Introducing a new team 🎉

We have introduced a new team in to Digital, Data and Technology. Driven by the desire to improve the people experience during technology projects. We are doing this by bringing together tech “know how” and change management to build a Change and Adoption team.

What is change and adoption and why is it important 🤔?

Change Management, I summarise, as being the people side of our projects. It’s making sure that when we transition to a new way of working or new technology, we do that in a way that is human, compassionate and supportive. There are many, many, theories which support the practice of change, but at the centre of all of it is people. Humans, by design, don’t automatically always like change. It’s not the way our brains are wired so what might come over as “resistance” is actually just a change that needs to be managed.

The challenge we have had in the past was that there were a large number of DDaT projects, but very little, if any, change management supporting them. Technology projects are disruptive for our people and can cause a lot of stress… we needed to do something to improve it. That is not to say that our Project Managers aren’t wonderful at what they do, because they are, but they have different objectives and therein lies the healthy tension between project managers and change managers.

But, don’t we have other change teams?

Yes, we do. We have wonderful colleagues in the people experience team who do a fantastic job on programmes such as Fit for the Future. Our change team is slightly different because although we use similar approaches, we will blend that with a knowledge and understanding of our technologies and focus on how we ensure adoption of new tech. Thomas Adamski (Senior Change Manager) and I will be working closely together to make sure the teams can share knowledge and best practice create a real community. The other team to flag as being different is our service delivery colleagues who manage IT changes. This is a different type of change management and not to be confused with “business” change management which is what we will be doing.

Given the volume of change that exists in the world you really can’t have too many people who are skilled and experienced in managing it.

Any questions please do post in the comments or message me on LinkedIn 😊