Transformation starts with a compelling business case about why your firm needs to fundamentally change the way your team works, the mindset your team has about the work they do, and finally the way your firm delivers value to your clients.
It is incumbent upon us as professionals to be agile and have the ability to quickly pivot, implementing new ideas, and methodically enabling your firm to be a champion of transformative change into the future. The opposite of this is to try to resist the changing environments we have no control over, which will result in a death sentence for firms.
Like all change projects, success rates are low for firms trying to create major change. This is startling, but there are some common themes about these failures that all center around leadership and change management. A lack of commitment often leads to poor planning, limited buy-in from “doers,” and ultimately a poor change process. The firm’s leadership should create an environment for a successful change by providing strong communication, commitment, and confidence to internal and external users.
For change management to work successfully, the following factors have to be in place:
- Leadership. Leadership needs to clarify and cast a vision for the change and then set clear and objective goals, specific timelines, and a framework to track progress, and then celebrate goals that are achieved throughout the change project.
- Communication. Connection and awareness of the project with your team is crucial to the success of the change. Clear, complete communication and timely feedback all through the implementation period is very critical with both internal and external users.
- Engagement. Employees and clients should be actively engaged in the “what” and the “how” of the change, with each person taking a clearly defined and accountable role.
- Project management. A solid project management program must be communicated through and managed by dedicated resource(s) from the inception of the project to transition.
- Education. Education must be an integral part of the change program so that those implementing the change and those who are the end-users are aware of how the processes are changing and are equipped and empowered to make the change a success
- Capital budget. Plan and dedicate some defined capital for change management. A small investment now will reap much larger rewards in the future according to the law of the harvest.
Change implementation
Successful implementation of change starts with the appointment of a change manager, whose purpose is to deliver results that result in a transformation of what we are wanting to accomplish. The need for appointing a dedicated (part-time or full-time) manager to lead the change is very important even for single practitioners and very small firms.
Almost every firm is faced with the same challenge that their existing team members are already at capacity and preoccupied with the current state of affairs and sometimes lack the skill and experience to manage change. The change manager’s role is similar to a CEO, which means that they have been equipped and empowered with the resources and tools necessary to effectively implement the change for the change management project.
Successful implementation of change must also have a defined scope and a defined approach of implementation. You can approach this in a number of different ways, including tackling the change in little bite-sized increments, but you need to have an overarching big picture of the scope of the project at all times. Having a big picture with the full scope of the change allows you to systematically decide how all the little pieces of the puzzle fit together.
Once you have a change manager and a defined scope and approach, assemble a written plan to comprehensively cover your change into a detailed plan. Below is a list of some of the issues you’ll want to cover:
- Function to change. For instance, onboarding, client master data, internal communication, client collaboration, information storage & access, task management, workflow, people assignments, time management, billing & collection, performance measure & firm metrics, etc.
- Current state. Outline a detailed explanation of how you are managing the functions in the current state.
- Future state. Explain in detail the future state of the function to be changed.
- Tech stack options. List out the technology solution options with the pros and cons of each option and make the decision based on a scoring mechanism for your needs.
- Cost/budget. Put into writing the cost of the tech stack for the process change, including the labor involved in the change management — include the up-front capital and the ongoing costs.
- Tasks — change management. Create a detailed list of tasks to manage the change, who the impacted parties are for each task (including internal team members and external client users), and the process of educating the necessary people, etc.
- Planned deadline. Create milestones throughout the change with planned due dates and reminders to impacted individuals with an expected completed deadline for the complete project.
Conclusion
It is a good idea to start the change process with your team first, then move into defining your operations, next defining the services offered, and then choosing your tech stack and delivery method, but in an integrated fashion. The goal is to change the way your firm operates, communicates, and manages workload with appropriate controls. The goal is to transform into a lean, automated, and streamlined “modern firm” using the best of the tech stack available.
Remember that change is inevitable and the profession in its current form is at risk unless we disrupt ourselves first. Don’t push off the inevitable by resisting the change that is already happening. Don’t be hesitant to ask for help from others who have successfully implemented change and are now thriving.
This is the second part of a two-part series on “The keys to driving through change.” Part One, on the major changes impacting the profession, appeared earlier this week.
