We know how challenging it can be for transformational leaders to lead through change – from communicating your vision, to getting buy-in, to enabling people on new technologies, to instilling ways of working. Packed with advice and tips, this article is your go-to resource for exploring change management fundamentals. Gain insights into the types of deliverables a change team may create to help you understand the magnitude of change management efforts, and view a real-world engagement plan from an Adobe AEM Assets and Workfront customer. Regardless of the size of your organization or where you are in your digital maturity or implementation of Adobe solutions, if you are thinking about putting Change Management principles into practice, we recommend bringing in experienced change specialists to help you define the right scope and instill best practices of change efforts for your program and organization.

Change Management is essential, from the start

“ When implementing new technology, what drives the majority of these conversations from start to finish is often the technical deployment and the technical conversation. We forget that behind all of that are the people, the business processes, and the goals. However,  true transformation hinges on effective change management. Without guiding people through the transition and ensuring that everyone is on board with the change, the full potential of the technology cannot be realized.

Change management is the bridge that connects the technical aspects with the human and organizational elements, ensuring that the transformation is not just a superficial upgrade, but a lasting improvement.”

– Raja Walia, CEO, GNW Consulting

What is Change Management?

Change Management helps transition individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state, so that they can  maximize adoption while minimizing disruption to the business as usual.

Change Management optimizes the return on investment (ROI) of a program by ensuring stakeholders are aware, aligned, capable and ready for a new way of doing business.

Change Management goes hand-in-hand with Program Management.

Program Management is the process of guiding a program team through a series of tasks that eventually lead to completion of a defined business goal. Change Management enables program management by preparing the people, so they are ready for the solution the business is driving.

Program Managers and Change Managers partner throughout the program. For programs that don’t have a dedicated Change Management owner, the Program Manager is often responsible for executing the Change Management activities.

Why Change Management?

According to a McKinsey study, 70% of digital transformations fail, and the financial cost of those failures is estimated by some to be $900 billion USD. [source]

One of the best measures you as a leader can take to avoid a failed effort is introducing Change Management.

Guiding people along the change journey helps mitigate risks to adoption and potential negative impacts to the business. Using a disciplined approach also produces benefits which can range from increased preparedness to an increased likelihood of meeting or exceeding a program’s objectives.

Here we’ve highlighted common program risks and how change management can reduce those while providing benefits to foster program success.

The Impact of Change

Research by Prosci, a leading change management research and training organization, consistently shows that organizations with excellent change management achieve greater success and are

Prosci also has proven that change management, or the lack thereof, can directly contribute to or limit the overall program ROI.

Prosci identified three specific human factors of change which can positively or negatively impact ROI and suggests that these three human factors are why we apply change management to programs...

“As a discipline, change management focuses on enabling and encouraging employees to engage, adopt and use changes to their day-to-day work as required by a project or initiative, which directly contributes to higher ROI through faster adoption, greater utilization and higher proficiency. In other words, by way of the three human factors, change management directly contributes to project ROI.”

Sources: "Prosci, Best Practices in Change Management 12th Edition” and Prosci: What is Change Management and Prosci's 3 Factors of Change Which Define or Constrain Project ROI

Change Management at Adobe

As Adobe launches technology transformation initiatives, Adobe’s Change Management team and their methodology are available to guide internal Adobe teams in managing change. The Adobe change practitioners use a three-part methodology centered on moving stakeholders from understanding and basic awareness to empowerment and success.

OVERVIEW

During the initial Understand Me phase, Change Managers understand the needs of the organization and the individuals within it, bring awareness to the need for change, and establish what success will look like for the people experiencing change. Here are examples of questions you will likely ask and answer during this phase:

• What is the future-state or vision?

• What is our strategy to get there?

• What will the impact of this change be on the team, org, division, or Adobe?

• Who will be the executive sponsors and how will we get them aligned?

• Who are our stakeholders and what are their needs?

• How do all our stakeholders feel right now about the change?

COMMON DELIVERABLES

In this phase, Change Managers will rely on a few foundational tools to understand stakeholders and build a clear vision for the future. These tools include:

• Case for Change – delineates why the vision and purpose for making the change, the strategic case for change (what challenges will be overcome and what goals will be achieved), what are the consequences if change is not made, what is changing and who is impacted, who will own the activities, and the anticipated challenges, risks, and complexity.

• Change Impact Assessment – identifies what is changing for which groups, including internal and external stakeholders.

• Stakeholder Assessment - captures key stakeholder groups that are essential to successful change, their needs and expectations, and any potential resistance to change

• Change Plan – highlights the main objectives of the change management effort, including the reason for change, who is impacted by the change, the anticipated challenges, risks, and complexity and captures the activities to achieve change and owners of those activities.

• Communications Plan - dictates the flow of pertinent information across collaborators and stakeholders, outlining what, when and how information will be shared, at what intervals and who owns creating and delivering the messages.

