What are the gaps in talent, technology, operations and business strategy? – A Change Management Consultant’s view?

As a Change Management Consultant in the NFP sector, commencing a change initiative in an organisation can present a number of challenges most notably with engaging staff. When change occurs in an organisation, it often creates anxiety and staff may worry that senior management have sent a consultant in to uncover major flaws in the organisation’s processes and operations.

Staff at all levels may fear that their power and influence will be diminished and that major structural change will follow. As a consequence, they may not be forthcoming in what they tell the consultant because of concerns that their disclosures may be reported back to management. If an organisation’s culture does not readily encourage transparent feedback, individuals may fear that full disclosure could limit their career progression or even result in losing their job.

The role of a consultant is to establish their credentials as someone who is focused on the best interests of the organisation, while concurrently earning the trust of the staff across the organisation. These two concepts are not mutually exclusive. A good consultant can achieve both outcomes.  

Change management consulting is about uncovering the problems that exist in an organisation. The next stage is to find workable solutions to address these problems and see that they are implemented.  This was Edgar Schein’s philosophy when he conceived his theory of process consultation in the 1960’s. 

He posited that management consultants provide expertise that the organisation doesn’t have or that consultants are facilitators that help organisations to define their problems and help develop solutions to problems.  Modern approaches to change management, such as Design Thinking and Human Centred Design (HCD) are more aligned to the facilitator approach. However, they extend beyond process consultation of identifying the problem, to exploring the problems in detail, obtaining agreement and developing ideas to be prototyped which ultimately lead to the best solution for solving the problem.

HCD, when undertaken by an expert, works well for exploring technology and business process issues. It is a useful technique for understanding their link to the organisations’ overall strategy. HCD addresses people-related issues through the process of uncovering skills gaps (a problem that can be solved by providing training and or hiring new staff) or, it can highlight existing cultural problems.  As change management technique, HCD helps to uncover problems and through a process of engagement across the organisation, trials iterative ways and eventually finds the best possible solution to the problem.

For a change process to be successful, it must have buy-in from the entire organisation including CEO, senior management and all staff. Each must be engaged in the process and be willing to explore areas that will undoubtedly create a few uncomfortable moments for some. These difficulties enable change. They allow for things to happen. HCD is a useful technique for obtaining commitment to the change process. Change is about being open to ideas and new ways of thinking to create better business outcomes. HCD as a technique can be an effective approach to building change across the organisation.      

Brendan Grabau (PhD, MBA) is an independent change management consultant based in Melbourne.

Are changes in business processes prototyped?

The process of implementing possible solutions to wicked problems in an organisation by trialling innovative ideas and models is known as prototyping. It provides businesses with opportunities to identify the best possible solution after trialling a range of options to a significant business problem. This approach applies equally well to improving existing business processes, especially for organisations that seek to create efficiencies and quality improvements. 

Prototyping is part of the ideation phase in Design Thinking and Human Centred Design (HCD) approaches. Both methodologies are about empowering people by effectively engaging and inspiring individual team members to identify a solution to a challenging problem. These are useful techniques when well-facilitated for initiating a change process that can involve the entire organisation. They can empower people who feel encouraged to contribute to finding the solution and are particularly useful when contributions are actively sought from voices in the business that are not typically heard. 

The prototyping phase occurs after two important steps in the process: identification of the real problem or issue and obtaining universal agreement amongst the team. Once the problem or issue has been clearly defined, the brainstorming phase can commence. Team members freely submit ideas by free association, mind mapping, interviews and questionnaires, or discussion such as “how might we solve this problem”. 

During a brainstorming session, ideas are generated at will; they can range from the very simple and practical to hypothetical, complex and audacious. No ideas are rejected at this stage as the goal is to generate as many ideas as possible. The most promising Ideas are narrowed and identified through a selection process - the ‘coloured sticky note’ technique. The best ideas proceed to the next stage. Prototypes are built to test these concepts and ideas within the business. During the process, the team gathers feedback which is used to further improve designs and ideas. In effect, it is an iterative cycle to perfect ideas which ultimately leads to the best and most effective solution.

Ideas are tested and according to HCD theory, they should be tested with the end user in mind. Prototyping can be useful for identifying ideas that only partially work or don’t work at all. The process allows for learning from failure and identifying the point in the process where there is a weakness in the design. Iteration occurs around this point and the weakness is bypassed or the process redesigned and rebuilt. It is a cyclical process of testing prototypes, obtaining feedback, and iterating to create an effective, innovative solution in the end. 

Brainstorming ideas, developing protypes and eventually identifying the perfect solution are not linear processes. There is some degree of going back and forth when testing ideas and concepts may be presented a number of times. It does require a degree of acceptance from team members that progress is achieved only after coming through inevitable setbacks. Team members must nimble and open to iteration.

Prototyping as part of an HCD approach is an effective tool for improving business processes as it fosters collaboration, empowers individuals and gains buy-in from team members, all of which are essential elements of any change management process.

Brendan Grabau (PhD, MBA) is an independent change management consultant based in Melbourne.