Following on from Part 1 in CargoForwarder Global (published 07JAN24), on why the Human Factor is crucial for the air cargo industry’s digitalization and business transformation, WIPRO’s Senior Manager for Talent & Change, Philipp Maier, now offers three practical change management activities that companies can adopt right now, to ensure project success.
Many of the human factor barriers to change can be avoided from the start. Here are three practical change management activities you can immediately start off with!
Change management should always begin with a profound Stakeholder Analysis – first and foremost!
Before you even kick off a project, change management should be already in place. Why? Because it is all about the stakeholders and you need to involve the right people at the right time. Has a stakeholder analysis already been conducted? Have you evaluated which motivation your stakeholders have and how you can group them to better manage their communication needs throughout the project? Have you talked to them on a 1:1 level to understand their preliminary concerns? If not, do that first! As a guideline, consider the following image that shows 4 different dimensions of stakeholder interests. Once you have sorted all relevant stakeholders, you can work on appropriate actions to involve them in the best possible way.
Draft an initial communication plan – right now!
I have worked for years both as a project manager as well as a change manager. Let’s be honest – when your main focus is NOT change management but the project itself, the following will happen: When work is getting busy and daily operations are becoming an overwhelming wave of issues, the first thing to fall behind is Communication.
Therefore: Before you start anything, ensure that you have at least an initial communication plan for your identified stakeholders ready. If you don’t do it now, you won’t do it at all. A pragmatic approach is best here, otherwise you will not finish. Try to answer the following question in your communication plan: Which stakeholder group needs which minimum communication at which time? You could use the previous Stakeholder Analysis Groups to arrange and cluster the communication needs of your audiences, and decide what communication you need to do in the first 3 months:
Kick it off with a network of influencers
Ever since the value of social networks has become visible for established brands in the industry, we are all aware of the benefit of using ‘influencers’. Why are they so valuable? Because human beings focus on each other – social contacts have a major impact on our behavior. It starts when we are small: Parents (in the best case) act as a good example for their child. Later, we orientate on a variety of role models. Even if we shouldn’t, we tend to compare ourselves with others, and the human brain loves to swim with the stream, as we are not really made to stand up and resist. Our harmony-driven social habits try to avoid any conflict if we see that we are part of a minority – especially in our professional business. Why? Well, everyone is trying to win and grow their career. And as we rarely really have to deal with big moral decisions in our job, we usually do well when we follow the majority.
What’s the chance for change management? Easy and difficult at the same time: Build up an army of exemplary supporters. Who is popular? Who has informal influence? Who is bright, tough, and competitive? Who really helps the business? Win those people over – help them to get on board and raise their concerns. The good news is: Highly productive people are usually more open to strategic change than the average employee. Therefore, identify high-performers, innovative individuals, and thought leaders, and make them your ‘change ambassadors’, your ‘army of influencers’ to reach the critical mass of energy to take off.
A practical guide to establishing change influencers
Let’s get practical: What could be a model to build up change influencers and what roles do you need? The following visualization gives you an example of how change networks are typically built upon:
- You need the buy-in of your C-level sponsor
- You need so called ‘change champions’. These are typically middle management leaders who have the resources and – if properly informed about the reasons of the change – have a vital interest in a successful change. They will need to understand the concept of a change network to help you nominate the right candidates.
- Change ambassadors or change influencers: With the help of your change champions, you will be able to nominate your ‘army of influencers’. Do not underestimate this step: It takes a bit of time to nominate the right characters, give them attention, explain, and inform them of upcoming changes, and keep them satisfied.
Is that all there is to it?
Is that all? For sure not. We have now talked more about the big 3 frameworks, but those need to be fed with details. Once you have established your Stakeholder Analysis, the next questions to be answered are: Who will go prepare and talk to them to find out about their opinions? Who will create material for your communication plan, maintain it, and take care of feedback? Who will contact sponsors, change champions, and your ‘army of influencers’ if there is no communication material?
Clear recommendation: Do not believe that a project manager can single-handedly do change management. Change management is usually a full-time role. As we are heading into a volatile future where basically everything is being touched by digital transformation, you may need to build up a change department and/or employ external experts to support your projects’ smooth implementation.
There is no doubt that the success of digital transformation projects is ‘man-made’. Based on my 20 years of experience with a variety of projects, my clear advice is: Always put the human in the center of your project. If you do so, you will succeed!
Philipp Maier, WIPRO, Senior Manager Talent & Change