Change Managers may also create these: 

• Sponsor Alignment & Roadmap - aligns the key sponsor whose active engagement is needed for success and defines key activities and responsibilities of the sponsors and leaders throughout the project.

• Personas & Journey Map - a holistic picture of the roles impacted by the change and their needs which can be used as inputs to training, communications and other strategies.

OVERVIEW

In the Prepare Me phase, Change Managers focus on engagement, communications and enablement and will begin executing these plans. Prepare Me takes the research from Understand Me and sets a plan for activation. Some questions you might ask include:

• How can we create a training plan around our future-state goals?

• How will communications and outreach look different for different people?

• What should we be communicating right now to our stakeholders in preparation?

COMMON DELIVERABLES

In this phase Change Managers dig deeper, turning concepts and ideas into more practical plans and preparation for execution:

• Stakeholder Engagement Strategy & Plan – defines all stakeholders to engage, engagement materials and owners for creating them, engagement types, delivery dates, and may include a Resistance Management Plan.
• Training Plan   - defines the guiding principles, purpose and objectives of training and maps out the activities and resources needed to identify the training approach and delivery methods for different audiences, as well as creating the training deliverables and accomplishing the training execution; this could include other deliverables like a Training Needs Assessment and the actual Training Deliverables (training courses, webinars, job aids, etc.).
• Business Readiness Assessment - used to chart the readiness of an organization in categories including data, technical and infrastructure, solution and process, organizational and people, third party, cutover and sustainment using a color-coded scorecard updated at key intervals both pre- and post-go live.
• Change Agent Network – defines steps for developing a network of change agents who are well-respected front-line leaders at various levels who raise awareness about the change, influence and motivate others, manage resistance and foster acceptance and commitment.
• Key Messages & Communications – lays out all the key messages, sender, format, audiences in detail so these can be delivered in a timely manner.

OVERVIEW

The Empower Me phase is all about delivery and sustainment. By this point you will have fostered the desire for change with your stakeholders while putting together and beginning to execute plans to build the relevant knowledge to make that change happen. During the Empower Me phase Change Managers typically:

• Continue communicating with end users

• Deliver training and follow-up evaluations

• Build a knowledge repository

• Support users through go-live, connecting them with resources and SMEs

• Compile lessons learned for a retrospective

• Present a sustainment or RTB (run the business) plan to make sure the change sticks

• Measure change success using human-centric metrics

COMMON DELIVERABLES

In this phase any still ongoing activities are completed, including comms plans, training delivery, knowledge transfers, etc.  Change leaders will also start reporting on the adoption and success of the change management swim lane and may conduct a retrospective.

• Adoption & Success Metrics – identifies how to measure both adoption success and change management success, captures baseline metrices for comparison including qualitative and quantitative measurements.
• Training Delivery – accomplish the execution of the Training Plan and delivery of training.
• Knowledge Transfer - identifies critical run the business tasks, KSAOC (knowledge, skills, abilities and other characteristics) to perform them, importance, availability of expertise, impact, resources, potential successor(s) and how to train successor(s).
• Retrospective - takes a look backwards to capture intel from various stakeholders both on what worked well as well as challenges, with the goal of identifying changes to make or new ways of working to improve the processes, governance or other aspects of the program.
• Post go-live support – this plan should lay out the routes to get help and might include a 1:1 support channels, email or chat support, 1:many drop-in support hours, feedback loops or other options to help users in the immediate phase post go-live.

The Change Management Process

Regardless of the size of your organization, your stage of digital maturity or the scope of your program, rolling out a Change Management program can follow this straightforward three step approach:

1. Assess the change
2. Create the change plan
3. Execute on the plan

Key takeaways

We’ve covered a lot of ground here, so let's review the fundamental aspects of Change Management and the benefits which can be attained.

Resources

If you are looking to introduce or accelerate Change Management efforts in your organization, use these resources to extend your learning about Change Management fundamentals. Building a Change Plan that is right-sized for your organization is a significant effort and is best done with the help of experienced change management practitioners. These bonus resources provide additional tips and advice for thought leaders as well as examples of some of the common deliverables which might accompany a change effort, big or small.

• Navigating Change for Leaders (webinar) - includes tips on Change Management fundamentals, managing resistance to change, key Change Management metrics and more.

• The  Adobe Change Management Toolkit

• Sample  Engagement Plan from Adobe customer PMI - an amazing hybrid communications and training plan, or engagement plan, for the rollout of AEM Assets and Workfront. Special thanks to Chris Muscutt for sharing this content!

Adobe Consulting Services offers their own robust Change Management programs and services designed to help large enterprise companies successfully manage change. Many Adobe Partners also provide advisory services around Change Management. For more information, contact your Adobe Sales representative.

Special thanks to Holly Brown, Ashley Echols, Berenice Blanc and Shaaz Nasir for their generous contributions to and thoughtful collaboration on this content.