How To Capitalise On Compliance Projects With Change Management
When you read the word ‘compliance,’ the natural reaction is to quickly fall fast asleep or get ready to run away in the opposite direction. We can all empathise the importance of compliance project, along with the boredom they bring to any business meeting. Prioritising compliance projects is difficult, especially when you are already swamped with so many other important business-building initiatives. But I challenge you with this question: Why do compliance projects need to be perceived this way?
Compliance projects do not need to be boring or mundane. The fact is - they can have significant impacts to your business (including the ability to stay in business) and they can offer your business the strategic alignment it needs to optimise your processes and systems. Compliance is hardly ever isolated to one department of a business; it predominately affects the multiple business units and the people involved in its daily operations. Therefore, compliance projects require businesses to review and align operational strategies with the business /regulatory environment and that not mundane, that is a business opportunity!
It’s time for business leaders to change our mentality towards compliance projects. They will continue far into the future and they are always a priority for business success.
This article recommends how you can use change management to make the most of compliance projects and turn them into a competitive edge. Stay ahead of your compliance projects while your competitors are still catching up. Take control of your compliance projects with these recommendations pre and post policy release:
Pre-policy release:
1. Mobilise the team
Before you policy is released, your objective is to prepare your teams and people. Bring awareness of that policy change. Prepare communication strategies for each senior/middle manager about the policy change and how that will affect the teams. Be as detailed as you possibly can. The Project Management Institute (PMI) (2014) stated that 44% of projects fail due to the lack alignment between business and project objectives. Utilise this time to structure this imminent change in the future. A good checklist for this can look like this:
Which projects are going on right now and how critical are they compared to maintaining compliance? (Remember that compliance is a front-page topic in the media)
Do I have capacity right now and if this compliance project needs to be done right now, who and how many FTEs could I pull to make this project happen?
What do I know right now about the policy change and what questions do I (teams, your people and managers) need to ask / require completing this compliance project?
Find time to take stock of your resources, while spreading awareness to your people that this change is coming. This will mitigate the risk of change fatigue, because you are bringing ownership to the change.
Half of the battle with compliance project is preparation before the policy is changed. Being prepared will significantly reduce the obstacles and issues down the project timeline.
2. Project planning, governance, scheduling and budgeting
The next step is to start discussions on what outcomes that need to be achieved and how you will get there. Project governance and planning are important conversations to have, because it defines the approach and vision. PMI (2016) claimed that 28% of companies claim a lack of a common vision and clearly defined objectives caused their projects to fail.
Start the conversation about assigning responsibilities and roles for your people to work towards. Reverse your planning, by starting with the outcomes first and filling in the details on how to get there. The outcomes and your vision are vital in guiding your people toward project success.
Put in place Project Management and Change Management frameworks, especially when it comes to communication. Following a standard process reduces the confusion between departments, especially when compliance projects require more than one department. Bonnie (2015) stated that organisations that used a methodology in project management are 60% more likely to meet expected benefits (Bonnie, 2015). Inter-departmental communication is critical to the success of your project.
Preparing and planning are the best ways to mitigate issues in your compliance projects. Betz from G2 Learning Hub (2018) found that 49% of 840 federally funded projects were found to be poorly planned and therefore performed poorly or failed (Betz, 2018).
Post-policy release:
1. Develop a business readiness plan
Once the policy is released, begin the assessment on your preparation. Review the documents in the pre-planning stage and assess your readiness to carry out this compliance project. Ask these questions:
What activities need to happen to make sure our people and operations are prepared for day 1?
Currently, do I have the resources and capacity to support the changes that are being introduced?
What outstanding questions do I still need to complete before your people are ready?
A standard Business Readiness checklist is a great place to start, but you’ll need to customise it for your business and the specific changes. You may not know what all these activities are at the start, but if you begin with the end in mind, you won’t be caught off-guard. Keep reviewing the checklist throughout the project.
2. Kick-off your compliance project
Kick-off your compliance project with a workshop to agree on a unified approach. It is critical that you keep to the plans that were created prior to this kick-off are agreed upon. Situations are fluid, which means you need to consolidate your pre-planning with the current situation. Your governance, communications strategies and plans are the foundation of your compliance project. Clarity is the key to compliance projects and the workshop is a great way for your people to get that.
Ensuring that your project is well staffed, resourced and sponsored will save significant amounts of time and resources for the business. Workshop the end-to-end processes with you the project teams. Also, keep your senior leaders involved; Prosci found that effective sponsors correlates to meeting or exceeding project objectives (Prosci 2018)
Continue to meet and support your business units across the teams. Look out for potential risks that could derail your compliance project. If there’s a lack of information, record those questions and look out for opportunities to gain clarification. Iterate on your communication strategies. They are invaluable whatever the situation is for your teams and managers. Communication is key.
Conclusion
Compliance projects are traditionally perceived as mundane and boring, but it doesn’t need to be that way. Your business can capitalise on the fact that other businesses do not do compliance projects well. It is an opportunity to achieve more than compliance with the law, but also strategic alignment with your people, processes and systems. Follow these recommendations to see for yourself the power of Change Management in action for your compliance projects. Never again dread or be bored of compliance projects if you implement these Change Management recommendations.
References:
Alsher P (2018) The truth behind why 70% of organisational change projects are still failing. In: IMA Worldwide Blog. Available at https://www.imaworldwide.com/blog/the-truth-behind-why-70-of-organizational-change-projects-are-still-failing (accessed 14 February 2020)
Bonnie E (2018) Complete Collection of Project Management Statistics 2015. In: Wrike blogs. Available at https://www.wrike.com/blog/complete-collection-project-management-statistics-2015/ (accessed 25/02/20)
Langley M.A (2014) The high cost of low performance. In: PMI’s Pulse of the Profession. Available at https://www.pmi.org/-/media/pmi/documents/public/pdf/learning/thought-leadership/pulse/pulse-of-the-profession-2014.pdf (accessed 25/02/20)
Singh N (2020) 100+ Project Management Statistics & Facts (Updated 2020). In: ProProfs Project Blogs. Available at https://www.proprofs.com/c/project/project-management-statistics-facts-trends/ (accessed 25/02/20)
Creasey T (2018) The correlation between change management and project success. Available in Prosci Blogs. Available at https://blog.prosci.com/the-correlation-between-change-management-and-project-success (accessed 25/02/20)
Betz J (2018) 27+ impressive project management statistics in 2019. Available in G2 Learning Hub Blogs. Available at https://learn.g2.com/project-management-statistics (accessed 25/02/20)
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