NextGen Change Communications

Final Group Project

Luoma Leadership Academy Cohort 10

Executive Sponsor: John Kearns – Director of Change Management – Minnesota State Team Members: Jackie Reichter, Century College

Jinger Gustafson, Minnesota State University, Mankato Sunny Kamath, Minnesota State Community and Technical College Virgil Bakken, Bemidji State University Ryan Jackson, Minnesota State University Moorhead

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Table of Contents

Statement of Problem 3

Team Charge 3

Introduction 4

Background Information 4

Research and Analysis 9

Conclusion 14

Works Cited 18

Appendix A 19

Appendix B 24

Appendix C 25

Appendix D 26

Appendix E 28

Appendix F 30

Appendix G 31

Appendix H 37

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Statement of Problem:

The October 2018 NextGen organizational readiness assessment survey identified the need for increasing faculty and student awareness, as well as providing tailored communications to key stakeholder groups (IT, HR, Finance, etc.). Knowing there are a variety of stakeholders with unique communication needs, how can the NextGen team enhance its communications plan to increase awareness and ensure communications are relevant to the audience?

Team Charge:

• Clearly communicate to the Minnesota State community’s 37 colleges and universities the reason for transitioning to a modern student and administrative technology solution.

• Provide clear communication that helps the Minnesota State community feel connected,

engaged, and motivated to learn and use a new, modernized technology solution.

• Provide communication about the value of a modern technology solution: easy to use; flexible enough to handle changing technology needs of students/staff; built with a mobile experience.

• Acknowledge resistance to change and identify urgencies and rewards to adopting a new,

modernized technology solution.

• Provide communication about process, timeline, and training schedules.

• Utilize proven change management principles and language to foster understanding and clarity around the NextGen project and to ensure positive engagement and usability with a modern technology solution.

• Communicate clearly to students about process improvements for academic advising,

credit transfer, and degree and graduation planning.

• Communicate clearly to faculty about NextGen’s faculty-and student-related tools and capabilities.

• Communicate clearly to staff about NextGen’s administrative tools and capabilities to

standardize business processes.

• Communicate clearly to board members and leadership council about project timeline/key dates and progress reports.

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Introduction: The NextGen Communication Plan

There are many things to consider regarding data practices in a system the size of

Minnesota State. On a daily basis, most of the system is logged in to a custom-built platform

called ISRS. As the system has grown, ISRS has reached its functional limit. The obvious

solution is to replace the platform with something more robust and user friendly. While the task

of actually doing this is monumental, we were left with another big question: How do you tell

thousands of people in a kind and thoughtful way that the system they’ve become accustomed to

for their entire careers, is going away? More importantly, perhaps, is how you disseminate that

message in a timely fashion to each individual group (students, staff, faculty and administrators)

in a way that speaks directly to their daily needs. Too much information will dilute the message

for each stakeholder, hiding what is important to them. The opposite approach could create panic

and confusion. Change, for some, is hard. Creating an effective communication method framed

around a thoughtful change message can be equally difficult.

To illustrate this point, let’s start by communicating a simple fact: Minnesota State is

retiring ISRS and moving to a platform called NextGen. While this message is clear, it could

easily create the situation described above. It is with this in mind, that we are helping the system

office to shape the tone, delivery and content of the change message for NextGen.

Background Information on Change Management

Change management is defined as: “the application of processes and tools to manage the

people side of change, from the current state to a new future state, so that the desired results of

the change are achieved.” Change management is a key component to the NextGen project, and

crucial for its success.

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The recommended change management strategies and initial change management plans

needed to build the long-term change management approach supporting the NextGen project for

Minnesota State. This approach is designed to establish a solid change management culture at

Minnesota State that is needed for the entire NextGen project, including both phase I (RFP),

phase II (implementation) and beyond. The proposed NextGen change management execution

takes advantage of available technology and the learning management system (LMS) within

Minnesota State.

This plan was created based on current practices within the field of organizational change

management, and discussions with the NextGen Steering team and other key Minnesota State

leaders. The specific goals and objectives for this project as documented in the NextGen Charter

were carefully considered when creating this plan, and include:

• Assessing the organization to identify where Organizational Change Management

(OCM) activities should be focused, and what messages need to be delivered.

• Building executive commitment and sponsorship across the Minnesota State System.

