ADKAR is one of the basic blueprints change professionals use to deliver change (If you don’t know it? Google it; It’s cool).
But, in regulatory change, ADKAR often doesn’t fit. Employees rarely Desire regulatory change; knowledge is messaging rather than training, and there is usually no tangible activity to practice or reinforce.
The change manager will benefit from some TWERKing to deliver successful change outcomes.
T (Trust)
You work with subject matter experts (SMEs) in regulatory change. They’re lawyers, accountants, financial planners. They might have never worked with a CM and may not know how you add value. So, before you rip their “lawyer speak” comms to shreds, you must gain their trust. Start by adding more value to what they already do.
These guys may need more time to be ready to hear about your single source of truth, the Office 365 SharePoint portal, a 10-step video series to be delivered on the red carpet of integrated change by six unicorns. You’ll get them there, but you need to do it slowly.
Help with a PowerPoint, tweak some messaging, and share insights you may have read in the media. Once they trust you, you can collaborate to deliver great change, but they must trust you first.
T is also for talking. You should buy A LOT of coffee in the first month of being a Change Manager. Branding, Communications, L&D, and other areas of the business need to trust you, too. Understand their guidelines and show you want to collaborate for the best outcomes. (Hint: The branding team are often Mac people and can’t use PowerPoint well; offer to help them with your expertise).
W (Whole Picture)
SMEs all have their noses in frameworks, policies and regulations. They’re cleaning up shit and making sure no more shit hits the fan.
They’re not thinking about culture. But you should be.
In my ten years in Australia, I’ve worked in regulatory change at Westpac, BT, TAL and MLC. The strong sentiment is that regulatory change must not be about ticking boxes. It must be about all employees actively questioning anything that does not support the best customer outcome. It’s about empowering every employee to take responsibility and speak up. As the CM, you must step back and look at the whole picture. Most organisations will have value drivers or a mission statement. As the CM, you must consider embedding values in training and communications.
E (Execute)
Do stuff. Just roll up your sleeves and start doing things. Show me a woman who does a “plan on a page”, and she’ll be a woman getting something done.
At The Star, one of our most impactful artefacts during the Windows 10 roll-out was the simple “Tip of the Day” email. One little email delivered the whole ADKAR cycle to every user every day for an entire month. It was highly visible and loved!
Who will read that detailed impact analysis that took you four weeks to write? Nobody.
Execute! Do stuff. Do brilliant, innovative, different, attractive, helpful stuff people see daily.
R (Revolutionise Technology & Rethink often)
(OK, Hands-up, stretching the TWERK a bit here) Get them on board with technology. To achieve this, you must be good with technology too. Twelve Change Superhero courses teach you all you need in a very short time.
At the Star, people just didn't turn up for our training. They were too busy, and they thought they knew it all. Our call centre got slammed with things we had in our training sessions and things we had on our SharePoint, but people just needed to be self-serving. After a quick re-think, we created a tip-of-the-day email. One short email was delivered every day for a month after someone was upgraded.
Your SME writes a 25-page SOP; you need to be able to turn that into an infographic as an aid in training. Systems training? You can record your screen and narration in PowerPoint and create a simple video.
You must do this stuff to avoid getting left behind. Get on YouTube or LinkedIn, learning and get good at it. You must also be able to authenticate your change success. Think about what, when and how you can measure so you can present to SteerCo that 83% of employees felt more empowered to speak up about X than they did XX months ago.
K (Share Knowledge)
Don’t just manage change; help others drive change. Organisations need to embed change capabilities in all business areas to work change more effectively. Every function should have Change Champions. Project Managers, Business Analysts and EAs all play an essential part in change delivery. The CM helps other functions understand how to deliver change well. Don’t just set up SharePoint; show them how to do it. Don’t just re-write their comms; help them understand what good comms look like.
The way we deliver change is changing. Don’t let the most change-resistant person be you.
(ADKAR is the change model created by Jeff Hiatt and part of the PROSCI model. I am a PROSCI-qualified practitioner)
Sharon Connolly is an experienced Change professional living in Sydney, Australia. She serves the global Change Management community, providing training, templates, and a common-sense approach to Change delivery. Find out more at www.changesupehero.com.au