ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT:

The Step-by-Step Guide

to Successful User Adoption
ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MANAGEMENT:
The Step-by-Step Guide
to Successful User Adoption
Successful business transformation brings together the
three foundational elements of every organization—
people, process and technology—to achieve strategic
goals. Historically, too many business management
implementation projects have focused on process and
technology, expecting people to “figure it out.”

User adoption gives life to business transformation.

The full ROI of any project depends on if and how people
use the system.

In this eBook, we will show you the steps you need to take
to prepare your employees for change. We’ll explain how
you can provide employees with the tools, support and
skills they need to make the transition. And we’ll help
you understand what you need to sustain a culture CONTENTS
open to change.
PLAN
Read on to find out how you can achieve the Prepare your organization to support
promise of business transformation through user adoption
higher levels of user adoption.
MANAGE
Build acceptance through communication,
training and feedback loops
SUSTAIN
Establish metrics, monitor performance
and create a culture open to change
PLAN Align Leadership Vision
Preparation of everyone involved The leadership team must be fully engaged in the change management
in the project—from leadership process from the start. A structured and well-planned workshop should:
to front line workers—prevents
„„Clarify the purpose, scope and expected outcomes.
surprises and ensures a clear „„Create a clear vision of what the transformed business will look like
understanding of expectations. after the change has been fully implemented.
„„Use the vision of success to inspire commitment to active participation

Engage Stakeholders
Stakeholder employees should be interviewed (input should be
anonymous to leadership) to understand how they perceive the
organization’s readiness for change. Stakeholders input will help to:
„„Identify potential areas for improvement.
„„Define measurements of success for the transformation project.
„„Align and engage key stakeholders in understanding their role in the
transformation.

Establish Accountability
Every person involved in the transformation project should clearly
understand their responsibilities and how they will be held accountable.
Provide clear documentation on:
„„The detailed work plan that defines roles and responsibilities.
„„Key decisions that need to be made with deadlines.
„„The project timeline with key milestones.

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 PLAN
Assess Organizational Readiness
Combine findings from workshops and interviews to evaluate the
organization’s readiness for transformational change. The assessment should:
„„Identify potential problem areas that will need special attention.
„„Define how the success of the project will be measured.
The Change Network:
„„Assess current organizational policies and programs that may need to Roles and Responsibilities
change to support new behaviors.
Executive Sponsor
„„The face of the change
„„Communicates WHY the change is needed

Project Sponsors
Align Change Network for Success „„The face of the change to impacted groups
Prepare project leaders to understand and manage the challenges likely to „„Communicates WHY the change is needed to teams
surface during the project. The change network (see sidebar) should: and employees
„„Be a coalition of leaders, led by the Executive Sponsor, focused on
promoting user adoption. Ambassadors/Leaders
„„Drives change through a region or function
„„Align and engage each person to understand their role in the
transformation. „„Encourages employees to engage
„„Understand the appropriate responses to change resistance.
Change Champions
„„Evangalizes change at the individual level
„„Assists peers day-to-day
„„Provides frontline feedback to leadership
Develop Change Management Strategy
The change management strategy should clearly identify the potential Managers/Supervisors/Team Leads
gaps and project risks to prepare leadership for proactive responses. The „„Leads change with employees/teams
strategy document should: „„Celebrates success
„„Establish the forms of ongoing communication for the project.
„„Provide adoption tactics, coaching and support recommendations.
„„Define measurement metrics and how they will be reported.

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MANAGE Develop Communication Plan
Put the processes in place to Employees need to understand why the organization is making this change
support users with consistent and how the project will unfold. Ongoing, consistent communication
communication, adequate training should report on the progress of the project as well as:
and proactive leadership. „„What efficiencies the new system will bring to their lives.
„„The what, when and how of training.
„„Celebrations of success along the way.

