HQN Business Transformation Toolkit – the keys to success ...

HQN Business Transformation Toolkit – the keys to success self-assessment

March 2018

Rockingham House, St Maurice’s Road, York, YO31 7JATel: +44 (0)845 4747 004 Email: [email protected] Visit: www.hqnetwork.co.uk

HQN Limited Registered in England Reg No. 3087930 1

Welcome to the HQN Business Transformation Toolkit. Our aim is to help you unlock the benefits of your business transformation programme.

Why use the toolkit?

1. It will enable you to evaluate your whole transformation programme or one or two specific areas in a structured way.

2. It will help you to identify current areas of strength and potential gaps.

3. It will introduce you to the keys to unlocking the potential of your business transformation programme.

4. It will provide practical support and advice to help you avoid the pitfalls others have experienced and ensure that the best possible outcomes can be achieved for your organisation, colleagues and customers.

5. It will help you gain the confidence to start your business transformation or review and strengthen your ongoing business transformation programme.

What is included in the toolkit?

The toolkit is based around a business transformation model developed from insights and real world experience of significant change programmes. It draws specifically from technology-enabled change programmes, taking learning from housing, the public sector and beyond. It combines proven and industry leading programme management, digital skills management, technology management and housing management practice to provide a robust assessment framework.

Successful business transformation draws upon change management, technology management and people management disciplines.

In order to succeed you need to

• Create the right environment,

• Develop a winning strategy and be

• Be tenacious in your execution.

Within each of these themes we have identified specific key areas to unlock the potential of your organisation: vision, leadership, structure, technology, outcomes, principles, data & insight, resources, stakeholders and governance.

This toolkit will help you explore these in more detail.

It will enable you to review what you are proposing from people to process to technology.

Why getting business transformation right is important

For most organisations there is a trigger that sets them off on a transformational path or at very least brings an urgency to making changes.

For those of us working in the housing and the public sector many of those triggers all came at once; uncertainty of government policy, a squeeze on benefits for the most vulnerable in our society, a shift in funding, a shift in value for money measurement and fundamentally a strong desire across the sector to keep its social values and be a credible partner in solving a national housing crisis. From any perspective, this requires a re-think about how things are done. It requires us to transform our businesses.

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BusinessTransformation

Triangle



Digital has also become synonymous with business transformation as it undoubtedly helps to unlock new ways of doing things. Making the best use of technology and innovation in all industries enables significant savings to be made and importantly significant improvements to customer service at the same time.

It is no longer acceptable to have large scale IT and change programmes spanning many years, they become irrelevant and seen as failure before they have even begun.

Change needs to be implemented quickly and visibly, and the speed of information gathering, decision making, and change comes with its own risks and can feel daunting.

This model and the toolkit was brought together specifically to help you deal with these issues and design a business transformation programme that is successful and achieves the outcomes you want.

Self-assessment – let’s get started

This self-assessment is designed for those leading business change within the organisation, but will be a useful tool for anyone involved. You will be asked a series of questions with multiple choice answers. Be honest in your answers. If you use different terminology interpret the questions in whatever way works for your organisation. This is for your use only and for each area the supporting guidance ‘what excellent looks like’ should help you formulate your ‘next steps’ plan. We look at each theme of the Business Transformation Triangle in turn and break it down into the key areas. You can score yourself in each section and when you get to the end of the questions you can add it all up to give you an overall feel for how you are doing so far. Here is an example:

Theme 1 / Question Answers What excellent looks like

Score 4 Score 3 Score 2 Score 1

Area 1: Question 1 Score 4 points if your answer

is in this column

Score 3 points if your answer

is in this column

Score 2 points if your answer

is in this column

Score 1 point if your answer is in this column

Area 1

Here we will give you some guidance on what an organisation that excels at business transformation might consider and have in place.

