people-centered change management · 2020-04-09 · communications plan finally, to raise awareness...

KID ©2020 APQC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

CASE STUDY

BUSINESS CHALLENGE

In 2016, Sunflower’s executives agreed to transition the organization to a cloud-based ERP to save costs and prioritize cybersecurity. In the earliest stages of the project, the organization encountered resistance to change, particularly within the core project team for the migration.

Sunflower Case Study

What You’ll Learn

» Best-practice change management puts the focus on people.

» Humor and levity help dispel frustration and mitigate resistance.

» Change is best reinforced through a multi-channel training and communications

strategy.

ORGANIZATION PROFILE

Sunflower Electric Power Corporation is a member-owned and governed electric utility cooperative headquartered in Hays, Kansas. The organization delivers electricity through a mix of wind, natural gas, coal, and hydro-based generating plants.

PARTICIPANTS

Cory Betz (Manager, Strategic Projects); Cindy Hertel (Manager of Communications); Tiffany Jervis (Corporate Training Supervisor); Kim Lambrecht (Manager of Business Support Systems); and John Ross (Business Process Specialist).

BUSINESS RESULTS

» More open and transparent communication

» Built support for the change across the enterprise and in the core

project team

» Resistance to change gave way to collaboration and problem-solving

CASE STUDY AUDIENCE

Communications; change management practitioners; project managers; utilities.

SOLUTION

Sunflower formed a change management committee with representation from the Change Management Office, Corporate Training department, Communications departments, and Business Support Systems With direction form the executive team and change management office, the committee used ADKAR from Prosci as its change management methodology to focus more on the people side of change.

PEOPLE-CENTERED CHANGE MANAGEMENT

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K010529 ©2020 APQC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Introduction In February 2020, APQC interviewed members of a cross-functional change management committee about the organization’s recent migration from the server-based Oracle Enterprise Business System to a cloud-based ERP called Oracle Fusion. When the organization reviewed the scope of the project and the impact on employees, Sunflower knew it needed a new approach to change management. Cory Betz, manager of strategic projects, and John Ross, business process specialist, shared the benefits of adopting Prosci’s ADKAR model for change management and methods for applying the model.

Impetus for Change Before adopting ADKAR as its change management methodology, Sunflower managed change mostly through a portfolio management perspective that viewed change in terms of project milestones and resource allocation. The people side of change, meanwhile, was largely missing from the organization’s change efforts.

In 2019, the need for a new approach to managing change became clear after Sunflower’s executive team agreed to transition the organization to a cloud-based ERP to save costs and improve cybersecurity. This project had wide-ranging impact and was expected to directly affect nine core areas of Sunflower:

» Accounting

» Accounts Payable

» General Maintenance

» Human Resources

» Inventory

» Project

» Purchasing

» Maintenance

» Time and Labor

In addition to the nine core areas, the ERP implementation would also directly affect Sunflower

employees’ advanced benefits, expense reports, timecards, and work orders.

As the Change Management Office (led by Betz) began the initial process and gap analysis, it found that the core project team—comprised of department managers, project leads, and subject matter experts—for the cloud migration was expressing doubts and concerns about the need for the project, the duration of the project schedule, the possible loss of functionality, and the vendor. Betz and Ross knew the transition would not be fully successful without getting buy-in for change.

“We recognized that the people

side of change was something we

had neglected for a long time. If

we get that wrong, we can do

everything else right and still fail.”

-Cory Betz / Sunflower

Sunflower Electric

Power Corporation

When it faced resistance,

Sunflower built support for

change by focusing first and

foremost on the

organization’s people.

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Journey to Formal Change Management Sunflower’s journey into change management had several different stages As part of an ongoing leadership training series offered to employees across the enterprise during 2017 and 2018, Sunflower’s Organizational Development and Corporate Training teams sponsored organization-wide workshops about the change cycle, which was identified as a topic of interest from responses to a company-wide survey. Jervis said these conversations generated enthusiasm for the topic and were well received: “We had really great feedback—people were saying they had never thought about things that way before. In the past, we went through various training without identifying where we were in the change process.”

During 2017 and 2018, Change Management Office staff attended a change management conference for the utility industry. Excited by the possibilities of what change management could offer the organization, they championed the ideas through several meetings with leaders and stakeholders from different operational areas of the organization.

In 2018, Sunflower partnered with an Oracle implementation partner to handle the major aspects of the migration and set a “go live” date of October 4, 2019. Sunflower established a temporary change management committee with representation from Change Management Office, Corporate Training Department, Communications Department and Business Support Systems Department. With direction from the Executive Team and the Change Management Office, the committee used ADKAR from Prosci as its change management methodology to focus more on the people side of change. Betz and Ross became Prosci Certified Change Practitioners during late 2018 and early 2019. The Vice-President of Corporate Services, the Manager of Communications, the Senior Manager of Human Resources, the Manager of Organizational Development, and Betz also attended Prosci's Executive Bootcamp during 2018.

