How to Navigate Technology Transformation More Scientifically
John Boochever
Executive Director, Clarendon Partners
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Introduction
This is the first in a three-part series making the argument for a more rigorous, in fact a scientific-based approach, to change in business transformation. Whether motivated by external market conditions and business strategy, regulatory developments and directives, or technology modernization, change is ubiquitous – and the gating factor is employees’ willingness and readiness to adopt it into their working lives. Other sectors, such as healthcare, and facets of business, such as quality control, have made adoption – and the factors that lead up to it – mission-critical, backed up by evidence-based operations and behavioral science. Why not the same for business and technology change?
Proposition 1: The Case for ‘Success Assurance’ over Change Management
Let’s face it, ‘change management’ has become a buzzword, and a poorly understood one at that. Having lost its business meaning, leaders lose sight of its indispensable role in ensuring the success of any business or technology transformation, from concept to full adoption. Yet, it is often an afterthought and undervalued, leading to unfulfilled expectations and lost benefits.
A 2021 McKinsey study showed 40-60% dilution of business benefits from the original business case based on 1,034 transformations across companies, almost half of that occurring before implementation.[1] What this tells us is that ‘change management’ needs to start much earlier, i.e., from day one. It also suggests that change management needs to be a continuous activity, much like Quality Assurance means attention to every stage of the production process. In fact, Quality Assurance, in both product development and project management, is an apt model for what change management should be: a systematic process for determining whether a product, project, or service meets quality standards (i.e., is successful). QA does this by identifying defects early and allowing prompt recovery through corrective testing, inspections, and reviews. Success is ‘assured’ by minimizing the need for rework, fixes, costly delays, and overruns.[2] This situation is directly analogous to change management in business and technology transformation, except that the focus of change in QA is each process step, and with change management it’s the people in charge of those steps.
Very often in business and technology transformations, the people most affected by and who are expected to realize the benefits from the change are the least involved and the last consideration in a lengthy implementation process. Yet, it’s people not just process that can make or break a transformation’s success. Unlike Quality Assurance, change management is ultimately all about how to get employees to adapt, preferably as quickly as possible. Adapting means incorporating the change into day-to-day operating behaviors. So, to be successful transformations need to target these behaviors, not treat them as nice-to-haves.
Conceiving of change management as assurance toward a successful transformation outcome may help motivate leaders to instill change management ‘science’ upfront and infuse it into the organization’s DNA throughout the transformation. By reframing change management as Success Assurance, organizations may be able to set the stage from the start for a smoother transition, higher adoption rates, and greater impact on business goals from their transformation efforts.
In this sense, Success Assurance has better potential than change management to become a proactive mindset, backed up by hard science, ensuring everyone is on board, ready to tackle their new ways of working.
Business Transformation at Clarendon Partners
Clarendon Partners brings a ‘front-to-back’ operations approach to help organizations scale efficiently, reduce risk, manage change, and improve strategic results through digital and operating model transformation.
Our people-centric services deepen our transformation offering by focusing on employee behaviors, specifically how to structure and manage business operations and IT modernization to maximize take-up and adoption. We do this using proven change techniques, such as ‘voice of the customer,’ journey- or value-mapping, and human-centered design.
In transformations driven by regulatory reform and changes to risk culture (e.g., ESG, Cyber, FHFA, OCC), Clarendon Partners helps promote adoption, increase compliance, and avoid regulatory rework through awareness campaigns, learning and development, and culture assessments.
Contact us at evolve@clarendonptrs.com to discuss how we can help.