Change Management - Being at the epicenter

Currently, I can say that my team is going through a very important organizational change. I do not wish to write specifics of the change here. But I want to share my first hand experience, observations and conclusions on the Change Management process.

According to me communication and people management, before/during/after the change, are two of the most important CSF(critical success factors).

Communication

A clear communication across the organization about the change is extremely important.

Communication should clearly convey -

1) Change - Primary change and other supporting changes.

2) Benefits to the organization

3) Impact on the teams/individuals - Positive or negative. It can be communicated in separate targeted communications.

People Management

During the change management process, people are -

1) Super curious

2) Over anxious

Ever since the change has been declared, I have been receiving many calls/e-mails with queries, speculation, rumors and so on. Good communication would help in setting the expectations but in-person workshops/floor meeting would be very very effective.

In addition, execution approach for change management is one thing that requires the most of the thinking and planning. There can be two below mentioned approaches for Change Management.

(1) Think of all the possible problems that can arise and incorporate them while designing the change(roles, responsibilities, etc.). For example, prepare a comprehensive RACI(Responsible, Accountable, Consulted, Informed) matrix well in advance.

(2) Start with the bare minimum structure in place and then build on top of it. More of an "agile" way of working.

After this first hand experience, I hope to handle changes better going forward.

Internal knowledge discovery through Analyst Relations

I have been involved in Analyst Relations activities at my company for two years now. Establishing and managing relationships with various analysts firms(Investor/Research/Third party) is very important specially in the IT industry.

Analyst firms usually come up with their surveys/questionnaires/waves on an annual basis. These waves are either specific to solution area (ERP, CRM, BI, etc.) or geography (APAC, North America, Europe, etc.). They reach out to major players in the industry and invite them in this annual exercise. Participating companies need to provide their capabilities and credentials relevant to the specific wave/area. Survey generally contains questions which are both, qualitative and quantitative. Answers to these questions help Analysts firms to evaluate the participants.

Apart from being a very important branding exercise for the participants, it gives an excellent opportunity to dig deeper in their own companies and have the visibility of the kind of work is being done at the ground level. The slices/dices of data points that needs to provided during this exercise is such that it requires connecting with all on going projects(across the board) individually. According to me, such interactions with the projects, is extremely enriching due to following two reasons.

1) Such interactions are rare in a year.
2) Information is as accurate as possible.

I am sure people from large organizations would appreciate this :). It's not that companies do not engage in periodic reporting of activities from bottom to top. But in a company with 150k+ employees, complete information often do not reach the corporate teams.

I think for companies, this internal knowledge discovery helps immensely for pursuing new opportunities.