Earlier this year, I wrote about the priorities and challenges for process and performance management (PPM) professionals; however, in that blog I didn’t dig in to the section of the survey that highlighted the trends driving change in PPM. As the Greek philosopher Heraclitus said, “change is the only constant in life”. 99% of respondents agree with Heraclitus and feel that change is necessary, and the top five trends driving change in the process management discipline are:

1. Digital transformation initiatives (43% of survey respondents)
2. Application of machine learning and AI in the business (32% of survey respondents)
3. Pace of change in the business (29% of survey respondents)
4. Pressure to reduce cycle time and/or costs of process management project work (25% of survey respondents)
5. Role of process management shifting to strategic support (23% of survey respondents)

APQC performs our priorities and challenges survey every year, which allows us to do year-over-year comparisons. The “pace of change in the business” has remained a top driver year-over-year, and “digital transformation initiatives” has remained top of the list. Unsurprisingly, this year, “application of machine learning and AI in the business” jumped up to the number two slot from the number six slot in the previous year. 

How Are Organizations Investing in AI?

APQC recently surveyed organizations on digital’s role in process management and found that only 27% of organizations have made at least a moderate investment for AI in 2024; however, 79% of organizations plan to increase their investment in the next 12-18 months. 

Over one-third of organizations have identified potential use cases for AI, including:

• Administrative tasks: Includes task automation, internal chatbots, and other day-to-day tasks (like meeting notes, scheduling meetings, and document review).
• Customer-centric activities: Includes identifying potential customers, customer service and support (including external chatbots), and improved customer processes like self-checkout and website interface.
• Data analytics: Includes data collection and analysis, database management, automated dashboards, and creation of insights.
• Employee experience: Includes employee recruitment, optimizing the onboarding experience, conducting payroll, timesheets, and other human resources related tasks.
• Process improvement/project management: Includes process optimization, improving operations process efficiency, project planning, and forecasting.
• Resource allocation: Includes automating resource allocation, analyzing future resource demand, and tracking finances.
• Risk management: Includes quantifying and forecasting risk, along with fraud detection and prevention.

What Needs to Change in Process Management 

When asked what the needed changes in the process management discipline are, here’s what survey participants said:

1. Process management methodologies (47% of survey respondents)
2. Integration with IT (47% of survey respondents)
3. Change management methodologies (40% of survey respondents)
4. Collaborative culture or environment (39% of survey respondents)
5. Technology and tools (38% of survey respondents)

It’s important for organizations to have a strong foundation of process management. APQC’s Seven Tenets of Process Management helps organizations create the foundation based on seven critical tenets – strategic alignment, governance, change management, process models, process performance, process improvement, and tools and technology. Creating a process-focused organization not only requires time and resources, but most importantly, it requires a fundamental shift in thinking about how everyone contributes to the organization’s products or services. 

Thinking about what you’ve read so far, did you notice that the key drivers of change, what needs to change, and the Seven Tenets of Process Management ALL mentioned change or change management! As you read earlier, “change is the only constant in life”. 

So, how do organizations set themselves up for success when it comes to change? Organizations that don’t have a solid change management program should consider these six key drivers of effective change management.

Structure and Resources

Structure and resources refer to the resources (i.e. budget and staff), methodologies, and assessment approaches that support change management.

The type of structure does not matter when it comes to overall effectiveness, but having some type of formal structure does increase change management effectiveness. The four most popular change management models among survey respondents were:

1. Internally developed model
2. McKinsey 7-S change model
3. PROSCI ADKAR model
4. Kotter’s 8 steps 

Role of Leadership

Role of leadership includes the roles and responsibilities involved in guiding employees through change. Here are three key elements to lead teams through change:

1. Lead by example. When leaders participate and model the change, organizations see more buy-in from staff and more deeply embedded behaviors. 
2. Coaching and mentoring. Coaching and mentoring by middle managers are crucial for staff to fully learn and embed new behaviors.
3. Monitor for sustained change. When managers check to make sure desired behaviors are sticking, it helps drive greater adoption even among resistant employees. 

Communications

The communications component includes the approaches and tools used to explain the change to staff, collect and incorporate feedback, set expectations, and cultivate buy-in. Organizations tend to:

• create phased communication plans, 
• emphasize transparency in communication about the change, and 
• use an array of communication methods. 

When looking at how organizations push out the communications, most often organizations rely on push communications like emails or department meetings.

Training 

Training includes the organized activities an organization uses to impart information, change behaviors, improve performance, and help employees attain knowledge or skills. Training approaches are moving away from the traditional classroom format and moving toward self-paced training, such as videos. On-the-job training and one-on-one coaching are also increasingly popular, and peers are seen as particularly effective facilitators of on-the-job training and coaching since they are familiar with the day-to-day demands of the job.

Engagement 

Engagement is an important piece of any change initiative and refers to the emotional connection an employee feels toward their organization as well as the tactics and approaches the organization uses to cultivate and assess this connection.It’s important to consider WHEN you engage employees throughout the change process. Early and often is key. Various tactics are used to engage employees, but based on our research, among the top are training on HOW to change, targeted communications, and opportunities to provide feedback.

Rewards and recognition

Rewards and recognition include the formal and informal incentives that encourage specific behaviors or performance. Organizations use various methods for rewarding employees for successfully changing their behaviors, including: 

• Performance reviews
• Future promotions
• Monetary rewards
• Public recognition
• Non-monetary awards

Different people respond to different incentives, so it is important to incorporate a range of monetary and non-monetary forms of reward and recognition. Incorporating desired behaviors into performance reviews is key. This communicates the message that the new behaviors are a required function of the job, not optional.

Dive Into the Research

Learn more about the content covered in this blog in APQC’s Resource Library:

• Change Management
• 2024 PPM Priorities and Challenges 
• Digital and Its Role in Process