Your score = {Add up your two scores for this area} 6/8Area 1: Question 2 Score 4 points Score 3 points Score 2 points

Score 1 point

Now add up your scores for all the areas in this theme Your score = 18/24

We have also included a checklist at the end which summarises some of the documents and activities referenced through the self-assessment. This is included for ease of reference. Everything listed here would be found in an organisation delivering an excellent business transformation experience.



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Create the right environment

Business transformation requires an environment that fosters a collaborative and innovation approach. It needs to help break down organisational barriers, allow experimentation and empower people to challenge the status quo.

Specific keys to creating the right environment include: vision, leadership, structure and technology.

Use the questions and considerations in this section to help you think through your current culture and what interventions you might need to create the best possible environment for change.

Create the right environment: Questions

Answers What excellent looks like


Vision: Does your corporate plan detail changes the business wants to make?

Fully Some aspects

No We don’t have a corporate plan

Vision

For any change programme to succeed you need to build a compelling and understood vision for your organisation. Best practice would ensure that you both have a clear corporate plan demonstrating your commitment to change and a dedicated transformation strategy. It is OK for your transformation strategy to build on other strategies you have in the organisation, you don’t have to repeat them, but it should be cross cutting for the organisation and reference aspects such as customer service, your target operating model and high level statements about how you want your technology work for you.

Your score = ___ /8

Vision: Do you have a documented strategy to support your business transformation?

Yes, a single strategy

Yes, but in multiple documents

Yes, but I think it needs updating

No






Leadership: Do people believe the ‘top team’ is bought into the changes needed?

Yes, they say and do the right things

Yes, but they don’t always act in a helpful way

They say the right things but people don’t believe things will change

No they don’t appear to be bought in.

Leadership

Ultimately any change, whether driven through digital improvements or not, is reliant on people and the culture of an organisation to succeed. Sometimes the people element is overlooked and the programme becomes about technology. You need to work through any cultural barriers to change. You should pay attention to authentic visible leadership for the programme and an organisation development programme to support your transformation and address any fears people have. Does your culture support the level of risk taking and innovation you want to foster? These will be vital components for you.

Your score = ___ /8

Leadership: Has there been any specific organisational development activity put in place to support your transformation projects for example staff conferences, technology roadshows?

Yes, they enabled everyone in the business to learn and contribute

Yes, but either very little or on an ‘opt-in’ basis

Planned but not started

No






Structure: Do you believe the right people are involved in the programme?

Yes I think we have it covered

I think we have some but not all of the right people

Possibly, but not sure we know who the right people are

No Structure

Often business transformation programmes become IT projects and very focused on IT delivery. This means vital functions such HR, organisational development, business process improvement, communications and finance are not included up front or are lost along the way. You need to make sure your team is well balanced to focus on people, process and technology.

Frameworks, such as the ITIL service management framework, don’t need to be used in full but they contain lots of learning from across different industries and can be very helpful in structuring your teams to optimise delivery. It is worth having a look at ITIL Lifecycle and Agile project management methodologies if you are not familiar with them. Both can help you speed up change and enable you to think about approaching your business transformation in smaller, more experimental chunks, rather than having to deliver a single large project. Equally a framework such as SFIA (Skills for the Information Age) can help you to identify the skills you might need.

How people work together and are structured to pull in the same direction (either actual line management structures or virtual teams) will also help to take potential pinch points and friction out of your programme.

Your score = ___ /8

Structure: Are roles, responsibilities and skills organised to complement any frameworks such as IT service management framework (ITIL) or project management frameworks (Prince2, Agile)?

Yes Possibly, but unsure what this is

Don’t know No






Technology: Is the attitude of technology traditional ‘IT back office’ or ‘digital leadership’?

Digital leadership

More traditional but improving

Traditional and more focused on support

Don’t know Technology

In organisations that excel at business transformation technology is positioned as an enabler of change, works hand in hand with the rest of the business on the art of the possible and has a clear voice at the top table. It is promoted as central to the activities of an organisation and isn’t a tucked away back office support function. This is an important cultural shift for organisations and technology teams.

