Couple this thought with the fact that entities that exceed at the customer experience are also those that are growing the fastest and the importance of the customer experience becomes crystal clear.  Customers are smart, and they can access a huge amount of information about you and your product through the computer in their pockets.  Scary stuff, right? As a result, many business decisions are customer driven.  What is the end product of this combination? As your business and competition in your field grows, the customer experience you develop can become a huge competitive advantage.  The real question becomes the how?

Customer experience goes beyond just providing good customer service.  The customer experience exists across the entire customer life cycle, not just when the customer makes the purchase, and can have a long-term impact on the customer.  This total experience will have a lasting rational, emotional, sensorial, and possibly spiritual impact on the customer.  Often, a customer will remember your company in the environment they had the most impactful of these experiences in.  Customers are actively engaging with you, or a competitor, throughout the decision to pursue your product or service, their research, their decision to purchase, the acquisition and setup, the entire use, and the disposal or exit from the product or service.  These are all the environments where their experience exists.  How are you engaging with these customers throughout this life cycle?  One way is to ensure that you have contacts that are high in character and focused on the overall experience, no matter their position within the organization.  But again, just having good service isn’t the entire picture.

Once the customer has entered into the life cycle with your organization, it is important to think about how the customer relationship is being fostered.  This can be considered in terms of service and success, but what is the difference?  Customer service is proactive.  Saying to the customer, “I have an idea for you…” and using this contact as a way of guiding the customer.  Service is company initiated and leads directly to success.

Customer success is the value that you as an organization provide to the customer.  It is usually company initiated and expands on the customer’s overall experience with the product or services.  Additional customer success can lie in value the customer didn’t even know existed, by providing some sort of additional add they didn’t factor into their original purchase decision.

But, considering just these two facets of the customer relationship leaves out an important 3^rd factor, customer support.  Customer support lies on the other end of the spectrum from service.  It is a reaction to customer needs and says to the customer “we are here for you.”  This piece is often initiated by the customer and can be classified as an “I need” from the customer.

Whether you provide a product, service, or some other need to a customer, you are in the customer service business.  If you want to ensure that your providing the best overall customer experience possible, you need to think about the entire life cycle of your engagement with the customer.  This requires having a clear vision of your customer experience, having complete knowledge of your target customers and the best way to connect with that audience, gauging the success of your customer experience vision based on customer feedback, training and developing every member of your staff on your customer experience vision across the customer engagement life cycle, valuing the feedback from employees on the customer relationship, and measuring the overall impact based on directly relatable business results.  Contact TSI today to learn more about how we can help you master your overall customer experience!

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We’ve all heard the clichés “change is inevitable”, “the only constant is change”, and “get comfortable being uncomfortable”.  While all true, these statements often carry a negative connotation regarding change. Discomfort, inevitability, and constant pressure are all things that many of us seek to avoid.  Often, we hide behind this fear and avoidance to resist change, working harder to fight change than to embrace the opportunity to improve. The unfortunate thing about these statements is that change doesn’t have to be uncomfortable, and gaining a greater understanding of where you are and where you are headed will help you and your organization embrace change, foster excitement about change, and use the opportunity for change to improve your organization.

Educate and Prepare through Current State Process Improvement

With any challenge or test in life, the best way to improve comfort is to educate and prepare.  Change is no exception to that rule. While it can be time-consuming, painful, and scary to expose your current processes and pain points, the value gained is grand.  Mapping the current state allows us to truly understand what we do, why we do it, and what pieces of the process hold us back from achieving our goals. Far too often, I have been in current state workshops with stakeholders from different departments who know nothing about what the other does and how their actions impact the process both upstream and downstream from them.  As the conversation develops, we inevitably learn painful things about the process than can be fixed today with ‘quick hits’. Further, we gain huge value in understanding the pieces or processes that can’t be immediately fixed, why we do them (this is the way it’s always been done, legal regulation, etc…), and what opportunities exist in our ideal future state.

