Master Change Management: 4 Tips from Project Managers

Organizations often underestimate the importance of change management when planning digital transformation initiatives big and small.

The consequences: Low end-user buy-in and, inevitably, low user adoption.

But how do you get your employees on board with your initiative?

Cherise Kam, Director of Delivery, and Sarah Holtz, Project Manager – Team Lead, have led countless digital transformation projects in their time at Naviant and have used this experience to gather and develop best practices that lead to optimal results.

Read on or watch the video presentation below to get all 4 of their change management tips and learn how to execute each one to empower your digital transformation initiative. Plus, you’ll get a preview of what to expect from your digital transformation partner’s project management team, project kickoff, and more handy tips for your initiative.

4 Change Management Tips Project Managers Want You to Know About

1. Set Clear Expectations for Your Team & Know Your Partner’s Role

A successful project always starts with assembling a strong team and setting clear expectations for their responsibilities. Cherise explained that taking this action will create the necessary hierarchy that’ll get you ready for anything that might arise during the project overall. She and her team have drawn from their experience to create the roles and responsibilities framework seen below.

Your Team

• Project Sponsor: They have the ultimate authority over a project, providing funding, resolving issues and scope changes, approving major deliverables, and providing high-level direction. They also champion the project with internal and external stakeholders, which is a vital part of change management.
• Customer Project Manager: They’re responsible for the management of your resources and tasks as well as the overall success of the project. It’s up to them to lead the planning and development of all project deliverables and communicating project risk issues to the project sponsor. The customer project manager is also responsible for managing the budget, timeline, execution, and all project management procedures to successful completion.
• IT Owner: they’re responsible for the delivery of technical tasks for the project.
• Product Champion: they own the solution and confirm that scope is contained, blockers are removed, and everyone else on the team is taking ownership of the solution. They’re also available for the entire project life cycle and have a direct line to executives and the project sponsor.
• Business SME: They provide requirements and business rules for the process and are available to the project team to answer business process questions. They also participate in user testing and training and Champion the project in their respective business area.
• Application SME: They provide database and technical expertise of the application, whether HR, payroll, AP, or otherwise, to the project team. This could include SAP, ADP, Oracle, MAS200, or other applications.
• Testing Coordinator: They’re responsible for identifying the test scenarios, coordinating test schedules, and tracking test results and issues.
• Training Coordinator: they’re responsible for identifying who needs training, what training they need, and training scheduling. This is a crucial role when it comes to user adoption.
• OnBase System Administrator: They learn the configuration so that after implementation, they can provide first level support to end users and maintain the solution long term.

It’s worth noting that the same individual can be assigned to multiple roles, especially if your organization is small.

In addition to your internal project team, it’s vital to understand the role your digital transformation partner will play in your initiative. When you partner with Naviant, this is what those roles and responsibilities will look like:

Your Digital Transformation Partner’s Team

• Project Manager: They’re responsible for project execution, including the management of resources and tasks, leading the planning and development of all project deliverables, and managing the budget, timeline, issues, and communications.
• Consultant: They’re responsible for facilitating all JAD sessions and demos, capturing requirements, unit testing, providing guidance for testing and training, and post-implementation support.
• Architect: They’re responsible for developing and configuring the solution.
• Customer Success Advisor (CSA): They’re your point person for any questions, escalations, or potential opportunities.
• Account Manager: They’re responsible for working hand in hand with the CSA to ensure you have the optimal support you need surrounding your project. Your account manager, along with your CSA, are your long-term relationship owners, so it’s important to keep an open line of communication with them during your initiative and after implementation.

2. Communicate Freely with Everyone Involved

The most successful projects Cherise and Sarah have seen have a strong sense of partnership between both the customer’s team and Naviant’s. And a pivotal part of achieving this partnership is effective communication, making communication change management tip #2. Effective communication goes a long way in ensuring that budget, scope, and timelines are aligned, and that includes keeping a consistent dialogue with everyone involved, including:

Your Team

Assigning the roles and responsibilities on your team we covered in #1 and ensuring that everyone involved knows each other’s roles is a huge first step in effective communication through digital transformation. If everyone knows who to talk to for specific matters, your team will be able to operate more smoothly no matter what comes up.

But don’t assume that everyone you’ve assigned to your team automatically knows the responsibilities of others on the team, either. It’s worth covering these distinctions in-detail to make sure that everyone’s on the same page.