Digital has become synonymous with business transformation as it undoubtedly helps to unlock new ways of doing things. There will be changes and improvements that are made as part of the business transformation programme that are not digitally driven, but it is highly unlikely any business transformation programme you embark on will not have digital as its core. You need to gain confidence in your current systems, technology strategy and roadmaps and your technology teams to deliver what is needed. What are the barriers and changes you need to explore to improve your confidence and ensure the programme is a success? This is the biggest area of discord for many business transformation programmes and an area, due to it’s technical nature, that can be difficult to find the right skill, experience and therefore organisational confidence to make the changes needed. It does though need working through at the outset as it is fundamental to delivering the changes you need and it won’t go away!

Your score = ___ /8

Technology: Do you believe the current technology you have is fit for purpose?

Yes Some of it No but we have plans

No

Your score for creating the right environment ___ /32



Create the right environment – your notes



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Develop a winning strategy

Business transformation requires a clear purpose and vision. It needs to be informed by data, enabled by technology and be expressed in a way people understand and can imagine with clear goals.

Specific keys to creating a winning strategy include: outcomes, principles, data and insight.

Use the questions and considerations in this section to help you think through your current strategy and what interventions you might need to bring to life the changes you want to make.

Develop a winning strategy: Questions



Outcomes: Do you have clarity of your vision and clear objectives in place to deliver your business transformation?

Yes To some extent

Not yet but intend to

No Outcomes

You need to ensure you have good clarity on what you want to achieve and the objectives are well communicated and understood. It is worth ensuring that good communication is in place and that people buy into your vision and timetable. You should try and further describe the key outcomes you are looking for from your transformation programme and put them into a formal delivery structure. If you are only focussing in on teams then you may want to consider a more end to end approach as processes will generally span many parts of your organisation and making improvement in some areas could cause issues in others without a more joined up approach. It is also worth reviewing your answers in other areas to make sure your ability to deliver is well matched to your ambitions.

If you don’t want to run it as a programme or projects, then consider building accountability into individual and team objectives.

Your score = ___ /8

Outcomes: Are your change plans about the whole business, specific processes or specific teams?

Whole business

Specific processes

Specific teams

Unsure



Develop a winning strategy: Questions



Principles: Is there a statement of intent or a framework documented on which to base decisions during the change programme?

Yes Exists but not documented

Unsure No Principles

By ensuring that there is a framework in place describing the boundaries of what needs to change you are empowering your teams to deliver and make the right decisions. Develop some key concepts about how the organisation will operate if the changes are successful and make sure that people know and understand these operating principles and, at a high level, they are documented. Working through these will also enable you to understand and describe some of the potential outcomes in more detail and gain buy-in for what business transformation might mean to how your business operates and what is acceptable (and unacceptable). This will save you time and energy exploring changes that the business would ultimately not want and help you to generate a deeper understanding of the outcomes and get the best results.

Your score = ___ /8

Principles: Is there a methodology in place for reviewing processes?

Yes and it’s well understood

Yes but it’s only known by a few people

We do something but unsure what

No

Data & Insight: Is corporate performance data used to inform the required changes?

Yes, fully Yes, to some extent

No, but we plan to

No Data & Insight

Organisations hold a lot of data and turning that data into information, knowledge and ultimately wisdom is not any easy task. Make sure you are aware of the performance data your organisation holds and use this to inform your business transformation. Give further consideration to how you could use it more fully, and remember that although fit for today new ways of working require new measures.

Make sure you are also aware of the customer intelligence data you hold to inform your programme both the quantitative information and the qualitative stories. The customer journey is central when you are redesigning your processes, so using as much information as you can to support your programme can only help.

Your score = ___ /8

Data & Insight: Is customer insight data used to inform the required changes?

Yes, fully Yes, to some extent

No, but we plan to

No

Your score for developing a winning strategy ___ /24



Develop a winning strategy – your notes



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Ensure tenacious execution

Business transformation requires tenacity and conviction.

It needs to have clear leadership, a structured approach and the right resources to deliver.

