Secure executive support (continued) – Google Apps for Work User Manual
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Change Management Guide
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Build Your Change Management Approach
Secure executive support (continued)
Tips for a successful sponsor:
•
Don’t let your sponsor be shy. Make the sponsor visible to all users.
•
Don’t surprise your sponsor. Get agreement on a plan for how
the sponsor will be engaged with the project from the start and be
specific.
•
Bring your sponsor into your communications plan. People want
to hear from the leader of the change. Using the sponsor as a sender
for your communications increases the impact of your messages.
Get your sponsor engaged
Learning from Solarmora, a fictionalized company
Andy tried to schedule time with the CIO to review
the change management proposal. Since she
appeared to be so busy, Andy decided it’d be best to
email her the request for review. The CIO replied
with the approval to go forward with the change
management approach. In her note, she
encouraged Andy to move ahead on his own as she
had her hands full with the final stage of company’s
ERP deployment.
Andy was excited to get started. He remembered a
a great video created by a customer that featured
one of their execs introducing the change to Google
Apps. Andy wanted to create a similar video, but he
wasn’t sure if his CIO would have the time.
Maybe he should have pushed for that meeting
after all.
Oops! Andy got approval of the proposal, but not
commitment from his sponsor to participate.
He asked his CIO for help in delivering project
communications—employees in the company
would want to hear about the change from the top.
The CIO was hesitant at first, but Andy assured her
that her investment of time made for a smoother
deployment. Andy also provided her with a detailed
timeline for her involvement in project
communications.
“Google Apps has enabled our company
to be more collaborative and more
productive. Workflows previously
handled by IT, like creating content for
the intranet, can now be done
organically by teammates.
Work that used to be done repetitively
and manually is now done automatically
and instantly using Google forms and
shared spreadsheets.”
—Carol Dewitt, CIO, BI-LO
BI-LO is a retail grocery company based in