The need to involve end-users in change management

PEX Network caught up with Dennis Olsson, group sustainability change lead at Danske Bank, who discusses in this interview his previous experience in change management and the success he has had with involving end-users in the process.

Ahead of his session at PEX Live: Change Management and Culture Change for Business Transformation 2022, Olsson goes over the benefits of change management for organizations and explains the importance of the human aspect for successful initiatives.

PEX Network: Could you tell us more about your experience with change management?

Dennis Olsson: I have experience working directly with customers, working in back-office positions, being a leader for teams across the Nordics and globally and lately working as internal consultant in group-wide transformation teams.

Throughout my value chain experience, I have seen how changes affect different parts of the organization in various ways. I am applying this insight into my work as a change manager to ensure the best fit possible for the end-users.

In my opinion, change management is not about filling in change tools and templates. It is about having experience which makes you able to understand and connect with the end-users who are impacted by your change initiative.

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PEX Network: Would you like to share any success stories you have experienced?

DO: The best success stories are those with a genuine emphasis on involvement of end-users and co-creation with other relevant organizational transformation efforts.

Something as tedious as e-learning can actually make a bigger impact, if you ensure that end-users are involved in the development of the content, so that it resonates with the their experience and language.

If you integrate e-learning into other relevant transformation initiatives, the employee experience can become even more impactful and meaningful.

PEX Network: What advantages can change management offer when it comes to business transformation?

DO: The end-user perspective. Often, we are too focused on project implementation milestones, which results in a ‘launch and leave’ culture. We celebrate the new system implementation and the new rollout of standard operating procedures, but we leave the end-users with many unanswered questions and with little room for feedback opportunities.

Change management is about ensuring that end-users are involved from the ideation phase to the implementation phase and beyond. This is also the challenging part of change management, because it requires resources that are often not prioritized, especially beyond the implementation phase.

PEX Network: What is your top advice for organizations to apply change management?

DO: Spend time on unfolding existing best practices. I can assure you that your approach to change management is not unique and that someone already has experience with what you are trying to do. Use this experience to your advantage in order to create a bigger impact.

Spend less time on completing all sorts of templates and tools and more time on involving your end-users and listening to their questions. It is their opinion which matters the most and if they do not understand your transformational rationale, you are not likely to succeed.

Spend time on trying to identify other transformational programs with potential synergies to your program. Integration across transformational programs with the same end-users and project scope synergies create a much more holistic and cohesive end-user experience in the end.

PEX Network: What key developments do you see happening with regard to change management over the next couple of years?

DO: From an individual change practitioner perspective, my hope is that we will see more emphasis being put toward the human aspect of being a change manager and less on being a project resource which ensures that all the templates are completed with the right set of data.

A lot of the existing material is doing a great job of having the right focus. We need to ensure, however, that those responsible for driving change understand that true impact happens when you engage with end-users. This is not done by only making analysis based on stakeholder input and filling this into templates.

Change management is not an ivory tower exercise. It is hard work where you need to understand the waters you are swimming in and be able to adapt and adjust to those changing circumstances.

From an organizational perspective, my hope is that we start to see improvements in C-suite maturity and an understanding of the importance of having one common language and framework that grows in scale.

Too many organizations suffer from having a multitude of frameworks, tools and templates being used across the business by the same end-users. Very often they are the ones being asked to adopt and adjust to these.

We can succeed with our initiatives in a much larger scale if we start to mature a shared approach to change, which involves sponsors, middle managers, project managers and end users alike.

For further expert insights into the application of change management, register for PEX Live: Change Management and Culture Change for Business Transformation 2022.

Are you involving your end-users in your change management initiatives? Let us know how in the comments below.