Specific keys to ensuring tenacious execution include: resources, stakeholders and governance.

Use the questions and considerations in this section to help you think through how your programme is structured and what interventions you might need to keep you on track and make any adjustments along the way.

Ensure tenacious execution: Questions



Resources: Is there a specific director or senior person identified to lead transformation?

Yes, main focus of role

Yes, as part of their role

No, but we plan to

No Resources

Best practice is to have a senior member of the team dedicated to the transformation programme. This supports the visible culture but also ensures there is a capacity within the organisation to deliver. Generally a commitment to this at the higher levels of the organisation will follow through to the rest of the teams.

Review your programme to ensure you have capacity identified. It will be hard to make changes at pace without it. It is also beneficial to identify upfront a clear budget and/or invest to save process. The benefits of this are two-fold; giving you certainty on what can be delivered and enabling you to clearly ensure the capacity and funding match the ambition and the pace of change required or set expectations accordingly.

Your score = ___ /8

Resources: Is there a specific budget identified?

Yes, a separate budget

Yes, but contained in other budgets

No, but there is a process to obtain funding

No



Ensure tenacious execution: Questions



Stakeholders: Have you completed a stakeholder mapping exercise?

Yes Yes, but still work in progress

No, but we plan to

No Stakeholders

Completing a stakeholder map and an engagement plan for your different stakeholders will really help you deliver on your transformation programme. It will be a big change for people and needs some careful thought and planning. The ability to consider how everyone will be impacted and work through the benefits and barriers from their points of view is a strength that enable you to target and manage communications and bring people with you.

Your score = ___ /8

Stakeholders: Do you have engagement and communications plans in place?

Yes Yes, but still work in progress

No, but we plan to

No

Governance: Is there a clear, documented project governance in place?

Yes Yes, but it is not fully adhered to

No, but it is planned

No Governance

Often a transformation is seen to have failed because the savings are not clearly identified and do not materialise within budgets. Sometimes, for example, this is because they don’t equate to enough on their own to delete a post, other times decisions are made at a local level to spend the savings elsewhere to plug a gap without going through a mechanism that records and acknowledges them. This can undermine a very successful implementation. It is also important to have good governance, especially a way of quickly resolving the knotty issues around new processes and where you might encounter resistance to the level of change you want to implement. It is worth making sure you have clear escalation mechanisms in place and good understanding and buy-in from your finance department. With this you should be able to quickly respond to decision making and clearly track the benefits.

Your score = ___ /8

Governance: Are the finance team involved in managing savings identified?

Yes, fully - both in the identification and realisation of savings

Yes, in the realisation only

Yes, in the identification only

No

Your Score for ensuring tenacious execution ___ /24



Ensure tenacious execution – your notes



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Putting it all together

Now you have thought through creating the right environment, developing your winning strategy and getting in place a tenacious plan for execution, you can add up your scores get an overall feel for how you are doing.

Organisations who deliver an excellent business transformation experience and reap the rewards are those which most closely match their ambitions with their ability to deliver. You can have the best written and well-informed strategy, but without the right culture to enable change and the right execution to keep it on track it won’t succeed at the scale or the pace you desire. When you look at your scores do you have one theme which is weaker than the others?

A slightly greater emphasis has been given to ‘creating the right environment’ in this self-assessment as without the right conditions and culture the ability for an organisation to generate new ideas and grow them into meaningful embedded change is stifled. When this happens the energy of the organisation is directed to pushing back against change and there is a growing sense of frustration (between teams, with technology, with the programme). This can send an organisation into a downward spiral which takes time to recover from. No matter how you scored today I would urge you to revisit the ‘right environment’ theme on a regular basis to ensure you continue to have the best chance at success. Good luck with your business transformation journey!

Add up your scores

Environment

___ /32

Strategy

___ /24

Execution

___ /24

TOTAL

___/80

Overall score 60-80 You have demonstrated a fantastic understanding of the keys to unlock successful business transformation and the core aspects of the business transformation triangle. Build upon your highest scoring areas and look at any additional changes you could make.