Think Ahead with Future State Planning

Once you have gone through the exploratory process of exposing your current state, the next difficult but necessary step is planning your future state.  This is done with an understanding of where you came from, the pain points and opportunities for improvement that currently exist, and the ideal manner of using the functionality of new technology to optimize your business processes.  Future state mapping is a realistic representation of opportunity, growth, and improvement for the organization. The ideal future state is not the same as wishful thinking, but balances need, resolution, and realistic thinking that will all add up to positive transformation.  As Albert Einstein said, “We can’t solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we created them.”

Communication Is Key

As mentioned above, using the functionality of new technology fully to optimize your business processes will make embracing the change even more worthwhile.  It may be difficult as users could see this new technology as threatening to their job or comfort zone. The reality, though, is that the objective of the new technology is not to replace anyone in the process, but to make the process more efficient, leaving additional time and resources to give attention to other value-added activities and manage the exceptions.  By clearly communicating this value add to users, communicating the need for change, and sharing a unified message across the organization you can help ensure universal buy in towards successful change. This holistic approach to communication also lends itself to success in implementation and powerful organizational change management.

What are these value-add activities on which your newly freed resources will be able to focus?  They can include improved customer service and focus, a deeper analysis of outliers, the execution of a higher quality service and customer experience, an improvement in performance, closer compliance alignment, vast cost reductions, or performing more tedious tasks that simply were pushed aside for inefficient everyday activities.  Overall, this value-add is made possible by the combination of understanding of your current state, planning your future state, embracing the potential change of your technology, and successful management of your organizational change.

Assess your organization’s readiness for change here, and check out our organizational change management page here to learn about our offerings.

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Challenges: TSI was selected to help jump start the internal consulting team for a diverse, growth-oriented, public, mid-sized institution. One of the key drivers of need for this team was a myriad of process improvement, organizational change management, and technology related initiatives.

Approach: TSI leveraged its methodologies and tailored those to fit the unique needs of this institution. We embarked on a program that included:

• Assessed several units and colleges administrative organizations
• Training a cohort of 30 practitioners
• Developing proficiency in: Current state, analysis, and future state process maps – Total of 14 processes with TSI’s engagement
•  TSI led process mapping of 2 large processes 
• TSI facilitated process mapping for 6 mid-sized processes
• TSI supported trainees on process mapping 6 processes

Results: The TSI team performed completed each phases of our work on time and within budget, with the last phase of our work, the CRM selection, being facilitated virtually in late 2020 and early 2021.  

By defining key processes and specific business needs, training key resources to drive the implementation, and incorporating important terms and conditions in the subscription and implementation agreement, this institution is prepared for a successful implementation.

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Digital transformation is a popular phrase not only in business, but in the world today. Pushed by customer demand, rapid advances in technology, a proliferation of data availability and value, and the covid-19 pandemic, those looking to survive and thrive in today’s world are focused on becoming more digital. We all know the benefits of digital transformation, but do we know the key elements that are essential for the right mindset to help this transformation be successful and sustainable? At TSI, we value all the elements of transformation (our name is Transforming Solutions after all!) but 3 elements are key to ensuring you have the right mindset for the success of your transformation efforts.

1. Don’t Forget the Processes
2. Consider the Customer Experience
3. Ensure sustainability with OCM

Don’t Forget the Processes

Digital transformation takes on many forms and brings with it the opportunity for cost reduction, service excellence, and quality improvement. Maximizing the realization of these gains requires more than just installing a new technology and expecting to start living the high life! Mentally, the organization must be prepared for adopting improved processes to leverage the functionality of the new technology. A failure to examine processes for opportunities to leverage the new technology will likely result in a true “lift and shift” where the organization is operating the same process, just in a new and more expensive technology. The ultimate loss here, in addition to risking the success of the transformation, is a decrease in the ROI for the new technology, effectively wasting the investment.

Well designed future state processes that use the technology as a catalyst for change will strengthen the digital transformation by resolving past areas of waste, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies. Handoffs will be clean, workflows will improve speed and effectiveness, and metrics will be collected to drive continuous improvement. The outcome? A future state that maximizes ROI and is truly transformative.

