Getting involved in solution design as a Change Management Consultant

Sometimes as an Organisational Change Management Consultant, you know that the major risk with a change (or existing issue with a change!) is not the engagement or the adoption or the buy-in or the skills and capability. It’s that the solution itself is not fit-for-purpose. And while traditionally there’s been a segmentation between Project Management who would design and develop the solution, and Change Management who would roll the solution out to leaders, teams, customers and stakeholders, I think as the pace of change speeds up and the complexity of change increases, our organisations and our clients need more help in designing fit-for-purpose, acceptable, and appropriate solutions in the first place. It makes implementation so much easier when it’s not a hard sell to the business but an easy invitation because the solution was developed with the end user or stakeholder in mind. So if you have expertise in a particular field tangential to Change Management and are working on a change that relates to that expertise, why not use your expertise and get involved in the solution design if you want?

And this can work for any type of change. Whether it’s an operating model change and you have prior experience in organisational design or HR, or a system upgrade and you have previously worked in IT as a developer, coder or technical business analyst, or an office move and you have previously led a Facilities Team, you could easily get involved… (and here’s the important part)...if you want! There are times when you will want to get involved and there are times when you won't. And it almost always comes down to your discretion, not the client’s. 

The beauty is that as a Change Management Consultant you’ll usually be engaged much earlier in a project or transformation, sometimes before it’s even kicked off and a Project Manager has been hired. Because you’ve got a seat at the table so early, you can be included and invited to design workshops and sessions. For me personally when this happens, I might not necessarily have the expertise to actually provide insight on the thing itself. But I'll definitely provide insight on my views from a people perspective and what I think is going to be a risk based on the decisions of the design that they're making. If you can get involved in that, often it leads to a better solution or a better design which leads to a better result for everybody. 

Especially if you can influence the people who are designing it or building it to actually collaborate and actually get feedback and input from real world users at the time of thinking about it and designing it. The very first change that I ever worked on was a new product development where they did that. They actually went out to customers and asked them what they wanted. They were literally creating blue sky product. I always just thought that everybody did that. It was the gold standard of how they were working, agile and co-created all along the way.

And this is one of the reasons I love Change Management consulting. You can amplify your special skills and subject matter expertise on your consulting website. You can let clients know that it’s a skillset that you have and a service that you support and can provide. You have to tell projects and your clients what you can actually help them with. And when you tell them upfront then they know, “Oh right! I shouldn't just engage at the delivery time, I can actually engage her at the design stage.” Or you can let your clients know during the engagement. For example, with one consulting client I actually worked directly with the General Manager to visit key customers and understand what they might like and expect from a new booking system, as well as getting an early gauge on what would help them roll out the change to their operational staff who’d use said system. 

Now, if you are contracting or working in an organisation in Change Management, you might also be able to do this if you have a diverse background of transferable skills and subject matter expertise. But your leader might not know that about you. Most of my previous Change leaders would never know that I had a Marketing background or that I'm super interested in Customer Experience. I kept putting my hand up going, “Are there any projects to do with customer experience?” because I love it and I've got a background in it. It's almost you putting yourself forward for those things and then when people know that you have it, often they want your help on it. As a contractor, I often used to do this with training and capability and put my hand up to support that part of the project or change. 

But just because you put your hand up, doesn’t mean that project or piece of work will come your way because as an employed or contracting Change practitioner, you’re often more at the mercy of what the company or project need (their discretion) than what you want to do (your discretion). At one particular workplace, I kept putting my hand up for any changes that were specifically customer experience and letting people know that was something I had expertise in and wanted to do more work in if it was available. And although I did work on customer-focused changes that were challenging and exciting, I never specifically worked on a customer experience change. I kept getting stuck with HR projects! Whether you're a Change Consultant or not, you can absolutely position yourself the way that you want to position yourself but usually you’ll just have more control and discretion, and be brought in at the appropriate time, when you’re a Change Management Consultant rather than an employed or contracted Change practitioner. 

So if you’ve got expertise in something, then there's no reason why you can't help your projects, your teams, your clients to design it. They will probably love the help because normally they would not have as many hands, not have as many knowledgeable people. And if you can help them design a better solution from the very beginning, it makes the change delivery so much easier because as I said at the beginning - you’re not trying to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. So often, we come in only at the delivery stage, we get handed something that has got very little user usability because they never actually got any feedback along the way of designing it and building it. And then often that's when they have to redo the actual solution. And then redo the change. 

Working on your terms and at your discretion is the beauty of being an independent Change Consultant - you can work with several clients at once, do more of the things you're passionate about, and grow your impact on your terms and schedule.

I'll be sharing how to go from zero to hero as an independent Change Consultant on my exclusive live in-person retreat on 20-21 June in Sydney. It's your very last chance to join me and connect with other passionate and experienced Changies who want to start or grow their own consulting practice.

The final enrolment period for my Instant Change Consultant Retreat closes tonight Tuesday 9 June at 8.00pm AEST (Sydney time) so if you’ve been dreaming of having more control and ownership over your work and life, sign up ASAP:

>> CLICK HERE for your last chance to join my Instant Change Consultant Retreat

Lata xx