What Is Change Management?
Communicate early and often.
There’s no such thing as too much communication.
Communication is vital to success.
These oft-repeated one-liners are true — especially when it comes to change management. But what exactly is change management?
As defined by the Wake Forest/Huron Change Management Strategy, change management is the key to the acceptance and support needed for implementing sustained change. It can help establish expectations, support cross-campus understanding by sharing information about what’s to come, and mitigate disruptions during implementation. The purpose of Wake Forest’s change management strategy is to:
- Develop and manage a change management framework to utilize during Project WakeDay;
- Ensure acceptance, support and commitment through defined strategies and tasks;
- And work with key stakeholders to support the implementation of the change management approach, including our change network participants and key governance groups across campus
Throughout this project, the change management team will focus on the people-side of change by cultivating empathy and understanding of our community. You can find the members of the change management team on the WakeDay Project site. This team wants to open communication pathways to ensure a strong feedback loop. To accomplish this, we’ll focus our efforts on communication, learning and support by:
- Communicating the what and why for upcoming changes to create transparency and build connections between feedback and our forward path;
- Creating key learning opportunities by curating a wide variety of mediums and materials to support the varied learning styles across our community;
- Ensuring strong post-launch support by leveraging lessons learned from past implementations
- And by collecting feedback from the Wake Forest community throughout the implementation process.
While Wake Forest is committed to thoughtfully implementing Workday, including limiting unnecessary customizations and minimizing disruption, process and policy changes are inevitable. Project WakeDay’s change management team recognizes that the University’s switch to Workday Student is complex and that such large-scale transition can be overwhelming.
That’s why the change management team is here — to guide the University toward Workday Student in a healthy and sustainable way, communicate changes clearly and effectively, and support the Wake Forest community in the face of something new.
The Project WakeDay team is composed of 100-plus community members who have a variety of specializations, including Academics and Academic Administration, Information Systems, Enrollment, Institutional Research, Financial Operations, Audit and Compliance and more. Knowing that our interests are so well represented by colleagues goes a long way in earning trust.
When it comes to communication, the change management team works across the project to understand how changes will impact University divisions and to ensure consistent and timely engagement. We’re constantly working on the best ways to share information via videos, newsletters, websites and more — as well as through faculty, staff and students who make up the Project WakeDay Change Networks.
Good communication is a conversation — and that’s where the Change Networks come in. Change Networks are composed of staff, faculty and students. These designated representatives from schools, central departments and key student organizations help campus prepare for and accept change. They also assist in sharing communications and serve as a main point of contact between campus and the project team.
It’s important that members of the University community are offered time to provide insights on the magnitude of change and to ask questions and share their perspectives. To accomplish this we’ve strategically set up three Change Networks: a Faculty Advisory Panel, a Staff Change Network and a Student Change Network.
The Staff Change Network launched in December 2022 and has met four times; the Faculty Advisory Panel launched in March 2023 and has met four times; and the Student Change Network will officially launch in Fall 2023. To build the student network, the change management team has so far met with the Dean’s Student Advisory Panel (DSAP) and the Student Technology Advisory Committee (STAC).
Read more about the Change Networks — to understand their responsibilities and meet the members of each — on this Project WakeDay webpage.
There’s a lot of information coming out of the WakeDay Project, and it’s change management’s goal to share it with you in timely and consistent ways. We want everyone to understand why we’re making this change, what role you play in it and how the changes affect you. A couple of ways we’re sharing this information is through Readiness Sessions and Readiness Activities.
These readiness events ensure that Wake Forest is prepared to fully realize the benefits of Workday Student.
First, Readiness Sessions are a series of meetings designed to prepare the University for the upcoming changes and transition. They include information on new processes, policies, roles/responsibilities, systems, training and support. Readiness Sessions are presented to the three Change Networks by the change management team and other project leaders, depending on the topic. The goals of a Readiness Session are to drive awareness of change, demo the functionality in Workday Student and gather feedback and reactions. The reactions and questions from Change Network members inform the next step, Readiness Activities, so we can anticipate and better address concerns and questions from the wider Wake Forest community.
Second, during Readiness Activities, the Project WakeDay team will demonstrate new features of Workday Student. In some cases they’ll also show how we’ll perform current work in new ways. And they’ll provide guidance on how to prepare for the Workday Student implementation. You can expect to experience Readiness Activities in various ways starting this fall. There may be in-person roadshow demonstrations across campus or through communications like videos and more. The goals of Readiness Activities are to:
- Assist all affected departments to anticipate and prepare for change in workflow, policy and processes and to identify new responsibilities associated with new and changed processes;
- And to assist offices in socializing Workday Student terminology, distributing communications, understanding changes in system use and identifying security and training needs.
Training is an important aspect of implementing change because it ensures that faculty, staff and students have the knowledge and tools they need to be successful in Workday Student.
Change management will develop a training plan that outlines recommended approaches for the University community. Training occurs just in time, meaning you’ll learn exactly what you need to know not long before you utilize Workday Student for the first time. Plus, following training, you’ll have the support and follow-up materials you’ll need to continue to be successful.
Training Timeline
Training will commence six to eight weeks in advance of each milestone launch. We will also provide open labs and related support for two to three weeks following each launch before moving to a long-term support model. You can expect a mix of in-person training, job aids, reference guides and on-demand content in advance of each launch, as well as functional overviews, or roadshows, to provide you with previews in advance of training.
Also be on the lookout for updates in The Word on WakeDay and on the Project WakeDay website, where videos to preview Workday Student functionality will be available.
The Wake Forest University training plan is designed to:
- Deliver role-based learning that focuses on what’s needed to perform job-related tasks;
- Address business practices and policies that are changing because of the new system;
- Blend learning solutions and learning styles (e.g., previews, instructor-led sessions, open labs, job aids, reference materials and on-demand content);
- Maximize current classroom technology to create the best possible learning experience;
- And demonstrate the how and why of the project in the context of Workday Student as a whole.
Upon request, Project WakeDay team members have presented information to several campus groups throughout Spring 2023, including the Information Technology Executive Committee (ITEC), the Staff Advisory Council (SAC), the Dean’s Student Advisory Panel (DSAP), the Senior Business Administrators (SBA) and the Business Administrators Forum. Is your office interested in receiving a presentation or updates for your publication? Contact us at WakeDay@wfu.edu to set something up.
To learn more, please visit the Project WakeDay website and subscribe to the project’s Google group to receive the Word on WakeDay newsletter. We also welcome your feedback and questions through this webform or by email at WakeDay@wfu.edu.