Change Champions The impact of learning on change management

Change Champions The impact of learning on change management

Change happens at organizations of all sizes as they grow and adapt to new business requirements. Companies use change management to make smooth and successful transitions, minimize business disruption, and manage risk. While not all organizations practice change management, those that do tend to follow a similar set of change management practices, including learning and development (L&D) to reinforce the role of trusted advisors and successfully communicate change. What are some examples of L&D change management contributions? For its 2015 Learning and Change Management Survey, the Human Capital Media Advisory Group, the research arm of Chief Learning Officer and Talent Management magazines, collaborated with SAP. It wanted to identify how L&D is an integral part of orchestrating change management practices at bestin-class organizations. More than 400 HR professionals identified examples of successful change management, the metrics they tracked regarding change management, and the ways L&D provides value to the change management process. Key Findings Change champions include L&D and other internal functions in successful change management. Varied communications are essential to successful change management. L&D contributes to successful change management regardless of company size. 2 Change Champions

Overview Many organizations practice change management to some degree 78% of survey respondents currently use change-management practices or will do so within the next three years. Change management can be motivated by many different business contexts: 61% of organizations practice change management for culture change, while 55% do it to prevent market disruption. 61% of organizations practice change management for culture change. Yet while some companies successfully involve L&D in change management, others indicate that the L&D has had little impact on implementing a successful change management strategy. What are successful organizations doing differently? How do they involve their L&D and can their actions be replicated? We divided our survey respondents into two groups: change champions whose L&D positively impacted and increased the efficiency of the change management process; and up-and-coming organizations whose L&D had little or no impact on the change management process. When we examined the groups side-by-side, two broad trends emerged: 1. Change champions bring many internal groups together during the change management process and use blended communication methods and L&D-created materials to educate and inform employees about change. 2. Successful change management doesn t require a huge budget or unlimited resources; L&D can effect successful change management at organizations of all sizes. 3 Change Champions

Finding Success by Involving Everyone Who gets a say in change management? Change management expert John Kotter suggests that groups with enough power to lead the change effort have greater success when they work together as a team. 1 L&D departments are involved with change management at most organizations, and are seen as trusted advisors by employees. Change champions follow Kotter s advice, involving other internal functions such as IT and the C-suite to work crossfunctionally (Figure 1). Figure 1 Internal functions integrated with change management 71% 71% 65% 50% 46% 36% 42% 26% 33% 29% 31% 29% Learning and Development Human Resources Operations Talent C-Suite IT Management Change Champions Up-and-Coming Organizations 1 Kotter, J. (2007) Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail. Harvard Business Review. 4 Change Champions

L&D staff are trusted by the employees as a source of honest information. Survey respondent Change champions involve many different departments in change management and leverage L&D in a wide variety of core change management events, such as educating employees about change efforts, partnering in communications, and creating reference materials. Thanks to their inclusion efforts, change champions report fewer challenges than up-and-coming organizations (Figure 2). In only one area (resistance to change) do change champions and up-and-coming organizations experience challenges at a similar rate. In all other areas up-andcoming organizations experience challenges in greater numbers. Figure 2 Challenges to organizational change when working across functions 75% 61% 59% 59% 53% 63% 53% 60% 65% 58% 42% 34% Lack of internal function cooperation Employee resistance to change Flawed communication Lack of buy-in Inadequate planning Lack of employee involvement Change Champions Up-and-Coming Organizations 5 Change Champions

Finding Success with the Message Communication is critical when implementing any change management program. Change champions disseminate L&D-created materials to their workers through many different communications channels (Figure 3). Change management programs with the greatest impact use a blended communications strategy that supports employees with both push and pull communications (Figure 4). A blended communications strategy offers the greatest chance for change management success. While push communications get information in front of employees, pull communications allow employees to gather their own information at point of need and work more collaboratively. Employees who own the change management process and seek out information themselves are more invested in its outcome and are less resistant to change. Pull communications also give internal experts the chance to work together and break down siloing barriers within the organization, making change management a much more collaborative process. 2 Figure 3 Technology supporting change management 81% 74% Figure 4 Primary change management communications strategy 50% 35% 45% 34% 43% 23% 38% 27% 22% 11% 62% 44% 37% 53% 1% 3% Email newsletters Webinars Online portals Project Internal blogs Online management discussion applications forums Blend Push Pull Change Champions Up-and-Coming Organizations Change Champions Up-and-Coming Organizations 1 Cross, R., Parise, S., and Weiss, L. (2007). The role of networks in organizational change. McKinsey Quarterly. 6 Change Champions

Finding Success at Any Size Large organizations may have more resources and human capital to devote to a successful change management strategy, but the efforts of smaller companies are often just as successful. In fact, HR professionals at small organizations were more likely to believe that their L&D department demonstrated great impact on change management than those at either midsize or large organizations. Survey respondents said the biggest impact L&D had on change management was being a visible change advocate and making the process easy to understand. Visibility is more pronounced at smaller organizations due to their size (Figure 5). Figure 5 L&D has increased the change management process efficiency at my organization. 69% 51% Large Organizations Midsize Organizations Small Organizations 65% Larger organizations are more likely to have dedicated change management groups, while small and midsize companies rely on ad hoc committees for change management. Yet organizations of all sizes use similar best practices, such as blended communications strategies, to complete successful change management. Small organizations also mimic top performers regarding the metrics they track: behavioral observation, satisfaction surveys, and engagement and buy-in are all low-cost metrics small organizations can use if budget or personnel is a concern. As companies grow they begin to take advantage of more formal metrics, such as compliance or use reports. No matter what size the organization is, L&D most often supports change management by educating employees, creating reference materials, and partnering on change communications, enabling and empowering employees to own the change. By assessing needs, creating content, and communicating content availability, L&D can speed the change process and shorten the time to innovation. 7 Change Champions

Challenges occur when we have tried to implement a change without a change management plan. Conclusion Successful organizations make implementing change management a group effort, with everyone from L&D to operations involved in the process. Change champions use a blended communications strategy and L&D-created reference materials to educate employees about change and to curate information that employees can pull from at will. By analyzing as many metrics as possible, L&D can identify which aspects of the change management process were successful, modify the learning strategy accordingly, create solutions that drive sustainability around learning and shepherd employees through the process to create smooth and seamless transitions. Survey respondent 8 Change Champions

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