• Establishing mechanisms for involving all Minnesota State colleges, universities, and

system office divisions in the project throughout its duration.

• Communicating with Minnesota State students, faculty, and staff.

• Developing end-user training.

• Establishing the end-user support function.

This change management approach creates a long-term sustainable strategy focused on

institutional engagement, leveraging existing technologies to bridge distance, and provides a re-

useable, synchronous change management training program.

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Change Management Model(s)

There are over 8 specific models and frameworks for change management currently in

use today. These include, but are not limited to:

• Lewin’s change management model

• The McKinsey 7-S model

• Kotter’s theory

• Nudge theory

• ADKAR

• Bridges’ transition model

• Kübler-Ross’ change curve

• The Satir change management model

As a practical matter not all of these models are applicable to the NextGen project. Minnesota

State, following CampusWorks recommendation, will utilize a hybrid of several models focusing

mainly on ADKAR and the Bridges’ transition model with some reference to Kotter’s theory and

Kübler-Ross’ change curve.

Bridges’ Transition Model

William Bridges makes a distinction between change and transition. Change, according

to Bridges, is situational, an event that happens such as the move to a new ERP software. A

transition is psychological and is a process that people go through as they come to terms with the

new reality that change has brought about. (Bridges & Bridges, 2016)

The Bridges’ transition model describes three phases that people go through during their

transition to new reality brought upon by the change. The three phases are:

1. The Ending

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2. The Neutral Zone

3. The New Beginning

As a distinct part of the transition management component of the NextGen project, each

individual must allow themselves to let go of what is to make room for what is going to come.

This will be a challenge because of the length of time of the overall project.

The next phase is called the Neutral Zone. This is a transitional time when there is

conflict between the old way and the new way. The individual may have given up the old way,

but the new way hasn’t really begun. There are specific strategies that will be deployed to help

people when they are in the Neutral Zone.

The final phase is called the New Beginning. This is a psychological reality achieved

when people are ready to make the emotional commitment to the new way. Beginnings shouldn’t

be confused with the start of something. The live date for the new ERP will be the start of

something new but people may still be in the Neutral Zone and not yet ready to enter the New

Beginning phase of transition.

It is important to note that individuals will travel through the transition model at different

rates and times. Some will transition relatively quickly, and some may continue to struggle with

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the Ending or the Neutral Zone much longer. Specific timelines can’t be placed on individual

progression through the transition model.

The ADKAR® Model

The Prosci® ADKAR® Model is a goal-orientated change management model used to

guide individual and organizational change. Created by Prosci founder Jeffrey Hiatt, ADKAR is

an acronym that represents the five outcomes an individual must achieve for change to be

successful: awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, reinforcement. “The ADKAR Model captures

how a single person goes through change. Awareness includes the nature of the change and why

the change is happening. Desire is that personal choice to embrace the change and commit to

moving forward. Knowledge includes education and training on how to change (behaviors,

skills, processes) and implement the change effectively. Ability is the demonstrated proficiency

with new tools, processes and job roles such that the desired outcomes of the change are

achieved. Reinforcement includes reward, recognition, compensation or other performance

management activities that sustain the change for that person” (Hiatt & Creasey, 2012).

The ADKAR model is designed at the individual employee level where change must occur.

However, the model can be applied to the overall organizational change that will be needed for

the NextGen project to succeed.

It is important to consider that each person within the organization does not go through

the process at the same rate. Some people will take more time going through one phase of the

model but seem to breeze right through other phases of the model (shown in the diagram below).

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As such, like the Bridge’s Transition Model, there is no clear timeline that can be placed on the

ADKAR change management model.

Alignment of Change Management and Project Management

Finally, it is important to align the change management process with the project

management process. Although these two aspects of the plan are distinct, they are also closely

associated. A successful change can best be achieved when the speed that employees navigate

the change process matches the speed of the business change itself.

