Why management of change is essential

Clarity and consistency are critical to ensure long-term sustained change. There is always a risk that today's big thing can become tomorrow's 'corporate fish and chip paper!' If your management team don't truly commit to the change, managers may undermine it and the mobile workforce and others decide not to support it.

Lack of management commitment to transformation is probably the number one reason why we see mobile workforce programmes fail. This commitment needs to be demonstrated through:

• Management support for unblocking any issues that arise during design, development and delivery
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• Active sponsorship of the project or programme including any project or programme steering board
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• Visible involvement in communications activities such as videos, presentations, internal newsletters and management updates

Ideally, management should be able to articulate both why the project is important but also be able to concisely and consistently sell its benefits (ideally through a compelling vision or elevator pitch). It is also important that they say it again and again and evidence and celebrate results!

Vital roles in your change programme

Other individuals who will help to make your change programme a success include:

• Change management team - Provide a dedicated focus on change management strategy, method, plans and implementation. Ideally as part of a PMO or Change Management Office
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• Managers - Support and coach impacted individuals in their team through the change
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• Project team - Understand the change and integrate change elements into project plans
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• Project support - Enable the supporting aspects of the change such as HR, finance, data and information and communications
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• Subject matter experts - Support aspects such as process design and business context to help shape the change activity
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• Change champions - Communicate and cascade project information to their peers and act as early adopters for the change alongside helping to resolve any local issues
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• Users - Ideally keep an open mind through the project or programme delivery, to help shape its design and ultimately realise its benefits

Ask yourself these questions

Before moving on, ask yourself the following questions:

• How can you communicate the purpose of your programme to your business? Do your communications methods meet the needs of all staff affected by the change?
• Do you understand how ready your users are to embrace the change and how they feel about it?
• Are you capable of delivering the right level of change management, communications and training to meet the identified needs of your field teams?
• How will you deal with the behavioural change required by the project? Are expected behaviours linked with the required project outcomes?
• If your project impacts on leaders, then how do you expect leaders to behave in the future and what impact will this have on the individual? To what extent do they support your programme?
• Can you sell the message that change is for the better rather for change's sake? Do you believe this and do your managers and future users
• How can you make best use of your budget? Are you able to make the link between changing the mindset of your organisation and the expected increase in performance and productivity? This should be a fundamental part of your change activity

What to do next

Consulting is the backbone of Leadent Digital; it’s where we started and it underpins all the technology services we offer too. For us, it’s about really understanding the customer’s process and priorities, and making feasible, value-adding recommendations for field service improvement.

Implementing change in the field is more challenging than in a traditional working environment; lone workers, process workarounds and fractured communications can all lead to poorly adopted processes. We have the tools, techniques and experience to embed the change and make it stick.

We can help you - reach out and let us know which roles are vital in your next change programme.