Considerations for Change

The Crown Consulting Group and our large network of skilled independent consultants have spent years at the forefront of complex business change based initiatives. Whether this be global business strategy, technology introduction and/or optimisation, organisational transformation or digital transformation the group and our consultants have worked with clients to deliver sustainable ethical results.

Over the years we have worked with a multitude of customers from global household names to innovative start-ups.

We have picked up a series of common questions, considerations and concerns that our clients express when embarking on business change. These include, but are not limited to;

• Do I need to transform my business?

• What does digital mean and what does digital transformation look like?

• What technology choice should I make to enhance my organisation?

• Can we copy what digital leaders have done and find the same level of success?

• Should we go in-house development, off the shelf or open source, what are the differences?

• Which supplier is right for us?

We have pulled our resources and vast experience to devise a series of high-level considerations that we feel everyone should consider when embarking on a change-based initiative. We have used this set of considerations with our recent clients to great success. The guidelines have allowed us to collaboratively work to identify holistically all key aspects of the deliverable and help prepare the organisation in question.

We are going to deliver this content over a series of publications. Each publication will address a key area which The Crown Consulting Group feel is a critical consideration. We will identify the reasons for this consideration and illustrate where and how we have used this to demonstrate success.

Having pulled insights from our network of over 250 highly skilled consultants and our senior leadership team we have identified the following as key aspects that we feel should be considered when considering any level of change initiative. The following will form the basis for this publication series;

• Goals & Aspirations;

• Design;

• Planning;

• Organisation Buy In;

• Communication & Collaboration;

• Ownership; And

• Network.

Goals & Aspirations

We consider this as having a clear picture of what you want to achieve, at this stage you don’t need to be concerned with partners, technology choices, dates or deliverable. The focus at this stage needs to be around getting a universally accepted vision of where the organisation is going.

Your stakeholders all need to be aligned and in agreement as to the vision. At this stage straying into the detail of deliverable or specific choices, however tempting, will usually prohibit the vision from being formed and universally agreed. Focus will need to be given to how the organisation will operate, at a high-level, when the identified goals and appreciations have been realised.

Design

This is where you will consider, and ultimately design, an outcome that will meet the expectations identified within the goals and aspirations stage.

The design will address all the aspects set out in the vision you created in the previous stage. The importance being that by taking a holistic approach in step 1 you now have a complete picture to develop your detailed design. We feel considering the People, Process and Technology aspects here is a critical and often missed opportunity.

Your design will illustrate how the complex component parts of your organisation will fit together and complement each other during your journey. We feel a key consideration at this stage needs to be the realisation that Digital Transformation is in face a journey and not a single deliverable.

Planning

You will now have a detailed vision in place which documents your goals and aspirations, you will have a detailed holistic design in place of how your organisation will operate in the future. The planning consideration now starts to plan the delivery of different elements of work.

Any plan at this level will need to have enough flexibility embedded to cater for planned changes and a degree of unforeseen circumstance. You should be aiming to have a plan in place that will illustrate how and when different key components will be delivered, the plan should instill confidence of delivery to the audience.

The Crown Consulting Group feel a key consideration here is not to lose sight of the holistic view you worked on in stages 1 and 2. A complete comprehensive plan will aim to illustrate a road-map view of how interdependent elements will be delivered across the organisation and how these will interrelate to help realise the goals and aspirations identified in step 1.

Organisation Buy In

Delivering any change initiative will require the buy-in of your organisation. This may seem like a replication of stage 1 however we have found that ensuring your People are engaged and foster an ongoing supportive attitude towards your efforts is fundamental in allowing you to achieve your goals and aspirations.

We feel a key consideration here is to ensure you extend these buy in efforts beyond the realms of your senior leadership and management teams. We feel it is critical to engage with your end user, whether that be your customer, internal users or, ideally, a combination of both. From our experience it is the organisations that devote effort to this ongoing activity that see the best results. Again, consider the People, Process and Technology elements.

Communication & Collaboration

Directly related to the previous step you need to ensure you set-up, retain and monitor an ethos of open collaboration. Expectations and possibilities are ever changing; therefore, it is critical to have a degree of flexibility built into your plan which we will have addressed in step 3.

We feel that a key deliverable here is to ensure you are communicating your vision, goals and aspirations within your organisation. Giving people viability and feedback opportunities will help build momentum for change help start to foster ownership and accountability.

Quite often people are only resistant to change when they don’t know what that change is and how it will impact them. We see the organisation which invest time and effort in this area often see the best outcomes in terms of ownership.

Ownership

Having clear lines of ownership will help develop a positive attitude towards accountability. Ownership and accountability are critical for any change initiative. It will allow you escalate any problems quickly and attain better outcomes.

We feel this goes beyond a system or process owner, and again, needs to be looked at holistically. Many of the transformation initiatives the Group and our consultants have been involved with have included to innovative use of technology. This adds increased complexity across a number of functions and as such it is critical to have clear documented and understood lines of responsibility.

Network

In previous stages we have emphasised the critical importance of collaboration and communication throughout your initiative and across your organisation.

This stage is about ensuring your people are sufficiently skilled to handle the deliverable. We have found that a common flaw in some transformation-based deliveries is a failure to invest, or even identify, the need for transformation of an organisations people.

The Crown Consulting Group feel that in order to attain the best outcomes (financially, operationally and ethically) an organisation needs to ensure equal and proportionate weight is given to the people, process and technology elements of any project or deliverable.

In summary the seven considerations above are by no means an exhaustive list of key elements the Group consider critical when delivering an initiative. We have illustrated these as a common set of considerations and high-level subject matters that will help guide and aid an organisation in delivering sustainable results.

Moving forwards we are aiming to deliver a deep dive analysis into each of the above stages every fortnight. Each publication in the series will look at one of the considerations separately and identify what it means and how you can use it to start delivering benefits within your organisation.

The Crown Consulting Group would advise that a key takeaway thought at this stage is to realise that your transformation is a journey made up of different deliverables.