Responsive Leadership: Stakeholder Interaction and Tools of Communication

As we moved from theory to practice, our action team collectively spent time meeting

with and interviewing our Team Sponsor, John Kearns, Director of Change Management,

Minnesota State. It was important for our team to have a clear understanding of our project, as

we felt our project was unique in the sense that NextGen is being implemented in real time and

not in the future. We wanted to keep the project stakeholders at the forefront and wanted to be

responding to the current needs at that moment in time. We did not want to provide outdated or

irrelevant feedback. One way that we were able to provide current feedback to our executive

sponsor was by reviewing phase one of the NextGen Communication Plan. The action team met

with our executive sponsor on December 6, 2019 to talk about what stage the NextGen

communication plan was at and to discuss next steps for the action team. At that meeting, a plan

was made for the team to review and give feedback about phase one of the NextGen

Communication Plan. On February 21, 2020, the team came back together in a meeting with our

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executive sponsor to provide feedback and have a conversation about the communication plan

(Appendix A).

After reviewing phase one of the NextGen Communication Plan and corresponding with

John Kearns, Director of Change Management, Minnesota State, our team felt it was important

to place the NextGen project within the context of other state university experiences. Minnesota

State provided a link to Ohio State University’s Enterprise Project as an example. Our team

reviewed the Enterprise Project website and came up with the following observations as they

relate to NextGen.

Overall, we found the information delivery on OSU’s Enterprise Project website to be

very streamlined (Appendix B). It offered a very logical and intuitive way to dig down into its

constituent components. It used an inverted pyramid method of delivering information that is

complimented with graphical signposts. This made it easy to navigate up and down and back and

forth without getting lost.

We noted specific examples of information delivery in the Enterprise Project that could

be applied to communication efforts in NextGen. The Enterprise Timing page provided a

graphical timeline but also serves as a resource for departments to download communication

tools and schedules. The Project Scope page was another good example of providing short

description and delivery snapshots of each component with links to find more detail. Browsing

through the other pages under the Scope tab, it appeared that, at the top page level, the website

was written to be understood by all university staff and faculty. However, links are offered to

dive deeper into any given department and that is where the language/jargon becomes specific to

area. One example was the Data & Technology page. We noted that the Enterprise training page

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was cross-disciplinary. This recognizes that individuals may need training in more than one

division or sector.

Generally, the OSU Enterprise Project website appeared very accessible, intuitive and

simple to navigate. Pages were not “text heavy” at the top level yet dense and comprehensive

further down as needed. The Enterprise communicated by leading with news updates, and menu

bar choices were designed to inform as comprehensively as desired. We also noted that brief

Q&A sections could be found at the bottom of several pages that addressed the issues particular

to a given area of training. The Communication Toolkits seemed quite handy. They were open

source and convenient.

After reviewing the OSU website, we reached out to William Ashley, Strategic

Communications & Engagement Director for the Enterprise Project. Ashley agreed to have a

ZOOM meeting with our team. The expectation for our conversation was to learn from Ohio

State’s experience of managing the ongoing communication process. We asked Ashley questions

related to the following issues and/or concerns (Appendix C):

• responsiveness to stakeholder questions & concerns

• adapting to unexpected changes

• forecasting next steps

• being transparent during ongoing change

• noting and celebrating milestones

• real-time assessment and adaptation of communication platforms

First of all, Ohio State’s Enterprise Project staffed three teams to handle marketing and

communication, change networking, and training. Ashley’s description of how these teams were

assembled sounded very similar to Minnesota State’s method of resourcing staff and

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administrators from across the system. While it is unclear how many Enterprise staff were

assigned strictly to change management, it’s scope is similar. This made OSU’s change process

comparable to Minnesota State’s NextGen and therefore a reasonable benchmark to draw from.

Regarding stakeholder questions and concerns, Ashely stated that his team subscribed to

a “mantra of responsiveness” (Appendix D). They made it a priority to answer all questions and

concerns from faculty, staff, students and administrators as quickly as possible. Avenues for

feedback included email and online forms. Responsiveness to Enterprise stakeholders was built

on a clear understanding of the target audiences. OSU’s strategic communications plan lays out a

matrix of their key audiences based on what Ashley calls a communication cascade. He identifies

three kinds of audiences as 1) leadership, 2) business, 3) internal, and 4) external (Appendix E):

• Leadership: board of trustees, president’s cabinet, council of deans, university senate,

student government, etc.

• Business: HR/payroll, finance, student services, IT

• Internal: faculty, staff, and students

• External: alumni, vendors, donors, etc.

Creating this kind of target audience matrix enables the Enterprise Project Marketing and

Communications Team to accomplish the following objectives:

• Position the project as both a business transformation and system implementation

• Leverage existing and project-created communication channels to build awareness

• Partner with communication leaders in business areas (Executive Communicators)

• Develop communication resources for the project team and key partners

• Facilitate face-to-face communication through project events and presentations

• Launch an institution-wide marketing campaign within 9 months of deployment.

