Change Monitoring

Pulse Checks – Sounding Board

Organizational Change Management Methodology
Business Transformation Services
Speaker’s Name, SAP
Month 00, 2017

INTERNAL

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Pulse Checks – Sounding Board Details
Objectives
 Gather feedback from the basis about spirit
within the organization and perceived progress
of a change process
 Use participants as multipliers: to funnel
feedback from employees to management and
from management to employees
 Be able to proactively react to concerns within
the organization before escalation
 Identify key topics for the change process
(successes, pain points, etc.)
 Validate planned communication & change
activities
Short description
 Fixed set of participants meets on a regular basis (e.g. quarterly
or according to project milestones) for open dialogue
 Participants collect feedback from their colleagues and act as
spokesperson for respective unit/team as well we communicate
discussed points and action steps back into organization
 Neutral facilitator leads through meeting (2-3 hours) using
question catalog
 Participants should be from all affected units / teams (repres.
sample)
 Results and comments are anonymized and reported in a
consolidated way back to the management team
 Time period between two sounding boards should be long
enough to be able to react to feedback and implement according
activities („feel the change“)

Advantages Risks Material/Resources per sounding board


 Be
Keyinsuccess
touch with „theOnly
factor:  3 – 20 participants (depending on size of affected area)
basis“
valid if follow up action by  Meeting room with a nice atmosphere (participants have
 Understand
managementpain and to feel comfortable in order to give honest feedback)
points, problemswithin
communication and  1 coordinator
concerns within
organization!!! the  1 neutral facilitator e.g. external or change manager
 organization at an
Face to face meeting  1 day of preparation (prepare question catalog, book
early stageto build up
important
 Use
room, send out invitation etc.)
participants
mutual as to get
trust in order  2-3 hours meeting
multiplicators (in both
valid and honest feedback
ways)  2-3 days analysis of feedback and consolidation

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Pulse Checks – Sounding Board Process EXAMPLE

X – 4 weeks Going live (X) X + 4 weeks

Project team  Sponsor
 Inform and get commitment to
change monitoring strategy
Project team  SVPs
 Present concept
 Nominate sounding board
representatives
Local top management (SVPs)
 Nominate sounding board (SB)
representatives (2-3 per
unit,/~20)
Sponsor  SB participants
 Nomination mail to SB
participants (purpose, role, next
steps)
Sponsor  All unit‘s employees
 Announcement mail of SB
representatives to all employees
Pulse check survey with all employees
(n=???)
 Feedback
 Recommendations
 Corporate portal team
 Data in Excel
Kick off/ run sounding board
meeting
 Purpose, role, tasks
 Feedback, discussion
 Recommendations
 N.N.
 Moderation sounding board
 Interpretation of survey data
 Prepare final presentation/change
report (see change BSC next page)
Steering committee
 Decides on activities
 Communicates results and
initiatives to all employees
 Take responsibility for rollout of
activities
Project team/ N.N.
 Present results and
recommendations to steering
committee
Project team
 Interpret data and design
recommendations
 Update for risk and issues
assessment
N.N.
 Presents results to project team

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Pulse Checks – Sounding Board Run Sounding Board – Tips

Practical tips for sounding board execution

 Number of participants should be according to size of organization, between 3-20 employees
 Participants have to:
 Come from all affected areas / teams
 Be only employees no managers
 Not whine and argue, but
 Give constructive and open feedback
 Have interest in change process
 Have a strong network in the organization
 As host, create an open and trustful atmosphere
 The Facilitator should be available for all planned events to build up trust relationship with participants
 Prefer personal before indirect communication
 Focus on 8-12 questions per Sounding Board – employees will bring up extra feedback if necessary!
 Do not only focus on what is going wrong in the change process, but ask for success stories as well
 Ensure that participants receive final result of consolidated feedback to close information loop!
 Propose recommendations to top management of LoB
 Top Management should design and communicate FOLLOW UP ACTIVITIES !!!

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Pulse Checks – Sounding Board Run Sounding Board – Questions
Question category Key questions
Change process  How do you personally experience the change process?
overall/spirit  Which change activities have been successful so far? Why? Which were not so helpful? Why?
 What is the progress/status of the Change project in your opinion?
 How is the spirit in your team / in your unit / in your local field organization currently?

Best practices/  What are potential Success stories?

Success stories (past  What is now working out better than before the change?
experience)  What goes smoothly? Where is the execution successful?
 Which things that are going well could we do more? Or more often?
 What can we be proud of (achievements)?
 What do we know from other units / areas where things are working out well?
 What can be regarded as success story from an external point of view?
 Which decisions / reactions of the top management are well perceived and regarded?
 What are the key learning's? For the organization / for you personally

Critical issues (current  What are critical issues?

status)  Which topics concerning the change process do you discuss most often with your colleagues?
 Criticism? Problems? Pain points?
 What worries you?
 Are there any rumors?
 Which risks do you see for the success of the change project?
 What is now working out worse than before the Change?
 What were the best and the worst developments concerning the change project in the last few
months / since the last milestone/since the beginning of the project/etc.?

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Pulse Checks – Sounding Board Run Sounding Board – Questions – Cont.

Question category Key questions

Potential action areas  Which expectations do you have looking at the next quarter / next year / next project phase /
(Outlook) etc.?
 Where do you see calls for action – immediately or in the long term?
 Where and how can we improve the change process?
 Which topics and activities would support the change process better?
 What else do we need to do an even better job than now?
 What do you think does the organization need to work better / more efficient / faster / etc.?
 Where do we need more / less / different resources?
Communication  What do you think about the communication activities concerning the change project (e.g.
completeness, conciseness)
 What do you think about specific communication tools (e.g. e-mails, newsletter, intranet,
meetings, FAQ)?
 What do you think about the communication and change activities of the past few weeks / months
/ etc.? What was good? What could have been better?

Gap analysis (focus on  What are from your point of view the biggest differences between the organization now and
project objectives) before the change project?
 What are the changes since … the last check up / last Sounding Board / last communication
wave / etc.?
 How big is the progress we have made so far from your point of view?
– best to use with answering scale 1=very big, 2=big, 3=medium, 4=fairly small, 5=very small or
1=big, 2=medium, 3=small, 4=no progress at all, 5=I don‘t know

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