Change Management: Enabling Successful Adoption

Editor’s note: This article is part of series on simplifying complexity, which encompasses process improvement, process implementation and integration, and change management.

“Everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler.” - Albert Einstein

In the life sciences business, we are always looking to make things more efficient and effective. But in doing so, many of us tend to rely on automation and digitization to displace the perceived complexity that often comes with a more disciplined and defined process.

As Einstein suggests, you need to bake in just the right amount of complexity. The balance between simplicity and complexity should follow the Goldilocks Rule: not too much of one or the other, only what’s “just right.” The best method of finding what’s right for your organization is to carefully consider digitization only after you’ve improved the process that is already in place. In other words, you must have an efficient, effective, and stable process before you can apply a purpose-built tool to it.

Simplifying Complexity =

Step 1. Process Improvement

+

Step 2. Digitization

As you go about doing the work it takes to simplify complexity, the discipline of change management should be an important consideration in your planning. Change management in this instance is defined as:

A systematic approach to dealing with the transition or transformation of an organization's goals, processes, or technologies. The purpose of change management is to implement strategies for effecting change, controlling that change, and helping people to adopt the change.

The keys words in bold form a very simple definition of change management:

When transforming a process, plan for how you can enable people to successfully adopt the change.

Your Guide to Managing Change

The following outline summarizes the change management process and can be used as a guideline for managing your organization’s digital transformation:

1. Define the change:
1. What is changing? (i.e., new process, software, etc.)
2. When is it happening?
3. How is the change being managed? (i.e., a slow or staggered rollout, going live all at once, etc.)
4. Who is managing the change?
5. Who must adopt the change?
6. Who will be impacted by the change?
2. Identify the assumptions and risks associated with the change, as well as any opportunities it may present.
3. Develop a detailed communication plan.
1. Craft the message, taking all assumptions and risks into consideration.
2. Start with the leaders and cascade across the organization.
3. Consider the most appropriate channel(s) for the various adopters at every level of the organization (i.e., email, text, intranet, meetings, training, etc.).
4. Decide on the frequency of communication and continually ENGAGE, ENGAGE, ENGAGE.
4. Then, EXECUTE, MEASURE, ADJUST, REPEAT.

Carefully planned and implemented change management is a sure-fire way to ensure high adoption of new and improved processes and the software automation that may accompany them.