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In our interview, Ashley remarked that COVID-19 served as a test of their ability to adapt

to unexpected changes. As a result, project timelines needed to adjust. They also took their

testing phase online. They implemented ZOOM sessions to continue training and development.

He reflected that one should always estimate the timeline and not communicate it is as firmly

set. Refer to it as an “anticipated timeline.” Ashley provided the Enterprise Project’s Marketing

and Communications Key Activities by Project Phases as an example of this (Appendix F).

Ashley also emphasized that it is important to be transparent during ongoing changes, “Tell

people when you know something and say ‘I don’t know’ when you don’t know the answer yet.”

Ashley affirmed that it was important to celebrate milestones during the Enterprise

Project. They held events at the start of each phase to acknowledge what they had accomplished

and to look ahead to what came next. This helped to build momentum and highlight progress.

The effectiveness of Enterprise communication channels were assessed by monitoring

website analytics. Ashley recommended not creating new channels of communication after the

project is underway. Ashley stressed the importance of benchmarking before the Enterprise

Project began and offered a snapshot of five universities he identified as being good examples to

follow during OSU’s migration to a new technological platform (Appendix G). In this snapshot,

he offers what he calls commonly stated successes, advice, challenges, and why messages:

1. Build communications resources centrally, but distribute them to audiences through

existing channels, change network, and the project team.

2. Develop a project website to host the why message, Workday benefits and advantages,

impact messages, go-live countdown, and project team information.

3. Humanize the project team by placing photos and information on the project website.

4. “Outdated” technology not enough of a why message.

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5. Large, institution-wide “campaign” not needed until 2-9 months before deployment.

Earlier communications should focus on subject matter experts who need to know the

processes and system.

Ashley noted that his communication change team used the ADKAR change

management methodology and offered a few words of advice when asked what he would have

done differently. First, never underestimate the need for internal project team communication.

Put mechanisms in place to create quick updates on a weekly basis. Also, make sure to take the

time to communicate your plan and timing with key stakeholders. Ashley gave the example of

Student Affairs. They are an important communication partner who can reach out to students to

get valuable information and feedback. Finally, Ashley remarked that. “The larger the institution,

the longer awareness takes.” Interview notes, an audio recording and all the documents provided

by William Ashley are available in the appendix of this report.

Conclusion: The Pre-Plan for the Current Plan which is part of the Existing Plan

Indira Gandhi, Indian politician and stateswoman, had said, “Have a bias towards action

– let’s see something happen now. You can break that big plan into small steps and take the first

step right away.” This quote really described our team’s first step in pre-planning for the

NextGen Change Communications action learning project. The approach: big projects are made

up of small, actionable takes. The plan is broken down into phases, called milestones, which are

made up of tasks, and that way things get done.

Knowing there were a variety of stakeholders with unique communication needs, how

could the NextGen team enhance its communications plan to increase awareness and ensure

communications were relevant to its audiences (i.e., IT, HR, Finance, etc.)? One of the team’s

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possible outcomes was to explore effective leadership communication strategies in a multi-

campus higher education system. So, knowing the approach, what would be next?

Abraham Lincoln said it best, “Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend

the first four sharpening the axe”. This was the next step: hold several early meetings as a team

and let the ideas flow – every idea was a good idea for five minutes. This practice of inquiry and

curiosity allowed for full team engagement. It was a matter of taking the time and effort

necessary for due diligence before taking any action.

The teams charge, paraphrased, was to provide clear communications to a variety of

stakeholders while acknowledging resistance to change while transitioning to a new, modernized

technology solution. Knowing our charge, it was time to review existing documents because “if

you don’t know where you are going, you will end up someplace else” as Yogi Berra eloquently

pointed out with his unintentional witticism. John Kearns, Director of Change Management for

Minnesota State provided our team with phase one of the NextGen Communication Plan

(Appendix H). Subsequently we met with John to ask questions and share ideas (Appendix A).

“Someone’s sitting in the shade today because someone planted a tree a long time ago”

makes so much sense as investor Warren Buffett points out. A set of moral values that set up a

framework for expected behaviors and decision-making were already in place. These were the

NextGen Guiding Principles. Our team felt fortunate that there was a solid foundation. This was

the groundwork that provided us with the stability in exploring options for communications.

