9 steps to stakeholder and user engagement in technology enabled business transformations

It is always the endeavor of business leaders to harness maximum benefit out of any technology-enabled business transformation. While robust design, development and testing capabilities are the basic requirements, it is equally important for an organization to have 'stakeholder and user engagement strategy' in place for better alignment of stakeholders to the program objectives as this is a strong enabler of benefit realization.

How do we enable the same? Here are the tested organization change management strategies to be followed for effective stakeholder and user engagemen

Stakeholder identification & engagement strategy
- A strategy to define end-to-end user engagement methodology including different modes and channels of engagement is essential. Stakeholder analysis and identification of the right impacted users or user groups are the success indicators for any stakeholder engagement
Engage from the start
- Once the impacted users or user groups are identified in the preparation phase, the next step is to have a first time engagement with the users with the teaser communication about the objective of the business transformation program.
User awareness
- Awareness about the change, about the business benefits from the transformation program, how it will impact the people, processes, policies and technology are some of the main attributes that needs to be covered as part of user awareness. User awareness channels should be clearly defined and agreed with the client stakeholders.
Change impact analysis
- The Impact of the change due to the transformation needs to be analyzed with inputs from program stakeholders and requirement gathering documentation. Once the process, people, policy and system changes are identified, mitigation actions should be categorized under training and communication.
Communication
- Communication is the bread and butter of any transformation success. Multi-channel communication should be enabled from the start to go-live and post-go-live stages.
Resistance management
- Resistance management is an art! When good vision and leadership directs a change, resistance reduces. Organization dynamics, the impact on users, and users' response to surveys and feedback should be considered while managing resistance.
Change management network deployment
- Building and deploying an effective Change Ambassador and extended Change Network is the silver bullet for any transformation. The change network will effectively spread the awareness and communication across the departments. This will ensure the communication regarding change benefits are distributed directly from the stakeholders to their teams. This is the most effective way of engagement.
Training
- Train-the-trainer approach, super-user-to-end-user training approach are certain critical approaches to be taken for any larger user base training. Apt training material development is as important in the whole process of training as the accuracy of training, training simulators, quick reference guides, etc.
Reinforcement
User awareness created in the start needs to last till the end and this can be made possible with regular reinforcement efforts such as, multi-channel, multi-interval communications and user surveys to assess the level of awareness.

What are your thoughts on effective stakeholder/business user engagement? How did you manage stakeholder engagement in any of the business transformations that you were involved? Please share your thoughts and insights.

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9 steps to stakeholder and

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