Episode 89 Transcript

Banoo Behboodi Welcome to the Professional Services Pursuit, a podcast featuring expert advice and insights on the professional services industry. I'm Banoo, and today's episode is part of a series designed to simplify the complex process of purchasing and implementing technology solutions. We understand the complexities involved in making a selection and implementing a solution. We are targeting various experts to address and bring you best practices and ways to navigate that journey.

Our returning guest today is Melissa Korzun, and she's been on the podcast before, but not with me. I’m very excited because I’m lucky enough to work with Melissa on a day-to-day basis. Melissa has been instrumental in turning around our PS operations within Kantata with a lot of capabilities, with a lot of process enhancements, allowing us to operate much more efficiently and giving us a lot of the data and information that we need as leadership to drive our business. I’m extremely excited. She has a wealth of experience and an amazing mind. Today's topic focuses on change management because it is critical to an effective selection and implementation of technology. With that, I will get started. Melissa, welcome. I’m so excited for this session.

Melissa Korzun Me too. Thank you.

Banoo Behboodi Do you want to start by telling us a little bit about your background? I know you've been on the podcast before, but it would be good to have a reminder.

Melissa Korzun I've come to professional services through a nontraditional path, beginning my career in education and training. I've always wanted to help people figure out how to do things, making education and training a natural fit for me. From there, I kept raising my hand and asking how I could help, whether it was figuring out systems to enable complex processes or jumping in to set up project management tools. Progressively throughout my career, I have moved closer to professional services. When I took my first role in professional services, leading a PMO, I felt at home. It was the place where all my skills came together and made sense. Since then, I've stayed in the professional services space, serving in various roles from leading PMOs to strategy and operations. Currently, I am with Kantata in client experience operations, working with folks like you and the CS and PS teams.

Banoo Behboodi You said it exactly as I've experienced it. If there is something that needs to be done, you just have to ask Melissa and it will be done. It will be magically done. It's just incredible. But let's get started. Melissa, I think change management is one of those terminologies that’s thrown around loosely a lot. It makes sense to start by defining change management as we're going to tackle it for this conversation. Let's start there.

Melissa Korzun Yes, absolutely. Any time we're thinking about professional services, the basis of that is some sort of change. When professional services are involved, it means that an organization has recognized that the current state is not where they need to be. There is a defined future state and they need assistance navigating from where they are to where they need to be, which is why they engage with professional services, whether that's technical, consulting, or other forms. The simplest way to define change management is navigating the current state to the future state in a way that brings the organization along in the least disruptive manner. There are various methods to achieve this, but it is about the navigational path from the current state to the future state.

Banoo Behboodi When do you think that needs to start in the journey of deciding, selecting, and implementing new technology? The journey starts from the whole selection process, and once you select it, implementing it. Where would you say is the best time to start?

Melissa Korzun To me, change management starts as early and as soon as possible. From the moment that an organization decides a change is needed, the change management process begins. In our case, we're dealing with companies that need to change the way they manage their professional services tech stacks.

Once you recognize that the current state isn't working, change management begins. One of the biggest issues that people encounter is the human element. It doesn't matter if it's a technology implementation; it involves humans dealing with humans. If you initiate change after a vendor selection has been made and announce a new tool to your organization, people might feel excluded. They may wonder why a new tool is being introduced, when the decision was made, and why their input wasn't sought.

Starting change management early involves identifying the stakeholders who will be impacted by these decisions. Even a simple announcement that a new tool is being selected, sharing the vision for the future, and inviting feedback can be beneficial. Engaging people from the beginning will pay dividends throughout the entire process.

Banoo Behboodi Yeah, I love that because it makes people feel like they're part of the process rather than being given a process they have to comply with, so you'll have much more success. You're suggesting it starts right at the beginning as you're looking at vendors and finding the right solution to fit your purpose. What would you say you should assess or have in your checklist when selecting a vendor with respect to change management capabilities?

