What does success look like to you? No, it’s not fluffy coaching-speak: it’s pragmatic and yields tangible results
Success from ‘top-down’ — and ‘bottom-up’
Why talk with stakeholders about “success”?
The “why” of your project team’s change may not be up for discussion with your stakeholders. Leadership have made the call to proceed and have a freshly signed-off business case. Operational managers take a deep breath. Once again, they brace themselves for the impact for team-wide change impacts. They have a fair perception of what lies ahead often — adverse changes, and needing to pick up the pieces.
As a change professional you have compiled your stakeholder list (or database). Your change impact assessment is well underway, and you are gaining a decent understanding of the current state. Your knowledge of who is changing is emerging. What future state are they adjusting to? What are the impacts at a team level? All great questions and you feel a sense of accomplishment as you track down the answers. You can articulate the transition from current to a future state in an ‘elevator pitch’. In this morning’s stakeholder meeting, you presented the ‘elevator pitch’ so well it feels like second nature. From your project boards point of view, you are on track.
But are you missing a crucial ingredient?
Ask stakeholders what a smooth transition to their future state looks like. What does it look like at a team and individual level?
Dr. Jen Frahm’s article “How do you measure change success?” ¹ looks at different success criteria. Most success criteria focus on go-live and beyond. Dr. Frahm looks at change process success, and a useful idea of the “campsite rule”. Leave your campsite in a better state than when you got there!
So ask stakeholders their views on a successful change. Your questions serve multiple outcomes. It shows that you care about leaving your stakeholder’s “campsite” in an appropriate state. Andrew Butow’s article “Quantifying the Value of Change Management” takes success criteria a step further ². His article analyses a useful ‘return on investment’ model. Models like this one help you ferment your questions about success, tailored to each stakeholder.
It’s easy to focus on what is going wrong on projects. Your stakeholder conversations may focus on change timelines, or the support available to them. Or frustrations with short-falls in he change. You may find it awkward to discuss “what success looks like” with stakeholders. Could your question open up a can of worms? Stakeholders might complain about the change, or lump you with more future state requirements. Even so, could the benefits of talking about success outweigh the downsides?
Project Managers and decision-makers might refer to “success criteria”. Yet their view of “success criteria” may be more top-down. Are they incentivised to deliver major milestones? They may live for budget, time and scope. Asking stakeholders “what needs to be in place for a successful transition?” may result in time-consuming, emotional conversations. A lot of a stakeholder’s answer may have little to do with major milestone delivery.
So why are you as a change professional considering these conversations? Isn’t talking about “what success looks like” to individual stakeholders a bit ‘fluffy’, and touchy-feely?
If you have the conversations early in your project, you:
- Add a richness to your change impact assessment;
- Learn of your stakeholder’s support expectations;
- Gain stakeholder trust — they may introduce you to other ‘hidden influencers’ (snowball sampling)³
- Identify otherwise unforeseen insights and workarounds;
- Compile a range of “success perspectives” at an individual, team and organisation level;
- See insights not available to others on your team — allowing you to connect the dots³
- Ask a compelling question, encouraging your stakeholders to co-design the change;
- Unify these varying perspectives into a single change goal.
So the short answer is no. Your conversations may yield some useful insights about how to market the future state to target audiences. If done well you can transform your learnings into actionable insights. This very conversation is a technique in helping you move from “telling” to “asking” ⁴.
Putting it into practice
If you have many stakeholders to “interview”, use a semi-structured questionnaire. Your semi-structured questionnaire may have around two to several questions. Keep your questions brief and sharp; aim to complete your interview in thirty minutes or less.
Semi-structured interview have a clear advantage. You can compare your answers from each stakeholder meeting. Do you see commonalities in stakeholder answers? If so, summarise common answers under a single “theme” or topic. You may also learn of certain words or turns of phrase that one or more stakeholder use. Your communications may incorporate certain words if they resonate with your target audiences.
You may also be pressed for time. The semi-structured interview is efficient to administer. You may only need a single question about success criteria. Your other questions might cover:
- What communications medium(s) work for the stakeholder’s team;
- Any peak operational times impacting the transition to future state;
- Best times and ways to engage the stakeholder;
- Validating change impact assessments, communications drafts or approach.
