Involving the Business

The 4S project impacts a broad range of users at different locations and in different business functions. Addressing all user groups appropriately and winning them over to support the change requires a specific approach to scale change management activities across the organization. Sandra and Paul, as change managers, are responsible for building the conceptual foundation for this approach. However, it takes additional resources for a successful execution. Implementing a change network with decentralized change agents can help, for example, in delivering local communication efforts. Furthermore, change agents often act as a linchpin between the project team and the business units. By collecting and consolidating employees’ wishes and concerns, they provide valuable input to the project team, represent their respective unit, and allow users’ indirect participation.

Sandra and Paul have already developed a role description for the change agent. Review the following chart for the details:

In the next step, they want to decide how to implement the change network at BriscoBikes. Paul has scheduled a call to discuss some open questions with Sandra.

Setting up a change network requires some operational steps. The exercise in the learning journey gives you an overview of some decisions to be made.

Take 10 minutes to complete exercise 24 in your workbook.

In the following video, Sandra and Paul discuss how to set up the change network at BriscoBikes and how to get started.

Have a look at the chart to get an idea of how to design the kick-off meeting for a change network:

Acting as change agent requires motivation, energy, and commitment. Therefore, once the change network has successfully kicked off, continuous effort is needed to sustain momentum throughout the entire collaboration period. Otherwise, change fatigue or demotivation can happen, especially in complex, long-term projects. The change managers must ensure that the change agents are well prepared and equipped with suited communication material to act as multipliers for the project within their respective units.

In addition, the change managers should establish structured methods of effectively collecting the change agents’ on-the-ground feedback. Furthermore, investing in the skill development of the change agents helps to disperse change management competencies within the organization and enhances the organizations’ overall resilience in handling transformations.

Paul facilitated the kick-off with the change agents for BriscoBikes and the BriscoBikes Holding. Ron also participated in the meeting, providing input regarding the 4S project and answering questions from the change agents. Unfortunately, Sandra had to decline the meeting at short notice. Therefore, she schedules a call with both Paul and Ron to discuss their impressions and agree on the path forward.

There are many aspects to be considered when establishing and successfully managing a change network. The exercise in the workbook will ask you to handle some typical topics.

Take five minutes to complete exercise 25 in your workbook.

Sandra and Paul, as the change managers and Ron as project manager closely collaborate in planning how to manage the change network for the 4S project.

Monitoring human health is crucial to living a long life, and pulse checks are an effective way of detecting potential health issues at an early stage. The concept of pulse checks can also be transferred to the project context. For the project leadership team, it is often difficult to get insights on how various stakeholder groups perceive the project. Consequently, people-related risks may not be anticipated and managed in a timely manner. Measuring the pulse of these stakeholder groups regularly helps to monitor the development of important project topics and to detect early warning signs of impending issues. By setting up pulse surveys, analyzing the results, and deriving recommendations, change managers enable the project team to handle people-related project challenges appropriately, contributing significantly to the overall project success.

The three project managers Lucy, Ron, and Carlos had a discussion on options to monitor people-related aspects of the 4S project. They agreed that using pulse checks helps to gain important insights. As they all lack specific expertise regarding pulse checks, they ask Sandra for her expert input during their next project management jour fixe.

Pulse checks are a valuable tool for change managers. Do you already know how to use pulse checks?

Take five minutes to complete exercise 26 in your workbook.

The project leadership team has invited Sandra to share her general experiences with pulse checks in cloud implementations and to provide practical advice for applying pulse checks in the 4S project.