Business Transformation Change Management and How to Use it

This week we continue our conversation about BTCM.

Introduction to Business Transformation Change Management (BTCM)

Business Transformation Change Management is the process of influencing your stakeholders to support, adopt, and garner real lasting results from your projects.  It is the art of identifying which areas of your project needs that all-important human touch and the key players and topics to influence during a project to aid the project’s adoption and results into the future.

BTCM is an advanced set of processes to influence others that are used in important projects usually by fairly senior staff.  A few of the many types of influence are leading by example, persuasive presentations, written and electronic communications, incentives, appealing to loyalty, meetings, and one-on-one communications.

This post will discuss how to identify Business Transformation Change Management opportunities and some basic BTCM proven tactics.

Identify Business Transformation Change Management Opportunities

Many implementations of process improvements or new tools ignore the feelings and communication needed for buy-in during planning and implementation.  Don’t fall into this trap!  Many of our clients and others make statements such as this, “This software project is on track.”  However, they are only talking about the technical aspects, not the human aspects.

When we have done post-mortems (Lessons Learned, Retrospectives, etc.) on projects both in flight and completed, we find most problems come from people not buying in, not from technology.  Quick conversations about current thoughts on the project, plans, estimates of how long to full adoption, and the results of implementation can give you enough information to identify areas where BTCM should be applied to improve and speed results.

Business Transformation Change Management Proven Tactics

Project planning should always include BTCM tactics. Here is a partial list of tactics that are easy to understand and in some way fit most projects.

• Name at least one influential project team member or sponsor level support person as Change Agent.  The role should be assigned prior to project kickoff if possible.  Their responsibility is to assess your processes, deliverables, and stakeholders.  They should focus on stakeholders attitudes about the project and intended end results.  Their job is to position the project benefits to appeal to various stakeholders, the organization, and customers.  They drive discussion, identify specific actions, and monitor progress by other team members to increase buy-in.
• Craft persuasive communications in diverse media with positive project and results messages.
  • A quick 1-2 minute video from an executive can be played at staff meetings, is quick and easy to generate, and can be leveraged throughout and after the project.
  • Short articles covering the 3-4 areas as public relations inside the organization.  These can be sent individually and added to newsletters and status emails.
  • Create a presentation about your project to give at staff meetings, during planning sessions, and whenever a communication boost is needed.
• Ask influential people for help.  If your assessment is correct and they support the project, and you give them the tools to succeed in moving their associates toward a more positive view of the project, one of two things will happen and both are valuable!  One, they will accept and help drive project buy-in.  Two, they will not and you now know where you stand with that person and can set about attempting to move them at least a bit towards supporting your project over time.
• Always be transparent and honest about the level of change and the effort it will take to get there.  When effort is downplayed or ultimate results are exaggerated, people will see that and tend to back off their support.  People don’t usually mind challenges as long as they are not kept in the dark and beware of doing anything that they could read as manipulation!  Ask for their help and feedback and publicly act on the feedback.

Negotiating and Forward Momentum

Often, there are areas where your team will want support.  In return, your stakeholders may want support from you in a related or unrelated area.  Having an attitude of give and take and being open to asking what you can do to ease their adoption burden or even in an unrelated area can yield big relationship benefits.  Negotiate in a giving way.  These are but a few of the myriad of tactics to increase your chances of long-term success.  The important thing is to keep the forward momentum going!

Let’s hear some of the ways you have used to influence stakeholders about your projects.  We will add the best ones to our best practices!  Good luck and keep focused on the quiet ones, they may get you in the end!

Your path to business success.