COVID-19: A Masterclass in Adoption & Change Management

The COVID-19 pandemic crept up on us all. None of us thought just a month ago that we'd be faced with the possibility of "total lockdown" (whatever that means) and staying inside for up to 12 weeks. But now? We're all over it! Berating people for daring to sit outside Costa Coffee with their take-out cups, angry at those who flocked to the Brecon Beacons this weekend, telling people via our Facebook accounts to stay the f*** inside. The Government has executed a masterclass in Adoption & Change Management. And we should take note.

I'll put my cards on the table up front and say I'm a seasoned Tory voter, with my blue membership card taking pride of place in front of my kid's picture in my purse, but this article isn't intended as a piece of PR for the presiding PM. Instead, I'm sat here in awe as our country has turned from a nation full of corona-sceptics only a few weeks ago, to being one that will happily allow the forced closure of Nando's AND Wetherspoon's for "the greater good".

Only last week, I think we were all kinda thinking we could just go down The Winchester, have a pint, and wait for this all to blow over. But that's certainly not going to be the case for the foreseeable future. So how has the government turned the tide of opinion?

Well, they've taken a phased approach. It's one we should be using when completing any business change project, because by God, it's been effective! So here's my insights into the COVID-19 ACM plan and how businesses can replicate this success for their business change projects, using a Teams implementation as an example:

Phase 1: Communication

We've been hearing about coronavirus since Christmas-time. It feels like ages ago. I feel like I've been quarantined in my house for at least 14 years, but unfortunately we've only been in the throes of this thing for about three months. Comms started fairly early on, we were told about China and the measures they're putting in place before Christmas. It's been in the news every day. It became part of our national discourse long before anyone here got infected.

The four steps of the strategy were laid out. Contain. Delay. Research. Mitigate. We know them off by heart already. We've been talking about self-isolation, social distancing and hand washing.

The Government, NHS and subject matter experts have plastered information everywhere for us to see. It's got the conversation started. It's got us researching. It's got us knowledgeable.

So in our business change project, what can we do? Well if we're implementing Teams, we should be talking about it early. Our "Government" in this case is our project team and they need to be shouting about the project before it really kicks off in earnest, our senior sponsor needs to be making some noise. Our NHS, or IT Team, needs to have some clear communication strategies.

Start with a Yammer post about it. Maybe do a webinar showing people the functionality that's coming. Explain who'll be seeing the solution and when. Share blog posts about Teams. Get the words "channel" and "team" in the corporate discourse. You can be doing all this before you've even started a pilot programme. It'll get people used to it. Then we can start making some changes.

Phase 2: Optional Compliance

The next phase of the government's ACM strategy has been to set out some guidelines. Now the words social distancing and self-isolation are in our vocabulary, we've been advised to start practicing them. We're relying on a percentage of the population choosing to follow the guidelines, and to bring the non-conformists in line as well. We've found our product champions.

Over the weekend, we started judging all those people who took a bottle of beer and sat outside the pub. We berated those who flocked to Barry Island and the Brecon Beacons. We've laughed at people panic buying. The Government has explained the benefits of taking their advice and got people on board.

Some organisations have now decided to take the advice a step further. We've seen closures announced by Primark, John Lewis, Costa and McDonald's over the weekend, with others expected to follow suit. We know what the government's long-term plan is, we know what we should be doing. Now people are starting to take action before it's forced on to them.

In the business world, we can give our end users the option of taking the technology on board. If we're running a proof of concept, or pilot programme, we can ask for volunteers to trial out the technology and provide feedback. Once we've done our pilot, we can just install it and let people try it out in their own time. Provide some instructions on a Yammer group, or via e-mail, and see how people get on.

Good old FOMO (fear of missing out) usually kicks in when we hear people talking about a great experience. Hearing a colleague talk about how they used Teams to collaborate with someone else on a document in real time will get others curious. The group will be brought along on the journey, without much intervention. Just keep the lines of communication open.

We can leave our solutions in optional mode for a few weeks. Keep up the comms and encourage discussion, but don't force the change on people. Let them come to the realisation themselves that what you're doing is a benefit for them.

Phase 3: Compliance

Whilst we're not quite at the stage of a forced lock-down just yet with the COVID-19 response, I'll hazard a guess that it's not too far away from becoming our reality. Pubs, schools, and gyms have all closed. Clothing stores are shutting their doors. Trains and buses are cutting their services. Even parks are closing down.

As the national consensus now seems to be that staying at home, practicing social distancing, and following the government's advice is the right thing thing to do, implementing more draconian measures isn't going to come as such a shock to the system for the majority of Brits.

In fact, I've seen posts all over social media with people asking for the PM to force us all into isolation. Do you think a month ago, we'd have had the same levels of people asking to be mandated to stay indoors? Not a chance!

For our business change project, this is where we're finalising our implementation. We're switching off legacy systems, like Skype for Business. We're letting people know the change over date. Mopping up any training issues. Continuing our consistent communications to the business and then transitioning over to BAU operations. We're now forcing our people to get on board with the project.

But by this stage, it'll be less of a shock to our users. They've seen it coming. We've shared our plan with them. They've seen the benefits. Their colleagues are talking about Teams and how great it is and why everyone should be using it. Your work here is done.

So to summarise, the government has got a nation of 66 million Brits to think going to the pub is a bad idea. And they've done it in an amazingly short time period. So I don't want to hear any more nonsense about organisations not switching on MFA because of user experience impact. Follow the same steps and you'll be up and running in no time!!

So I don't think we'll be going down the pub until this is over. I don't think we'll be allowed to keep going out to parks and beaches if we can't all be sensible. And I don't think we can keep flaunting the rules. If you'd told me that a month ago, I'd have probably laughed at you. But now? I'm on board. And you should be too!