Creating the telephone book took planning. Alexander Graham Bell might have had his

eye on the prize, but he understood the need to prepare for the process that would get him there.

“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” Our team had purpose, a charge,

principles to guide and outcomes to achieve. Now, we were set to start organizing and grouping

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all those thoughts, ideas, and tasks. Batch similar tasks together, think about how much time

each task will take, re-write them in order of importance, and see if there are things that we need

further clarification on from our sponsor.

Eleanor Roosevelt understood the human capacity to wish upon a star, to want something

so badly and hope that, by some trick of chance or fate, it will be given to you. But things rarely

land on your lap, and if they do, they might not be what you want. Plan and you will receive. “It

takes as much energy to wish as it does to plan”. So, how did this apply to our team and where

we were at this point in the simple concept of “pre-planning for the current plan which is part of

the existing plan”?

Our team was in a stage of desire. We wanted, needed, to put some sort of structure

around this ambiguous action learning project. There was a bit of struggle and for some of us, a

feeling like we were not going to accomplish our goal – were we failing? Failing is a part of

every plan (even pre-planning). As Oprah Winfrey notes, those failures are not failures, they are

part of the process. Oprah was right! At this point, we realized we needed more resources – the

right people around the table to generate forward momentum. And, those key people were our

sponsor, a member of his team, and a resource from another higher education institution who had

been there and done that with a similar project. The key was to prioritize what mattered most

and solidify that action. We had our focus which was to create a timeline.

Simon Sinek, an internationally recognized author, speaker and business consultant,

found that the ability for a group of people to do remarkable things hinges on how well those

people can pull together as a team. And, this starts with the leader of the team. Our leader,

Jackie, set up a culture of success by setting the standard, leading by example, and pushing our

team towards success. Even though our team may not have a “polished” final product for our

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action learning project, what we do have are professional relationships that will continue to

grow.

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Works Cited

Ashley, William. Marketing and Communication Benchmarking, Enterprise Project. March 26,

2020. Word Document.

Ashley, William. Marketing and Communication, Summary - Strategic Communications Plan.

March 26, 2020. Word Document.

Ashley, William. Marketing and Communications Key Activities by Project Phases. March 26,

2020. PowerPoint Document.

Bridges, W., & Bridges, S. (2016). Managing Transitions; Making the Most of Change. Boston,

MA: Da Capo Press.

Hiatt, J. M., & Creasey, T. J. (2012). Change Management; The People Side of Change.

Loveland, Colorado : Prosci Inc.

Kearns, John M. Minnesota State NextGen Communication Plan, Phase 1. January 15, 2020.

PDF file.

Kearns, John M. NextGen Comm Feedback from Luoma. March 6, 2020. Email Correspondence.

Responsive Communication: Luoma Action Team Response to NextGen Communication Plan

Phase 1 on January 17, 2020: A Conversation between the Executive Sponsor and Action

Team

Luoma Action Team Response to NextGen Communication Plan Phase 1. January 17, 2020.

Meeting Minutes.

Luoma Action Team Meeting with William Ashley. March 26, 2020. Audio Recording.

Luoma Action Team Meeting with William Ashley. March 26, 2020. Meeting Minutes.

The Ohio State University: Enterprise Project. Retrieved January 14, 2020. https://enterprise-

project.osu.edu

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Questions for William Ashley, Strategic Communications & Engagement Director, Enterprise

Project, Ohio State University. March 26, 2020. Meeting Agenda.

Appendix A Responsive Communication: Luoma Action Team Response to NextGen Communication Plan Phase 1 on January 17, 2020: A Conversation between the Executive Sponsor and Action Team

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Appendix B Notes on Ohio State’s Enterprise Project Website https://enterprise-project.osu.edu Overall, information delivery is very streamlined and offers a very logical way to dig down into it’s constituent components/sectors. It uses an inverted pyramid (news story) method of delivering information that is complimented with graphical signposts. This makes it easy to navigate up/down and back/forth without getting lost. If you want to know more, just dig a little deeper… Here are the OSU team members: https://enterprise-project.osu.edu/about/project-team

- I have sent an email via the contact page to ask if our group and talk with someone at the Enterprise Project