Consider the Customer Experience

Great, so you’ve taken a look at your processes, resolved your pain points, and have a solid picture of how your operation will work post digital transformation. But did you look at these improvements with a mindset for those that will stand to benefit or lose the most? That group being customers, both internal and external. Successful adoption is much more of a guarantee if the users help design and understand the new technology as internal and external customers. The right mindset, as an example, is that the interfaces must be intuitive, easy to use, and provide maximum value to customers. Otherwise, repeat use and repeat business will struggle to grow.

Addressing your transformation with a mindset of considering and incorporating Customer Experience ensures all of the hard work to design and implement is fruitful. This successful design will consider and incorporate a robust set of requirements for the transformation that provides a comprehensive picture of the need.

Ensure sustainability with OCM

With digital transformation, process improvement, and technology implementation, not having a mindset that considers organizational change management (OCM) and the impact on company culture will be detrimental to the success of the implementation. We often assess failed implementations and see organizations that neglect this consideration or do a ‘light’ version of OCM. Often the outcome is increased implementation cost, lower adoption rates, delays in implementation, and damage to company culture. 

However, utilizing a strong and comprehensive OCM plan (and working with a firm who specializes in it) instantly improves the chances of success for the digital transformation. For our engagements, this includes a change readiness assessment, clear communication plan, messaging from top down, providing the opportunity for organizational involvement and feedback, evaluation of the ongoing success, and the agility to adjust elements for continued success.

So What Does It All Mean For Digital Transformation?

Digital transformation can mean a lot of different things. Whether it is a modern system implementation (ERP, CRM, SIS), installing a customer portal, automating your operations, boosting supply chain management with technology, or optimizing your digital footprint, there are several elements to consider for success. We’ve touched on 3 key essentials for the right mindset for successful transformation here: process, customer experience, and OCM. Others include the organization’s strategic plan, selection of the ideal software partner based on requirements, and implementation management. If you’d like to discuss how any of these may impact your digital transformation, reach out to Transforming Solutions.

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Non-profit organizations have always operated in challenging environments where mission and donor expectations directly impact the outcome of their work. In a post-pandemic environment, needs are high and competition for charitable giving is even higher. In response, effective and efficient operation is key. The most successful non-profits will recognize this and incorporate a solution into their strategic plan. Some organizations require outside help in this planning. But how do you know you need NGO consulting? Below are 3 reasons an NGO might choose to work with a consultant. Including a preview of future thoughts on how to ensure you’re selecting a consultant that is right for you.

NGO Consultants Provide an Outside Perspective

There are several reasons why a consultant’s outside perspective will benefit an NGO. Their ability to provide a non-partisan, non-political, straightforward view and recommendations is only the start.

Consultants provide value by leveraging their ability to perform business analysis at a variety of levels. Internal staff is often much too close to the process and environment to be able to take a step back. They need to examine the organizational elements from a 30,000-foot level. This is necessary to see the whole picture, as well as what the upstream and downstream impacts are of various processes and experiences. Starting at this level of analysis ensures that the new design and implementation considers these changes’ impact, beyond the micro-level

In addition to the above, consider that part of any strategic planning is the insights gained from discussions with staff. A consultant brings a unique ability to gain these insights in an unbiased and unobstructed manner. Staff is often apprehensive about sharing details with peers or superiors that may adversely affect the culture or generate backlash. A consultant, however, can provide anonymity in these discussions, allowing the true value to arise.

Optimize New Technology and Ditch the Dated

You don’t have to be an expert in Moore’s Law to know how quickly technology can become obsolete or dated. With the doubling of computing power, even technology that is 5 years old will have shortcomings. Some NGOs are operating on technology that is 20 years old, significantly impacting the success of operations.

Over the past decade, we have seen technology move from on-premise to cloud. We have also seen many vendors move from integrations and middleware, solutions to modules, to increasing native technology to provide a complete solution.

These moves impact functional requirements, technical requirements, user experience, cost of hardware and software, and the need for ongoing maintenance. Additionally, organizations that continue to grow and leverage technology operate more efficiently and effectively, maximizing the use of their fundraising dollars. Consultants’ familiarity with the advancements in technology and their experience with vendors gives the NGOs they work with a serious advantage in ensuring proper use of their technology.

