The Commitment Curve
Your new ERP system will streamline and revolutionize your business processes, provide real time information updates and save everyone time and energy. This sounds like an easy sell until you factor in the humans, and our inherent resistance to the new way of doing things.
ERP change presents businesses with the challenge of a complete re-gear that requires the commitment of every member of your organization. Change strategy and cohesive buy-in is no accident. This is the first in a series of posts that outline the factors that drive the success of major technology change.
Time is on your side
Enough time must be scheduled to provide room to process and understand the change, if leaders and employees feel rushed at any stage, they will feel uneasy and unprepared to move forward. Your change communications plan is a key to keeping the momentum from start to finish.
Awareness: Advance notice that a change will be happening will help dispel the potency of the rumour mill. The information comes from your leaders, and nobody feels left in the dark.
General Understanding: Rolling out information about your ERP product in bite size pieces will provide employees the ability to accurately picture what the end result will look like. Resist the temptation to wait until the entire picture is perfectly clear before sharing information – an initially hazy picture still allows employees to feel connected and confident that clarity will come.
Personal Understanding: Once they have an idea of what exactly they will be working with, you need to help your employees make a personal connection to the new system. Role based benefits should be highlighted, as well as other advantages such as access to information that they haven’t had before.
Acceptance: Your leaders and change agents will assist your organization in championing the change, and leverage their knowledge to answer any questions that come up.
Adoption: Knowledge transfer and training ensure that the users understand the ERP, and are able to complete tasks without workarounds, enabling the software to work effectively. You are all in this together.
Ownership: Celebrate! Your employee and leader commitment and engagement has driven the success of this project. The ERP belongs to them now, and you will proceed into the future with the confidence required to make it work.
