The fool-proof guide to ensuring adoption after go live

In Change Management, we know that go live does not equal success (see my previous recent blog post on Unexpected Learnings from Escape to the Country). So how do we make sure there is adoption after launch? Here are my top 3 tips and advice for ensuring adoption happens after go live:

TIP #1: Make sure you’ve got the right success measures

In my Leading Successful Change program, we go through all the stuff around change measures and success measures and metrics. Some are pretty traditional and some are different and much more powerful. I’ll be going deeper into these in my upcoming in-person Leading Successful Change Live course in Sydney on 18-19 August. And here are some high-level principles:

- Connect the change to a direct impact on customer experience and customer satisfaction, which often has a direct impact on sales

- Connect the change to team experience and team satisfaction, which often has a direct impact on cost such as the costs of attrition (people leaving the business) or costs of having to hire and train a new person into the business. HR should be able to provide some of those metrics to help you make the case.

TIP #2: Manage “Through” the change

My Leading Successful Change program is centred around my VIBRANT Change Framework, the last factor of which is managing “Through” the change and paving the way for future changes. But it also refers to managing “through” that individual change as well by embedding the change. 

Continuation of resources

Some of this is resourcing. For example, the Project Manager might be contracted up until a week or two after go live and then boom, they're off on another project. I’ve seen projects where the project literally hasn't even gone live yet and people are already assigned and allocated to other work (and in that case they had to stand up a mini embedding project because they knew it hadn’t landed properly)! That’s why listening sessions and feedback within the first 2-4 weeks after a go live is essential - to have evidence of those metrics and any further work you need to do. 

Common embedding activities

A common embedding activity might be delivering more training after go live and that’s absolutely A-OK! It's okay to have to set up more rhythms or ways of working after go live. There might be new roles that have to get stood up because you realise, “Actually, these people need to have X, Y, Z.” In one change that I worked on, they put in newly-created group roles (clusters within each state) during Embed; these roles weren’t identified as required in the original project but were when tracking and measuring results after launch. By having metrics that need to be tracked and measured beyond go live, it keeps you relevant because you are like, “Cool, in 3 months’ time we are going to do this pulse check, in 6 months’ time we need to see the customer satisfaction results.” And so it helps you to keep that conversation going and seed that you are not going to just drop everything after go live. 

Handover the ongoing tracking

The likelihood is that because you are working on projects, you will get allocated and assigned if you are staying within the same company. If you're leaving the business, too bad, so sad, you can do a great handover and show what needs to continue beyond go live and where you think there are still opportunities. I’ve done that where I’ve just gone, “Here's my recommendation of what you could focus on to help sustain this because I’m about to leave the organisation.”

Keep tabs and checks

If you're going to stay in the organisation, you can keep a few rhythms going afterwards - some tabs and checks. And I'd really recommend that you do. It's not until maybe 3-6 months after a project launches when you get the real gold around how it's going. 1-2 weeks is not long enough! People are still in transition. The dust hasn't settled yet, but that's when a lot of projects close which blows my mind. But as the usual objective of a Project Manager is to go live, once they've done that, they’re like, “Well why would I stay beyond two weeks post?”

Start the embedding conversations when you start change planning

So really look at managing through the change and how you can set things up. Start the conversations at change planning. Say you’re change planning 3 months before you're going to go live. Seed the fact that you want to do a pulse check 3 months after, don't spring it on people a week before go live when they're all running around like headless chooks. It’s why I say with the VIBRANT Change, you're trying to show people all the way “Through” from the very first conversations. I’ll drop mentions of continuous improvement into stakeholder sessions and stakeholder meetings from the first time I meet people.

TIP #3: Keep networks thriving

The last tip I'd have for adoption after go live is if you've got a Change Champion, Subject Matter Expert, or Process Owner network going, make sure they're set up with an ongoing rhythm built as a community and a culture rather than as a workshop or activity just for the change. They can be part of the people who keep leading it moving forward. And so again, as part of your handover, you might go, “Great, I’m handing the baton over to this particular Change Champion.” I’ve done that where I had a culture network on a big global cultural transformation I was working on. And so I’ve gone, “Yep, cool. Here's who's going to do more of that facilitating work after I’ve gone.” Keep those rhythms going even if you as the Change Manager move on. That would be the same for any change networks or advisory committees because they can all really help out around continuous improvement. They can be the brain's trust the organisation goes to to do continuous improvement at say the 6 month mark or the 12 month mark. So build in reasons for them to meet even beyond the go live. I think teaching capability is a great way to get bums in seats. If you go, “Every quarter, you're going to come together as a Change Champion community and you're going to learn a new skill,” it's a great way of getting bums in seats, because people are like, “Oh good, I get something for free.”

Then at the same time you can harness them to be like, “How are things going in your business area?” And again, you don't have to do that as the Change Manager. You might have moved on, but it's handing over to somebody to keep some of those rhythms going at least for 6-12 months. And then sometimes those things take off and have a life of their own and they're there 5 years later. So communities or networks that you've set up, try and harness them beyond the change.

If you want to come and learn strategic change success measures, different tools to manage “through” the change, and how to set up change networks and communities (along with all the other tools, templates, techniques and tips for practical and powerful Change Management delivery), come along to my Leading Successful Change Live in-person training on 18-19 August in Sydney:

Find out more about LSC Live and secure your spot on the in-person training

Lata xx