The Timing page is interesting in that it provides a graphical timeline but also serves as a resource for departments/divisions to download communication tools and schedules: https://enterprise-project.osu.edu/about/timing The Project Scope page is another good example of providing short description and delivery snapshots of each component with links to find more detail: https://enterprise-project.osu.edu/scope/project-scope Browsing through the other pages under the Scope tab, it seems to me that, at the top page level, the website is written to be understood by all university staff and faculty. However, links are offered to dive deeper into any given division/department and that is where the language/jargon becomes specific to discipline/area. One example is Data & Technology: https://enterprise-project.osu.edu/scope/data-technology I like that the training page is cross-discipline/division: https://enterprise-project.osu.edu/about-training I also like the little Q&A sections at the bottom of several pages. The Communication Toolkits seem handy – open source and convenient: https://enterprise-project.osu.edu/toolkit Generally, the OSU Enterprise Project website seems:

- very accessible, logical and simple to navigate, - not “text heavy” at the top level - yet dense and comprehensive down deep as needed. - Leads with news - Menu bar choices are designed to inform as comprehensively as desired

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Appendix C Questions for William Ashley ZOOM Meeting Thursday, March 26, 2020 William Ashley Strategic Communications & Engagement Director, Enterprise Project 130A Mount Hall, 1050 Carmack Road, Columbus, OH 43210 614-688-2401 Office / 614-493-8565 Mobile ashley.56@osu.edu / enterprise-project.osu.edu

William, thank you for being willing to spend time with us today and sharing your experience implementing change as the Strategic Communications & Engagement Director of the Enterprise Project at Ohio State University. As of March 2020, NextGen Phase I is well underway. Communication strategy objectives are set, target audiences are identified and a flow of communication via multiple platforms is in process. All this to say that MinnState’s NextGen project is already off and running. Perhaps the most helpful perspective for us to adopt during today’s conversation is how we can learn from Ohio State’s experience of managing the ongoing communication process:

- responsiveness to stakeholder questions & concerns - adapting to unexpected changes - forecasting next steps - being transparent during ongoing change - noting and celebrating milestones - realtime assessment and adaptation of communication platforms

Here are a few questions already posed by our work group help may help stimulate our conversation today. These questions are broad so please feel free to share specific examples that were meaningful or impactful for you (your “aha” moments will likely help us greatly):

1. Could you reflect on your experience in communicating with the various stakeholders and/or target audiences as you implemented the enterprise project?

2. What did you find to be effective communication platforms during the implementation process?

3. What important lessons did you learn through the process of communicating timelines and calendars? What worked, what didn’t?

4. Are there examples of events that were effective in for attendees? Or better yet, what did you learn to be the best way to use events to convey or effect change?

5. Other questions or thoughts? I just emailed our most recent meeting notes and phase 1 communication plan to each of you to reference during our meeting.

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Appendix D Notes from Meeting with William Ashley, Communications Director at The Ohio State University for their Enterprise Project Conversion (March 26, 2020) The Enterprise project began at OSU in 2017. Workday was chosen product. The Enterprise project was seen as a full scale business transformation(human resources, payroll, finance, payroll, students) They have three teams under communication within the Enterprise Project

• Marketing and Communications Team – Build Awareness • Change Network – Readiness Checklist, Right System Integration • Training – pdfs, powerpoints, e-learning, instructor lead

COVID-19 has extended their timeline. The stakeholders are no longer ready to/able to proceed due to the impact of the pandemic. Testing Phase – They did ZOOM sessions and training development. OSU was very interested in change management with the enterprise project because change had not been done well in the past. They have 20 staff within the change team.

• 4 Communication – Graphic Design, Website • 4 Relationship Builders • 10-15 Learning/Change Teams

2023 – When it will be deployed to students Mantra of Responsiveness – They would say yes to any request from stakeholders. Rarely said no. Very Responsive Collect Questions/Email Questions/Intentionally monitored daily/Online form/avenue to provide feedback. It was important to develop strong partnerships with executive communicators (communication directors) from various offices (IT, HR, etc.) Always estimate your timeline. Do not communicate your timeline as set. Refer to as Anticipated Timeline. It is important to be transparent through ongoing changes. Tell people when you know things and say I don’t know when you don’t know answer yet. Important to Note and Celebrate Milestones – They held events at the start of each phase, where they would recap, talk about accomplishments, and share what’s to expect. This would build momentum and highlight progress. Monitor Website Analytics – Assess what channels of communication drove website. Most traffic was through existing channels of communication. Do not create new channels of communication. They were halfway through, before they created a new channel. Use existing channels! OSU Background

• There are 6 regional campuses.

