The Human Factor

Imagine you're throwing a surprise party for a close friend. You’ve got the perfect venue, an awesome guest list, delicious food, and amazing decor. Everything seems set for the big reveal, but you forgot one crucial element: telling the guests what to do when they arrive. As the party starts, many cars are parked outside and guests are wandering around confused, unsure of where to gather or what to do. When the guest of honor arrives and sees the party in full swing, the surprise is ruined, and your meticulously planned event turns is not what you expected.

This is exactly what happens when a company undergoes a significant transformation, like implementing a new enterprise-wide system, undergoing a merger or acquisition, launching a big culture-building initiative, or even relocating offices—without considering the "people impact."

My first transformation experience was during an office relocation project. We had the perfect new office space, state-of-the-art equipment, and a seamless moving plan. However, our leaders overlooked the most important aspect: how we, employees, would feel about the change. Chaos ensued as we all struggled to find our way in the new space—especially those who went from private offices to cubicles in an open-plan environment. Morale dipped, people were frustrated, and several leaders left. That's when it hit me: without addressing the human side of change, even the best-laid plans can fall apart. Effective change management, with a focus on people, ensures that transitions are smooth, and everyone is on board and ready to embrace the new direction.

I saw this same type of confusion during my first Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) implementation. The day I joined this project, I immediately saw a lot of opportunity for improvement. A friend at this organization attended a one-day, in-person training session and learned that this system was basically taking away most of her job. No one had informed her or her colleagues beforehand that significant changes to their team would happen once this system was implemented. Only in the class did they hear that the system would be doing more than 50% of their current roles. As you can imagine, employees were angry, scared and looking for answers. And the instructor was not aware of how significantly this tool was impacting the group nor what the future plans were for them. It was a nightmare for everyone!

These experiences illustrate the critical importance of organizational change management and paying attention to the all-important people aspect during transformation projects.

In business, the only constant is change, right? And to stay competitive your business must always be evolving. But with this said, leaders shouldn’t make significant changes without involving and supporting your employees throughout this journey.

Implementing any enterprise-wide system is a complex task that often encounters many types of issues, including various "people-driven" issues. These “people” issues occur because we are human, and we think and feel lots of things – real and perceived. Here are some common people-driven issues that can create barriers to success for your enterprise-wide system implementations and how to avoid them:

1. Resistance to Change

Resistance is the most common response to change.

Imagine you've been driving the same route to work for years. You know every twist, turn, and pothole. Then, one day, the city announces a major construction project that forces you to take a completely different route. Now, you’re navigating unfamiliar streets, dealing with unexpected traffic, and maybe even getting lost.

We’re all comfortable in our routines - even if they’re not perfect. They’re familiar and require less mental effort than trying something new. Now, imagine how you would feel if someone told you the way you work is going to change. Even if you’re excited for change and you know you need to streamline, modernize, become more efficient, you don’t know if the change is going to be the change you want and how it’s going to impact your role or your team. Resistance can stem from fear of the unknown, discomfort with new technology, or concern about job security.

For many employees (especially those less comfortable with technology) who are accustomed to their existing systems, they may exhibit reluctance to adapt to the new system, fearing it might increase their workload, expose gaps in their skills, or eliminate their job all together - all valid concerns.

So, while the initial resistance to change is natural and common, it's important to remember that just like adapting to a new route to work, with patience and an open mind, we can navigate through the discomfort and over time, find ourselves in a better place.

The Solution: Implement a comprehensive and effective change management program from the outset. Include clear communication about the benefits of the new ways of working, the changes that are happening by stakeholder group, and a timeline. Offer robust training and practice time and involve employees early and often in the decision-making process.

2. Lack of User Involvement

Insufficient involvement with employees of all levels during the tool selection and implementation phases can lead to a mismatch between the system capabilities and user requirements. If the system is chosen without considering the input of those who will use it daily, it may not meet their needs, leading to poor adoption and ineffective use. This is especially important when you have a regional/global organization where the same functional teams may use diverse processes and policies to operate. Also, often senior leaders do not use these tools on a day-to-day basis, so they are not the ones to include in design or process workshops since they don’t have the best insight into the daily needs and activities of the front-line staff.

The Solution: Be very deliberate about who is involved in design workshops up front. Involve users from various departments early in the project to gather their input and ensure the future state will incorporate all unique requirements and the tool will integrate with continuing legacy systems.

