Change Management STARTS at Go Live
If you’re a change management consultant, you might be thinking “Change management starts at go live? No way!” While plenty of awareness, excitement-building, and strategizing occurs before the introduction of major change, Melanie Spring, OCM & Business Transformation Consultant, contends that real change management happens after go live.
Consider this scenario: end users have successfully completed training, they’ve seen the new system, excitement levels are high, and the major change deploys without a hitch. But wait—no one has experienced real-life scenarios, with authentic data, and actual customers! When reality hits, it can mean that the excitement that end users once felt turns to fear, geographical challenges introduce anxiety, and customers have negative experiences. Yikes. In this scenario, the system may be stable, but the people are not. How can change management consultants help restore confidence, excitement, and order? Change management experts can:
Support end users beyond hypercare. Change management consultants routinely roll off change initiatives when hypercare ends, which is around four to six weeks post-go live. However, four to six weeks post-go live is often when change management expertise is needed most. Change leaders should consider this when creating the OCM budget.
Assure people that they will receive support. People want to know that they’ll be supported the day that the initiative goes live, the following weeks, and even months after. With the introduction of major change, it can take months for people to gain confidence and adopt major change.
Provide coaching and monitoring. Without coaching and monitoring, what’s to stop unwanted workarounds and poor habits from starting? Creating a bad habit can take a week to form, but months to break. Change management experts can help by recommending coaching and monitoring strategies to prevent bad habits from forming in the first place.
Support and prepare leaders. Leaders are often swamped with initiative after initiative. Leaders need to be supported for the long haul and be aware that the work doesn’t end three- or four-weeks post-go live. OCM experts are uniquely equipped to work with leaders and share insights such as “This data shows that your team member is deviating from our goal. Here’s how we can work together and coach them to get back on track.”
People prepare for major change by completing training that has planned with perfect scenarios while the real world introduces real challenges. While change management traditionally prepares people before the change, more emphasis should be put on change management that comes after the change. Change managers – and those that fund them - should consider supporting end users longer than four to six weeks post-go live, assuring end users that they will receive support, supporting coaching and monitoring to avoid bad habits, and put emphasis on supporting and preparing leadership. To increase end user adoption of change, OCM experts should consider that the real change management STARTS at Go Live.
Contact ChangeStaffing to learn more about how to support change management during the critical period after major change is introduced.
Thank you to Melanie Spring for her thought leadership and for collaborating with us on this blog.
Written by Kylette Harrison