When it comes to moving your team from current ways of working to a new platform, we know that change can be met with resistance. To help guide you through that process, we’re sharing our top tips for launching Hive successfully:
Set Adoption Expectations
Lead with Benefits
Be Prepared for Change
Communicate Accountability & Measures
Follow a Checklist
1. Set Adoption Expectations
During the planning phase of your Hive implementation, take time to create a common understanding of, and the expected commitment to, the level of adoption from your users - more about each level in the table below. Demonstrating your timeline, burning platform constraints or sharing your implementation approach will help your user groups navigate through the implementation phase.
Outlining adoption expectations upfront can help set a baseline for your new way of working which will help your user groups understand the different levels and types of commitment required as you progress through implementation and onboarding.
A useful reference is the three levels from the model by Herbert Kelman (1958). Map these throughout your organization to help you to focus your time and energy on the most critical areas throughout implementation. They will also help you to tailor your approach to support your greatest needs.
An example of this map might be:
2. Lead Change With Benefits
“Benefits led change” focuses on the realization of benefits and recognizes that there is no point in undertaking a change program unless it leads to measurable improvements. Make it clear to your users that only ways of working capable of generating benefits for your organization will be included. This will support the adoption of your new way of working and ensure that your implementation is aligned with your organizational goals.
A benefit-led change approach can involve a paradigm shift in attitude and approach to managing change. It necessitates that successful change is defined as the delivery of improvements and not the delivery of features and functions. It is important to identify your benefits, quantify them and validate them.
Define key benefits to those adopting the new ways of working and ensure they are visible throughout implementation. While there are many strategies to approach benefits-led change initiatives, one approach to defining your key benefits is to ’Start with the end in mind’ where your benefits determine your solution.
Examples of benefits could be:
What is easier to carry out as a result of the new way of working?
What has now been automated as a result of the new way of working?
What new outputs have been created as a result of the new way of working?
What activities are no longer required as a result of the new way of working?
What activities and processes require less effort or resources as a result of this new way of working?
3. Be Prepared for Change
Expect resistance, monitor your feedback loops, understand the vicious and virtuous cycles, and keep watch for interruptions to the momentum of your implementation. Identify the transition phase, the moment in your journey where the platform is implemented and it becomes an everyday reality for your users. This can be a vulnerable stage in your implementation journey.
Identifying influential user groups in your organization and working to maintain a virtuous feedback cycle will keep momentum throughout your implementation and also connect your users to your new ways of working.
Senge and Goodman (1999) highlighted 3 reinforcing systems which you can consider in your strategy and target simultaneously to sustain the impetus for change:
Individual personal results - ‘I'll change because it matters to me.’ An intervention here makes the personal result -- ‘What’s in it for me’ (or WITFM) -- clear to each stakeholder group
Networks of committed people - ‘I’ll change because it matters to my colleagues.’ An individual's need to fit in with the tribe can be triggered if we can build a belief that the change matters to their colleagues and is for the greater organizational good.
Improved Business Results - ‘I’ll change because it works.’ Ultimately, people want to see that change has led to something worthwhile. Show how the change has a positive effect on the success of the organisation.
4. Communicate Accountability and Measures
Build a culture of accountability throughout your implementation team and wider organizational user base. Be open and discuss accountability and consequences as part of your planning and implementation communications.
Accountability works hand in hand with adoption and by being clear on your expected outcome from your implementation, at all levels of your organisation, you will successfully foster accountability with users.
There are 5 areas where you need to be clear to your users:
Expectations - Be specific about your expectations, and ensure you are specific and understood.
Capability - Ensure your users have what they need to do what you are asking them to do. If they don't, provide it.
Feedback - Give and receive feedback in a timely manner. Be fact-based and consistent.
Measures - Communicate how things will be measured. Set expectations of targets or milestones and stand by them.
Consequences - Follow through on the above, address poor performance as soon as possible and take appropriate steps. Acknowledge success and provide recognition for good performance.
For example, when your implementation will enhance productivity reporting for your organization, ensure that your leaders and managers share this regularly with team members. This will help them to understand how their day-to-day work is benefitting the organization. Where adoption levels negatively affect the provision of this reporting, this should also be demonstrated to all users to highlight the consequences of not engaging in their responsibilities.
5. Implementation Checklist
Having an implementation checklist can be a vital tool for successful implementations. In addition to helping to keep the implementation on track, they are great references to ensure the implementation plan is comprehensive. We’re sharing our implementation checklist below to review for successful adoptions:
An Implementation Checklist
Focus on your people
Conduct a needs analysis and design a user-centered solution
Honor the past. Involve your users and ask them what works well for them and what is challenging about their current ways of working
Identify champions and influencer groups to evangelize the new way of working
Consider habit stacking and combine new tasks with existing tasks
Help your people to do work better, avoid creating needless work for them
Communicate
Develop and deploy a comprehensive communication plan
State how will feedback be obtained
Demonstrate what is changing and what is not
Highlight and be clear about any burning platforms and timelines
Build support and set expectations
Be clear about the need for change, articulate a compelling change mandate
Be clear on consequences and accountabilities
Demonstrate the benefits
Specify any burning platform deadlines
Set expectations for adoption
Expect resistance to change
Identify your potential barriers and reasons
Prepare how to deal with these when they arise
Provide a clear and realistic way forward
Welcome and action feedback
Share what is being actioned and influencing the change.
Be willing to course correct
Establish a measurement framework
Share how you will know your change is working
Record a baseline
Provide regular and timely updates
Share success stories
Develop the right skills
Support your people and provide guidance on new skills/ behaviours
Develop your training approach early to support your users needs
Acknowledge the learning dip and leverage the conscious competence learning model
Reference:
Jenner, S, (2015) The Effective Change Managers Handbook, Chapter 3 Managing Benefits: Ensuring change delivers value, Kogan Page Limited
Smith, R, King, D, Sidhu, R, Skelsey, D (2015) The Effective Change Managers Handbook, Kogan Page Limited