Change Management – Getting Everyone on the Same Vision

I worked in the consulting arm at a Fortune 500 Tech Company (name hidden to protect the innocent) and we had long pre-sales and sales cycle with incredibly large deals that would span over several years. In some cases we leaned on distinguished engineers and patented innovation. We had tech, software, services assets in-house to integrate into our consulting services. If a large financial institution got a nasty letter from the SEC about certain exposures with an over-reliance on offshore providers, we advise them of the appropriate regulatory concerns and set up a risk framework, and then set up and integrate a global risk vendor management system. In short, we were impressive.

But There Was a Hole in Our Final Solution

And while we had spent so much time with our clients, or rather the decision makers for our clients, there was one segment of our customer base that we did not bring into the fold so well – the actual employees that were going to use the new program and tools.

The implementation and associated training was usually an afterthought. We would sling together some of the sales slides that at least explained some of the merits of the approach and tools. But the sell was over. The new program was now a matter of fact. And the employees were use to handling this area of concern in a traditional way and anything new really represented saddling them with extra work on top of their real day jobs. Perhaps a tougher sell than the commercial deal.

You have an Agreement but Do You Have Their Will?

A bit of a tragedy is going on keeping on my narrative with the vendor risk management solution. For in this case there was a solution that represented the best and brightest – leveraging innovative technology assets and a very nuanced understanding of the needs of the financial institution. The client had made the right decision.

So What’s My Beef?

And now I am going to grind my visual axe. In this particular case, in comparison to the fees we charged for the actual solution, what we needed to do is carry on with the theme of innovation and offer innovative training and change management communication tools. And the craft of information design has now matured enough that it is an effective means to translate the complexities of the new program and tools while getting the employee base excited about the transformational change that is going to take place.

We here at Frame Concepts leverage infographics, process pictograms, interactive kiosk style explanations, animations (explainer videos) and data driven dynamic visualizations to great effect to get the company over the change management hump.

And So Many Applications to Visually Effect Change

And the typical enterprise is rife with interfaces to apply your visual transformation communications. The visual solutions can integrate in a town hall presentation, employee reference cards, posters on the wall, employee intranet, training guides and company social site.

Just a Little Foresight and Planning Please

And so we have a perfect storm – a relevant visual solution set armed with the information design craft and multiple integrated mediums to place the visual content. And now we just need to make sure it happens. I have found the best results are if the visual solution team are integrated to the process months in advance of the proposed delivery solution. The change management firm and client gets an extra kicker in that the pencil sketches in the formative, pre-delivery stages help shape everyone’s thoughts on how the program will work and the value to the end-user.

And of course it gives one a chance to communicate and get everyone excited before the delivery actually begins. Far from being an unwelcome intrusion to the day job, if done right, the introduction of the program can be greeted with welcome arms and a clear understanding of the mission and how individually they can become an effective part of the new vision.

Beautiful things happen when everybody is playing from the same visual map before and after the sale.

 Getting Your Employees Excited About Your Proposed Change

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