Change management is always an underestimated topic in a digital transformation and at the same time the most difficult to implement. The modes of action of change and the impact on organizations must be transparent in order to act properly.
An important component for the meaningful structuring of change activities in a digital transformation is the change impact analysis (see also this book) in order to position the right methods for the right changes. A helpful evaluation is the change impact matrix.
Using the change impact matrix, the changes are evaluated according to complexity and scope. The evaluation is carried out by scaled answers to structured questions. These can vary depending on the venture or undertaking.
Here is a brief example of a transformation from decentralized to centralized:
Question: How significant are the changes in existing roles?
Extreme (Value: 5): The person(s) has a new direct reporting structure and assumes global responsibility.
High (value 4): The person(s) receives a new direct reporting structure and has a regional responsibility
Medium (value 3): The person(s) receives a new direct reporting structure
Moderate (value 2): The person (s) remains disciplinary where he/she is, but is assigned a different professional supervisor
Low (value 1): The person(s) is not affected by the organizational change
The assigned values to the questions are added and an unweighted or weighted mean is calculated. The resulting number gives the classification of the change on the Y-axis.
Here are some more questions that might be useful for this method:
– What is the number of changed roles?
– Are there significant changes in the way of working (“way of working”)
– Is there a behavioral/cultural change?
– What is the impact in manuals, policies, certifications, etc.?
– How much does the workflow change?
– What is the impact of a new system or interface?
– What is the impact of introducing a complex new solution?
– How elementary are the changes to processes?
– How crucial are changes in the data structure?
– How big is the regulatory impact?
• …
In principle, the questions can also be clustered into the classic transformation elements, such as strategy, organization, systems, processes or people.
The circumference is plotted on the X axis. The chart shown here depicts the entrepreneurial scope. However, dimensions such as integration volume, costs, market changes or similar scopes can certainly be interpreted.