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• Clusters of Change Management Groups at regional campuses (Health Sciences, etc). Go out to the regional campuses.

• Existing set of communicators have listserv.

Important not to under communicate – Created “In a Nutshell” – 6 bulleted items This is a Business, not just a technology transformation. Leverage existing project and created communication change transformation.

• Partner with communication leaders • Develop Communication Resources • Facilitate face to face communication(events and presentations) • Launch institutional wide marketing campaign

Everyone within their communication Group became trained in Prosci (ADKAR) Change Management Methodology. When is the right time to move from target to broad communication? Within 9 months of Workday deployment. The larger the institution, the longer AWARENESS takes. What would you do different?

1. Not underestimate the need for internal team project communication. Created mechanism for Quick updates – “Fast 5” Biweekly, sent Monday mornings.

2. Spending time with key Stakeholders about communication plan and timing.

Adapt to changing communication, especially looking at deployment to students. This is where good communication partners are important. Reach out to Student Affairs to find out how their stakeholders like to receive information.

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Appendix E

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Appendix F

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Appendix G Marketing and Communications Benchmarking Enterprise Project Commonly stated successes, advice, challenges, and Why messages:

1. Build communications resources centrally, but distribute them to audiences through existing channels, change network, and the project team.

2. Develop a project website to host the Why message, Workday benefits and advantages, impact messages, go-live countdown, and project team information.

3. Humanize the project team by placing photos and information on the project website. 4. “Outdated” technology not enough of a Why message. 5. Large, institution-wide “campaign” not needed until 2-9 months before deployment.

Earlier communications should focus on subject matter experts who need to know the processes and system.

Institution Successes/Advice Challenges The Why University of Texas at Austin (Workday HCM)

• For primary audiences, focus on explicit impact messages and not “pump them up” messages

• Big, broad project awareness tactics should be used in final phases (test and deploy)

• Communications cascade: leaders, super and core users, then employees

• Admit some short-term pain for university’s long-term gain

• Develop global and stakeholder-specific messages, then make them available to the project team

• Determining core audiences and who needs to know what, when

• Promoted specific Workday benefits before they truly understood how UT will implement it; led to delays and taking back past statements

• Early messaging focused too much on the technology; retiring an old mainframe did not resonate; did not focus on business advantages

• Better to not put effort in mass awareness early.

• Spend more time with SMEs and stakeholders to really understand the system and use them as the primary audience

• Old why: We have an aging mainframe that we can’t sustain; risky to the university

• New why: Enterprise-wide benefits of a single, integrated system

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Claremont University Consortium (Workday Financials)

• Figure out what the most negative person will say about the project

• Build communications resources for the project team, giving them the tools to build awareness

• Share project’s guiding principles widely

• Placing team members and milestone moments on website

• Mentioned “clunky” as it relates to reporting

• Struggling to have sponsors be good communicators about the project

• Difficult time pinpointing the Why message.

• Outdated technology was not enough of a reason

• Reached out to functional areas to ask WIIFM

University of Miami (Workday HCM and Financials)

• Early communications: Recommends articles in existing channels to know project is coming. Then, when we know what’s changing or coming, a bigger introduction

• Go live countdown on website

• “Sell” continuous improvement message separately, then tie Workday to that message

• Early communications would be around a continuous improvement organization

• As soon as you can, show them the system (videos, sneak peeks)

• Finding the right audiences for training (who is in the role and needs the training)

• Encouraging people to attend trainings with known delays in deployment

• Thinks the mass awareness campaign started too early

• Benefits of Workday o Administrative

excellence is part of president’s vision

o Closer to the consumer, streamlining what we do administratively so we aren’t a barrier, hold people accountable for decisions

o Faster, cleaner system; just in time reports (WIIFM)

o Visual system o Frontline staff: How

can work be done faster (example of executive secretaries’ overview)

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• Articles on team members, facial recognition

Arizona State University (Workday Financials)

• Creating project website (with why message and what advantages we will see, messages on impacts)