What this conversation is… and isn’t
The actual conversation
Your stakeholders may have mandated change thrust upon them. Or they weren’t consulted about the future state. The tone for your conversation may already be in place from the outset! Worried about your stakeholder exhibiting frustration? Will you make matters worse by asking them “what success looks like”? This may well happen!
Keep in mind: their frustration may be temporary. You are giving an individual your complete attention. Your attention shows your stakeholder that you care about a smooth change for them and their team.
So how can you introduce the future state to their team? What communications and training approaches work for them? Should the change be leader-led, or through the project team? Does the stakeholder have geographically-dispersed employees? Do these employees have varying levels of confidence and ability? Do some employees need extra help in adjusting to the future state? What keeps your stakeholder up at night about this change?
Some stakeholders might use this opportunity to play hardball. They may ask for the world! Daily drop-in sessions and on-demand support. Anything far beyond what your project team and helpdesk can provide. You don’t need to commit to anything in your meeting; listen and note their answers. After the meeting, you may find scalable, practical ways to provide adequate support. Not committing straight away allows you breathing room. You now have space to establish fair boundaries around the ‘love’ your project team can provide the stakeholder.
Other stakeholders may find joy in throwing future state requirements your way. It’s not a change professional’s role to take onboard and action future state requirements. You can encourage your stakeholder to speak to your project team. Or move the conversation back to the people side of change, and their views of a smooth transition.
Turning “success conversations” into insight
It’s easy to conduct your interview, then move on. But wait a minute. Your semi-structured interview data can make a difference. Have a look at the varied answers to your question(s) about “what a smooth, successful transition looks like”. Are there commonalities amongst the answers? What can you do to support stakeholders with these common answers? Could you integrate everyone’s answers into one unified change goal?
This unified change goal should be in a clear statement — measurable, realistic and practical. Or do you already have an overall change goal, based on behavioural measures? For example:
“Transition 10,000 [employee group # 1] employees from [System A] to [System B] by [Y date], with [B%] of this group using [System B] by [Z weeks post go-live].”
Your stakeholder feedback may instead inform the ingredients underpinning your change goal. For example, some stakeholders may illuminate:
- Ideal days and times to absorb new messages or undertake training;
- Aspects of your training program which they perceive as important to them;
- Preferences for individual, personalised messages;
- Statements about successful change which contradict those of leadership.
Your questions about success may yield hidden influencers representating many employees ³. These trusted people might unofficially give the ‘green light’ to their stakeholder body. Thus your “success question” is powerful lever in driving effective ‘bottom-up’ change.
Finally, don’t forget to follow up with your stakeholders after your meeting. Show them the progress you have made with their valuable feedback. Demonstrating how their feedback translates into smoother, bespoke change support is validating. Keep building those relationship, and maintaining trust. It’s a great virtuous circle as you help stakeholders towards go-live and beyond.
Recap
Investing in asking what ‘success’ looks like. The answers provide powerful insights. You may already know stakeholder “What’s in it for me”. Knowing answers to your “success question” complement your stakeholder understanding.
Your “success question” also shows your interest in helping your stakeholders succeed. Don’t forget to show your stakeholders progress made from their valuable feedback.
Your call to action
How do you translate a seemingly ‘fluffy’ topic into pragmatic outcomes for your change?
Our book — The Change Manager’s Companion — is available now. You can also check out our online course on Change Management.
Reference List
1. Frahm J. HOW DO YOU MEASURE CHANGE SUCCESS? conversationsofchange.com.au. https://conversationsofchange.com.au/how-do-you-measure-change-success/. Published 2015.
2. Butow A. Quantifying the Value of Change Management. Earth2Mars.com.au. https://earth2mars.com.au/quantifying-the-value-of-change-management/. Published 2020.
3. Duan L, Sheeran E, Weiss LM. Tapping the power of hidden influencers | McKinsey. McKinsey Quarterly. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/tapping-the-power-of-hidden-influencers#. Published 2014. Accessed October 31, 2020.
4. Keller S, Schaninger B. How do we manage the change journey? | McKinsey. McKinsey & Company. https://www.mckinsey.com/business-functions/organization/our-insights/how-do-we-manage-the-change-journey?cid=other-soc-lkn--mck-oth---&sid=3355044077&linkId=88999893. Published 2020. Accessed October 31, 2020.