By Meg Shallcrass |
November 22, 2024
Change Management: steps for success
In this series of blog posts, we are taking a deep dive into the world of information management and revealing the information management issues we come across in our day-to-day work, and how to address them. For our sixth and final blog in the series, Meg Shallcrass, our information management specialist, discusses the challenges of change management and shares the key steps to successfully implementing new ways of working.
Read on:
The change management challenge
Implementing new information management systems often requires significant organisational change, which can often meet employee resistance and in turn, lead to low adoption rates, a lack of engagement and cultural pushback.
Without proper change management, adoption rates of new systems and software are typically low, and organisations and users alike fail to realise the full benefits of the new solution. We saw this a lot over the COVID lockdowns, where many companies were forced to rapidly adopt new ways of working and embrace the cloud before they were ready. While tools like Microsoft Teams were quickly rolled out to all users, without proper training, governance, and information architecture in place, users were often confused and frustrated with this new tool. If users are not adequately prepared or informed about the benefits and features of the platform, they may resist using it, quickly reverting to old tools or practices, which can compromise information governance and add to security risks through the use of shadow IT. Employees accustomed to legacy systems felt that these new. Cloud solutions were being “forced” on them, leading to a negative attitude towards the change. Without proper engagement and communication, the organisational culture can become very resistant to the new platform.
Lack of adequate training is an incredibly common frustration our clients have shared with us and it is of often the root cause of a lot of issues around the introduction of new tools and systems.
One of our clients was recently having significant trouble sharing and accessing Microsoft 365, with many users complaining that they didn’t know the best way to share content securely. Users were wasting time having to request access (or granting access to people they shouldn’t), were sharing documents as email attachments rather than links, adding to the duplication and loss of integrity of the information. After investigation, it turned out users had received virtually no training around sharing and access management in SharePoint and Teams, which had lead to significant confusion, doubt, and inconsistency. After clarifying the most appropriate ways to share and access content, creating clear policies and guidance documents, and delivering basic training, these problems were resolved.
How to successfully introduce change
While the transition to a new tool or way of working is often managed appropriately, ensuring that digital transformation projects—such as the transition to Microsoft Teams—are successful and sustainable in the long term requires ongoing change management practices. Change management needs to be considered at all stages of a project, not just at the end.
Change management must be considered at every stage
Adopt a collaborative approach
Metataxis take a collaborative approach to all our work and provide appropriate stakeholder engagement and communication right from the start. Regular communication and feedback loops are established, keeping everyone informed and aligned throughout the process. We can work with your project team and internal resources to contribute to change management and communication plans.
Information governance is hugely important to ensuring project success, and we can help develop and implement clear governance structures to ensure consistent use of the platform across the organisation. This includes guidelines for permissions, data handling, and collaboration practices to prevent security risks. Getting users involved and responsible for their own information (and understanding why this is important) is one of the leading drivers of success.
Get your users involved
Training is crucial
As well as communication and engagement, users training on the tools they are transitioning to, or the new processes they are adopting, is absolutely crucial. We provide bespoke training to meet the specific needs of your teams, from basic functionality to advanced features, and also work with dedicated training partners to ensure everyone at your organisation feels comfortable and competent.