Melissa Korzun 15 years ago, people went and looked for vendors based on their tech stack alone. They sought the best technology in the area. Who has the best technology? Then, they would take things forward. Over the past, many have been burned by implementing a solution without proper change management, realizing they had to take way too long, take steps backward, or sometimes face failure because the change was not managed properly. People are now coming to the table and should come to the table looking at a vendor not just for their technology, but for the partnership to help navigate that change.

The most basic form of this is what type of implementation services the vendor offers. How will they help navigate decisions during implementation? It should expand into examining the vendor's muscle in helping navigate the organization, understanding stakeholders, and communicating and engaging the right people. People should be asking vendors about their capabilities in that space. If they find a vendor with all the technology they want but without the ability to help navigate the change, they should look for some sort of partner or internal muscle to help them.

These types of big changes within a company, even if solely surrounded by technology, have very little chance of success without the right change capability enabled in them. Success might mean going live and minimal adoption of the product. However, the fact remains that when buying a product or tech stack, there are really lofty goals for what it will achieve. Executives buy into it and put their dollars toward it because they believe in the value the solution will bring.

In our case, the value isn't just tracking time. The value lies in improving resource management, increasing profitability, and growing margins. Without proper change management, it will take a significant amount of time to achieve big value rather than just incremental improvements within the platform.

Banoo Behboodi The other thing I would say that it's important to assess when you're looking at your vendors, a lot of times we think through the implementation in terms of change management, but there's so much that happens in terms of adoption and managing change post that implementation period, let's say six months after. So it's really important, I think, to also ask questions around what is post implementation PS to CS? What does that journey beyond implementation look like? Make sure that you are aligned and in sync, and that that's going to organizationally align with how you handle things and manage things and set expectations on that post implementation during that selection process. Any thoughts on that?

Melissa Korzun Absolutely. When you're entering into these types of relationships, this isn't a point in time where you go live and then sustain that status quo forever. Ideally, when you get to a go-live, that's really just the starting point of the journey you’re on with that particular vendor. They need to have the mechanism set up to help guide you through that journey and also help you grow in your use and capability within that platform.

Achieving a result is only the first finish line. As soon as you achieve that result, you're looking for what the next finish line is and how to continue to grow and evolve. Organizations have customer success organizations that are really set up to be advocates for that customer, continuing that relationship and making sure that you're achieving value out of it.

It is really important to understand not just what product you have and how you are going to implement it, but also what the day after go-live looks like. What does six months out from go-live look like? How do we continue that relationship one year in, two years in, and three years in?

Oftentimes the contracts that we're signing aren't for one year; they're for three. During that three-year period, how are we going to continue to build and grow and develop results out of this platform? How are you going to partner with me to do that?

It's really important, and I don't think enough people really ask about it because they get so stuck in committing to a solution. Maybe you’ve decided this is the vendor you're going with and you are buying their product. Your first obstacle is the implementation. How am I going to get through this implementation, get everything set up the way it needs to be, and maybe have complex integrations and all of that? How do I get to this go-live date that I have? You’re managing to the budget that you've defined, and you're not thinking beyond that. You really need to be because that's the most important part.

Banoo Behboodi Exactly. Once you make the selection and account for all the discussed factors, you are starting an implementation. Can you walk us through the type of checklist you should go through to ensure you have the right framework to manage change through this implementation?

Melissa Korzun Absolutely. There are many models out there. Some of the key tenets involve taking the time to understand your stakeholders. Often, we gloss over stakeholders, jotting down names and moving on. Understanding stakeholders goes beyond knowing who they are; it involves recognizing their importance to the initiative, their influence, and their power to drive success or failure. We often think of power as being held by executive sponsors, but individual contributors can also hold significant sway, making adoption difficult if they don't endorse the platform.

Identifying stakeholders and assessing their influence, level of engagement, and goals is a critical first step. If this step is glossed over, the rest of the change management plan may fall short. Knowing who you are trying to lead through the change and their objectives ensures a focused approach, rather than broad communication and training.

Once stakeholders are identified, understanding how to engage with each group is crucial. You don't need a different engagement plan for every person, but you do need a comprehensive plan tailored to each type of stakeholder. This may involve specific governance cadences for influential individuals or broad communications for those who simply need to be informed. The plan should be comprehensive, encompassing communication, training, and other necessary engagements.