Your Digital Transformation Partner’s Team

But it’s also vital that you communicate freely with your digital transformation partner’s team, as outlined in #1. Change is hard, but it’s your digital transformation partner’s job to listen to your current state and advise you on how your processes could be improved.

At Naviant, we emphasize consistent communication because you are the expert of your current state, but we are your partner and collaborator to design an even better one. The more you can share with us, the better the end product will be.

Your End Users

Keeping your end users in the loop about your digital transformation initiative is a vital part of gaining user adoption, which we’ll cover more on very soon. Here are some best practices for key points to communicate to your end users:

• Provide a clear, concise explanation of the change, including the reasons behind it and the benefits it’ll bring directly to them. Additionally, be sure to communicate this information early in the process. This helps build enthusiasm and reduces resistance to change.
• Offer detailed information on how the change will affect users daily tasks and workflows. This will ensure they know what to expect and how they will have to adapt.
• Let them know you’ll be providing training and support resources that’ll ease the transition and give them the skills they need to transition to the new process or solution.
• Arrange to offer regularly scheduled meetings like town halls or team check-ins to get continual feedback from your employees throughout the digital transformation process. Additionally, consider providing platforms for employees to submit concerns and share their experiences.

Through it all, maintain open lines of communication via regular updates and feedback channels. This will encourage your users to voice concerns and receive timely responses, which will let them play an active role in the change and take ownership over it.

3. Train Your Team Thoroughly & Strategically

Even if you have the most perfect, tailor-made system rolled out, it won’t work if your users don’t know about it or aren’t trained sufficiently in it. Fortunately, with a comprehensive training program, you can get your employees confidently ready to play their part in helping the solution drive. To build an effective training program, consider:

• Offering comprehensive training and support resources like workshops, video and written versions of tutorials, and help desks. Offering a variety of training formats can help your staff learn faster and even have a more enjoyable training experience – after all, everyone learns differently.
• Appointing solution advocates within your organization. These individuals will learn how to use the new system early, understand its ins and outs, and go on to lead by example and assist their peers with any questions they might have. This can help to foster a culture of adoption and change positivity, all while encouraging collaboration.

4. Know Your Key Engagements & Give Them Your All

To close out our list of change management tips, we urge you to go “all in.” Specifically, it’s important to understand and engage fully in your key responsibilities during the planning and implementation phases. To better understand what this will look like and what operations leadership and business SME’s will need to do we’ll take a look at Naviant’s project methodology for both phases.

The Planning Phase

During the planning phase, operations leadership and business SME’s will be asked to speak on their current state workflows, pain points, and workarounds, along with their goals for the future state solution. It is imperative that they participate. After all, it’s their responsibility to review & off on the future state design, so having comprehensive knowledge of the problems you’re trying to solve and the details of the proposed solution is critical.

As part of this project, SME’s will be asked to participate in joint application development (JAD) sessions. In these meetings, SME’s will meet with a Navient consultant to get a better understanding of the current state processes and future state goals.

Sarah Holtz explained that open, thorough communication during this process is crucial, as the findings produced during these meetings will be used to create a planning phase report. And that report will ultimately be the blueprint for your final solution. It’s not set in stone, as there’ll be multiple opportunities for feedback and solution updates during project configuration. However, it’s to your advantage for this report to be as accurate and well-rounded as possible from the start.

The Implementation Phase

During the implementation phase, SME’s will be actively involved in activities like a demo feedback session, user acceptance testing, and go-live. As time-consuming as these activities can be, they’re crucial for SME’s to be actively involved in. This is especially the case for the demo feedback session, as it’s the SME’s opportunity to provide feedback on the initial configuration in its test environment. The goal is to verify the solution and ensure that it meets your business requirements, making it well worth everyone’s time. Based on the feedback given, Navient consultants will curate baseline testing and training materials.

When it’s time for training, SME’s or super users will be trained in the solution and will be expected to train their peers and other end users. This training is a prerequisite for user acceptance testing (UAT), which is meant to allow the SME’s to test the solution and report issues for resolution.

Finally, SME engagement is extremely important during go live. This is the culmination of all the planning and hard work that has gone into the process, so it’s critical that your operations leadership are brought in and are championing the solution to ensure that user adoption is high.

Embrace Change Now

Embracing change is never easy, but with the right strategies in place, it becomes a manageable and even rewarding process. By setting clear expectations, maintaining open lines of communication, ensuring thorough solution adoption, and understanding key engagements, you can significantly boost user adoption and win over your staff. And with these change management tips in practice, you’ll be able to navigate the complexities of digital transformation with confidence and success.

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