It’s important to incorporate all requirements during design, up front, as it becomes very complicated to have to reconfigure a system based on specific requirements and regulations that were missed halfway through implementation. (I’m looking at you “construction company X” with the customized tool when you “forgot” that team of 150 employees who work with a subset of your customer-base that requires very specific data to process claims. Yikes! That was messy. It set you back months, an extra million dollars and caused several top employees to leave.)

3. Inadequate Training

Without proper training, employees will struggle to use the new system effectively, leading to errors, frustration, and decreased productivity. Training is far more than a classroom session. Optimally, there are pre-training activities and exposure to the new system, a comprehensive program with hands on training (as appropriate) using all types of learning solutions. And then an ongoing practice period, post-training prior to implementation, as well as support sessions after go live.

The Solution: Provide extensive, role-based training and ongoing support, using multiple modalities, to ensure employees are comfortable and proficient with the new system. Monitor usage, post implementation, to see where and how people are struggling and how support can be provided to optimize the new ways of working

4. Poor Communication

A lack of clear, consistent communication can lead to misunderstandings, misinformation, and a lack of alignment across the organization. This also creates a huge amount of mistrust and resistance to change. If there is not “official” communication about the project the water cooler communication takes over and that is never a good thing.

The Solution: Establish a robust communication plan that includes regular updates on benefits, timelines, milestones, successes and opportunities for improvement with solutions. Offer feedback loops and opportunities for employees to ask questions and express concerns. Create a change network across all business units to offer two way timely and accurate communication channels.

5. Top-Down Decision Making

When decisions about transformation are made solely by top management without input from employees at other levels, it can lead to a lack of buy-in and support from the broader organization. Additionally, many leaders don’t know what front-line workers actually do (and how they do it) on a day-to-day basis. Executives might select a new system based on high-level features and cost, without considering how it will impact daily operations at the ground level, global requirements and legacy systems.

The Solution: Adopt a collaborative approach that includes input from employees at all levels to ensure the system meets the needs of the entire organization. Show the evolving solution often and early and listen to the people who you asked to provide input. You hired them for a reason, let them show off their their knowledge and expertise to help the project be a success.

6. Inconsistent Leadership Support

Without strong, consistent support from leaders, enterprise-wide system projects can lose momentum and fail to achieve their benefits and objectives. Leaders must be visibly committed to the project, they need to walk the walk and not just talk the talk, otherwise employees might not take the implementation seriously, leading to half-hearted efforts and poor outcomes. There are always competing priorities and leaders need to stand in firm commitment to supporting these large projects and providing the resources that were promised and required.

The Solution: Ensure that leaders are actively involved in the project, demonstrate their commitment, and provide the necessary resources and support to drive the implementation forward. Create opportunities for leaders to speak regularly about the status, benefits, and priority of the project. And have them “walk the walk” when resources are getting tight or the project team needs more help. Provide training on “leading through change” If a leader has not experienced this before, s/he may be unaware of what needs to be done at each step in the journey. Without their full support, the project will fail.

7. Lack of Clear Objectives and Benefits

Without clearly defining SMART objectives and benefits there is no consistent understanding whether or not the outcomes have been achieved. What does success look like if there is not a specific target we are all tying to hit. An enterprise-wide system implementation launched without clearly defined goals might result in confusion about priorities and a lack of focus on critical areas.

Recently I was invited to consult on an SAP upgrade project that had been in existence for almost a year. When I asked to see the business case, I was told there was not one. This massive project (projected to last 3 years and costing over $40 million) was being completed because their current version of SAP would no longer be supported as of 2025. Yes, that’s a good starting rationale for initiating a massive upgrade, but you need far more than that reason to put all your employees this turmoil and with SAP S/4 HANA there are many significant benefits that organizations are experiencing across all functional areas. These need to be clearly shared and SMART objectives and benefits identified.

The Solution: Develop a strong business case at the outset and set specific, measurable objectives for the project’s success. Communicate these goals to all stakeholders throughout the journey to ensure everyone is aligned and working towards the same outcomes. Its very easy to forget what we’re working towards when mired in all the issues. Remind everyone what the end game is and the positive impact the new way of working will have for the individual employees, teams and business.

Addressing these people-driven issues requires careful planning, clear communication, and active involvement from all levels of the organization. By recognizing and proactively managing these challenges, businesses can increase the likelihood of a successful enterprise-wide system implementation, leading to improved efficiency, better decision-making, and enhanced overall performance.

It's not just about the technical, logistical, or operational details; it's about understanding and managing the human reactions and emotions that accompany change. By focusing equally on people, leaders can ensure a smoother transition, maintain morale, and achieve successful outcomes for their transformation initiatives.