Read the following article and answer the questions that follow:

The Missing Link For Successful Organisation Change Management

The topic of organisation change management (OCM) has been gaining momentum latelyparticularly due to the wake of the pandemic, the rise in remote work and global economic and supply chain disruptions.

But theres often a crucial puzzle piece conspicuously absent from the conversation about OCM in todays enterprises.

Much of the advice about OCM seems to go out of its way to isolate the process of implementing organisational change from the day-to-day operations of an enterprise. But those operations are often the very thing that shape what the enterprise is changing from and what it aspires to become.

For most operations embarking on an OCM initiative, theres usually a specific trigger event that drives the need for changewhich in turn drives the need to figure out how to manage that change. The triggers may be some kind of strategic corporate action (like M&A activity), external macroeconomic trends (like the pandemic or global supply chain breakdowns) or a simple failure to hit your own performance targets for any number of reasons.

Theres a good chance that your enterprise software systemsthe lifeblood of your businesswill play a crucial role in the OCM process. Maybe they provided the leading indicators that revealed the need to initiate an OCM process in the first place. For example, perhaps it became painfully apparent that two newly merged companies need to do a better job of knitting their information flows together. Maybe your operational metrics are shedding light on aspects of your operation that are laggingor new opportunities that arent being fully exploited.

And it may even be the case that these day-to-day operational systemswhether theyre accounting solutions, CRMs or field service automation systemscan actually become drivers of the OCM process.

But first, lets take a step back and think about what change really means.

Albert Einstein once observed, The measure of intelligence is the ability to change. A century later, another great thinker, Oprah Winfrey, noted, The greatest discovery of all time is that a person can change his future by merely changing his attitude. If Oprah and Einstein had ever joined forces to tackle the topic of change in the enterprise, they might have come up with something like this: Change isnt easy, but its essential especially when it comes to enterprise operations. And the secret to successfully implementing change in the enterprise are solutions that make it easy to adapt workflows to new inputs and updated requirements in real time and that leverage technology to drive cultural changes that encourage participation, innovation and democratisation.

But this kind of strategy rarely emerges in OCM planning. One reason? Most enterprise tools fall short of these goals. They make it hard to adapt to new workflows, or they dont leverage technology to amplify the impact of those adaptations. And when your software tools cant adapt quickly and easilyand when they drag in long time delays or expensive change ordersthey cant be effective instruments of change, only barriers to it.

Creating a solution thats designed to foster change, the theoretical (Einstein) side of the organisational change equation, and driving a solution to a successful implementation, the practical (Oprah) side of the change equation, are two distinct challenges. But when companies embrace tools that have been designed with OCM in mind, the results are both stronger and materialise more quickly. That translates into achieving your OCM goals more quickly, as well as improving your time to value.

Five Critical OCM Challenges

In talking with several companies actively pursuing OCM initiatives, Ive noticed they share several common key challenges:

1. There is no one final decision-maker who can ensure that the project scope stays aligned with KPIs and expectations. As more stakeholders weigh in, you inevitably see significant scope creep that delays the project and drives up costs.

2. It is often unclear to employees why the solution is being deployed.

3. Technicians and back-office employees often perceive new tools as intrusive or as unnecessary micromanagement.

4. Theres resistance from tenured stakeholders who feel there is nothing wrong with the way theyve been doing business for years.

5. Employees may feel a solution is too complicated.

Four Essential Best Practices

To meet these challenges, weve identified four best practices for OCM initiatives, particularly when theyre closely tied to your operations systems: First, establish a dedicated team, led by a transformation officer, the executive sponsor tasked to ensure success. The team should include the designated transformation officer (TO), a program manager, subject matter experts, project end-user champions, the IT team and marketing, UX and future solution trainers. This team should be able to help ideate, iterate, deploy and learn while observing and respecting the scope and budget.

Next, ensure that the leadership and the organization are aligned on KPIs both for successful project implementation and for the adoption of suitable post-go-live metrics. Employee gains should be factored into the KPIs. Companies that have focused on the emotional impactthat is, how this initiative helps employee quality of life by improving work-life balances, safety, etc.have seen more successful adoption than those who make the solution implementation purely about productivity and financial drivers.

Third, involve champions/influencers who are respected and can effectively influence their colleagues early in the project. These champions typically include both back-office personnel along with field technicians who should be involved with the implementation process as early as possible. In businesses with contractors and outsourced technicians, its important to identify key stakeholders among those groups who can be engaged early in the program.

Lastly, iterate early and often. Since youll need to leverage feedback to shape and refine your OCM strategy, make sure your enterprise software solutions lend themselves to an iterative approach in which a diverse group of stakeholdersnot just developers and technical expertswill need to be able to update and modify workflows in real time.

QUESTION

1.2. First, establish a dedicated team Next, ensure that the leadership and the organisation are aligned on KPIs Third, involve champions/influencers who are respected Lastly, iterate early and often.

Critically discuss the importance of implementing a change management model that reiterates the above points. (25)MARKS, (3PAGES)