Increased Competition Leads to Higher Demand for Dollars

As the economy has experienced significant fluctuations, the need and competition for philanthropic dollars have become more intense. So much so, that even Facebook is targeting faith-based organizations and experiences on their platform as a major area of growth. While I’d like to believe that is out of the goodness of their hearts, I’d imagine they recognize the financial impact as well.

What does this competition mean for organizations? How does our consulting help organizations overcome this competition? The need for an updated strategic vision and a focus on customer experience is amplified. And just as an internal employee may be hesitant to share information with a superior, a customer or donor may feel the same, or may not share productively. Working with a consultant that focuses on strategy and customer experience ensures that information needed to drive this planning is collected in a valuable and unclouded way. Then, this information can be used to drive strategy and success.

Selecting the Right Partner is Crucial to Organizational Success

So you’ve decided your NGO will benefit from a partnership with a consultant. But how do you know you’re selecting the right one? Rather than selecting based on a brand name, you want to be sure that whoever you invite into work with you meshes well with your team, culture, and organization. Stay tuned for part II of this article, as we dive deeper into this topic.

It is important, especially for a mission-based organization, to select a partner with similar values. You want someone who aligns with your mission and culture. This allows you to understand who will be on your project team and the background of the firm. Will they come in and tell you what to do and claim to be the experts on all things? Or will the consulting group be a true PARTNER, working with you collaboratively to create a strategic plan that fits your needs? Consider these things when making a selection and you’ll find the one that is the best fit for your organization.

If you’re looking to learn more or would like to chat more with us about the work we do with non-profits, head over to transforming.com, check out our NGO offering, or contact us to set up some time to chat.

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Digital transformation is a popular phrase not only in business but in the world today. Pushed by customer demand, rapid advances in technology, a proliferation of data availability and value, and the covid-19 pandemic, those looking to survive and thrive in today’s world are focused on becoming more digital. We all know the benefits of digital transformation. But do we know the key elements that will help this transformation be successful and sustainable? At TSI, we value all the elements of transformation (our name is Transforming Solutions after all!) but 3 elements are key to ensuring the success of your transformation efforts.

1. Don’t Forget the Processes
2. Consider the Customer Experience
3. Ensure sustainability with OCM

Don’t Forget the Processes

Digital transformation takes on many forms and brings with it the opportunity for cost reduction, service excellence, and quality improvement. Maximizing the realization of these gains requires more than just installing a new technology and expecting to start living the high life! A failure to examine processes for opportunities to leverage the new technology will likely result in a true “lift and shift” where the organization is operating the same process, just in a new and more expensive technology. The ultimate loss here, in addition to risking the success of the transformation, is a decrease in the ROI for the new technology, effectively wasting the investment.

Well designed future state processes will strengthen the digital transformation by resolving past areas of waste, bottlenecks, and inefficiencies. Handoffs will be clean, workflows will improve speed and effectiveness, and metrics will be collected to drive continuous improvement. The outcome? A future state that maximizes ROI and is truly transformative.

Consider the Customer Experience

Great, so you’ve taken a look at your processes, resolved your pain points, and have a solid picture of how your operation will work post digital transformation. But did you look at these improvements through the lens of those that will stand to benefit or lose the most? That group being customers, both internal and external. Adoption is all but guaranteed if the users help design and understand the new technology as internal and external customers. The interface must be intuitive, easy to use, and provide maximum value to customers. Otherwise, repeat use and repeat business will struggle to grow.

Successfully considering and incorporating Customer Experience ensures all of the hard work to design and implement is fruitful. This successful design will consider and incorporate a robust set of requirements for the transformation. As a result, these provide a comprehensive picture of the need.

Ensure sustainability with OCM

With digital transformation, process improvement, and technology implementation, a failure to consider organizational change management (OCM) and the impact on company culture is very difficult to overcome in the success of the implementation. We often see organizations neglect this consideration or do a ‘light’ version of OCM. Often the outcome is increased implementation cost, lower adoption rates, delays in implementation, and damage to company culture. 

