9MARCH 2020Jennifer R. ReillyDeveloping quick-win solutions will enable a more flexible environment so course corrections can be made along the way, and optimal solutions can be advanced in an iterative and collaborative fashion. Leveraging advanced technology solutions­like robotics­to perform transactional work will free up resources to devote to more complex tasks, while also providing a platform to gain real-time, predictive insights and line-of-sight to outliers and key trends.The time to evolve historic processes and habits is now. The consumer environment described above is a strong case for change. If organizations continue to operate with archaic processes, the trajectory ahead is grim­including potential disruption, wasting money on the wrong strategies, not truly understanding customer trends and missing other predictive indicators.The journey of moving to a more innovative and strategic finance organization involves driving transformational change and developing effective relationships with key business partners to create new and innovative solutions for the organization.There are 7 steps I take when leading organizational change:1. Identify and describe the case for change2. Obtain support from leadership3. Create champions for change4. Build trust and be transparent5. Develop a visionary roadmap6. Clarify how efforts integrate7. Celebrate successes along the wayThe first step I take when leading change is to create a road-show slide that can be shared with all levels throughout the organization, which sets up and builds a business case for why the change is needed. I then leverage this collateral to obtain leadership support­I ensure leadership understands the strategy I'm pitching and key changes at the tactical level that will help drive and move forward broader strategies and objectives. The third step is very critical: there is no way you can drive change alone, so you have to create a team of key people who are committed to your vision and can help along the way. I've found it effective to build this team with various levels throughout the organization, and empower them while ensuring they understand the specific messaging and elevator pitch that you desire to have shared more broadly to help influence and drive this particular change.The fourth step is around building trust and being transparent­during this phase it's important to be clear about what you know and the many things you don't know yet as you're setting out on your change journey. I've also found it helpful to create a safe environment to fail and test, learn and adapt. When you set that precedent up front, it creates more trust. The fifth and sixth steps are to develop a more inclusive visionary roadmap with your transformation team and then make it very clear how your effort integrates with other efforts happening across the organization. Finally, a very important step is to celebrate successes along the way, and recognize the key colleagues and staff who are working so hard to advance milestones to move toward the future vision.Start small, iterate and you will be better equipped to achieve desired solutions and outcomes. Driving transformational change is not easy, and bringing key business partners along so they can help with the effort will be a critical and important step.There are 5 steps I take when developing effective relationships with key business partners:1. Assess personality profile of key business partner2. Develop a relationship and get to a personal level3. Create cross-functional team-building opportunities4. Communicate, communicate, communicate5. Partner to provide strategic insights and creative solutionsThe first step is to assess a key business partner's personality profile to better understand how he or she is wired and likes to be approached, and what will work best for him or her in terms of our engagement so I can be as effective as possible. From there, it's easier to build and maintain an effective working relationship. Where there are cross-functional teams involved, it's very important to get them working together through a similar level of collaboration and understanding of how each other are wired. Similar to the real estate saying of "location, location, location," business partnering is the most effective when there is a great level of "communication, communication, communication"­using multiple forums and forms. Once steps 1 through 4 are in place, it's much easier to partner to drive strategies, and advance creative and innovative solutions.Developing effective relationships with key influencers­both supporters and detractors­is instrumental to driving transformational change. Effectively bringing it all together can be the key to finance leaders achieving success in the rapidly evolving dynamics of today's markets.
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