Designing the change: How to bring the user in for successful change management

This post is written by Jordana Globerman, facilitator — Designer and Manager, Benefits Delivery Modernization, Government of Canada. Her thoughts are her own and don’t represent the government of Canada.

• The problem: Radical changes often occur with little buy-in from those most affected by the change.
• Why it matters: Poorly designed processes and solutions will be ignored.
• The solution: Designed change heads off these issues and ensures real solutions.

Employees, especially those in a large organisation like government, can bristle at the terminology of “change management”. Perhaps it’s the implication of an order from above that comes in the word “management”, or the fatigue that comes with tried and failed transformation projects.

Everything changes, but that change only feels scary, frustrating or unwanted when it is forced. Change management certainly isn’t about forcing a change, but it is often steeped in top-down thinking. It doesn’t need to be.

As a designer, the need for change excites me because it implies the creative pursuit of better solutions (and sometimes the cathartic process of voicing big problems — which we all need once in a while). That same outlook can inspire users to embrace and steer a change, if they are allowed to design it. A codesign approach to change — one in which those who will be most impacted by the change are enabled to design, test, and implement it — is one that, ultimately, sticks.

What is change management?

Change management is a school of approaches to helping an organisation implement change. It has undergone many iterations, from the 8-Step Process to Leading Change, to a 4-step model and the ADKAR approach.

Common to all these approaches is the need to understand the change and its stakeholders, gather together a sponsorship coalition, identify objectives and metrics, implement the change, and report back on wins and future changes. Another similarity to these models is that the change usually starts at the top, with sponsorship from senior executives and decision-makers, before trickling down through the organisation.

While dwelling in this problem space can encourage divergence and can take time, it is crucial to laying the groundwork for success.

Change management is replete with terminology that evokes a top-down approach: words like “reinforcement”, and “enlisting” sponsor “armies”, that imply the organisation en masse must be won over to embrace the change. While most approaches encourage a thorough assessment of the needs of employees and authentic efforts to address those needs, the employees are considered as enablers of the change, rather than the change being tailored as an enabler to employees.

Design: changing the change

Design lives in the grassroots. It encourages users to be brought in at the very beginning of a transformative journey to identify the problem, before moving to solutions. While dwelling in this problem space can encourage divergence and can take time, it is crucial to laying the groundwork for success. A change approach that is designed with users from inception will be successful for two reasons: firstly, it makes sure the problem being addressed is the right one in practice and, secondly, it generates buy-in where it is needed most — with those who will be most impacted by the change.

Another benefit of a design approach to change is that it encourages testing of prototypes early. In the world of change, this means implementing your solution with users before a full organisational roll out. This allows you to see what works and doesn’t on the ground, so that you can pivot quickly before implementing a full strategy, saving time and money.

Designed change in action

I’ve seen the benefits of this approach in practice. In 2019, I worked with a team to leverage design in a project aimed at inspiring culture change towards accessibility.

We brought in users — citizens with diverse accessibility needs — to work alongside executives of regulated businesses to design, together, the tools and policies that would be needed to encourage a culture of greater accessibility. This approach was useful because it allowed different user groups to design together approaches that would work in reality. In fact, the very process of designing in real-time with greater accessibility served as a lived example of what businesses could do to encourage inclusivity in their cultures.

Recently, I worked with a team to roll out automations in a designed change approach. We ran workshops with users in which they were educated on the capabilities of this technology and enabled to identify new automation opportunities. This approach encouraged trust in the change amongst a group that was used to a longstanding way of working, a difficult task when introducing potential disruption.

A word of caution…

Designed change can fall short. When users aren’t an authentic part of a change process, when their suggestions are ignored or their concerns aren’t addressed, the change can’t succeed.

First impressions last; if the needs of users aren’t acknowledged and met once voiced, the change won’t be trusted long-term. Even traditional change management believes this — that to maintain trust in the change you need to monitor, improve, and report back.

Design can take this trust further and transform it into action. When users are allowed to drive change through design, they can become more than adopters — they can create a movement. — Jordana Globerman

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(Picture credit: Unsplash)