Lessons Learned,
A Practical Application of Change Management to a Technology Implementation

Event Summary

The recent BCODN Workshop hosted by Navigo Consulting and Coaching was by all accounts a great success, with a high number of people turning out to learn more about how to manage change associated with a technical implementation.

Titled “Lessons Learned – A Practical Application of Change Management to a Technical Implementation,” the workshop showcased Navigo’s Navigate Change Model, a three-phase, multi-stage model that covers the lifespan of change management, from planning to implementation to sustainment. “We want to share with you the model that underlies our change management work and how that model influences the strategies that we recommend,” Navigo principal Heather Lehmann told the audience.

After a brief overview of Navigate Change, the team invited the participants to co-create a list of “lessons learned” from various change management topics, including: communication, sponsorship, training/support, project planning, involvement, decision-making and resistance.

Navigo then introduced its guest panel: three clients who spoke of their experiences with recent technical implementations in their organizations. First up was Stewart Andrade from Teekay Shipping, which implemented fleet management software across three business units in North America, Europe and Asia. During his presentation, Andrade spoke of the need to have change management fully integrated into a project. He also credited Teekay’s success with this project to having strong, visible sponsorship from a senior executive throughout the process. “It can be an uphill battle if you do not have a senior executive to lead the charge,” he said.

Claire Adams from Business Objects, which undertook a PeopleSoft implementation that involved 10 business modules and 1,500 end users, agreed with Andrade’s comment on the necessity for high-level buy-in, adding that it may be necessary to dedicate time to educate the sponsor on his or her role. “The coaching of the project leaders – and sponsors – was critical,” she said. “They needed to understand their roles as change leaders and change sponsors in order to be able to lead the effort.” Adams stressed that a flexible strategic plan is key to any project’s long term success. “You need to be prepared for changes in project plans and timelines,” she said.

Flexibility has been key to the ongoing technical upgrades at Vancouver Coastal Health, noted VCH’s Darcia Pope. Pope is working with Navigo on a large-scale project that spans Richmond to Powell River, and that involves more than one health authority and several, consecutive implementations. “Each implementation has several ‘go lives’ that would occur with only weeks between each of them,” she said. “We have to keep our planning fluid and adaptable because we had to keep applying the lessons learned from one implementation to the next.”