PRACTICAL USER ADOPTION- a case study at Toowoomba Regional Council.

Let me ask you a question…

•Toowoomba City Council to Toowoomba Regional Council•Change management – How quick? How many? How good?•The current state – the problem to be solved•The best laid plans…•Project benefits achieved•Key points to take away•Questions•Call me [us]…

What we’ll Cover

Where is Toowoomba anyway..?

TYPES OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT - enterprise level cm –v- project level cm.

Enterprise Level change management- also known as organisational change management requires an in-house, full-time capability & competency. These programs of work usually span many months to years.

Project Level change management- used as a benefit realisation & value creation measure, applied on particular initiatives or projects to safeguard project investment, reduce staff turnover & attain project goals.

Speed of adoption - How quickly can we get users "on-board"

Utilisation- How many can we get “on-board”

Proficiency - How well can they use the new system 

THE 3 FACTORS OF CHANGE MANAGEMENT - essential for project success.

On budget

On time

Technology implemented

WHAT DOES PROJECT SUCCESS LOOK LIKE?- Project management success does NOT = project success….

Success…

It’s not always what you see.

WHY DID CM MATTER TO TRC?- because the new system, policies, procedures, tools & messages sent out via the project would not be accepted or adopted without CM.

project fail…

You are

here.

Changes that are highly dependent on ‘people change’ have low certainty in the expected project success.

changes that have no ‘people change’ have higher certainty in the expected project success.

WHY DOES ACTUAL PROJECT SUCCESS DIFFER FROM EXPECTED PROJECT SUCCESS ?

HOW DID WE MITIGATE THIS RISK?- change management reduced risk & increased the actual project success.

“The process to prepare business papers that go to Council is the single most important business process in the organisation; as all other business

processes either flow into, or are a result of this one.”

What was changing?

The process originally took approx. 107.5 hours to completeThat’s approx. 75% of a full-time position per month

The task was essentially completed by one personThere was only one back-up [with limited knowledge]The process was largely completely manual with considerable double handling

Some interesting metrics…

OBS CHANGE MANAGEMENT METHODOLOGY- prepare, manage & sustain.

WHAT DID WE DELIVER FOR TRC?- solution.

- Implemented SharePoint 2013…Infrastructure…Application…Build etc.

- CM Strategy- CM Plan- Ad hoc cm implementation activities- CM sustain activities

…in anutshell

WHAT DOES IT LOOK LIKE?- application.

The change management strategy bought together the change characteristics & TRCs’ organisational attributes to define at a high level how much change management was needed. It was also used to determine the team & sponsor structures needed for the specific change.

CM STRATEGY- deliverable.

Activity MethodProject initiation/ramp-up Awareness meeting(s)

Change characteristic assessment WorkshopOrganisational attributes assessment Workshop

Impact index Workshop, Analysis, documentationRisk profile Analysis

Team identification WorkshopTeam preparation Training & assessment. collateral creation

Sponsor identification Workshop

Activity MethodCommunications plan Workshop, Documentation

Sponsor roadmap DocumentationCoaching plan(s) Workshop(s), Documentation

Training plan Workshop(s), DocumentationResistance management plan Analysis, Documentation

The change management plan & activities were customised based on the characteristics of the change & the unique attributes of TRC.

CM PLAN- deliverable.

OTHER CM ACTIVITIES- ad hoc, meetings, initiatives, training.

Activity MethodCM meeting Meeting [some onsite some remote]

Adoption activities Awareness campaign Training Classroom, drop-in sessions, coaching

etc…

Prerequisite:change management plan

CM SUSTAIN ACTIVITIES- feedback, gaps, corrective actions.

Activity MethodEmployee feedback Survey(s), Workshop(s),

One-on-one consultations.Gap identification Analysis, Documentation

Corrective Actions Plan DocumentationAfter action review Analysis, Documentation

Transition sustainment plan Documentation, Presentation

Sustaining change includes the analysis of the results of the change management activities & implementation of corrective action. This area also included conducting "after-action" reviews & transferring ownership for change management to the business.

The outcome, without the change activities wouldn't

have been effective at all – staff

would not have had the opportunity

to contribute, design & take “ownership” of the software

Amanda Stephens Administration Officer[Back-up Executive assistant]

Are we there yet?

If you didn’t involve me you wouldn’t have had the opportunity to tap into my 27 years experience of working at Council. I’ve seen a lot of systems in my time, & this process brought together like minds to say how we would like to see the system work. We explored new ways to utilise the technology to make the process work much more effectively & efficiently, to create an intuitive system that works for us, & has capacity to

grow & expand as needed. AWESOME!

Narelle KuehnemannExecutive Assistant to General Manager

…are we there yet?

What didn’t go to plan?

• Early communications• Delayed go-live date• Non-mandated training• Train the trainer • Tyranny of distance.

- 4643km travelled - over 18 trips - 5 windscreen chips

What was fabulous?• TRC’s executive management• The major impact group• A project manager with a can-do attitude• Solution champions arose early – they took the ball &

ran!• A great product – SharePoint• Some out-of-the-box SharePoint Workflow wizardry

from OBS• Having an integrated project & change management

plan!

Celebration time…

Project benefits realised.• The process now takes approx. >30% less time to

complete• Decentralised responsibilities• Largely automated with no double handling• Robust, scalable system, integration with LOB

systems• Populated training library• In-place records• Tightly integrated with Microsoft Office 2013• Retired an IT system

Key takeaways- Change management mitigates project risk- Training must be mandated or staff will just not turn up- Change management is more than just training…- Project management success is NOT project success - There must be reinforcement- You can’t bring all of the people on the journey, most is a

great result- Celebrate all success and learn from failure

And don’t forget…

Everyone loves inspiring beginnings and happy endings; it is just the middle that involves hard work. One of the biggest hazards is abandoning the change agenda

when problems arise, and focusing only on technical aspects.

"Everything looks like a failure in the middle."Dr Rosabeth Kanter