However, utilizing a strong and comprehensive OCM plan instantly improves the chances of success for the digital transformation. For our engagements, this includes a change readiness assessment, clear communication plan, messaging from top down, providing the opportunity for organizational involvement and feedback, evaluation of the ongoing success, and the agility to adjust elements for continued success.

So What Does It All Mean For Digital Transformation?

Digital transformation can mean a lot of different things. Whether it is a modern system implementation (ERP, CRM, SIS), installing a customer portal, automating your operations, boosting supply chain management with technology, or optimizing your digital footprint, there are several elements to consider for success. We’ve touched on 3 key elements here: process, customer experience, and OCM. Others include the organization’s strategic plan, selection of the ideal software partner based on requirements, and implementation management. If you’d like to discuss how any of these may impact your digital transformation, reach out to Transforming Solutions.

The post Digital Transformation: 3 Key Elements for Successful and Sustainable Implementation appeared first on Transforming Solutions Inc..

As the world is changing and evolving, organizations are always looking for ways to get more value out of their strategic and tactical initiatives. This aligns with the way TSI views delivery teams: not just as cost centers, but as value centers that benefit the organization. For organizations looking to leverage the value of their delivery teams, TSI suggests the following three efforts. Let’s take a look at each element and the key things to consider in each.

1. Building Project Management Offices
2. Designing and Implementing Portfolio Management Frameworks and Processes
3. Improving Business Analysis Capabilities

Building Project Management Organizations

Project management organizations come in a variety of shapes, sizes, and different functional responsibilities. Some are internal groups that create practices, policies, and standards for managing the projects of the organization. Standards include creating project artifacts, tools, or tool kits, evaluating and prioritizing initiatives and projects, managing project resources and activities, managing project budgets, and aligning the organizational view of projects. This does not mean that all of those involved in the PMO are experts on all areas of the organization, but they are likely the best delivery experts in the organization.

A PMO can improve delivery effectiveness by managing the delivery from start to finish in a consistent manner. Projects are selected based on a defined rubric that aligns with the vision of the organization, rather than on favoritism or a first come first serve. The result is the completion of projects in a way that provides the greatest positive impact for the organization.

Designing and Implementing Portfolio Management Frameworks and Processes

As with a PMO, portfolio management helps organizations select projects objectively. While this may sound easy, I’m sure every reader has an example of an organizational initiative that was heavily influenced by personal or political feelings. Furthermore, it may be hard to decide which initiative is more important if the initiative impacts two different areas, such as HR and order fulfillment.

Portfolio management also includes elements of ongoing project evaluation and decision-making for projects that are not progressing as expected. The focus of portfolio management is on objective decision-making for difficult decisions. Portfolio management creates standards that delivery teams can use as guidelines to ensure projects remain on budget and deliver the expected objectives accurately.

Improving Business Analysis Capabilities

Business Analysis provides an element of effective delivery that may be often overlooked. Every project has a desired outcome. The outcome is driven by the collective requirements that dictate the elements of the project. The requirements may range from building footage to technology to functional requirements, all depending on the focus and type of project.

Having strong business analysis capabilities on a delivery team improves delivery effectiveness by ensuring that the desired needs are captured before beginning the project. The result of ‘getting ahead’ can be reduced iterations and limited delays during implementation or build. While subject matter experts may provide strong support for and recognition of the need for change, they are often not trained for how to elicit, gather, document, and manage the most effective requirements. A strong business analyst will be able to capture and synthesize inputs and create a set of formalized requirements that accurately represent the need and can be translated into development.

Bonus Element for Strong Delivery

There is another key part of delivery effectiveness not addressed above. At TSI we feel this element is key to all of our successful engagements and one we weave throughout our engagements. That element is organizational change management. Without it, even the most well-equipped delivery team may struggle.

