's important to have all of these aspects defined within the strategy up-front to be able to act quickly, if needed, when needed.

Start with the end...then work backward. If you don't know the destination, you can't map the journey. That being said, remain flexible. You're bound to travel bumpy roads and/or have to expect detours.

The change plan should also incorporate timelines that align with the project plan. Delays, changes or regulations impact the stakeholders in different ways. It's crucial to keep communication between project and change managers and the sponsor/leadership in sync. Success rests on all three groups working together to achieve the change.

I would call it an ROI analysis and I do it 2 ways, top down and bottoms up. Top down >> what are the goals, what are we saving, what are we getting? - Broad stroke estimates - Qualitative & ancedotal Bottom up >> saving time? literally, time yourself... becoming more efficient? map out the process; prove it. - count time, clicks, buttons, platforms - count handoffs, groups impacted, departments - map out process maps, and understand which steps were reduced - quantitative and analytical

Change Strategy is the North Star for the change team and the organization on how the change will be lead, designed and delivered and all the components that need to be created to develop those and then enable them within the change effort or within the organization. It's the stake in the ground that when it's chaotic, something goes wrong or we need to pivot, we have a strategy to refer to and realign with to regain our footing. It's not a plan at this point yet and it should be created and then socialized with key stakeholders.

Stakeholder communication should be included in your RACI and communication plan, which would be a reference within your Change Management Plan. Personally I think building trust and rapport should have happened prior to any change request.

I think one of the key pieces to showcase to stakeholders and end users is the "What's In It For Me?" (WIIFM). Having that story really crisp and purposeful for each user group helps convey the importance and can help them understand why we are going through with this change.

One of the main tasks of a change management programme is identifying, adressing and discussing the expectation gap between C-level and the teams that are going to produce the change. Not doing this will cause entropy that may kill the programme.

This my favorite part, might also be the most awful part.] Create a user profile for each stakeholder. EVERY STAKEHOLDER big or small.... here's the framework: Create two lists. First list, general user profile. USER TYPE >> POPULATION SIZE >> BENEFIT? (OR DISADVANTAGE) >> INFLUENCE >> CRITICALITY TO PROCESS >> POTENTIAL ISSUES > ADVOCATE WITHIN USER GROUP Second list: Champions / Neutral / Against - Who's your advocate (champion) - Who doesn't really care / will do whatever (neutral) - Who's going to be a problem (against) Write this list out by person name. Leverage the Champions and leadership to relay messages for those who are against. Listen and UNDERSTAND the problems raised by those against (but do it separately)

Prosci’s ADKAR is a great model that can effectively guide stakeholders on this journey. Raising “Awareness” and seeding “Desire” help nurture energy needed to sustain change .

I do not think you always implement changes according to plan. Most importantly you need to be an agile in your implementation. You need to listen and pivot in your approaches based on feedback you receive. This needs to be part of your process continuously rather than at the end.

“according to the plan” should actually say “guided by the plan”. Plans need to stay flexible and responsive to the changing circumstances. Plans are guides, not commandments.

In some cases implementing the change also requires incorporating it into a master plan, and adopting the metrics for quality as were already established. As a change mid-project can impact subsequent deliverables, those need to be evaluated as well.

A lot of people forget that productivity normally drops just after the change as people adapt to the change. Be clear that this will happen and measure how productivity is increasing hopefully beyond the previous metrics. Remember that some changes are mandated by law or regulatory change and the measurement is simply compliance.

Patience, monitoring, iteration. 1. Always tee all decisions as temporary. Why? because they're iterative 2. Collaborate, encourage questions and challenges -monitor and maintain the changes you've implemented 3. You have to live in the discomfort for X number of days - agree to that wit your team prior to launch and stick to your guns. Remember you can always go back, but the purpose is meant to go forward.

I very much like using success stories from actual workers who are seeing the benefits. This can help the teams see that this is not just leadership touting numbers and patting themselves on the back.

Finally, as the change plan is closing, the knowledge and any assets created need to transfer to the support team. Ensure collateral created for the change is moved from the change site into the appropriate, accessible location such as a company intranet or support knowledge base.

Different people should lead the change management effort and the sustain effort. They are two different archetypes of people. Sustain principles: - create a system that constantly collects problem and incidents - bucket incidents into major problems and address those problems - priorities problems in terms of impact and frequency - have at least 1 person, or a group collectively problem solve for the issue at hand - quickly test and iterate

Collaborating with others is also helpful to see what may have worked in other change programs that could apply here- knowing that what worked somewhere else or in some other situation may not always work everywhere.

If one takes the example of a transformation programme, the initial steps are to understand the problem being addressed and define a view as to the vision and what the end state will look like - the TOM. At this point the people lens must be covered which I think is your step 1.

Changes are hard to adapt, it's necessary to be patient. No matter how much benefit it will bring, some stakeholders will be naturally detractors so, focus on your supporters.

My favorite tool for this is “Improvement Kata”. The iterative cycle of inspect and adapt –always keeping the North Star in sight– is a perfect “conclusion” to a change cycle. Improvement Kata always begs the question: “What can we improve on next?!”

Hire a change manager - it's their job! This question is like saying “what's the best way to get dressed” - there are so many variables that one size doesn't fit all... Particularly when you're trying to get dressed.

Remember - always always always create opportunities to listen and engage. So often, change plans are focused on your one way activities. The best change plans are solely focused on creating opportunities for feedback. And then incorporating that feedback into next change activities.

As change leader I follow below principals ?? Be patient : Changes are hard to adopt no matter how much benefit it will bring. ?? Celebrate any win: Do not just focus on getting 100% adoption, celebrate every victory no matter of its size. ?? It's not a race: In fast paced world we want to implement change quickly and show the results. Most of the time rushed change do not work. As a leader I will bring it at forefront so we are mindful about it.

One thing I have found necessary is to stay mindful of the scope. Not so rigid that you can’t change it, but change only if necessary and be prepared to negotiate the consequences. Unmindful and unnecessary scope changes can distract the whole plan even if all other aspects are being taken care of.

I follow 3 steps change management strategy: 1?? Pre-change; communication, and transparency 2?? During the change; regular updates and celebrations 3?? Post-change; reinforcing messages and gathering feedback