Change Management Approach Sunflower used a combination of Prosci’s ADKAR methodology, a multi-faceted change management plan, and the work of the change management committee to manage the change associated with the Oracle project (Figure 1).

This holistic approach emphasizes the importance of organizational, as well as individual, change

management. Building support for the Oracle migration involved a multipronged approach that

included training leaders for change, recruiting local change agents throughout the organization,

and a multi-channel communications strategy.

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Change Management Plan: Oracle Project

Figure 1

ADKAR and Change Management Components The ADKAR model of change management for individuals is encapsulated in the acronym ADKAR. Put simply, to drive an individual’s willingness to change requires:

» Awareness of the change.

» Desire to participate in and support the change.

» Knowledge on how to change.

» Ability to implement required skills and behaviors.

» Reinforcement to sustain the change.

This model structured the organization’s engagement for the Oracle implementation across the organization and helped shape training, communications, coaching, and work with sponsors to reduce resistance and improve adoption (Figure 2).

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ADKAR Change Management Tactics

Figure 2

SPONSOR ROADMAP

The sponsor roadmap plan directly aligned with the awareness, desire, and reinforcement aspects of the change project (Figure 3).

Sponsor Roadmap

Figure 3

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Sunflower contracted with Prosci to provide half day, on-site presentations for all executives and managers in April 2019. In these comprehensive workshops, managers and executives learned the new change management approach and the best methods to address resistance to change in the upcoming migration. This training served to build a coalition of leaders and executives to help sponsor and support the change.

RESISTANCE MANAGEMENT

The resistance management plan focused on the desire and reinforcement elements of the change. Even as the change management committee held trainings across the enterprise to talk about and promote the change, it continued to focus its attention on the core project team (Figure 4).

The rationale behind this focus was two-fold.

1. The core team was identified as the biggest risk in the change readiness analysis. 2. All core team members had some type of leadership role, either formally as managers or

informally due to their longevity, expertise, or experience. Hence, the core team were natural centers of influence whose perspective of the change could either increase resistance in front-line employees or cause long-term damage to the implementation of the project.

Resistance Management

Figure 4

Through weekly check-in meetings, members of the project team were able to voice concerns, receive updates, and work to resolve project bottlenecks. Gradually, the core team’s resistance

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and concerns began to fade. By June of 2019, Ross reported, “Any large-scale expressions of resistance had—for the most part—disappeared. Instead, meeting participants concentrated on solving technical problems associated with the first major tests of the software."

COACHING PLAN

The coaching plan is designed to have the most comprehensive impact and directly aligns with

every aspect of ADKAR from building awareness to reinforcement. The change management

committee implemented the coaching plan through early preparation of supervisors and change

agents on communication and execution of the new processes and behaviors for the new Oracle

modules (Figure 5).

Coaching Plan

Figure 5

Scouts

Another key component of the resistance reduction and coaching plans was the recruitment of change agents known as SCOUTS (super courteous Oracle user trainers) to support change adoption in each area of the business. To recruit SCOUTS, the team began by asking supervisors to identify employees who regularly answer questions from their peers about how to use different tools and technologies. Before long, the change management committee found several eager volunteers (including supervisors) who were happy to play the role.

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SCOUTS

Figure 6

To build awareness and identify the relevant SCOUTS for each area or business unit, the team devised a series of communications, like the one in figure 6 with local SCOUTS’ faces superimposed into the picture. The visual was also accompanied by a SCOUT’s oath in which SCOUTS pledge to “do my best to serve; to remain calm when everyone is frustrated; and to drink enough coffee to keep myself alert even after 597 questions about Oracle.”

TRAINING PLAN

The training plan focused on the methods necessary to communicate knowledge about the process, system, and behavior changes coming with the Oracle implementation. As well as the reinforcement steps necessary to ensure employees internalize the knowledge and have the ability to implement the changes (Figure 7).

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Training Plan

Figure 7

In addition to intensive training and support for executives and managers, employees were also trained for the change through:

» videos on the organization’s learning management system,

» infographics and FAQs released for each Oracle module, and

» organization-wide video conferences.

The change management committee reinforced the training with reference guides that guided employees through changes in each module. “Even though the employee may have watched the training video in advance, when it came time to actually do the work, it was really nice to have things like the one-page guides as well as detailed resources to help,” said Betz.

COMMUNICATIONS PLAN

Finally, to raise awareness and build desire for the Oracle cloud migration, the team incorporated communications like email messages from senior management, FAQs, and benefit statements throughout the implementation. Creative and fun communications, including memes like the one in figure 8, were also included.

