The Importance of Change Management for Successful IG
Senior Director, Information Governance
Leigh Isaacs Zidwick
Why is change management crucial in information governance initiatives?
Managing information governance effectively requires more than just implementing policies and tools; it necessitates guiding individuals to adopt new perspectives and work methodologies.
Let’s discuss the art of change management and gain insights into fostering a culture of adaptability and growth within your organization.
“Change management is an enabling framework for managing the people side of change.” Prosci
“Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with the transition or transformation of an organization's goals, processes or technologies. The purpose of change management is to implement strategies for effecting change, controlling change and helping people to adapt to change.”
Tech
Target
Information governance in a law firm focuses on the management of client representation and business information ensuring appropriate behavior in the valuation, creation, storage, use, protection, archiving and deletion of information. It is an organization-wide framework for managing information throughout its lifecycle and for supporting the firm’s strategy, operations, and ethical, legal, regulatory, risk and environmental requirements.
IG establishes the authorities, processes, capabilities, structures, supporting mechanisms and infrastructure to enable information to be a useful asset in delivering client services while reducing liability to a firm.
It enables lawyers to meet their professional responsibility regarding client information; recognizes an expanding set of regulatory and privacy requirements that apply to firm and client information; and relies on a culture of participation and collaboration within the entire firm.
What is the goal of change management? Getting people to adopt a new way of doing business.
– BA, Natural Resources Company
Anytime you are starting a project or program that will depend on users and stakeholders to give up their old way of doing things, change will force people to become novices again, leading to lost productivity and added stress.
Change Management can help improve project outcomes on any project where you need people to adopt new tools and procedures, comply with new policies, learn new skills and behaviors, or understand and support new processes.
May be uncomfortable with the unknown or perceived risk.
Like the comfort and familiarity of the “current way.”
It takes time to learn new things, even if they are simple.
May misunderstand or disagree with the goals and/or strategy of the change initiative.
May fear what the change means for their role or job security.
May fear losing control, power or status.
Do not want any increased visibility or accountability; or conversely, may be afraid of losing it if they have it.
Lack of knowledge about what a change entails.
Don’t understand the “what’s in it for me?”
Resistance to change
Limitations of existing systems
Lack of executive commitment
Lack of executive champion
Unrealistic expectations
Lack of cross-functional team
Inadequate team and uninvolved users
Technology users not involved
Project charter too narrow
• “This is the way we’ve always done it.”
• Pressure of the billable hour; no time to learn something new.
• The change may be viewed as “forced” that doesn’t directly benefit them and perception that it makes their lives harder (with minimal benefit).
• Perception of “too much change.”
• Needs of “unique/special” practice groups.
• Fast pace; difficult to find the time for adequate discussion and buy-in.
• In larger organizations, it’s difficult to get buy-in from all people/groups.
• Traditional training models/venues aren’t effective.
• Everyone has their own priorities.
• Not everything is about “what you are promoting.” Sometimes it has to do with “how you say it.”
• Only one shot to get your point across to earn the time/attention of a partner.
Change is only successful when every impacted employee has reached the five milestones of the ADKAR Model.
• Why does a change need to be made?
• What are the risks of not changing?
• What benefits will the change bring?
• What does the change you want mean to people in their end-to-end work?
• How can you align the proposed changes with other global/firm initiatives?
• What about the change will matter to someone personally?
• How can you best get participation and from whom do you need it?
• What can/should you do after the change has been implemented to offer opportunities to reinforce learning, participation and fine-tuning?
• Are there already “ambassadors” or “poster children” you can leverage to promote the benefits of the change being introduced?
1) Engage people early to be a part of the process; give them a voice.
2) Involve various stakeholders/groups to gather information and spread your message.
2) Form a communication plan as soon as possible to let people know change is coming.
3) Make sure messaging is consistent and clear.
4) Create a thorough and engaging training plan; meet users where they are.
5) Foster a project culture that is proactive about change management. Create a process where change management considerations are factored in as early as project ideation and change is actively managed throughout the project lifecycle, including right after the project has closed.
6) Equip project leaders with the right tools to foster adoption. Effective CM requires an actionable toolkit that will help plant the seeds for organizational change. With the right tools and templates, the change leader can function as the hub for change, helping others to consistently achieve project and post-project success.
• Clear goals and objectives.
• Prepare, equip and support individuals moving through changes so that they successfully adopt the changes.
• Knowing your “audience.” Speaking their language. Thinking like them.
• Active and visible involvement of leadership.
• Collect data, measure and adjust approach as needed.
• WIIFM.
• Communication, training, communication, and communication.
• Encouragement of engagement (marketing, gamification, etc.).
• In law firms, change can also gain momentum by being able to speak to what others are doing.
• Without adoption, changes will not be successful and desired outcomes will not be delivered.
The constraints that drive project management (time, scope, and budget) are insufficient for driving the overall success of project efforts.
For instance, a project may come in on time, on budget, and in scope, but…
• …if users and stakeholders fail to adopt…
• …and the intended benefits are not achieved…
…then that “successful project” represents a massive waste of the organization’s time, money and resources.
