5 Habits of Effective Transition Managers

Succeed with change management by remembering some "bleeding edge" common sense. The shared services model has proven itself over the last decade with many major organizations across the world having transitioned (or in the process of transitioning) their finance, HR and IT back office business processes to a shared service operating model. One of the leading critical success factors is how well you lead and manage the transitions. If the transitions don’t go well (especially in the beginning), then you run the very real risk of preventing the broader adoption of shared services throughout the organization. The following five strategies (based on bleeding edge common sense and experience in shared service initiatives) go some way towards ensuring your transition program is set up for success: 1. Spend time on the transition strategy and approach (invest your time up front) Some shared services initiatives can take several years to transition so the business needs to stay focused and be clear on the desired future state and benefits. There is plenty of material and best practice research available – but nothing is more valuable than visiting organizations that have "been there" and "done that". Talk to them, listen and learn. The most important thing is to establish a clear vision from the start – have open, honest communication with senior leadership across the business, especially those that will be impacted the most. And as you approach implementation, plan to "build momentum" – roll out initiatives based on demonstrated successes in small pilots, not through a mandatory "big bang" approach. Continue to learn and develop with each transition. 2. Start the change management process early (get a head start) Without concern for how transition affects people or what people have to do to achieve objectives, the risk of disappointment, or failure, is high. The psychological process that the transition initiates is likely to be distress and disruption, and without understanding and mitigating resistance the transition will take longer and cost more to implement. Pre-empt internal resistance to change – the transition team and change agents across the organization need to "sell" the benefits of shared services using hard cost savings results, efficiency gains, and quality control guarantees. Communication of the vision must be totally consistent. Work hard to deliver the communication first hand, to prevent dilution. Using a learned set of strategies and tools for managing the human side of change is essential for a successful transition and for achieving the benefits set out in the case for change. 3. Use a proven transition methodology (this is not the time nor place to experiment) Utilize a proven transition methodology and templates to manage the transition from start through to completion. This will continue to be developed and refined as you move through more transitions and will become invaluable IP to the organization – enabling faster, smoother, and more trusted transitions over time. One of the key tools in the transition methodology is a transition readiness framework. Use this to determine the readiness of the project team to deliver and the business team to receive. This summarizes key activities from the detailed deployment plans and ensures progress and business expectations are managed through the appropriate levels of governance. 4. Transition first, standardize second (don’t put the cart before the horse) A number of organizations get caught up trying to standardize platforms and processes prior to transitioning into a shared services capability. While in theory this may be ideal, in practice it can slow momentum. It is often more advantageous to transition first, and then standardize after. This is particularly so when reducing the number of ERP platforms and instances. 5. Focus on Tomorrow (pay attention to external changes and adapt) Finally, think of what the business and operating model will look like in the future and try to design and standardize business processes so they will be flexible enough to pivot with the changing environment. Keep a close eye on key external technology trends such as the increasing virtualization and use of cloud services and the increasing demand for, and use of, mobility. If these trends can help to increase transition success and improve customer satisfaction while lowering TCO then they should be assessed thoroughly. [eventpdf]

5 Habits of Effective Transition Managers

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