09 Dec 2020

When a pandemic strikes during a major organizational transformation

For any organization wanting to change how it operates, this can be a major challenge. Imagine being midway through such a program when you are faced with a severe crisis. Do you keep going or stop?

This was the dilemma facing energy company, Centrica, and its partners, Fujitsu and Citrix. They had designed new cloud-based desktop solutions for roll-out to 18,000 employees around the world and were midway through deployment when the Coronavirus pandemic struck earlier this year. Centrica decided to accelerate its plans, and successfully delivered this transformation to achieve its program goals. This project was highlighted in a recent Utility Week webinar. More information is available here.

There are many factors that contribute to change management program success — with internal communications being a top priority. To successfully migrate to new ways of working requires employees to:

  • Understand the journey. Know the reasons for change, alignment with company vision and strategy, and how the organization will benefit.
  • Recognize role modelling. Seeing leaders ‘walk the talk’ and lead by example to encourage others to follow suit.
  • Utilize new systems. Having access to new equipment, hardware and processes.
  • Adapt their skills. Receive training and support along every step of the journey.

If you are planning to make operational changes, the ability to inform, inspire and motivate employees effectively will be key to your project success. No easy feat if you are wanting to change systems that have been embedded in the organization for many years!

To learn more on how Spoken Word’s presentation training programs can help you with your change management projects, contact us.