Business transformation used to be a rare event or something triggered by a crisis. Now, change is the norm and it’s happening all the time. As a result, process excellence professionals, not to mention people in departments like Human Resources (HR), have to lead change management projects on a regular basis. They need to help employees adapt to new and advanced technologies, uncertain geopolitical situations, team turnover, and the unexpected.
Knowing the language of change helps leaders understand how to navigate change. Here is a glossary of terms to consider when leading change in any organization.
1. Artificial Intelligence (AI)
The technology that is perceived to have the greatest impact on process efficiency is Artificial Intelligence (AI). At the very least, many are experimenting with and discussing how AI will dramatically change the way people live and work. Getting people to accept living alongside machines can be a challenge.
“It’s important to get over the hurdle of getting users to actually adopt the technology the way it was designed,” says Leon Ashley, senior pre-sales consultant at WalkMe.
2. Change Management
The change management process is central to successful business transformation. As Laura Karpf, senior manager of change management at Sodexo, puts it, “Companies can’t just do one or the other.”
3. Continuous Improvement
Aaron Adit, vice president of sales at GBTEC, warns that those who ignore the change risk being left behind or eliminated altogether. He gives the example of Blockbuster’s video stories.
“I’m amazed that a 7-year-old is growing up in a world where they have no idea what Blockbuster Video is. I never thought of it that way, but again, at the end of the day, they did. They weren’t naive. They knew that consumers wanted easy access to content anywhere, on any device, but they just didn’t adapt to the change fast enough,” Adit says.
“They didn’t understand the processes that would drive better business outcomes, they didn’t know where to make operational changes, they didn’t know where to double down on efficiency, they didn’t know where to make improvements, they didn’t know where to allocate more resources, they didn’t know how to do change management behavioral training. If you don’t know how to do it in time, especially in this fast-changing environment, it’s going to be a blockbuster.”
4. Data
Change management leaders today have more data at their fingertips than ever before. They need to know how to apply that data to their change.
“Using data to guide and direct change is incredibly important, but it’s been underused across the landscape,” says Yannick Stadtelmeyer, head of customer success at Userlane. “When you look at what’s happened, especially after the initial implementation, during the implementation, everyone is focused on how well they’re doing. We crossed the finish line, but in my opinion, there’s no real finish line for change. Change is constant and it’s happening everywhere.”
In fact, data analytics allows leaders to better track progress.
“Using data and change management can help mitigate some of these risks and increase the likelihood of program success,” says Tina Cannon, change management lead at Collective Insights.
5. Promoting digitalization
People can be both the problem and the solution, but when you treat people well, good results start to emerge. With new technologies constantly emerging, a strong digital adoption program is the start of a great relationship.
“For the last five years, we thought we had a technology problem, but when we really looked into it, we actually had a change management problem,” says KJ Kusch, Global Field CTO at WalkMe. “So how do we overcome these challenges? It’s likely that it’s people, not technology, that are impeding change management, operational excellence, and success scores.”
6. Emotions
Julie Whitten, senior director of change management strategy and employee communications transformation office for Sodexo in North America, shares advice on how to deal with the emotions people feel when facing big change (see below).
7. Empathy
Michael Dove, VP of Enterprise Process Excellence and Quality at Velera, gives an inspiring and simple explanation of empathetic leadership.
8. Follow-up
Change management doesn’t happen in a day. Leaders must be persistent and consistent. They must follow up as the change progresses.
“When you go down a transformation path, there’s a beginning, there’s an end, and then everyone basically goes back to where they started,” says Heywood Hamilton, partner and head of consulting services at Collective Insights. “And then you’re just making sure that the technology is working the way the transformation was intended. No one is actually monitoring it.”
9. Framework
Follow-up requires KPIs and measuring progress, and having a structure or framework makes it easier for leaders to achieve this.
“In our opinion, you need a framework that helps you understand your baseline and measure what you’re working towards. We apply this to onboarding and implementation of technology applications, or simply improving usage,” says Serge Dushkin, industry lead at Userlane.
“We actually help our clients implement a framework called HEART, the purpose of which is to measure progress on change in a consistent way and make sure all stakeholders are aligned. It’s an acronym for measuring happiness, engagement, adoption, retention, task success in each area, but each category in this framework has goals. Each category has signals that you need to pay attention to and a number of indicators to gauge whether you’re moving in the right direction.”
10. Human-centered approach
Maintaining a focus on the people who make change happen is crucial in every respect.
“Data is important, but it’s still about people. [show] “Leaders have to be authentic, and how they talk about change matters. Our employees (everywhere) can spot a scripted message from a mile away; they can tell by the tone of voice. If leaders don’t talk about change in daily meetings, they will know. So we are helping our leaders take a more authentic and genuine approach, take more time to understand the impact on them and their teams, and talk about that same authentically on a personal level,” says Cecilia Jacob, director, strategic change management and communications, global business services, Kimberly-Clark.
11. Innovation
Ishneet Kaur, Innovation Director at National Grid, helps people understand the relationship between change management and innovation.
12. Work
Business transformation often has the biggest impact on people’s jobs. What roles will they have? What will their jobs look like after the transformation? How will their day-to-day work change?
“When organizations implement new computer systems like these, it changes the way people do their work,” says Kelly Brown, lead change evangelist at Celonis. “To me, the big test of change is how does it change the way people do their work, and how do we help them make that happen?”
13. Leadership
Susan Jarrell Kushnir, vice president and head of investment banking talent development at Deutsche Bank, explains the concept of leading with head, heart and guts.
14. Mindset
“People need to shift their perception of change,” says Beth Foley, senior manager of change management in Sodexo’s Office of Transformation Management.
15. People
At the heart of every organization and its change projects are the people who make the magic happen. Isolde Kanikani, vice president of the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP), advises leaders to put people first.
16. Priorities
Pradeep Kirety, director at National Grid, said when undertaking a transformation project, especially at a traditional, regulation-bound company, leaders need to set priorities from the start.
17. Resilience
Adam B. Schreiber, global director of change management at Johnson & Johnson’s Office of Transformation, offers a poignant explanation for resilience in the workplace:
18. Transparency
Leaders are often afraid of transparency because they don’t want to show weakness, but we can all agree that people already know the truth — they practice it every day. Ryan Meyer, head of Healthineers Performance Systems, Americas, Siemens Healthineers, gets serious about communication.
19. Trust
When leaders ask employees to overcome fear, work outside their comfort zones, and embrace and implement dramatic change, they must establish trust. Blake Hill, Senior Director of Quality Assurance and Agile Delivery at AccentCare, shares how to create a safe space for collaboration.
