6. The Human Side of Change Enablement
We often talk about change as though technology changes itself. It doesn't.
People experience change.
People implement it.
People support it.
People adopt it.
And people sometimes resist it.
Yet much of traditional ITSM change management focuses on the technology.
Was the implementation successful?
Did the deployment complete?
Was there an incident?
Was the rollback required?
Important questions. But there are others.
What happens to the people?
Consider a major system upgrade. Technically, everything goes perfectly. But the service desk receives hundreds of calls the next morning because users don't understand what's changed.
The knowledge base wasn't updated.
Support wasn't briefed.
Customers weren't told what to expect.
Training wasn't available.
Was the change successful? Technically, perhaps. Operationally and experientially, probably not.
Change Enablement is a team sport
A mature change process shouldn't sit solely with the change manager. Different people have different pieces of the picture.
The delivery team understands the technical change.
The business understands the intended outcome.
The service desk understands customer impact.
Security understands the risk.
Operations understands service stability.
Communications understands how to prepare people.
Customers understand the experience.
The best decisions happen when these perspectives come together appropriately.
Communication isn't a checkbox
One of the most common mistakes is treating communication as: “Communication required: Yes.” Then an email goes out. Done.
But effective communication should answer:
Who needs to know?
What do they need to know?
When do they need to know it?
What action do they need to take?
What happens if they don't understand or aren't ready?
Different audiences may need completely different messages. A technical team might need implementation details. A service desk might need troubleshooting guidance. A customer might simply need to know what is changing and what they need to do.
The service desk is often the early warning system
The service desk has a unique position. They see the impact of change from the customer's perspective. That makes service desk data incredibly valuable.
After a significant change, look at:
Contact volumes
Repeat contacts
Incident categories
Knowledge article usage
Escalations
Customer feedback
“How do I?” requests
If contact volume suddenly increases after a change, don't automatically assume the service desk has a training problem. The change itself may have created the demand.
Change fatigue is real
Organisations can also change too much. Even successful changes accumulate.
New systems.
New processes.
New policies.
New interfaces.
New ways of working.
Eventually people become exhausted by constant change. This is particularly relevant in organisations undergoing transformation.
The question isn't simply: “Can we implement this change?”
It's: “Can the organisation absorb this change right now?”
That's a very different question.
A practical readiness check
For significant changes, consider five simple areas:
Technology: Is the solution ready?
Operations: Can we support it?
People: Are users ready?
Communication: Do affected groups understand it?
Experience: Do we understand what the change will feel like?
A technically ready change may not be organisationally ready.
The bigger shift
Change Enablement isn't just about reducing failed implementations. It's about increasing the organisation's capacity to change well.
That means understanding that successful change is partly technical and partly human. Because ultimately, a change isn't complete when the deployment finishes. It's complete when the people affected by it can successfully operate in the new world.
The technology may be the thing we're changing. But people are the ones who have to live with the change.
Next in the series: AI Is About to Change Change Enablement.
Change Enablement - Beyond the Change Ticket.
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