A supplement to project management is needed to ensure that the intended value is realized.
50%
Mission Accomplished
Fifty percent of respondents in a KPMG survey indicated that projects fail to achieve what they originally intended.
56%
70%
Only fifty-six percent of strategic projects meet their original business goals.
Lack of user adoption is the main cause for seventy percent of failed projects.
Collins, 2013 PMI NZ Project management survey
82% of CEOs identify organizational change management as a priority. 82%
D&B Consulting
On average, 95% percent of projects with excellent CM meet or exceed their objectives. 95%
82% of projects with excellent CM practices are completed on budget. 82%
71% of projects with excellent CM practices stay on schedule. 71%
Only 18% of organizations characterize themselves as “Highly Effective” at CM. 18% But
For projects with poor CM, the number of projects that meet objectives drops to 15%. 15%
For projects with poor CM, the number of projects that stay on budget drops to 51%. 51%
For projects with poor CM practices, only 16% stay on schedule. 16%
While the importance of change management is widely recognized across organizations, the statistics around change remain dismal.
Indeed, it’s an understatement to say that change is difficult.
People are generally – in the near-term at least – resistant to change, especially large, transformational changes that will impact the day-to-day way of doing things, or that involve changing personal values, social norms, and other deep-seated assumptions.
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
– Niccolo Machiavelli
Change failure rates are extremely high. It is estimated that up to seventy percent of all change initiatives fail – a figure that has held steady since the 1990s. 70%
In a recent survey of 276 large and midsize organizations, only twenty-five percent of respondents felt that the gains from projects were sustained over time. 25%
While eighty-seven percent of survey respondents trained their managers to manage change,” only 22% felt the training was truly effective. 22%
McKinsey & Company
Towers Watson
Towers Watson
Human behavior is largely a blind spot during the planning phase.
Project planning can easily fixate on technology and underestimate the behavioral and cultural factors that inhibit user adoption. Whether change is project-specific or continuous, it’s more important to instill the desire to change than to apply specific tools and techniques. Accountability for instilling this desire should start with the project sponsor, with direct support from the PMO.
Don’t mistake change management for a “soft” skill.
Persuading people to change requires a “soft,” empathetic approach to keep them motivated and engaged. But don’t mistake “soft” for easy. Managing the people part of change is amongst the toughest work there is, and it requires a comfort and competency with uncertainty, ambiguity, and conflict. If a change initiative is going to be successful (especially a large, transformational change), this tough work needs to be done – and the more impactful the change, the earlier it is done, the better. You need to be willing to listen, and often take on criticism and cynicism.
In “continuous change” environments, change still needs to be managed.
Transformation and change are increasingly becoming the new normal. While this normality may help make people more open to change in general, specific changes still need to be planned, communicated, and managed. Agility and continuous improvement are good but can degenerate into volatility if change isn’t managed properly. People will perceive change to be volatile and undesirable if their expectations aren’t managed through communications and engagement planning.
Best-Practice Toolkit
1.1 Assess the readiness for change.
1.2 Define the structure and scope of the initiative.
2.1 Foster change management considerations during the ideation phase.
2.2 Perform a change impact assessment.
3.1 Ensure stakeholders are engaged and ready for change.
3.2 Develop and execute the transition plan.
3.3 Establish communications and training plans.
4.1 Determine accountabilities for benefits attainment.
5.1 Institute a change playbook.
“Change cannot be put on people. The best way to instill change is to do it with them. Create it with them.” Lisa Bodell
• No standard folder structures in Records and Document Management Systems made it difficult to consistently manage and disposition files per policy and schedule.
• Lack of standardization in foldering and naming structures resulted in inefficiencies in finding information.
• Duplication of efforts/saving of documents w/o standards in place.
Complication
• Lack of interest/buy-in; people didn’t see the point; were happy doing things the way they were.
• Busy timekeepers didn’t have interest in investing time in a non-billable activity.
• Challenging to get participation and consensus amongst the group.
Resolution
• Focus groups were held at times convenient for all
• Established # for bill back to get credit for work done
• Gave space to explain frustrations, concerns and fears
• Others in the group got to hear directly from peers; making change management somewhat self governing
Quote pre-change (paraphrasing): I don’t have time to participate in this and don’t understand why its necessary.
Quote post-change (paraphrasing): I’m so glad I got to provide my input on this project and my life is much easier now that we’re all on the same page.”
“Results are gained by exploiting opportunities, not by solving problems.” Peter Drucker
• Busy partner had over 15K folders in his mailbox
• Mailbox performance was impacted
• Frequent calls to IT/HelpDesk
• Teams of people engaged regularly to provide triage support.
• Perceived firm policies as impediment and tech tools lacking
• Didn’t want to change the way he worked
• Didn’t want to learn or adopt a new tool
• Tools (Outlook) had met its technological limits
• Provided a dedicated resource
• Took time to understand needs, frustrations and workstyle; approached from position of empathy
• Established a go-forward plan that supported accessing email from unfamiliar system that required no training and only one-click access.