Support Change Champions

As Change Champions work with peers and other colleagues to embrace
the technology, they need the full support of the project team. They will be
more effective with:
„„Enough bandwidth to fully engage in their project support activities.
„„Expert guidance on risk mitigation tactics.
„„Confidence they can provide honest feedback to project leadership
that will lead to supportive action.
“If there is
a vacuum of
Execute Design Workshop Process information, users
A Design Workshop will define the new business processes employees will create their
will use when the project is complete. The workshop will clearly define own narrative. Those
how the system will drive business processes for all functions affected by
the project. The design workshop will:
narratives may be built
„„Map the old processes to the new. on fear of change or the
„„Define workflows across departments. personal agenda of someone
„„Provide step-by-step guidance on how users will interact with the trying to protect their position.”
new system.

Victoria Harrer, Arbela Technologies

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Create Training and Rollout Plan MANAGE
The training and rollout plan will use the output from the design workshop
to define how best to prepare users to learn the business processes in the
“What appears to be resistance or
new system. The plan should include:
„„How, when and where the training will be administered.
objections to the change may be a
„„UAT (User Acceptance Testing), where users test the processes step- barrier that the employee cannot see
by-step in the new system. past. Personal barriers can relate to
„„A timeline for when and how the new system will be rolled out—which
could be by department, country, region or other segment.
family, personal issues, physical
limitations or money. Try to
address these barriers early
in the project”
Execute Training and Rollout
Users should have input into what methods of training will be offered. Victoria Harrer,
Empower them with small steps to build confidence. Some creative ideas to
Arbela Technologies
consider include:
„„Use Change Champions for small group training.
„„Offer on-demand videos, broken up into nuggets of information.
„„Hold coffee breaks with short training sessions.

Evaluate Go Live Readiness

For a successful launch, the users must be ready to fully embrace the new
processes. A successful go live will be more likely when:
„„The project leadership team has been fully engaged and monitoring
adoption metrics.
„„Change Champions feel confident their peers are ready.
„„Users are fully trained and ready to embrace the new system.

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SUSTAIN
The real ROI of any new business Monitor Adoption Dashboards
management system implementation Adoption dashboards allow project leaders to proactively monitor and
comes as users not only adopt but manage user adoption. Adoption metrics will include:
embrace the system, finding creative „„Indicators of people using the system, like transaction volumes.
ways to use it to improve productivity. „„Training progress, like the number of users viewing training videos.
„„User metrics, how often employees are using the system and what
functions they are using.

Provide Ongoing Training

Training shouldn’t stop with go live. Help users build skills and expand their
mastery of the new technology. Ongoing training should include:
„„A survey of users to get their feedback on the training effectiveness.
„„Open access to training videos for new employees and refreshers.
„„Additional training when upgrades and new software functionality is
released.

Celebrate Success
By providing recognition of achievements and project milestones, users will
feel appreciated for their hard work on the project. To keep enthusiasm high:
„„Provide appropriate rewards for users who made extra efforts to support
the project.
„„Reward the dedication of the Change Champions.
„„Recognize employees when they find new ways to improve productivity
or results through the system.

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Support User Adoption During
Transformational Change
Arbela’s change management methodology follows a structured
approach to enable individuals to adapt and embrace change during
transformational business system implementations. Arbela works to
prepare, equip and support individuals to adopt change in order to drive
organizational success and outcomes.

To prepare your organization for a transformational project, we will

help you identify potential gaps and project risks, provide a strategy for
communication, recommend adoption tactics, change measurement
metrics, begin sustainability planning and more.

Arbela Technologies is a global consulting firm delivering practical

change management strategies, sustainable IT roadmaps, deep technical
skills and education supporting Microsoft technologies. We help clients
innovate and reinvigorate customer, supplier, partner and employee
experiences and processes.

Let’s talk about how to support user adoption on your

journey to digital transformation. Please contact us at
1-888-319-4439 or [email protected].

ARBELA
www.arbelatech.com