Change management: 5 ways to embrace technological change 

“The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change their future by merely changing their attitude.” – Oprah Winfrey

Any software implementation, whether it’s in a large enterprise, accountancy firm, small business or school/MAT, requires people to change how they think and operate.

But with a new way of working, there will always be those who are nervous, resistant and unwilling to accept a new world.

In a world of digital transformation, a comprehensive change management strategy is needed to ensure the new software is successfully adopted, yielding the best return on investment (ROI).

One of the most crucial but often missed areas of change management is the psychology behind change; so how can you optimise your communications to create a smooth, engaging journey?

What is change management?

Before we delve further, what exactly is change management?

In essence, it’s managing the people side of any project, getting people on board and excited while also resolving the worries of those viewing the change negatively.

Build awareness and create desire to tackle the psychological hurdles hindering change

In most change projects, organisations often start with knowledge, training their people on the system and new processes.

Stop.

Before introducing staff to the new software, two crucial areas need your attention: awareness and desire.

Awareness

Why should I bother with the change? Why are we changing software? What’s in it for me?

These are all questions your employees are thinking.

In fact, we found that at the best of times, 74% of staff feel disconnected to what’s going on in a change project.

To resolve these worries, you need to reduce resilience by increasing knowledge, raising awareness of the project and helping people understand the purpose and benefits.

Desire

Once you’ve raised awareness, the next step is to solidify the work you’ve done promoting benefits by cementing people’s desire for the software.

You want the original ‘why’s and what’s’ to change into ‘I’m interested, I understand the reason and I’m up for doing this’.

Continue to promote the change and its benefits, and as a result, you’ll see far better engagement in your training and adoption during the go-live.

What can you do to raise awareness and desire?

Communications, as we’ll mention, are fundamental to fostering awareness and desire.

Consider utilising the following to promote your change project:

• Emails
• Videos
• Posters
• Swag (mugs, mats and merch)
• Q&As
• Meetings

Understanding the attitudes towards change

When it comes to change, we all fall into the following categories, with the percentages showing how many people are typically in each:

• Innovators 2.5%
• Early adopters 13.5%
• Early majority 34%
• Late majority 34%
• Laggards 16%

But what do these categories mean?

With any change project, you essentially have the small percentage who can’t wait to try the newest tech, the majority in the middle that come once the concept is proven and the minority at the end who are completely against any form of change.

As part of your change management initiative, your goal should be to sway the late majority and laggards within your business by utilising awareness and desire.

Five ways to promote change

To create positive attitudes towards change in your business, here are five steps you can take.

1) Utilise communications

Communications will help spread the message of your project around the business, creating awareness and desire.

Build a comms plan that outlines your messaging, what you’re sending, when you’re sending, how often you’ll send and to whom you’ll be sending.

What should your communications include? Be upfront about the software and what’s changing, then focus on the actual day-to-day benefits people will experience.

Additionally, make sure your senior leadership understand the changes so they can answer any queries they receive.

2) Build a champion group

Recruit people from your organisation that sit in the early and late adopters category to be ‘champions’ in the project; look after them, provide them with knowledge and time in their days to learn.

By getting them involved and nurturing their understanding, these people will organically become ambassadors of the change.

3) Learning

Once you’ve built awareness and desire, it’s time to educate staff on the software.

High-quality learning is fundamental to ensuring people know the procedure changes and how to operate the new software, helping them let go of the old ways/tools.  

4) Recognition

Celebrate successes and achievements in your internal communications, encouraging others to try the new software.

By showcasing the highs, those resistant to change get a glimpse into the possibilities, helping shift their perception. 

5) Accept fear

Be realistic about your change – there will undoubtedly be fear but once you accept that, you’re in a much better place to address it.

Communicate constantly, engage with people and have open discussions.

Become a master of change

Hopefully, you now have a better understanding of what’s required for successful change management.

So, now would be the perfect time to upgrade some of your software, starting your very own project, right?

We’ve got good news – for a limited time – we’re offering you 50% off all IRIS software (T&CS apply), helping you optimise your day-to-day.

Click here to see how our Masters of Time can help you along the way.