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PMLogic’s September PM Mixer invited Dylan Rose (National Manager Customer Experience and Supporter Operations at The Smith Family), Veronica Lo Presti (Program Director of Project Management at the Canterbury Institute of Management), Ivan Golenkov (Founder of Neelix) and Xinyue Zhang (Lecturer at School of Project Management for The University of Sydney) as expert panelists to speak about People Change Management. Key takeaways from the discussions included:
1. Overcoming Resistance to Change
Human resistance is a major challenge for organisations trying to enact change because people fear change. To manage resistance, facilitate genuine dialogue with those affected by the change and provide a roadmap towards the objective. Be clear about what role these individuals will play during and after the change. Dylan Rose suggested going a step further and involving those employees impacted by the change to evaluate and reassess the change requirements ensuring the outcome is built for them.
Aligning the change initiatives with the organisational strategy is also crucial for everyone to feel valued and that they are working together towards a common goal.
“Be clear about how the change is going to help deliver the ‘why’ at the top.” - Dylan Rose
2. Lack of Systems to Counter Change
Change initiatives typically come from the top down. People may agree with the premise or objective of the change but not always with its execution, turning them off to the change initiative. Ivan Golenkov found from his experience that there is a lack of systems in place within organisations for the teams on the ground to raise their voices about how the change is actually delivered.
“One no is worth a thousand yeses” - Ivan Golenkov
3. Organisational design as a success factor in change adoption
Whilst working on the Beijing Daxing International Airport, Xinyue Zhang witnessed its unique organisational design where project and operational teams were integrated. This served the purpose of ensuring buy-in to the change as people served two roles to see through project success and continuation of outcomes in operations. Employees can also be made to accept change more willingly if experiencing the urgency and need for the change. Xinyue Zhang saw this effectiveness as during planning of the Daxing Airport, examples of disastrous airport project openings were used to create this sense of urgency.
4. Role of organisational culture in the success of change initiatives
“Organisational culture is critical to change success.” - Veronica Lo Presti
Culture is what binds the people of the organisation together and is their set of practice. For any sort of change to be made, there needs to be a link to culture. In this way, the change can become the new normal otherwise people will revert to what they are used to.
It’s challenging to normalise change, but the answer lies in discovering what people find useful and meaningful in their daily work and capitalising on that. Having an awareness of those values, beliefs and set of practices that make up the organisational culture can make the difference to change sticking.
5. Creating a culture of change
Ultimately, change will be slow. Dylan Rose emphasised the need to have empathy for the people impacted by the change. Keep people on board about what the change will be like when it is rolled but also check in with them, letting them know there can be roll back. People can get used to change as part of the culture. But no matter how good the culture is, always be conscious about not pushing people past the point where change is moving too fast and overwhelms them.
6. Measuring change
“Authentic data is key to facilitating change.” - Ivan Golenkov
Having a benchmark for comparison is the only way to know if a change initiative has been successful. It is crucial to create a datapoint to measure the change adoption, but the challenge is in being able to observe the change as it happens in a way that is continuous and authentic. Such a method can be employee engagement surveys. Although, in Ivan Golenkov’s experience surveys can be troublesome as they require investment and people don’t like surveys. In his opinion, a great survey has a limit of being used once a year. The ideal methodology would track real time of data for day to day running rather than still snapshots.
Conversations should also be used to gather reliable data from the people navigating the change. Through these exchanges, work through the change with them and keep the people engaged and fighting the change critique. Account for different perspectives using a variety of classic models such as the 7S framework. Ultimately, people change is personal and involves emotion.
Looking to elevate your approach to people change management? At PMLogic, we understand the complexities and emotional nuances of organizational change.
Join us for our November PM Mixer to explore innovative strategies and insights from our expert panelists. Don’t miss this opportunity to empower your organization on its change journey!
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