Leading Change: Mindset’s methodology for designing success from Day One!

Any organisational change requires a change strategy that allows your organisation to design for success from Day One.

Mindset exhibited and presented at the 15th Annual Shared Services & Outsourcing Week Conference in Melbourne recently, which was all about the IMPACT Shared Services can have on the success and progress of the business as a whole.

Moving to a shared service is fundamentally ‘transforming’ your internal back-of-house functions and therefore requires a change strategy that allows your organisation to design for success from Day One. Using the Mindset change methodology, we were able to provide attendees with useful insights in driving change as opposed to simply managing a project.

What I found most encouraging about the event were the repeated times that negative experiences were shared about how the people side of change was mishandled; the effect this had on organisational culture; the lessons people learnt along the way, and the associated pain this brought to the project. I try to make it a habit not to be encouraged by negativity but, on this occasion, I could hear and see the message getting through. Don’t underestimate the complexity of the organisation and its people!

At Mindset we have applied our methodology to how change management underpins the successful execution of shared services. Research by SSON indicates two of the key mistakes made by firms when implementing shared services is a lack of measurement and monitoring.  Mindset has created a framework to monitor and measure the successful transition to shared services by applying best practice change management principals. Key to this are:

1. Understanding how the organisation learns, shares knowledge, gathers information and manages performance.
2. Tailoring the change management approach accordingly.
3. Defining what constitutes key value for the most critical and often overlooked stakeholder- the customer.
4. Developing measures that keep all parties focused on achieving the desired benefits of the shared service.

In conclusion, it would appear Mindsets are shifting for the positive when it comes to the importance of managing the people side of any organisational change.  We received very good feedback from our Shared Services whitepaper and it has achieved its purpose of getting those on the journey or about to embark on the journey to apply a different mindset to their approach and identify things that they could do better.

Don Holley
Managing Director