Constant change is and must be the modus operandi for any company out there. You cannot tackle future challenges with past behaviors. That’s why leading companies not only change the way they work to navigate in hybrid work environments. They also change their operating models to become more customer-centric. Doing it with people, not to people, is the key to success.  

Learn how one company overcame change fatigue and created a change movement by using a data-driven approach: the #ThreePercentRule algorithm. 

This company was under constant change. But this time the change was radical. A transformation to become more customer-centric.  

They needed to get it right from day one. They reached out to Innovisor to fast-track the mindset shift by understanding the informal networks, commitment, and alignment. 

The company identified three critical questions they wanted Innovisor to answer. What drives successful change for us? – Who can lead us to the tipping point of large-scale change? – and how do we make the change stick? 

1. WHAT DRIVES SUCCESS? 

The Innovisor Key Driver Analysis, a sophisticated statistical analysis based on multi-linear regression analysis helped the company identify what to focus on to make the change succeed and what not to focus on. Armed with the Innovisor data the change team knew what drove organizational commitment, and how they could impact these drives to become more customer-centric.  

ACTION: The change team knew exactly what they needed to focus on now, and what to focus on later. The first focus objective was to strengthen the logic behind customer-centricity. 

2. WHO LEAD YOU TO THE TIPPING POINT OF LARGE-SCALE CHANGE? 

The #ThreePercentRule algorithm of Innovisor identified two critical stakeholder groups:  

• the voice of the employees, or the 3% employees who shaped the perceptions of 88% of their colleagues (aka #ThreePercentRule) 
• The voice of the leaders, or the leaders who in the same way had informal influence within the leadership network 

ACTION: These two stakeholder groups are significant, as they if engaged correctly, can fast-track sensemaking around customer centricity at the top and at the bottom of the organization. Their collective influence can remove resistance and accelerate sensemaking through the organization.  

No matter how negative or positive they are, the change team must engage with them. They are key to successful change! 

3. HOW TO MAKE IT STICK? 

The first step in how to make the change to a customer-centric organization stick is to engage the two stakeholder groups. In the initial engagement, it is important that the change team sticks to listening, listening, and listening only and not start immediately to dictate what the two groups should think and feel. This was especially relevant in this change, as the two groups were almost 10% more negative towards the customer-centricity movement than their colleagues.  

Hence, the change team needed to through 1-on-1 conversations  

   1. Learn why they were less positive? 

The change team used the 1:1 conversation to map out concerns and expectations, so they could be integrated into and addressed in communication about the change 

   2. To build trust and encourage open & honest communication 

Trust is a key driver of open and honest communication, and the change team needed feedback from the stakeholder groups to ensure their activities and interventions were in line with what was needed by the organization. They listened, listened, and listened and as the real-life concerns and expectations of the two stakeholder groups were heard and acknowledged, trust accelerated  

In only one month, the change team carried out approximately 100 1-on-1 conversations. 

The next step to make the change stick was to measure if this initial commitment was retained and further grown over time, as the change activities started.  

After two months, the Innovisor Change Tracker proved exactly that. The 1-non-1 conversations had paid off big time. Both the ‘voice of the employee’ -group and the ‘voice of the leaders’ saw a clear uptake in their support of the change initiative.  

The Innovisor Change Tracker gave the transformation change team a sharpened focus

The organization understood why it was important to focus on the customer, but NOT how it was supposed to get there. What concrete daily actions to take? Who was to do what? Was it only the salespeople it concerned? The future ways of working were unclear.

Driving this was a lack of direct face2face communication between the leadership and the people. An overreliance on communication formats like Yammer and e-mails.

The change team, therefore, adjusted their activities to aid the leaders with their 1:1 and team communication. They made sure that the communication was not so much about ‘why’ the company changed, but more emphasized ‘how’ it was to be done. They also consistently communicated quick wins and transparent progress stories from across the company.

With a focused and disciplined data-based approach to change, the commitment was accelerated with limited resources. It engaged the right stakeholders in the right activities including the 3% that shaped the perceptions of their colleagues and took a shortcut to reach a successful change.