Written by Samantha Hurley, APSCo UK Managing Director.
I recently chaired APSCo UK’s day long conference on transformation, where we heard from some great speakers, members and experts. We landed on this as a topic because so many of our members are dealing with some form of significant transformation in their business at the moment.
Whether that’s adopting automation or AI-based tools; diversifying into a new geography, service or sector; or cultural change following a restructure. We heard from some great speakers during the day, and members who were very open about their experiences and gave our audience some really valuable insights.
When I think back on the key themes, I feel myself coming over all “new Labour”…Data, Data, Data!
What came across loud and clear, and isn’t necessarily a total surprise, is that whatever change you are contemplating making in your business, it should always be underpinned by data. I know many of us will have used our “gut feel" in the past – and we will probably have got it right the majority of the time, but I have been convinced that in today’s marketplace – with the unique set of criteria we have to navigate – your gut alone is unlikely to cut it nowadays. Change must be based on the evidence of good quality data.
I wanted the day to yield some really useful, operationally-focused tasks and ideas for members to take back into their business. I often see companies stuck by the inertia of not knowing how to start, or what to tackle first – particularly when it comes to automation or AI-based projects. I have complete sympathy – tech-based projects don’t generally have a reputation for coming in on budget, on time and without glitches. Joanna Oakley, Change and Transformation Consultant at Argylestone Consulting, gave some excellent insights on how to approach change, sharing a 7 step framework to managing the process (really worth taking a look).
I took away from the day that the key aspects to successfully implementing change that won’t quietly fail, beyond data, are:
• Not taking on too much at once. Don’t look at the whole and try to fix everything – possibly start with a discreet project.
• “Don’t overlay AI on top of broken processes” - Stephen Day, Chief Procurement Officer at Kantar Research.
• Beware of scope creep – don’t aim for perfection, you won’t achieve it, and the project will never be delivered.
• Another nugget from Stephen – which really resonated with me – “if you buy off the shelf, adopt NOT adapt.”
• The importance of leadership, targeted communication, and a conduit for open, honest feedback.
Just taking that last point for a moment – because in our speakers’ experience this is the one that tends to get left til last and becomes an afterthought – who is leading and driving your change project?
Dependent upon the size of your business you may have a dedicated change manager, or senior techie who will drive the project. You may also have your early adopters picked out. But who is selling the dream to your people? Who is garnering enthusiasm and support for this exciting new initiative or direction? What place do your senior leaders/top management have in the process?
Well Nicola Cohen, Change Management Lead at The Change Gang had a lot to say on this topic. And, I think every other speaker echoed what she said. Leadership is absolutely key.
Actually now I think about it – that sentence is true in every scenario. Leadership is, of course, always key to any well-run business. But Nicola explained that it is surprising how often it seems to be the afterthought of a change project. Having a clear vision, and a compelling story – being able to share what success will look like – these are all important elements of lasting change that sit in the inbox of your senior leaders.
Another mantra – communication, communication, communication!
You can never (usually) over-communicate. But you must be honest and open. There is a very real pressure on leaders to always “know”. Everyone is looking at them to have the answers (fair enough, some might say). Sorry to hark back to ancient history, but I noticed particularly during Covid a shift in leadership styles.
It became much more acceptable to say “I don’t know but we’re doing everything we can to plan for the eventualities – and when I know, you’ll know”. Claire Hodson, Change Management Lead, CIPD was really clear how important she believes honest, straightforward communication is in any successful transformation project. The business won’t always get everything right – in fact you could argue that it’s important to innovate, which will inevitably lead to a level of failure – but a dearth of communication will lead to uncertainty, a lack of adoption, and possibly the quiet failure of the change.
Feedback was the other resounding theme that came through in all the sessions on the day.
I think all of our members discussed it – Stinus Andersen from Morson, Tracey O’Neill from The Satori Partnership, Ankur Anand from Harvey Nash, and Nick Bradley of Adepto Technical Recruitment. Find effective ways to gather feedback, listen to it, and in turn feedback actions or decisions taken in response.
From a recruitment standpoint, Marcus Sawyerr’s (CEO of EQ App) take on the AI evolution and the impact that is having on the labour market was incredibly interesting – and I think our members are already seeing some of the impacts he described.
Change is coming to how we recruit, we need to become less transactional and more consultative, understanding the issues facing our clients and coming up with innovative solutions. Whilst also harnessing automation and AI tools to feed the requirements of clients and candidates and allow recruiters to become more productive – a stat that surprisingly hasn’t changed much in the last 25 years.
I’m acutely aware this is turning into a novella, so I’m going to stop here, but will end with this; APSCo is going through its own changes at the moment, and I found this day enlightening, and I came away with some useful tips and strategies for our transformation.
If you’re an APSCo member and you didn’t make it on the day, you can still access the recording of the conference, which is available on-demand by session. I would urge you to take some time to review this, it won’t be wasted time.
If you’re not an APSCo member – well, a) why not, and b) the recording is free to members but non-members can access this for a fee – just contact membership@apsco.org.
Very few of us genuinely like change – I don’t tend to believe people when they say they do – but we can prepare for it – do the prep, ensure you know your story, get buy-in at the top and communicate and listen at all levels – and above all, don’t try to make it perfect.
Thank you to The Satori Partnership for sponsoring this event.