It's important to continually revisit and update the change management plan. Many initiatives start with a solid plan that is later forgotten. Regularly evaluating where stakeholders are on the change continuum ensures the plan remains a living, useful document. These key components, outside of the norms, deserve more attention and commitment in the checklist.

Banoo Behboodi I loved your emphasis on influence because I think a lot of times when companies look at their stakeholder analysis, they don't always pay attention to the level of influence and approach it from that angle. Often, it's based on departmental heads or geography heads, rather than on individuals. Yes, you have to have leadership and commitment from leadership, but even more importantly, you must consider those influentials within each department. Understanding the role of these individuals and how you will engage them specifically is crucial. Making them part of the project ensures their buy-in. This angle is not always attended to and is critical in the change process.

Melissa Korzun One of the models that I used to use is we would look at our stakeholders and we would say, what's their engagement level? It was basically like from unaware, educated, up through evangelists. What is their attitude? Negative, neutral or positive. How much influence do they have? Low, medium or high?

We would measure each stakeholder on that spectrum and put together an engagement and attitude matrix. It was a bubble chart, so the bigger their bubble, the more influence they had. We knew if we had someone who needed to be involved, but they were unaware and neutral but had a lot of power, our plan was to make them aware and positive. If we had an evangelist who was really positive and had a lot of power, we would get that person at the front line of communication, waving the flag.

It helped us engage the most critical people in the initiative. When we had someone who was high influence but negative and unaware, or maybe educated and negative, we would come together and ask, how do we move the bubble? That was the conversation we had. How do we move this bubble? We would look to see it continue to move through that continuum. It made a huge difference. Sometimes we couldn't move the bubble, but we knew what we were dealing with and engaged with those individuals.

Banoo Behboodi Being intentional about it is what makes the difference. You can't always impact it, but being intentional about it is critical. Lastly, don't lose momentum. Keep it an active and evergreen part of your plan. This is another piece that, within our own customer base that we're implementing, we guide them toward. Make sure that you're not losing momentum because projects go up and down. You're going to have different sentiments. There will be times when you're feeling good about things, and times that you're overwhelmed, feeling like you're running over, or things are running late. During these times, people are prone to compromise or give up on what they think is optional, often considering change management as optional. However, if you think of change management as optional, everything else that you're doing is for naught.

I love that particular point. Now, I want to dive in a little bit into training and any particular lessons learned and best practices around how you think about training and tailoring training to your user base.

Melissa Korzun I was at a conference not too long ago, and it was about customer journey. A light bulb went off for me about a page that we all need to take out of sales or the commercial space. It talked about the evolution of sales training. It started with corporate training programs focused on HR: How do we get compliance training out there? Then the sales organization realized they needed their own special sales training programs. They started establishing sales training programs. Then they pivoted and said, "Actually, we don't just need sales training; we need sales enablement." That word "enablement" is so important because it's not just about training. It is, "What are all the things we need to give you to be successful?"

That becomes a comprehensive list of not just training, but also ensuring you have the right equipment, access, job aids, collateral, or materials. When you start to think about enablement as the broader piece, it's not just about training people. As trainers, we naturally feel it because we start developing training, and very quickly we realize, "Wait a minute, you haven't defined this," or "How do people access that?" or "You should really be giving them this." I would encourage people to think about it more broadly than just training. Really consider the enablement aspect. When you put a user in a seat to use your platform, do they have everything they need to be successful? Not just competency and training, but all the necessary resources?

The importance of this is evident when you think about change management. Another crucial piece is the incentives. What is the incentive for someone to make that change? Of course, we try to quantify it in terms of the platform's utility, the tool's benefits, and the value it brings. But again, humans are humans. What are the tangible incentives? It's hard to put an incentive in place, but if you align incentives with their normal performance review process or goal-setting process, without proper enablement, you'll have many upset employees who feel unfairly measured on something they weren't fully equipped to succeed in. So for training, think broadly; think about enablement.

