Change management: Making change part of life

• Vision – define the journey to be taken.
• Co-create - understand people and their needs by uniting them.
• Peak - achieve results by overcoming barriers or resistance to change.
• Pivot - inform, support and coach people to adopt the new

Historically, change management within organisations was a once-in-a-decade occurrence, at most. Nowadays, change is the constant within business. Every industry from retail to healthcare is undergoing radical workplace disruption as a result of ongoing technological innovation, evolving customer demands, and structural economic shifts.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution requires a constant assessment of whether a business model is fit for purpose in a fast-changing world. Organisations are under intense pressure to rethink processes, systems and job functions quickly and smoothly, and apply new tools such as machine learning.

Adapting to change is no longer a nice to have, it’s a business-critical capability says Cassie Lowrey, management consultant, Mazars.

Today, the power of the workforce reigns supreme. Any change management project must put people at its core. We understand that businesses are struggling to recruit and retain talent, which is why, at Mazars, we ensure employees are at the heart of any transformation project.

Our technical expertise and experience of change projects means we not only put people first, but motivate project teams to help the wider workforce to accept and adapt to change. At Mazars, we understand that change management requires a universal, data-driven, structured approach that addresses people risks.

We know that for businesses to effect change, they need their best people. We see all too often that when the pressure is on to hit deadlines, it's change management activities like stakeholder engagement or communication that are the first tasks to be de-prioritized. Oftentimes it's when a project hits a critical 'peak' when the symptoms of not managing change start to show themselves, but by then it's probably already too late to pull it back. Employee resistance is one of the most common reasons why projects fail to meet the intended objectives or finish much later than anticipated Lowrey says.

Approaching transformation via our four-step change delivery perspective means that our specialists build in time to celebrate the small wins and recognise progress along the transformation journey at regular intervals for individuals.

At Mazars, we help clients to analyse an organisation’s risk and readiness for wholesale change. We collaborate to design and execute a communication strategy in keeping with the client’s vision. Our job impact analyses, and designed workforce transition programmes ensure a smooth process. By supporting the end-to-end cycle of change, we ensure effective and sustainable fulfilment of true business value.

This approach not only motivates people, but it encourages them to continue to adapt and embrace change. Building an agile culture is different to delivering change, recognising the two different components is crucial to embedding new processes and ways of doing things.

Peak and pivot

Mazars Peak & Pivot Change Model is designed to support our clients leverage the power of their people to reach those critical peaks during business change, accelerate new solutions and ways of working, and successfully pivot to the new.

Lowrey says: “Allow the necessary time to prepare for the people side of change. Technically ready means nothing if you can't get your people to adopt the new process, system or behaviour. Build empathy into your project plan. To successfully deliver change and realise the true value means asking - not telling - people to change. It means listening to their perspective, understanding their challenges, and finding the best way to support them through the change.”

We achieve this by working with clients to develop a compelling vision and a sense of urgency and communicate that vision broadly and regularly. Next, we work hand-in-hand with management to identify and coach the people and develop the skills to establish change at pace.

Lowrey says: By ensuring leadership buy-in that will then cascade down to other parts of the business. For us, a big part of change management is ensuring a good coalition of leadership buy in and support so that others in the organisation are also going nurture that cycle of change.

While ensuring we hit the milestones, we also focus on the pace of change. For us, managing change is about forward movement.

Change management is about establishing movement - Influencing people to move away from the way they work now, to the way the business needs them to work in the future. The goal for change management is to move people through this journey as quickly and with the least disruption as possible Lowrey says.

Avoiding change fatigue

To maintain that momentum, the co-creation project teams must also address the personal pivot, ensuring all employees are embedded the transformation journey. Early identification of impacted stakeholders will foster a strategy to communicate and engage throughout each phase of transformation.

Alan Frost, partner, Mazars, says: We break down the project into bitesize components. That enables the team to celebrate the small successes, because the destination can seem so far in the distance that it can be sometimes hard to get excited about the end result.

Our step-by-step method helps avoid the potential for change fatigue and workload pressures, which often emerge as resistance or disengagement on projects. Ensuring the balance of power remains firmly in the hands of people is critical to success in our experience. We work side-by side with project teams to ensure company-wide collaboration and ownership of change projects lies firmly within the client’s remit. In this way, our specialists cultivate widespread buy-in and support for the vision and ensuing change.

Changing behaviours

As change specialists, it's our job to create the cause that employees can bind to. Popular social movements are a good example of how change can happen. We ensure employees buy into the cause as a result of establishing co-creation. In this way, we nurture a type of psychological safety where “we fail fast and learn quickly”. Mistakes may arise but by developing resilience and agility among the workforce with an eye on the vision change teams are able to rethink, readjust and move forward.

Understanding from the very beginning, and reminding yourself continuously what it is that you're driving towards is critical. It’s about maintaining the momentum towards the vision created Lowrey says.

True value of change

The reasons why change programmes fail vary, but the most common reasons are poor communication, insufficient leadership, lack of buy-in, as well as a lack of understanding of the purpose for change. Accepting change is ultimately down to individuals. We create a programme that ensures the sustainability of change by putting your people front and centre.

Our programmes have a track record of securing a return on investment and sustainability. We embed client ownership to ensure that the changes are fully adopted, and the organisation is agile and flexible for the immediate future and beyond.

Can you be assured your organisation is ready to tackle the multiple challenges that the 4.0 economy brings? If not, then it might be time for an independent assessment and rethink of your business model. Mazars is here to help guide you towards your vision.