Maximizing PCG Involvement in Change Management

There is a great deal of planning to occur in the project and it is reasonable that PCG members want to ensure that the business is going to get the support they need during this time, and that the changes aren’t detrimental to the organisation, their customers and employees.  It is expected that the PCG members are in the game to help move the workplace towards the new ways of working to achieve the strategic goals and aspirations agreed.  Sometimes it is also a good thing to have a Leader that isn’t supportive of the new ways of working on the PCG so that this person can be seen as a converter and others will follow.

Let's take a look!

Learn the Best Language to Engage With Staff

The PCG needs to learn some new language. The language of diagnostics, manifestos, experiential learnings and other industry words can cause anxiety in employees and project teams. The PCG will get confused if they don’t understand the basic words that will be used throughout the accommodation program. It’s not imperative, but helpful, so they should do some research on what workplace language is today. It is helpful if the PCG are using the same language that the Project and Design teams are using when talking to their general managers, team leaders and employees. It is super important that if the project team are calling the space 'activity based working', that the PCG aren't calling it something else. 

 

Substantiating Who Has Been Enlisted in the Change Programme

The PCG need to know team breakdowns and departmental forecasts. They may have a view on who gets interviewed and what leaders should be involved in the project to help champion the cause of the project objectives with their teams.

 

PCG to Agree to Nomination Callout to Business Units

There is a requirement for strong change leadership across the whole business to make the move to the new premises successful. The PCG need to ratify or agree on how the business selects Strategic Business Leads and Change Leads (also known as Tactical Leads or Change Champs)  

The Project Team will seek input from the PCG on the approach to connect/align with Business Unit General Managers and also establish an appropriate network within their business unit to assess impacts, define and capture requirements and recommend treatment plans accordingly.

The PCG needs to provide a strong demonstration of leading this callout as the cultural change piece will need to be led strongly by this cohort.  If the business does not know the PCG supports nominations of business units, there may be an underlying resistance to the project.  The PCG should support the messaging to their own teams by stating the Purpose of the project.  i.e.   Stating that the organisations workplace project (call it by name) is gaining momentum and it is now time to get our key leaders involved in preparing our teams for transition to the new premise and embracing our new ABW/Flexible or agile working principles.

 

What Change Success Does and Doesn’t Look Like

The PCG want to know from the Change Manager what the project expects from their experience and expertise. The PCG wants to know what they should be looking out for and what success will look like (cliche but it's well received).   The absence of a successful change program could lead to…

New ways of working not being adopted once people move to the new office. 

This behavioural unreadiness may include: 

Ø  Physical spaces - not used correctly or optimally

Ø  Technology - hardware, systems, processes – not used correctly or optimally

Ø  Mindset - people not open to opportunities for increased collaboration and productivity

Ø  Employee disengagement – unmanaged and unmet expectations; promises not delivered

Ø  Employees may revert to old (non-agile) ways of working, undermining the investment in the new work space

 

Feel for the Range of Working Capabilities of Teams

The PCG should understand that there are exercises being undertaken by the Project Team to identify risks.  These risks may be collated from employee input from surveys or emails, or through the diagnostic questioning by the Change Manager during Leader interviews and Change Champion One on Ones where a range of questions about how they and their teams are currently working and how they may work in the future with the range of workplace capabilities being offered.

This is not something the PCG will follow closely, but they need to know that the business is being addressed and that the PWG is proactive so a checkin every so often on how the engagement exercises are going is prudent.

 

Communication Approach

The PCG will want to know the Communications Program and engagement of the business is going to occur. The Project Team should present to the PCG the possible topics of focus to progressively address over the coming months leading up to the relocation. They may include:

Ø  The Why, What and How of the workplace?

Ø  The Health and Wellness of the new workplace, including ‘hot-topics’ of concern, ie car parking, childcare, end of trip.

Ø  The collaboration tools and technology within the new workplace.

Ø  The building and nearby facilities to the building.

Ø  The site readiness activities, such as: relocation logistics and packing, site training, fire wardens.

 

What the PCG Want To See Before Sign off on the Change & Comms Strategy

The PCG or their representative that is designated to sign off on the Change and Comms Strategy will want to see:

Ø  A very high level approach

Ø  What has worked and not worked in other jobs

Ø  A detailed plan including the role of the PCG and other leaders

 

Endorsing the Pack To Share With the General Managers and Other Leaders

If you are that same sponsor that is identified in the PCG for Business Readiness, you may want to review the pack that the Project Team intend to send to the Leaders. This pack should not be large or complex and should suggest that more information will be forthcoming.  The PCG know the information their general managers and team leaders need to know, so make sure that the project team doesn’t overload the message at the beginning or before the PCG in their BAU roles have time to talk to their people about the project and the impacts.

Only once the Change & Communications Strategy has been signed off by the PCG will they want their general managers and other leaders taken across the approach to be followed, including the highlights of what has been undertaken, and future state activities that will be undertaken with them and with the leadership team. This should include the approach to employee engagement and frequency of how often the project team and accommodation change programme touches the business including what is off limits.

 

Things discussed in the Planning Phase

What are the things that the PCG will hear about, be involved in, directly make decisions for, and may just provide input to during the Planning phase of the project? These things are in no particular order and are not exhaustive, there’s loads more things that may pop up but these are the regular things the PCG will have sight of or oversight for.

Planning phase:

Ø  Change Champion Packs and communication approach

Ø  Strategic Leaders Packs and communication approach

Ø  The focus communications to inform the business about the new workplace and oversight of the communication content, methods and intended audience

Ø  Q&A input

Ø  Review and endorsement of speciality rooms, i.e. control room approach

Ø  Oversight of the business requirements and the Project Working Group capturing intel across all engagements

Ø  Oversight of the business’s technical requirements

Ø  Oversight of the business, functional, non-functional and data requirements

Ø  Back the Project team through the User Acceptance Testing process by encouraging participation

Ø  Endorse appropriate training strategies and plans identifying training, education and messaging requirements

Ø  Review that the business requirements are included in communications plans, training strategy and training plan

Ø  Oversight of existing processes

Ø  Endorsement of technology changes and identifying what technology can be released ahead of “day 1”

Ø  Oversight of workplace operation/etiquette guide