As change experts, we're often asked, "How do I help my leaders with this change?". This just might be one of our favorite questions because just by asking it we know that the asker:
So, here's what we usually share with them.
First stop, let's think about what a leader is. Every leader is two things at the same time:
Basically, learning how to use Microsoft Teams is different than learning how to lead Teams adoption, and our leaders need to do both.
Learning how to use Teams is different than learning how to lead Teams adoption.
As a project/IT/Digital transformation team, we need to address the distinct sides and needs of our leaders.
Organizational leader:
Our role here is twofold: ONE, it's to make it easy for org leaders to identify how technology can help their team(s) accomplish their goals. TWO, it's also to partner with them to drive the adoption of the right technologies. This is their fight too.
End user:
We must support every user's learning and change journey so that they can grow personally and exemplify the change.
Addressing each of these unique needs is critical and--although you can do them in parallel--it's important to be very purposeful in what you are trying to help your users do.
For example: It's common for IT teams to provide training for an executive and assume that they will tell everyone on their team to adopt this new way of working, only to be disappointed. In many cases, it's best to separate your efforts and spend dedicated time helping leaders understand the change and how to lead the change.
Specific mechanisms aside, here are some things we recommend you focus on to help your leaders through changes:
Organizational leader:
End user:
At BrainStorm, we have some great change management solutions to help build strong change leaders and create scalable change. If you'd like to check them out, schedule a demo.