Our last article discussed how to conduct effective stakeholder interviews for the purpose of developing your organizational change strategy. This week we address a second important method of gathering qualitative data from stakeholders: focus groups. Focus groups are an interactive way to get cross-functional perspectives on a single issue and can prove very helpful during […]
Interviewing stakeholders, along with focus groups and surveys, is one of the primary methods of gathering qualitative data. Insights gleaned from stakeholder interviews provide the basis for stakeholder analysis and prioritization and serve as a critical step in formulating an effective organizational change strategy. Stakeholder interviews done well yield many benefits: Correct structures, processes, and […]
When companies choose to deploy new software to end-users across the enterprise, they are looking to either enhance business performance or minimize IT costs. These goals are often broken down into more discrete objectives such as increasing employee productivity, providing new capabilities, streamlining processes, reducing service desk calls, and so forth. Regardless of whether the […]
One of the best strategies for gaining buy-in and support for your business initiative is through stakeholder engagement. By “engagement” we mean not only communications, but active involvement of the people who have a vested interest in the outcome of the initiative. Bear in mind, it is human nature for us to resist change when […]
In our previous article, How to Prioritize Stakeholders to Ensure a Successful Change Program, we introduced the Stakeholder Prioritization Map. Now we will explain how to translate that stakeholder prioritization analysis into stakeholder engagement strategies. As a reminder, stakeholders are individuals or groups who either will be impacted by changes resulting from the business initiative, […]
Stakeholder prioritization is one of the fundamental building blocks to a successful organizational change strategy. Too often, though, project teams get the stakeholder prioritization step wrong. Two of the most common stakeholder prioritization pitfalls are Prioritizing stakeholders based on the wrong assessment criteria Prioritizing stakeholders based upon input from too few people To clarify, in […]
Stakeholder resistance, if it gains a foothold on a large scale, can threaten to derail even the most positive change effort. There are four primary reasons1 that people resist change. Once you know what types to look for, you will be better equipped to spot change resistance in your organization. After you have identified the […]
Our previous post highlighted how companies under-invest in organizational change management when it comes to system implementations. Many excellent IT system implementations never realize the long-term benefits they set out to achieve because companies focus disproportionately on the structure and technical aspects of the IT program itself, and not on engaging employees in the process […]
Jesse Jacoby
