Long before the acronym OCM (or Organizational Change Management) became commonplace, the phrase “Human Factors” was used to describe how changes like a large-scale technology implementation affected the people and workflow processes within an organization experiencing varying levels of transformation.
No matter the phrase, as utilities look to migrate from their legacy Esri’s Geometric Network to the new Utility Network (UN), they need to consider both the technical aspects as well as the human elements of organizational change to ensure a successful UN migration. I’ve noted in previous blog posts that migrating to the UN can have a significant impact on a variety of workflow processes – network asset data editing, field data collection, graphic work design to name a few. This coupled with an entirely new data structure, along with more advanced GIS capabilities have the potential to significantly affect those people and process when it comes to implementing this “sea change” in this next generation of enterprise GIS technology.
Addressing these human elements continue to be a challenge despite all the thought leadership and progress in organizational change management in recent years. And remains one of the bigger challenges that many utility leaders will face during their migration to the UN.
This post identifies some of the more common human factor elements and suggested considerations. They are intended to help leaders rethink more critically about the importance of change management in achieving their UN migration beyond just the technical aspects involving the GIS applications, data migration, integrations, and technical infrastructure.
Leadership
Change management relies heavily on leadership and their communication skills. Leaders need to communicate their organization’s objectives for moving to the UN, explain why it’s necessary, and create a sense of urgency in employees. They also need to make sure that employees aren’t left behind as the business moves toward its desired future state. It’s vital that leadership be present throughout the entire project, as they will play an important role in helping to address the emotional aspects of staff impacted by the changes that come with a UN migration.
Suggestion: Leadership needs to communicate a clear and compelling set of objectives to help create awareness and desire for the UN migration. The project sponsor/leadership must be visible and engaged through the entire project from the beginning to the conclusion. In addition, leadership must prepare their management team by equipping them with information during the project and demonstrating commitment to the project through their behavior.
Change Management Strategy
When thinking about a UN migration, leaders often focus on what the change is and why it is necessary. However, failing to give equal priority to how the change will happen can undermine the migration effort. Without a comprehensive change management strategy, short term tactical decisions can delay or undermine long-term results. They can lead your organization down an unexpected direction and make it more difficult to achieve the project objectives. In addition, the lack of a change management strategy can make it more difficult to build buy-in, hinder your communication with employees, and create misunderstandings and diminish trust in the project leadership.
Suggestion: Invest an appropriate amount of time and effort into creating a comprehensive change management strategy before starting a UN migration. It can be helpful to choose an industry model to follow like Kotter’s 8-Step Process or Prosci’s ADKAR® Model on which to build your strategy. While you likely can’t plan for every single contingency, developing a strategy will help you minimize unexpected problems, and improve the project’s changes of staying on track from both a schedule and budget perspective.
Communication
Clear and concise communication is essential throughout the UN migration. Leaders should solicit feedback from employees, and then analyze and take corrective action based on that feedback. It is common for leaders to spend a great deal of time communicating about the proposed change to gain buy-in before beginning the project. However, change management strategies often fizzle out when leaders don’t communicate enough after the UN migration is announced. Once the initial communication drive is over, the day-to-day demands of the job take over and enthusiasm for the UN can diminish, and your team will revert to the comfort of the status quo.
Suggestion: Create a short, coherent explanation of your UN migration project. It should be clear, consistent, and constant. Be prepared to repeat that explanation frequently, throughout the entire project and with everyone who may be impacted. Every interaction with both the leadership and stakeholders are an opportunity to educate the organization about why this project is important.
Individual Change Management
Change is personal, and your staff will process it at different speeds and will need different levels of support from leadership. Migrating to the UN will involve using a new set of GIS tools and data model, applying new business rules, and adopting changes in workflow processes. Regardless of type, many of the organizational changes will impact the ways stakeholders will perform their day-to-day work following deployment of the UN. Because the success of UN migration depends on individuals engaging, adopting, and using them, we must manage changes at both the individual and organizational levels concurrently.
Suggestion: Impacted stakeholders will all move through the UN migration journey – from their current state, through a transition state, to a future state. Be prepared at the beginning of the project to address the individual change management aspects to effectively support and enable the individual stakeholders through the transition, so they can successfully engage, adopt, and use the new GIS tools and processes.
Resistance to Change
Existing company culture and norms can make it difficult for people to accept new ways of doing things, such as applying new processes, working within new team environments, or using new technology. It is important to identify areas of resistance and potential problems you think your project team may encounter. SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis can be a helpful tactical tool to help develop alternate pathways to achieve your project objectives.
Suggestion: Make a strategic and thoughtful assessment of how your UN migration may impact your stakeholders to identify potential resistance from the start of the project. Tailor your communication strategy so that you can address that resistance as soon as it arises, and actively listen to and engage your employees throughout the UN migration. While you can’t plan for every single contingency, developing a solid resistance management approach will help you minimize unexpected problems.
A closing thought regarding the various challenges we repeatedly see in assisting utility organizations through a successful UN migration. Over the dozens of UN implementations, our Change Practitioners have identified invaluable insights on what works when implementing change for a UN migration and, perhaps more importantly, what does not. Armed with this insight, you can start to anticipate and avoid some of the more common obstacles to success, including:
- Lack of executive support and active sponsorship of the UN migration project
- Lack of effective communication leading to project misalignment and low morale
- Lack of change buy-in and solution support creating resistance
- Lack of knowledge and resources for change management to effectively address the people side of the UN migration
- Lack of understanding of the level of commitment necessary to implement the new technology, along with the degree of process workflow change for certain user groups
What do you think?