How to Manage the Era of Hyper-Change

The world is changing and enterprises are evolving. However, the challenge is how this pace of change can be controlled, which changes enormously and quickly.
As we consider the answers to these unpredictable questions, we thought we would interview Brian Nolf and Scott Sheinbaum from Wipro on How to manage the Era of Hyper-Change, together with Paul Toffis from Whatfix.

The Pandemic Era

The epidemic really drove change and required organizations to adjust extremely quickly. The change was not slowed down by the pandemic. And I think one of the interesting things about it is that, you know, most of the organizations I spoke with talked about how they’ve been successful in making this change; most businesses have continued to run while also managing to transition to this new mode of working. However, I believe that if you reflect on the pandemic, and, you know, everyone is viewing it through a different lens, and if you view it there is the physical environment where people weren’t able to work from home, such as in factories and, you know, other places. Then there is the office setting, where we were able to do it because we had access to technology. What may have happened if the pandemic had occurred twenty years earlier? Correct, how would the globe have altered and adapted at that time if we hadn’t developed the communications and networking technologies of today? It’s fascinating to consider that, and I have a feeling that we would have adapted and done something very similar because humans are very resilient.

Roadblocks for Hyper Change

Right, guided adoption and helping people understand their actions and how those things might play out in a programme are two things that digital adoption solutions really helps with. I believe that effective communication is the cornerstone. Being open and honest with others, telling them what you know and what you don’t. Regarding communications, I believe that the more engaged you are in dialogue with staff members and fellow workers, the more effective the organisation will be. I think that’s extremely important and what, you know, some organizations—typically, corporate organizations—are not recognised for doing. Everyone aspires to have an Amazon-like experience, but corporate red tape makes that impossible. Therefore, I believe, and this is the reason why I believe, that change and employee experience are really, you know, merging into one, and change is all about improving that. Experience is not, you know, the old saying that, you know, it doesn’t matter how bad it is; the role of the Change Manager is to make people accept it, right. However, the primary responsibility of a change manager is to ensure that the change is as simple and effective as possible. Some of these roadblocks of change being involved right at the end, rather than the beginning. Build change into the process, rather than kind of at the end.

Are Organisations better equipped to manage change?

Organizations adjusted quite well; everyone adjusted. However, those that, you know, had strong business continuity plans in place, had change management as part of those plans, and had actual change capabilities within their organisations were able to embrace and sustain the change more quickly. Consequently, I believe that organisations will begin to see the need for this talent, change capability established within an organisation, and it will become a fundamental competence. Change is only going to speed up, right, as we move into a period of great economic uncertainty and a period of, you know, much greater attention to climate change and all the changes that it will bring. As a result, change is only going to speed up, on top of all the technological changes that are still only beginning to affect us (5g, you know, cloud, really, you know, we’re at the tip of the iceberg).

Innovations to expect from the future?

The basics of change, in my opinion, are still applicable. Stakeholder management, impact assessment, business readiness, and leadership alignment are all incredibly vital and will continue to be so, just as most other things that have altered still have some fundamental components. So, in my opinion, that’s really, really important. However, a change management must evolve in order to remain relevant. I still speak with a lot of change professionals that, you know, open a spreadsheet to complete the majority of their tasks and replicate the data each time they work on a project in our application without having the background knowledge or actual insight. It’s going to be a significant transformation when everything from the point of need to the point of usage is integrated into digital adoption platforms. And you’re going to see, I hope a lot more organisations pick that up and shift it away from just being application focused, but being almost, you know, employee centric, so the employee lifecycle and drive that However, I believe that data and insight are vital to everything. Obtaining this knowledge in real time will enable you to predict what you must do to comprehend your stakeholders as you move from programme to programme. Therefore, I believe that change will soon begin to manifest.

The most fundamental change and having that data in a repository that isn’t discarded at the conclusion of each change programme are complementary. And with the frequency of change increasing, it’s, it’s going to be much more critical to have that knowledge constantly, in my opinion. If we do that, I believe it will help organisations shift much more successfully over time. Therefore, if we can overcome the Data Challenge, in my opinion, we’ll see a significant increase in the effectiveness of change. But the fundamentals remain the same at their core.

Brian Nolf

Brian has been the Global Lead for Wipro’s talent & change Consulting practice. With more than 30 years of experience, Brian has been working with and advising clients on Technology and Digital Transformations with a particular focus on how to prepare the organisation to adapt to change and enable better business outcomes successfully