Organizations may have completed an objective project evaluation, have a clear plan for managing and controlling a project, and have based their project on a strong set of requirements. However, if they have neglected to evaluate their organization’s capacity for change, their project is destined to fail. Organizational change management ensures that the organization understands the vision and the value of the project, the impact it will have, and the process that will be utilized to ensure that it is successful. If there are elements that will pose a risk to the success of the project, organizational change management helps identify those issues early so they can be resolved and overcome with ease.

Why does strong delivery matter?

Organizations engage in project management efforts every day. Some are very successful. Some struggle. The elements of strong delivery outlined above will help any organization move to the next level of delivery effectiveness. If you are interested in talking more about how TSI can partner with you to deliver projects more effectively, reach out and let’s chat!

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Here are 3 key impacts of a modernized ERP:

1. Improved Planning and Reporting
2. Improved Management
3. Improved Customer Experience

Improved Planning and Reporting with an ERP

Planning and the use of data through reporting is key to the success of any organization, that’s not a secret. But the effectiveness of reporting and planning depends heavily on the reliability of your data and how you use it. Additionally, modern ERPs have the advantage of business intelligence built-in or inherent ability to interface with powerful BI tools to support more effective planning through advanced analytics and algorithms. 

Furthermore, these data-based algorithms and analytics are often industry-based, further expanding the power of the tool. The result of all of these factors is empowering an organization with the ability to truly plan and operate proactively and not reactively.

Improved Management with an ERP

So you’ve improved your planning and data analytics, now how do you leverage your daily operations? The benefits of a modern ERP are applicable in day-to-day operations as well. Often, legacy systems require “bolt-on” or many different systems that connect via data exchange to complete a set of tasks. Take distribution for example. There may be one system for order entry, another for pricing application, another for route management, another for warehouse management and picking, and yet another for delivery management. WHEW! That’s a lot of data transfer!

Perhaps the greatest downside to the multiple systems model is the lack of real-time transparency across the organization. Sales don’t know when an order is on a truck and warehouse managers don’t have insight into when sales are finalized. As a result, teams are required to query for information, adjust planning frequently, and spend extra effort posting status’ to message boards. Modern ERPs solve this issue through 2 key functions: 1. real-time information available to users across functional areas and 2. end-to-end management of the process via a single technology.

Improved Customer Experience with an ERP

Planning and execution are great, but what is the real value add result? What is the real benefit for the organization that will help drive it forward? Advantageous planning and careful execution have a direct impact on many areas. Key amongst them is an improved customer experience. Planning allows you to tailor your efforts towards key groups of customers that will drive growth. Once onboard, these clients will also benefit from the transparency of information and the internet of things. A client no longer has to wonder where their shipment is, they can access a portal, view the status of their order, and submit requests or claims through a single point of entry. 

So What?

There are many organizations currently operating on legacy systems. Are they surviving? Maybe. Are they excelling and maximizing their growth potential? Most likely not. These 3 advantages are just a few of the key impacts of a modern ERP. The bottom line is that an organization will benefit greatly from a single source of truth that improves decision-making, makes operations more efficient and improves the customer experience.

If your organization is considering a modern ERP selection, it’s important to make the right choice. Check out TSI’s service offering and how we can help with selecting the right solution, as well as the aspect of implementation management and organizational change management that are important to the success of any software project.

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With the end of the first calendar quarter approaching quickly and the relevance of looking back, I was recently reflecting on what similarities and differences there were compared to last year and years past in terms of the type of project I was engaged in. One thing that struck me as relevant during my reflection was the presence of certain trends in change management, including topics in organization and service. Further, in researching a bit on the topic, I came across this article from our managing partner, Dan Feely, written 10 years ago! And while the projects have changed, I feel the top 5 trends in change management are still very much present.

In his article, Dan presents the following trends as the top 5 of change management, with some supporting insight into the experience he has had with these trends:

1. Rapid, Process, and Quality Improvement Events
2. Need for More Performance from Technology (Results Relative to Cost)
3. Developing a Shared Services Model
4. Driving Customer Service and Service Excellence
5. Training

Below, I’d like to share some of my thoughts and insights on how these change management trends are still relevant and top of the list of things we are seeing 10 years later, in 2021.