From the incentive perspective, if you have provided everything needed, guided them through the change, implemented the solution, and focused on enablement, it is crucial to communicate the importance of adapting to this change. Ensure that individual goals align with the critical initiative and business objectives. This alignment helps employees understand their role in the initiative, how they fit into it, and the objectives tied to it. By doing this, you align your organization for success.

Banoo Behboodi I'm glad you brought in incentives because it's often overlooked to ensure incentive plans align with the change you're about to make and that the incentives will motivate people to make that change happen. Great point. Let's bring it together by summarizing the top five takeaways for our listeners as they embark on the journey and tackle change management effectively. What are the top five things they should focus on?

Melissa Korzun Yeah. So again, I'll go back to it because I can’t underscore how important stakeholder identification and management are. It's absolutely critical. It's the foundation of the whole process. Start there every single time, thinking about the change management happening really early on from the very beginning. How do you start to think about bringing people on the journey with you is another critical one, aligning that business strategy?

You know, we just talked about those incentives and aligning those things, but we are talking about this change. Hopefully, as a part of your organization, you have been talking about your business strategy. Your employees understand the goals and objectives of your business, and you need to be able to tie how this initiative is a part of this by doing this big, hard thing that we're asking all of you to do that's helping us to advance this overall goal or objective that we have as a company, and this is what the new normal or the future is going to look like for us, which is going to be really important.

One of the things that we didn't dive into a whole lot though is I also think change management, which we often decouple from, for example, like the overall strategy for how we're implementing a solution. And so I think that's a mistake to have those things decoupled because ultimately part of what change management is doing is assessing the organization’s readiness and ability to navigate the change. And part of that is their readiness and ability to adopt capability. And I think we've all learned that trying to go live with a new platform with every single capability and component of that solution is very, very difficult.

And so as a part of that change management strategy, coupling it with the overall strategy for that solution is important to think about how do we crawl, walk, and then run with this? How do we have a strategy that's long-term that says, you know what, we're going to start with these core capabilities of the solution because that's the building block number one, and we're going to master that, and then we're going to grow. I think oftentimes change management is like, oh, it's this extra group that comes in and sits on top and just communicates all the decisions.

But it really should be this cohesive assessment of preparing and assessing your organization's readiness for that change and their ability to take on capabilities and then figuring out the pace at which they can consume and do that. That would be another consideration that people really need to think through is don't think about it as this secondary or nice-to-have activity or like the polish on top of the project. It really is a core component to the entire strategy that you have there.

Banoo Behboodi I'm so happy that you brought up having the understanding of change and your user base drive your rollout strategy and implementation strategy. Such a critical thing is often overlooked. You know, we're excited, we want to do it all, and that energy goes behind it. Then we have failures because we can't get the adoption, having put too much on too fast with our users. Excellent point. Thank you for bringing that one up.

Okay. Well, thank you. I know it's Friday when we're recording. We're both ready for the weekend, but I love having you on. I wanted to get to my personal question, and you and I talked about you sharing the best piece of advice that you have received or been given during your career. What would you say that was?

Melissa Korzun Never lose sleep alone. A manager told me that once, saying, "Never lose sleep alone." I think that is a significant part of the change management narrative as well. It comes down to ensuring that whatever challenge you face in your career, it is never entirely on your shoulders. Engage the right people and bring them together. By involving the right people and having a conversation, we can find a solution much faster, allowing me to sleep soundly at night. I have always loved that advice, especially as I can tend to be fiercely independent. It serves as a great reminder to ask for help and engage the right individuals at the right time.

Banoo Behboodi Well, thank you, Melissa. It's been amazing having you on the podcast. As always, thanks for listening. If you have any follow-up questions for myself or Melissa, we would love to hear from you. Send us emails at podcast@kantata.com and we will be happy to get back to you. Have a great rest of your day, and thanks for listening.

Melissa Korzun Thank you.

Brent TrimbleIf you enjoyed this podcast, let us know by giving the show a five-star review on your favorite podcast platform and leaving a comment. If you haven't already subscribed to the show, you could do so anywhere you get podcasts on any podcast app. To learn more about the power of Kantata’s purpose-built technology, go to kantata.com. Thanks again for listening.