7 Steps to Support Change Management with New Technology Projects

We’re continuing our series on how to address the most common issues that cause failures in technology projects. We first touched on this when we reported on the results of a survey from Huron Consulting on the evolving digital landscape in healthcare.

The list of issues included barriers created by poor change management. This has been a common problem since the inception of technology in healthcare. In the early days of the EHRs, companies put out education about change management to try to support success with EHR implementations.

On the one hand, this is a big issue for most organizations. On the other hand, there is a lot of information and research about how to address it. So, we get to cheat off that homework in this post. 

Let’s start by defining the problem. I like this definition of change management from Tech Target because it is focused on how it relates to technology projects:

“Change management is a systematic approach to dealing with the transition or transformation of an organization's goals, processes and technologies. The purpose of change management is to implement strategies for effecting and controlling change and helping people to adapt to change.

Change management activities range from individual projects to large programs, such as digital transformation that introduces many new processes and applications. Change efforts often involve management teams and other stakeholders. Department-level management and employee buy-in is essential.”

According to Harvard Business School, 50% of all organizational change initiatives are unsuccessful. They define organizational change as, “Organizational change refers broadly to the actions a business takes to change or adjust a significant component of its organization. This may include company culture, internal processes, underlying technology or infrastructure, corporate hierarchy, or another critical aspect.”

Both Tech Target and HBS offer suggestions to drive success with big organizational changes. We’ve combined their suggestions with a few other resources to create our own checklist.

1. Clearly define the project’s vision, scope, goals, etc. What problem are you solving and why does it matter? How will it impact the organization and the people who work there? What is the benefit? Being able to answer these questions and share this with the organization will help drive cultural change and support.
2. Get buy-in from key stakeholders and change champions. It is important that change is supported from the top down and that the person responsible for managing the change has the support they need to be successful.
3. Create the logistical plan for the change. This includes things like the timeline, resources needed, etc. 
4. Develop and roll out a communication plan, supported by the stakeholders and champions, that clearly lays out the vision, scope, goals, benefits, logistics, ect. Give people the opportunity to get their questions and concerns answered.
5. Follow the plan for implementing the change, checking in with stakeholders, champions and team members along the way.
6. Embed the change into the organizational culture. A great example of this is the way in which many organizations will have all new employees download their mobile app and learn to use all the features as part of their onboarding. 
7. Review the progress and analyze the results to see what worked and if you’ve met your milestones.

Every organization is different and may face different challenges, but these steps should help ensure a smoother transition to a new technology. In the end, they really come down to good planning and communication. It’s always better to take a little extra time with those things to see the best results.