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We are living in a digital age where organisations are faced with faster and more complex change, which impacts not only the organisation but its people. In any change initiative change management principles and methodologies are used to help stakeholders understand the change as well as drive the adoption rate. Incorporating digital tools at an individual level can help enhance the change journey for individuals impacted by the change through driving awareness, acceptance, adoption and sustainability of the change. In this article I will be exploring digital tools at an individual level that can be incorporated to enhance the individual’s experience throughout the change cycle.
In any change initiative, regular readiness assessments and metrics are performed at different stages of the change cycle, starting with evaluating the current readiness of the organisation and its people for the proposed changed. The traditional way of administering paper-based readiness surveys can be extremely time consuming and a frustrating exercise for individual participants. Individuals may, in some instances, not be physically in the same geographic location and the change consultant may be unable to get completed surveys. Digital tools such as Question Pro can be a great way to alleviate these pains. Individual participants can benefit from the many advantages of completing online readiness surveys. The first being flexibility; participants can pick a moment that suits them best to complete the survey. The second benefit is accessibility; where participants are able to complete surveys at any time on multiple devices, as well as have the option of completing the surveys offline. Thirdly, the reminder feature; which is also helpful especially as it can be integrated with social media platforms like Facebook and Twitter which can help increase audience reach as well as making it convenient for individuals participating in completing the readiness surveys.
Communication and stakeholder engagement are important tools for creating understanding about the change and driving adoption throughout the change cycle. When creating a communication plan its important you know your audience, what message you are trying to convey and the most effective and efficient way to deliver the communication. Although, commonly used traditional ways of communicating in the workplace, such as email, may not be as effective when one is trying to drive awareness (people may tend to not read emails). Incorporating “pull” communications through digital tools such as social media can be an effective way to enhance communication for targeted stakeholders. Strategic communication that addresses “what’s in it for me” through social media for example can help individuals be more receptive to awareness messaging. Social media is also a great tool to increase reach as the communication conveyed on those platforms can be viewed by the individual on multiple devices such as smart phones or PC’s at any given time. Individuals can gain a better understanding of the change on platforms that are easily accessible and appealing to them.
Engagement sessions are a great way to create understanding about the change. When people don’t understand the purpose of change they tend to resist this change, however face-to-face engagements can pose as a challenge for big organisations where stakeholders may not necessarily all be in the same office space. Incorporating digital tools such as Skype can be used to bridge the gap created by an absence of face-to-face communication and engagement. For example, individuals who are in different office spaces can still join the engagement sessions through Skype meetings and if documents or a PowerPoint presentation is being utilised during the session, the screen sharing feature can help individuals have the full engagement experience by creating an environment of inclusion for all attendees.
Skills transfer is equally as important to ensure individuals feel ready and equipped for the proposed change. Complex changes such as process and system changes are dependent on training to ensure user readiness. Integrating eLearning and gamification into the training plan can help enhance the learning experience for end users. Gamification in eLearning makes learning not only informative but also makes the individual feel more engaged and motivated given that they are striving to reach a goal. As an individual, the knowledge that you will be rewarded for you efforts creates a positive view of the learning process and the change. This can help increase the adoption rate as individuals feel like an integral part of the overall learning process. Incorporating eLearning as a digital tool can be great for employees where daily operations are still expected to continue by reducing the time spent away from work as the training material can be accessed from multiple devices (PC’s; smartphones; tablets etc.), from anywhere at any time. It can also ensure all employees completing the eLearning get the same quality training. eLearning offers the opportunity to engage all employees in consistent training and it can help to achieve high levels of coverage amongst your target audience.
In conclusion, digital tools can help enhance the individual’s experience throughout the change journey. Digital tools and platforms, if applied correctly, can also assist in driving awareness, acceptance and adoption of the change in an extraordinary way.
