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Applying Change Management to Drive Successful and Lasting Change in Your Transportation Organization

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Change is constant; just look at our lives in 2020. We had to change the way we live, learn and work. 

Like many industries, the transportation industry is changing, and technology enables changes in how we handle everything throughout the supply chain. Whether you are implementing new software or completely changing organizational structure, there are proven successful tools that can equip your team to embrace change and sustain your changes well into the future.  

In a presentation at the 2020 in.sight user conference + expo, Project Manager Laura Long, Professional Services, walked attendees through available and proven models for managing transportation and logistics. Working with an internal Trimble Project Management Office, Long and team utilize change management methodology to pursue success with company changes, namely Organizational Change Management through the use of a method called the ADKAR model.

 

Organizational Change Management 

The Organizational Change Management (OCM) method is a proven groundbreaking methodology created by Prosci®, that provides process, tools and techniques to manage the “people” side of change. According to independent research, organizations using OCM are six times more successful on meeting objectives, five times more likely to stay on schedule and two times more likely to stay on budget. 

The Prosci Project Change Triangle focuses on three elements to ensure that projects meet objectives, finish on time and on budget, and return on investment (ROI) is realized. These elements include: 

  • Leadership/Sponsorship – provides guidance and governance. 

  • Project Management – gives structure to the technical side of the change.

  • Change Management – how we take people from current to transition to future state. 

 

 

It’s vital to not only have support, but also active and visible participation, from leadership while building an alliance with peers and managers when implementing change to help with credibility and endorsement.

Many organizations are familiar with project management; however, change management is a newer term and there are key differences between the two. Project management involves design, development and delivery on the technical side, whereas change management focuses on embracing, adopting and implementing on the people side. When these two methods work together, they produce successful results.

Without OCM, it’s easy to stray from the path, which can cause extended schedules, experience low adoption rates and general confusion among the team when implementing new procedures.

 

ADKAR

A large part of change management is utilizing the ADKAR model.  ADKAR is an acronym that stands for building awareness, desire, knowledge, ability and reinforcement. With this model, it’s imperative to work through the steps in order when presenting change:  

  • Awareness is step number one.  Building awareness of the need for change by making sure there is an understanding that change is coming and why. Provide support and reasoning for the change, and most importantly, why the change is needed.  

  • Desire is built on an individual level from the employee’s perspective. In this step, we help every individual in the organization understand - Why would I want to do things differently when they seem to be working just fine as it is? What is it going to mean for me? 

  • Knowledge building includes training and coaching, and helping the team understand how to do the new job you are asking them to do.  Building knowledge through providing detailed information on how to use new processes, systems and tools as well as understanding of the new roles and responsibilities associated with the change. 

  • Ability is the fourth element of ADKAR and represents the demonstrated capability to implement the change and achieve the desired performance level. In the Ability step, we ensure that the knowledge is being absorbed and demonstrated.  If knowledge is not demonstrated, what do we need to get there? Does additional coaching and training need to take place? 

  • Reinforcement is the empowerment of others to be leaders. In this step, we provide resources and accountability processes to help reinforce the change.  

 

The bottom line is that change is never easy. However, there are tools and processes like OCM and ADKAR in place that can minimize the struggle, address individuals’ change needs and promote individual purpose.  

 

A Grand Slam for Change Management

To put this in perspective and give an example of how change management can work successfully, let’s look at the movie Moneyball, starring Brad Pitt. It is the true story of the Oakland A’s 2002 season and a real-life study of change management. 

General Manager Billy Beane took on major opposition as he changed the process to develop new metrics that were completely different from how Major League Baseball (MLB) had been doing it for 100 years. He faced significant obstacles, but his leadership and subsequent success taught us so much about change management. 

Beane acted as a project sponsor would - he was present throughout the process, visibly having tough conversations. He coached other leadership team members to be part of the change. Beane was constantly checking in, especially during pivotal moments, and he found a way to empower key disruptors to convey the same message to their peers.

What Moneyball and Billy Beane demonstrate is exactly what OCM and ADKAR teaches us. He talked to his players to effectively communicate, not only to discuss the plan for change, but why it needed to happen, and he repeated it as often as necessary. As a result, Beane changed the way baseball operates. It was not easy, but years later, the MLB continues to use the model he developed.

 

Helping Maximize Your Change Management with Trimble

When you are ready to change your game, using proven change management models makes a difference in addressing potential issues before they become a problem -- making change much easier for everyone in your organization.  

Contact us today to find out how Trimble is not only helping transportation companies implement technology but empowering them to utilize change management strategies to enable these solutions to make a real impact on the productivity of their operations, people and processes.