Partner quote (paraphrased) at outset: “I can’t work like this. The firm makes it impossible to practice. Fix the system; don’t make me change.”
Partner quote (paraphrased) after change: “I talk to my peers at other firms and none of them have the level of support to practice as I do.”
“Setting goals is the first step in turning the invisible into the visible.” Tony Robbins
• Unstructured drives were used by all and had been for quite some time
• Significant amount of data that could not be easily identified
• Users often couldn’t find what they were looking for
• Difficult to manage data within an information governance program
• People had been using them for years and grown accustomed to them
• Easy to use and they relied on them often
• No controls meant they could do what they wanted…and they liked it
• Didn’t want to learn a new tool/system
• Held focus groups discussions to understand how shared drives were being used and why
• Gathered data on heaviest users
• Created a governed shared drive environment with flexibility for lower-level folders
• Provided direct support for moving and organizing documents.
Quote (paraphrased) at outset: “Do not take away my shared drives. I rely on them for my client work and refuse to use the DMS.”
Quote (paraphrased) after change: “The new structure is familiar, and I can still find what I need. Even better, I don’t need to search for the most recent copy, and I can always find something when a key team member is out of the office.”
“The secret to change is to focus all of your energy on not fighting the old, but on building the new.” Socrates
• Protected documents were being stored in multiple places outside of firm policy
• Files needed to be shared for editing by matter team while active.
• Protected documents needed to be securely and completely destroyed at conclusion of the matter.
• Compliance with mandated deletions was difficult with current work practices
• Billable timekeepers were spending a significant amount of time saving and deleting files
• Much duplication of work
• Group was not aware of the benefits of DMS or how the firm’s systems worked in general
• Met with the group to understand the work they do and the “lifecycle of a document”
• Trained on firm policies
• Educated group the challenges around current practices
• Walked through the functionality of DMS and illustrated how it could work for them
• Created workflow for a “day in the life” of a document from receipt/creation through disposition.
• IG handles dispositions and certifications of compliance.
Quote (paraphrased) at outset: “All of our documents must be saved to everyone's OneDrive to be secure. iManage won’t work.”
Quote (paraphrased) after change: “This system and process will be more secure for the storage of documents, and it will be helpful not to have to manage mandated deletions on our own.”
“Change is the only constant in the fast-paced world of business.”
• Warehouses were stocked full of paper –some of which related to matters over 100 years old.
• Expensive on-site real estate was being used for storage of paper files.
• Electronic storage costs continued to rise.
• Clients demanded change.
• No one to “tie the pieces together” for various stakeholders.
• Client contact information outdated.
• Resistance to getting rid of something that may be perceived as important (hoarding syndrome!)
• Lack of insights into WHAT was being retained.
• It often requires a monetary investment to save money in the long-run – needed vision into the future.
• Gathered metrics – what was spend, impact. How often were files/data being retrieved and used?
• Articulate the benefits – finding what you really need.
• Identified internal resources to assist.
• Understand why people needed/wanted to retain certain files.
• Bring together various stakeholders to present the “bigger picture.”
• Offer alternatives, such as digitizing or better organizing electronic files.
• Make ROI argument for moving forward.
• Engage experts.
• Illustrate a picture – offsite storage volume could fill 2 Olympic sized swimming pools”.
• Explore analytics solutions.
Quote (paraphrased) at outset: “We can’t get rid of our files; there may be something in there that we need one day.”
Quote (paraphrased) after change: “Now that we’ve organized files, I don’t miss paper at all, and don’t miss sending a check to [INSERT VENDOR NAME HERE] every month.”
• Identify impact of changes. Anticipate and mitigate risks. Plan for human nature. To ensure project success and maximize benefits, plan and facilitate the non-technical aspects of organization change by addressing the emotional, behavioral and culture factors that foster stakeholder resistance and inhibit user adoption.
• Rollout changes. Allocate resources. Align system, structure and policies.
• Evaluate change effectiveness and review areas of resistance
• Maintain momentum. Apply methods for continuous improvement.
What do YOU think is the most important IG change that needs to happen?
Where can you start?
• Meets monthly – 4th Thursday at 2:00 pm Eastern
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• Targeted Sub-Group Discussions
Send an email to Leigh Isaacs Zidwick –leigh.Zidwick@us.dlapiper.com
- www.prosci.com
First - www.changefirst.com
McKinsey 7S Model - McKinsey 7S Model - Overview, Structure and Application, Example (corporatefinanceinstitute.com)
Change Management Model - Lewin's Change Management Model - Understanding the Three Stages of Change (mindtools.com)
8 Steps for Leading Change - The 8-Step Process for Leading Change | Dr. John Kotter (kotterinc.com)
Informatica – 4 Ways Change Management is Key to Effective Data Governance Adoption - (1) New Messages! (informatica.com)
Governance Institute – Implementing Change Management - Implementing Change Management - The Data Governance Institute
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