What is Adoption and Change Management?
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Adoption and change management (often abbreviated as ACM) is an idea that emerged in the last decade. I first became familiar with it in early 2019 when it became very popular in organizations as they tried to adopt new technology like Microsoft Teams, Slack, Zoom, etc. If you have searched for this term, it is likely because you know you need to apply change management to your technology adoption and may not know where to start. Or perhaps you’re a change practitioner trying to understand why ACM is different than OCM. This article is meant to go back to basics and provide a solid foundation of the words you may hear when you learn about ACM and what they might mean for you and the technology you are trying to roll out.
What is Change Management?
Change management in its simplest definition is managing change. How we manage it depends on what we're changing and why we're changing it. In the broader scope of change management, we may be referring to a variety of things, but for the most part these days when people say we need change management they are referring to the people side of change.
PROSCI defines Change Management as "the application of a structured process and set of tools for leading the people side of change to achieve a desired outcome." In short, you use tried and true models that minimize resistance and optimize your return on investment (ROI). Every change is different, but the process is nothing new. Someone that learns change management best practices should be able to apply their knowledge to future changes. However, the larger the change, the greater the complexity, which is why consultants and change experts are often brought in to assist. With most change initiatives failing, it is money well spent to ensure you are among the 30% that do succeed.
Under the umbrella of change management, you may hear the term OCM, which is a common acronym referring to Organizational Change Management. With OCM we are talking about the process of managing large scale changes like culture, technology, or infrastructure. These types of changes impact every employee in a big way and therefore need to be managed very carefully. The way you prepare for, communicate, train, and reinforce a change like this will be vastly different from a smaller change.
Adoption and Change Management is managing change related to technology. When we talk about "adoption" we are referring to the end user population fully utilizing the tool. Successful ACM will not only increase monthly active usage (MAU) of the tool being adopted—it will save your organization money by increasing productivity, improving the employee experience, and reducing attrition. ACM isn't about the tool, it's about the user and helping that user achieve their business outcomes. To begin mapping out how we achieve those outcomes, we must first ask the question: is this change adaptive or transformational?
Adaptive changes vs transformational changes
I adopted these terms from an HBR article I read years ago and have found them extremely helpful and truthful in my ACM practice. It defines adaptive change as, "small, incremental adjustments that organizations and managers make to adapt to daily, weekly, and monthly business challenges. These changes are often related to fine-tuning existing processes, products, and company culture, and don’t fundamentally change the organization as a whole." An example of an adaptive ACM change would be an upgrade to an operating system. In this situation we still need change management, just on a much smaller scale. Adaptive changes can have communication that comes from IT, should only need one to two months’ notice, and will be most successful with targeted training to key groups that need it. With that being said, an operating system upgrade for a 20,000-seat organization will be much more involved and could be transformational depending on the complexity.
Transformational change refers to, "changes that are typically much grander in scope than incremental, adaptive changes. Very often, transformational change refers to a dramatic evolution of some basic structure of the business itself—its strategy, culture, organization, physical structure, supply chain, or processes." When someone says they need OCM it is because they are dealing with a change that is transformational in nature. Studies show that communication in transformational changes should include communication from leaders and managers, because it involves changes to the business and to the day-to-day activities of end users. Furthermore, transformational changes are complex in nature, which means they will need a much longer runway to plan the change and customized training plan to meet the needs of the various user groups.
Common change management mistakes
Since ACM refers to any technology change, defining the scope is crucial for its success as it tells us who should be sending communication, when they should be sending communication, and the scale of discovery and training needed throughout the project. Despite all the knowledge and research out there on the importance of this, most organizations fail to implement a change properly because of the time and resources it takes. The two most common problems I see are the following:
Using adaptive strategies for transformational changes: Large ACM projects should have other departments involved. The problem is, since ACM involves IT, many project teams fail to see that OCM strategies are needed. Communication should come from the leaders, not from IT. This means training and support needs to happen prior to the migration.
Failing to implement adaptive changes after a transformational change: Technology these days has a vast selection of tools within one piece of software. Organizations that roll out something like Microsoft Teams succeed with change management on the front end, but fail to follow up with the adaptive changes needed in the following months and years to continue to utilize the tool as it updates. A study from McKinsey revealed that "20 percent of a transformation’s value is lost after its initiatives have been fully executed." If an organization fails to see the ongoing effort needed in today's technology climate, it will slowly see decline in the ROI.
Digital Enablement and the Future of ACM
With the emergence of AI and the speed of technology deployments, change management and digital enablement should look different today than it did a few years ago. Before we were transforming, now we are constantly enabling. Adaptive changes are nearly always happening and should become a routine part of continuous improvement for any organization. If we are to do this successfully, we need to bridge the gap between IT and HR. The digital employee experience is now just the employee experience, and our training should reflect that. Budget for implementing these changes should not simply rest on the shoulders of IT with the same budgeting strategy they’ve been using for decades.
For all knowledge workers, their job enjoyment, personal productivity, and team collaboration capabilities will be directly tied to their training and knowledge of the tools they are using. Research shows that technology leaders are far more successful than technology laggards when it comes to total annual shareholder returns, active customer base, and operating expenses. This tells us that organizations that aren’t talking about ACM and digital enablement in their C Suite, will exponentially fall behind their competitors.
Check out other related posts:
Clearing the Path for Change | Part 4
It is ironic that the only way I have managed to start writing this article on Focus Time, was to wake up at 5am on a Saturday. It has been on my To Do list for weeks, but somehow there was always something more pressing that bumped it down the line. Does this sound familiar to you? Too often the environment that we are living and working in does not leave enough uninterrupted space to focus on the things that matter most.