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Follow-up and support are critical and often missing
elements of an effective people-oriented change management strategy. CSG
takes a strong position with regard to follow-up and support because we know from experience that
these activities often make the critical difference between successful
change initiatives and unsuccessful ones.
Follow-up.
It takes more than
awareness and training for people to effectively use new solutions and
work in new ways to achieve real performance change – and improved results.
To fully develop needed skills – and the ability to use them correctly and consistently – individuals
must transfer them from learning situations to workplace realities.
The best way to transfer skills successfully is with ongoing
coaching and reinforcement – as individuals need it, when they need it.
Therefore,
if organizations that provide training to facilitate change want the
training they provide to really work, they must also provide
appropriate follow-up -- knowledgeable
coaches and mentors and access to SMEs who can assist those who are using
new skills and who must quickly recognize, address, and resolve problems as
they occur.
Support.
Activities
that provide support for users are also critical from a change management
perspective because of the impact they have on the user experience. Unfortunately, support is an area that is often
overlooked even though we know from experience that to forget it is to
commit a serious error. Many
elements of Support have to be in place for the user experience to be a
positive one.
For example, those affected by the change must be given opportunities to
participate in the change process by providing input through usability and acceptance
protocols, satisfaction surveys, and problem-management
reporting and resolution strategies.
To
ensure that effective follow-up and support activities are in place, CSG:
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1.
Helps organizations to prepare
by: |
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(For
Follow-up)
(For
Support)
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Developing
appropriate assessment tools including User Satisfaction Surveys
and Focus Group Discussion Guidelines
to facilitate the collection of information about the user
experience and help assess the extent to which business
objectives have been/can be met.
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Creating user acceptance criteria and an appropriate protocol for
conducting user "acceptance testing."
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Developing
usability testing criteria and an appropriate protocol for
assessing appropriate elements of change from a usability
perspective.
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Developing
an appropriate set of Problem Management Process Guidelines and
identifying personnel (internal or external) to support the
problem identification and resolution process.
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2.
Helps organizations to execute
follow-up and support activities by: |
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(For
Follow-up)
(For
Support)
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Conducting
or coordinating user acceptance testing to ensure that change
initiatives satisfy approved business requirements.
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Performing
or coordinating usability testing to ensure the overall utility
of change elements from the "user's" perspective.
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Administering
User Satisfaction Surveys and tabulating results to assess
levels of satisfaction before and after change.
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Monitoring
the Problem-Management Process to ensure that those affected by
the change get fast and appropriate answers to their questions
and resolution to problems.
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Conducting
Focus Groups and summarizing and prioritizing findings.
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3.
Helps organizations to assess
follow-up and support activities by: |
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Gathering
relevant feedback on the effectiveness of follow-up and
support provided.
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Analyzing
the data and information in order to develop an initial set of recommendations.
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Conducting
review sessions with selected personnel in order to confirm
findings and finalize and prioritize recommendations.
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