ECM Clients

The following are examples of ECM's experience:

A sales organization decided to redirect its sales force to a different market segment. Leadership was concerned about the potential resistance from (and turnover of) the sales force and its management, especially after some recent hard times. We provided basic change management awareness and observed the resistance during the various launch meetings with the country managers, sales managers and district managers. We analyzed the findings and helped the client plan the next phase. With our help, they understood that the reps were concerned about learning new skills to penetrate the new clients; they were concerned that their current collateral material was inappropriate for this market segment, and they were most concerned about their earnings during the transition. They discovered that the sales force was not the only group of people who would have to make changes. This change meant that marketing would need to develop the new communication materials, HR would need to be involved in some special incentives, training would need to be provided for the new skills, and the sales force was augmented by telemarketing to get appointments during this transition. All of the above needed to be integrated into a seamless plan.

In preparation for the Year 2000, a 14,000-employee organization, was about to make changes to every electronic device across the enterprise. The leader envisioned a web portal as a means of collecting and reporting status, risk and progress across the entire company. We were charged with gaining acceptance and compliance of every director in the company. We organized meetings to explain to them why we needed this portal, what it was intended to do and how we planned to implement it. We gathered their concerns and needs, and turned them from rejection to excitement and reached the 100% utilization goal.

The supply chain functions of a large firm, were in the process of replacing several disparate systems for ordering materials and managing its work-in-process with one system. Their most significant challenge was getting all of the management for the procurement, materials management, order management, shipping, development, manufacturing and sales “on the same page” regarding the change, including the scope, the change and their roles. They came to understand that they needed to work from the top of the organization down to obtain this alignment and to ensure good sponsorship.

The internal auditors of this same firm wanted its auditors to identify deficiencies in the change management practices in its audits of ongoing projects. We developed a checklist and provided awareness sessions for the auditors. The auditors were put in the position of identifying the risks, pointing to specific gaps in the projects and making recommendations to ensure successful adoption and sustainment of the changes.

The executives of this distribution company were in the process of revising its shipping schedule from a five-day-a-week schedule to a seven-day schedule to improve product quality, customer satisfaction, lead times and level its costs. We worked with the top levels of the organization to understand the change, identify all of the employees who would need to change, determine why they might resist and begin to plan how we would communicate and provide consequences for this change.

The research and development division of a world wide company had a history of management changes and changes in strategies and priorities, and was “change weary.” We helped them understand the importance of having a “line of sight” from the individual to the organizational strategies and goals. Where there was no linkage, those changes needed to be stopped. The management team needed to agree to the most important changes and come together as a team, in their meetings and in their daily work.

The IT group of a financial services company needed to make a major investment in separating its operations from its development and testing environments. We began to form a team to work through the change, and many reported that due to the history and culture of their organization, they could not join the team until the senior management was totally supportive of the change and their roles. In just three days we had the senior leaders, who “never reached consensus,” agreeing to the vision, scope, justification and roles for the change. Governance had been a large problem for this organization, but we taught them over the next several engagements how to establish it up front, and to manage this change throughout the change.

As an example of an enterprise-wide application, this company wanted to create a center of competency for change management, but came to understand that all levels of management have a responsibility in sponsoring their changes. After coaching the center of competency people, in this case the Six Sigma Black Belts, we created and delivered a program so all of the managers would understand the relationship of change management to their employee and customer satisfaction and their profitability. They began to understand their own performance (the why), what change management is (the what), and their roles (the how) in making effective changes within their departments and across the organization.