The Consulting Space

“A successful business transformation begins and ends with the impacted employees,” begins Emma Hayward, Director of The Consulting Space (TCS). However, most organizations fail to effectively analyze, assess, and communicate the impact of a change and transformation program to their employees. Articulating the technology roadmap and building a plan to develop the required technology solutions is not enough in itself. Any organization needs to engage its employees from the beginning of the change program to sustain productivity by reducing unnecessary resistance during the business transformation. Led by Psychology and Organizational Transformation experts, Adam Libbis and Emma Hayward, TCS is a company that enables companies to succeed in business transformation programs.

Be it change management, HR management, or training and development, TCS has a range of business needs covered. The company offers several change management tools that include standardized change impact assessments and stakeholder analysis. The TCS Change-CARD tool analyzes necessary quantitative information to assess the impact of a planned transformation on the business and the level of risk and complexity that needs to be managed. The tool provides a business impact rating after evaluating data such as the number of employees affected, training required, industrial climate, and leadership capability. With this insight, clients can make informed decisions on resource allocation and the required approach for a specific program.

“Given that many of our programs tend to be large scale business transformations, especially in the government and heavy industry, we sometimes need to reach more than 10,000 employees representing diverse stakeholder groups with varying needs,” says Adam.

Recently, TCS implemented a Salesforce-based CRM to help one of its clients manage frequent interactions with a large number of stakeholder groups across the program. The company has also developed a range of dashboards to help clients communicate their engagement with stakeholders across teams.

Technology apart, it is its high-level collaboration with clients that separates TCS in the market. The company is enthusiastic about exceeding client expectations by engaging them deeply and ensuring that a footprint of change and transformation capability is left behind after the program has been successfully implemented. The company begins its engagement by gaining a thorough understanding of the client organization, comprehending their culture, and interviewing key stakeholders. “We also learn about previous transformational successes and failures, key influencers, understand commitment levels by sponsors and assess change leadership capability at all levels,” informs Emma. While dealing with technology transformation projects, the company conducts stakeholder analysis and change impact assessments by engaging people involved in the transformation and the day to day running of the business. The company then develops a comprehensive change and communications plan that includes a post-implementation support phase. TCS understands that effective Change Management requires rigor and discipline. “The challenge is in the execution,” says Adam and he continues “developing a quality Change Management Plan is just the start, you then need to be able to continue to work with your diverse stakeholder group and lead them through the practical and tangible steps required actually to implement the change.”

In an instance, Sydney Trains network maintenance division engaged TCS to consolidate the number of maintenance depots from 127 to 12 network bases (a project that involved more than 1,000 workers). TCS scheduled formal and informal consultations and engaged closely with managers, influencers, and staff. It conducted multiple workshops and provided one-on-one coaching sessions to address the impact of the new organizational structure and build positive relationships with the staff. Post-implementation, TCS remained at Sydney Trains to provide ongoing support with reinforcing the change. The project was completed on time and within budget, and is widely considered as one of the major success stories of Sydney Trains reform program.