Last month, we hosted our first Change, Cheese & Wine roundtable event, chaired by Westpac’s Change Director, Temre Green! Joining us for a fantastic evening of food, wine and thought-provoking discussions were 13 change executives from various backgrounds (from financial services and insurance to FMCG). It was the perfect opportunity for everyone to come together and share their experiences (and the issues they are tackling!) in a relaxed, open forum. In the second part of our blog series, covering the evening’s key discussions – we discuss change capable organisations in the digital world.

The Rise of Automation

Today, so many professions are seeing a level of automation, AI and digital disruption entering the market. But how will the field of Change Management shift considering its impact? Is it possible for change management services to be automated or replaced by AI? And how will we respond? Will a level of automation or digitisation support organisations in being change capable?

The table suggested there are elements which can be replaced but ultimately, technology doesn’t show the nuances or empathy. It was discussed that a self-serve culture is hugely important – we need to get people driving change themselves. However, the empathy that you build up front, generally though innovation hubs, makes the fix easier in the end.

Embracing Change

The first step is not being scared of change ourselves. Downloading apps was used as an example, where we are guided through a process. Why shouldn’t we expect the same treatment at our workplace? Although, speed to competence is an issue, with a difference between learning and someone absolutely taking it up and being onboard. There are lots of different technologies to steer you through the process – It’s about working out what to use in different situations. An example was given about people getting confused and reverting back to Powerpoint because of this uncertainty.

A number of platforms and products were discussed: Walkme (a digital adoption platform), Jira and Confluence (both agile software products by Atlassian) to name a few.

Talenza will continue to host a Change, Cheese and Wine event quarterly in order to provide market insights and add value to the Change community. Stay tuned for future blog entries!