• First big push was a series of awareness emails sent to potential users (building awareness; glossary of terms; project status)

• Very high-level versions of WD benefits can be communicated early (largely organically found, not pushed out, shared by project team)

• Meet and greet sessions (by change network); in person is the most valuable channel (prioritize F2F communications throughout architect and configuration)

• Editorial review process (not just creating, but following it)

• Consensus on when to communicate (leaders saying users should not know until the system is ready)

• Largely didn’t push out communications until last months of configuration

• What not to share early: what systems are going away

• Current systems are not sustainable

University of Washington (Workday HCM)

• Status report shared with exec and unit leaders (unit readiness)

• Change network (access docs from an intranet, monthly in person meeting

• External website (will remain for one month after go live)

• Reaching those where English is 2nd language (high use of graphics helped here)

• UW has a 35 year old, out of date software system not meeting the needs of this century

• Workday chosen because other institutions chose it

• Enhancements built into the system, integrated/centralized versus not integrated (former state)

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• Survey to employees to assess readiness

• Animated brief intro video

• Longer video specifically for faculty (from their point of view in the system)

• Using change network to communicate broadly (primary communicators)

• Employee checklist • Routine messages

(emails) from readiness leads to department

• Toolkits

• With cloud based, will be up to date and better protected

Texas A&M (Workday HCM)

• Centrally produce materials, distribute to other communicators

• Huge dependence on change network; utilized network for all communications in early phases

• Metrics to check basic levels of knowledge and readiness (training completions)

• Motion stories were a big hit for users

• Project website • Newsletter is a

nice touchpoint, but doesn’t drive a lot of traffic to our website

• Be flexible and respond to community’s needs

• Texas A&M is a confederation of colleges; central doesn’t “own” any members

• If end experience branding for the user will be different than project branding (Workday versus Enterprise Project), start using end experience branding as soon as possible and timed when you start end-user communications

• Went through a comp and class project in the middle of implementation

• Combo of burning platform and where the institution is heading

• For mass audiences, a tongue in cheek phrase for outgrowing old mainframe application (embracing the cloud; moving into 21st century; ease of use; intuitive; no duplications; everything in one system)

• For leaders, sharing that staff are (literally) dying or retiring and we don’t have the people who can code this language anymore (cost of mainframe, security risks; nuts and bolts)

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• Recommends not starting mass employee communications until 9 months before deployment

• Once major changes were identified, implemented a four-step program to educate employees in the impacted functional areas; 4 webinar events (about every other month) that focus on change impacts

• Goal is to have employees in functional areas hear about the changes a couple of times before they attend a training. Classroom training should not be the first time they hear the big stuff

Yale University (Workday HCM and Financials)

• Developed a communications roadmap: all audiences and all messages they needed to say at points in time; represented all audiences and anticipated messages for the duration of the project

• Sends a weekly Workday update; a bundled communication to various audiences (change network,

• Communications team too small

• Don’t oversell it: first round of communications (“It’s a new day”) irritated people; “don’t promise me this will change my life”

• Saying there will be immediate benefits is a long stretch; this happens once every 20 years, and there are long-term benefits

• Used objectives (simplify and standardize processes; easier to get work done and harder to make mistakes; minimize administrative work for employees; lowering operating costs and improving efficiencies; accurate, trusted and timely reporting)

• Overall objective: support Yale’s mission, administrative excellence that mirrors academic excellence

• Benefits: continuously optimized through

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admins, systems community); previously sent individual communications to targeted audiences, but are happy with one major communication per week

• Metrics used include Google Analytics for web articles, open rates for email, and link analytics for headlines; sends the newsletter separately to audiences to compare audience metrics

• Marketing campaign not implemented until 60 days before go live (end user doesn’t need to know before)

• 3 phases to marketing campaign: get connected, be prepared (training), get support (post deployment resources)

• Give realistic messages: in the long run, these are the things we can provide you. We will help you get there with this new system; it will take time

• Telling faculty and leaders that staff will need time to train and learn new system, work might take longer for a bit

• Cautionary tale: end user not exactly excited that processes are changing; this is disruptive to them

• Don’t be overly sunny or dramatic, somewhere in the middle

• “This is helping the university be more efficient and keep up with emerging technology.”

frequent releases; flexible reporting needs; mobile access and self service; simple and intuitive user interface

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Appendix H

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