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Oracle-to-Cloud Migration Meme

Figure 8

The organization created memes related to each of the 12 Oracle modules that would change as a result of the migration. Like the image in the figure above, these communications raised awareness about why the change was important, addressed common misconceptions, and spoke in an engaging way to the benefits the change would bring.

In addition to these communications, the Change Management Office sponsored meetings that served as opportunities to gather feedback about the organization’s change management approach and to hear how employees were experiencing the change. “We really encouraged people to talk openly about their experiences, and it helped to break down resistance to change,” said Ross. The Change Management Office also conducted regular assessments to hear feedback and concerns from the core project team. Check-in meetings with this team fostered an environment of openness and honesty that also helped to mitigate resistance.

ADDRESSING CHANGE FATIGUE

To help combat change fatigue within the core project team, the change management committee dedicated the entirety of the final project meeting to celebrate the team’s success and have fun. Ross told the team that he had hired professionals to come in and oversee the activities planned for the meeting, though it quickly became clear that the “professionals” were his children, who were there to help the team play and have fun. No one could talk about work or even mention the word “Oracle,” and the facilitators provided toys and games for the core project team to play with.

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Sunflower also addressed change fatigue by inviting employees to participate in a game related to its memes. On the first and third Mondays of each month, two new Oracle-to-Cloud memes were posted in breakrooms throughout the organization. Employees had a game card and could get stickers as each set of memes was released. Employees who collected all 12 stickers were eligible for prizes that included extra vacation time or an Apple iPad.

MEASURES OF SUCCESS

To measure and track the success of its change management efforts, the change management committee used a Prosci change scorecard that helped measure areas like:

» organizational performance (including value realization),

» individual performance (analyzes the extent to which individuals are adopting the change),

and

» change management performance (measures the effectiveness of the change management

approach).

The team also used a realization matrix (filled out at the beginning of the project) and checked the project’s progress and results against this matrix on an ongoing basis.

Business Results and Lessons Learned Members of the change management committee credit the success of Sunflower’s Oracle cloud migration project thus far to Sunflower’s new change management approach, which helped strengthen communication practices and convince employees, as well as leaders, about the need for the change. Prosci change management methods gave the organization a framework for training that helped engage employees on the change more effectively. “I think this approach helped a lot when people showed up for trainings. They didn’t just show up with no clue about why they were there or the importance of the change. I think it made up our training acceptance much higher than it would have been otherwise,” said Ross.

The change management committee’s communication practices fostered greater transparency and openness, especially within the core project team. Regular meetings and check-ins helped build rapport and trust, which led the core team members to be more open regarding feelings of resistance. As the core team’s concerns were addressed, resistance gave way to proactive problem solving and collaboration.

LESSONS LEARNED

While executives and managers had training to help shepherd employees through the change, more intensive training should have been given to supervisors as well. Betz noted that “we made some assumptions about supervisors not having time or not having interest, and we found

“One of my biggest ‘aha’ moments

was realizing that we need to be

more intentional about giving a

glossary or at least educating people

about common terms that are going

to be used in a particular project.”

-Cindy Hertel/ Sunflower

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out those assumptions were wrong—they wanted to be involved and they want to know more. That’s a very promising development moving forward.” For future projects, the steering team plans to train and involve supervisors more intensively.

The change management committee also learned to watch out for jargon, as it realized that many employees were not familiar with the acronyms they were using. “I do think there were times that we made assumptions about what people already knew. One of my biggest ‘aha’ moments was realizing that we need to be more intentional about giving a glossary or at least educating people about common terms that are going to be used in a particular project,” Hertel said.

One of the most important lessons learned is the importance of a humorous and fun approach

to messaging. “It’s just as important as the technical messaging itself,” said Hertel. “One of them

allows you to do your work, but the other one gets people on board, makes them aware of the

change, addresses resistance, and makes them more comfortable.” Through memes and other

fun and humorous forms of messaging, the change management team generated enthusiasm

and buy-in for change while mitigating resistance and dispelling misconceptions.

ABOUT APQC

APQC helps organizations work smarter, faster, and with greater confidence. It is the world’s foremost authority in benchmarking, best practices, process and performance improvement, and knowledge management. APQC’s unique structure as a member-based nonprofit makes it a differentiator in the marketplace. APQC partners with more than 500 member organizations worldwide in all industries. With more than 40 years of experience, APQC remains the world’s leader in transforming organizations. Visit us at https://www.apqc.org/, and learn how you can make best practices your practices.

https://www.apqc.org/

people-centered change management · 2020-04-09 · communications plan finally, to raise awareness...

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