Overall score 40-59 You have highlighted areas of good practice, but your programme would also benefit from strengthening in a number of areas. Look at where you score the lowest, is it a whole theme or a specific area? How can you bring those areas up?

Overall score 20 - 39 Your programme would benefit from strengthening in a number of areas. You should consider working through this self-assessment again to help you form a plan to tackle the core aspects of the business transformation triangle. Start with environment, it’s hard but crucial.



Your checklist

This checklist summarises some of the documents and activities referenced through the self-assessment. This is included for ease of reference.

Everything listed here would be found in an organisation delivering an excellent business transformation experience and used in the ways explored above.

You can use this to help you think through what you might need to get in place and cross-reference with the notes you made as you went along to support you developing your action plan.

Theme: Area In place? What is currently working well? What do you need to do next or change?

Right environment: vision

Supportive corporate plan

Right environment: vision

Transformation strategy

Right environment: leadership

Dovetailed OD programme

Right environment: structure

Identified key functions to support delivery - People, Process and Technology.

Right environment: technology

Digital Leadership Technology strategy

Winning strategy: outcomes

Documented programme objectives

Winning strategy: principles

Documented new operating principles



Theme: Area In place? What is currently working well? What do you need to do next or change?

Winning strategy: principles

Agreed methodology for reviewing processes

Winning strategy: data & insight

Performance data

Winning strategy: data & insight

Customer insight and customer journey data

Tenacious execution: resources

Named senior sponsor

Tenacious execution: resources

Identified budget

Tenacious execution: stakeholders

Stakeholder map

Tenacious execution: stakeholders

Communications plan

Tenacious execution: governance

Clear project governance to support decision making on ‘knotty issues’

Tenacious execution: governance

Clear documented process for identifying and releasing savings supported by finance



Next steps

Do you need more help with your plans? Do you want to discuss your self-assessment in more detail? Is there a specific area you would like us to work with you on? HQN can offer access to significant business transformation expertise. We have two levels of consultant-led assessment, as well as bespoke business transformation packages.

If you would like to know more about the consultancy support we can offer then please get in touch with [email protected]

• An online self assessment against the Business Transformation Triangle: right environment, winning strategy, tenacious execution

• Available as part of your membership of HQN

• As you complete this you will receive some further insight and guidance and a transformation checklist.

• A consultant led assessment looking at your programme in greater depth against the Business Transformation Triangle: right environment, winning strategy, tenacious execution

• A mixture of on-site discussions and documentation reviews will take place

• You will receive a detailed personalised report with specific recommendations to strengthen your programme and an on-site feedback session.

• A consultant led assessment looking at your programme in-depth against the Business Transformation Triangle: right environment, winning strategy, tenacious execution

• A mixture of on-site discussions and documentation reviews will take place and an additional bespoke review of any areas of concern

• You will also benefit from an on-site strategic session looking at future business and technology trends

• You will receive a detailed personalised report with specific recommendations to strengthen your programme and an on-site feedback session.

Self assessment

Consultant led assessment

Consultant led vision setting and assessment

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About the author

Sam Young is working with HQN as our lead associate specialising in business transformation.

Sam has a wealth of technology experience gained in private, public and charitable sectors and a track record in successfully leading large teams and large- scale changes. As well as bringing digital expertise Sam is an accredited coach and SFIA (Skills for the Information Age) consultant, and is passionate about developing talent, transforming teams and delivering successful business outcomes that make a real difference.

Sam runs her own digital and management consultancy, ISAY Consulting, is a non-executive on the board of Great Places Housing Group and was previously Director of Business Transformation at New Charter Group.

Follow Sam @samyoung43

Fast, practical guidance on everything to do with housing.HQN provides high-quality advice, tailored support and training to housing associations, councils, ALMOs and other housing providers.

Find out more about HQN and our network membership by visiting www.hqnetwork.co.uk or call us on +44 (0)845 4747 004.


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