Can Effective Organizational Change Management Be Done Remotely?
When discussing potential organizational change management (OCM) assignments with candidates, nine out of ten times they ask, “Is there an opportunity for remote work?” While the majority of our clients welcome flexible work arrangements – such as working from home one day a week, or a reduced travel schedule – we find that far fewer are open to truly remote organizational change management support. Before ruling out remote OCM support, I encourage hiring managers to consider the following:
Remote OCM Is Not New
First, while “remote” may seem new, change management practitioners have been effectively providing OCM support to projects from afar for decades. My first project, over 20 years ago, was a multi-year SAP Payroll implementation to thousands of users who were located at hundreds of food manufacturing plants across the United States. While our project road show included visits to dozens of major sites, it was impossible and cost prohibitive to engage every location face-to face. As a result, it was critical that our OCM strategy effectively engage stakeholders from afar. We assigned a site leader to each location, we conducted regular conference calls, we conducted numerous surveys, and we trained a subset of users to train their local stakeholders. At the end of day, we likely interacted directly with only a couple-hundred users, but we effectively engaged thousands. Our project was implemented on time and on budget, and we exceeded our accuracy targets on the first payroll run. It was 1998, remote was not “a thing,” much less trending, yet we provided effective OCM support from afar. Who knew?
Remote OCM Is Inherent to Methodologies
Second, tools common to the majority of organizational change management methodologies inherently support the engagement of stakeholders from afar. Let's continue my first SAP implementation as an example. We implemented a Change Agent Network via the identification of a site leader for each manufacturing plant, we established a Two-way Communication and Feedback Approach via conference calls and surveys, and we leveraged a Train-the-Trainer Approach to efficiently educate geographically dispersed users. These bread and butter tools facilitate remote engagement, yet they should be part of any comprehensive OCM strategy.
Remote OCM Is Supported by Technology
Third, today’s collaboration tools provide a wide variety of accessible options to facilitate remote engagement. It’s hard to believe, but back in 1998 on my first SAP project our conference calls were facilitated by a live AT&T operator and meeting documents were sent ahead of time via a newly implemented company-wide email. We printed training binders and sent them via good old-fashioned snail mail. Now change practitioners and their project teams have a plethora of tools to support remote engagement including collaboration platforms such as Office 365 and Microsoft Teams, videoconferencing tools such as WebEx and Zoom, and project management tools such as Trello. These modern-day collaboration tools should be deliberately leveraged to maximize the effectiveness of engagement of remote stakeholders.
Remote OCM is Trending
Finally, recent trends support remote OCM. Methodologies, technology and recent current events all support highly effective remote organizational change management strategies. In addition, hiring managers have an opportunity to save money by working with remote OCMers: travel costs are minimized or perhaps eliminated, and some consultants are willing to lower their pay rate in exchange for the personal benefits associated with working remotely. Hiring managers may have access to higher quality resources or resources with specific skills and experience when the geography of the consultant is no longer a factor. Embracing remote OCM is a very relevant opportunity for a win-win for both consultants and the clients that they serve.
So Hiring Managers, as you consider your future organizational change management needs, I encourage you to be open to remote resource options. The key to effective and sustained change, is not face-to-face, rather a comprehensive, thoughtful, and deliberate OCM approach.
Contact ChangeStaffing to learn how our organizational change management consultants can help your organization navigate change remotely.