#1 Rapid, Process, and Quality Improvement Events

Over the course of my first few years in consulting, I became accustomed to long engagements of 6-12 months, or longer. We often performed deep dives into change management and processes, mapping and analyzing over 350 processes for one client alone! While we still have these types of engagements, it seems we are seeing more organizations interested in sprints. This may mean tackling one functional area or more high level processes to see where efficiency can be gained including reducing hand-offs, removing manual entry and review, and adding more automated workflows and approvals.

Regardless of the direction an organization wants to go with their project, we can tailor our service offering to fit their needs and ensure maximum value for their investment with TSI.

#2 Need for More Performance from Technology (Results Relative to Cost)

In 2011 we asked our constituents to consider “do you know your organization’s total spend on technology?” This cost consideration included licenses, security, maintenance, data centers, staff, ongoing support, consulting fees, and the cost of upgrades. 2021 is no different, with additional focus on the sharp movement to the cloud over the last 10 years. The fact of this matter is simple – technology is expensive and the costs arise in a variety of different areas. It is not simply the subscription cost.

Chances are your organization is considering or has recently completed an IT assessment or technology improvement. Many organizations are finding this increasingly necessary due to the sunsetting of legacy systems and the aforementioned move to cloud-based solution. Often, they discover many disparate or redundant systems that have been accumulated over the years. Examining your IT inventory and infrastructure for redundancy, the cost of managing this technology, and where you may see an advantage in right sizing can save you millions.

#3 Develop a Shared Services Model

With the growth of cloud-based solutions and a common focus to reduce redundancy, the shared services model continues to be a popular trend in change management. Just as we have highlighted for several years, the advantages of the shared services model are not just cost savings from reduced redundancy, but also improved operational efficiency by removing information silos. Ultimately, the design of these shared services organizations should take on a focus that leads the organization to being more customer centric and value add focused.

#4 Driving Customer Service and Service Excellence

We’ve seen elements of various trends showing up in the qualities and benefits of the others. Perhaps no more so than the overall improvement of customer service. So much of an organization’s strategic planning, especially in times where competition and information are at an all-time high, is based on service excellence. Additionally, this commitment to service may be the differentiator in shaping customer decision-making. Along these lines, Voice of the Customer is central in many of our projects, even those not specifically devoted to this effort, making the foundation of the project stronger and the results more impactful for the growth of the business.

#5 Training

As we pointed out in our original article, as budgets get tighter training is often one of the first items to be eliminated. However, more pointed training programs may be well worth their investment and pay dividends in the future. We specifically have recently engaged in some large-scale business process improvement training and other change management processes. This program has the benefit of quickly completing valuable improvement of several process and training resources within your organization with skills to keep the improvement efforts going well into the future.

Bottom Line

Just as in 2011, there is a robust market of talent available. However, we recognize that there is also a valuable opportunity to improve the organization by joining one or more of the trends mentioned above.

To share a quote from 10 years ago that withstands the test of time – “investing in self-improvement initiatives, these organizations will create an efficient, cost-effective organization that will thrive in any market.”

If these self-improvement initiatives generate a spark and you would like to learn more, feel free to contact us.

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But, change is scary and hard, and not every firm is ready to successfully navigate change management. We’d like to share a short story of how we as outside consultants can reduce the difficulty of change through the application of the 4 main cyclical phases of our organizational change management methodology.

4 Principles of Effective Change Management

• Plan & Discover: Initiates the project, establishes an understanding of the project culture, people, goals, and objectives, and develops action plans
• Do & Implement: Dives into assessment and analysis, identifies and contextualizes needs, goals, and areas for improvement, and initiates recommended actions for change
• Check & Evaluate: Evaluates project progress, need for adjustment, engagement, and feedback of participants, and determines the effectiveness of the change initiative
• Act & Adjust: Responds to needed adjustments in the project or management plans with responsive planning and recommended action steps

If you are interested in more information about change management models, check this out.

We recently worked with a mid-size manufacturing firm that was undergoing some leadership changes at the executive level. This change included some restructuring, where they shifted to a matrix operating model. This introduced challenges that they lacked the resources to handle on their own, so they called upon TSI to bring in resources to evaluate and improve oversight, reporting, leadership, positional responsibilities, and more.

Plan & Discover

The organization faced the ominous challenge of generating support for change at the executive level and successfully communicating this supported change throughout the organization. The need, not only for the support of leadership but also for successful communication and change management, is to ensure stakeholders throughout the organization are on the same page, striving towards the same goals. TSI provided change management support to level-set understanding surrounding changes, ensure alignment, and facilitate the definition and execution of the communication plan.

We met with the leadership of the firm and constructed a plan to accomplish a series of goals. Establishing goals at the beginning of a change initiative is key to a successful transformation. We interviewed 15 business leaders and identified gaps, pain points, and opportunities within the organization. Using our findings and tools, we worked with the firm to develop a structured process for change.

Do & Implement

One of the key goals we discovered was to define and communicate the firm’s culture and culture of change. This is not something most organizations think of when they engage consultants, but it is one of the most important portions of TSI’s change management methodology. The understanding developed by defining the organization’s’ culture guided the cadence and frequency of meetings, the way we established goals, the way the firm developed its future state vision, and the way changes were implemented. 

We ran workshops and training to communicate the changes that were taking place and the role that the organization’s culture played in those changes. The bottom line goal was to empower people within the organization to understand, embrace, and become an active participant in change. People are the most critical factor when it comes to managing and achieving change.

Check & Evaluate

Within the restructure, multiple people held similar leadership positions. Each individual approached the operational changes through their own lens, establishing practices within their teams to accommodate the overall organizational goals. However, what resulted was some misalignment in the interpretation of the changes as well as the implementation of change efforts. Though this was not intentional, the variations in leadership direction and guidance resulted in miscommunication, inconsistency in operations, and misalignment of goals toward the overall change objectives. 

TSI approached each individual to gather context and understanding of each leader followed by a series of workshops. These workshops engaged all of the leaders to share their goals, create common goals, and share practices and strategies to support the desired change. TSI then provided training surrounding cultural and organizational change management with strategies and tools to help manage the desired change across the entire organization and each leader’s team. This support helped each leader define the organizational and cultural context to overcome resistance to change and build cooperation for change initiatives.

Act & Adjust

It’s absolutely essential for your organization’s culture to drive the process of implementing change. Identifying culture internally and understanding the implications of it can be unexpectedly challenging. Despite being a guiding force and a participant in the culture, most business leaders find enormous value in an outside perspective helping to define the impacts that culture may have on effectively implementing change.

Providing an outside perspective enables us to present cultural elements in a non-threatening way and communicate change elements in a manner that can be received by people within an organization. The internal politics of an organization often hinders the acceptance of change whereas an unbiased outsider can overcome those challenges more effectively.

Aspects of Change Culture Often Forgotten

This story is just one example of our experiences in establishing a culture of change. From these experiences we’ve learned not only what works, but also the most common mistakes organizations make when navigating a change initiative. Of those mistakes, here is a couple that have a large impact on success:

1. Failure to link the goals of change management to the business case for initiating the change. – Often organizations forget why they were engaging in the change in the first place (i.e. grow the organization, increase revenue). Losing sight of the original ‘why’ often creates a disconnected message, a lack of goals, and a failure to focus on the end target, ultimately resulting in a failed effort.
2. Failure of the OCM admin to fully understand the business and the business relevance of the change. – Think about it. Your organization is engaged in change that may mean the life and death of your business. Would you want a change management leader in charge of the initiative that doesn’t understand how the business works? No. Much like you wouldn’t want a ship captain that doesn’t understand how to drive the boat. This lack of understanding leads to a lack of credibility, and that lack of credibility will show, causing others in the organization to believe the change efforts also lack credibility.

What’s Next?

Did our story and our experience with the organizational change resonate with you and your current situation? Are you concerned about change, whether you’re in it or thinking of getting into it? Have you tried and failed to execute some positive change of people, process, and/or technology within your organization despite having a change management plan? Check out more about our organization and what we do at www.transforming.com or contact us directly!

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