Background and Client’s Needs

The National Credit Act aimed to promote and advance the social and economic welfare of all South Africans, while fostering a fair, transparent, competitive, sustainable, responsive, effective, and accessible credit market. It also seeks to protect consumers.

 

Client’s Needs

The client’s biggest division, responsible for retail business services, needed to ensure legal compliance with the Act. Compliance with this act required significant changes to the following:

• Core business processes
• Structure
• Systems
• Management and Employee knowledge, skills and mindset
• Culture

 

Laetoli’s Involvement

Laetoli was contracted to design and manage a change management solution in support of this project in all regions across South Africa. The following change management solution, consisting of several building blocks to support the implementation of the Project, was designed and implemented:

• Building Block One – Change Impact Analysis: A brief impact analysis of the NCA from a human perspective (culture, mindset, behaviour) and to identify the gap between current mindsets and behaviour and desired mindsets and behaviour to ensure compliance with the NCA.
• Building Block Two – Change Readiness Assessment: A high-level change readiness assessment to form an idea of current levels of readiness and/or resistance to the NCA. This was carried out in the Pilot Sites and informed the Change Management Plan as well as the Communication Strategy.
• Building Block Three – Change Management Plan and Communication Strategy: Developed and executed a high-level Change Management Plan and a Communication Strategy and Plan to support the implementation of the NCA.
• Building Block Four – Change Management Capacity for Managers and Team Leaders: Equipped 950 Managers and Team Leaders with Change Management competencies to enable the mindset and behavioural changes required for the NCA. This was delivered in a one-day workshop. The knowledge and skills acquired in this workshop, as well as the tools shared, not only added benefit to the implementation of the NCA but also meaningfully contributed to the development of a change management capability that would enhance the implementation of other changes, projects, and initiatives.
• Building Block Five – Weave Change Management content into Functional Technical Training: Subject to the outcome of the change Impact Assessment and the Change Readiness Assessment, the appropriate Change Management content was woven into the Functional and Technical NCA learning material. Laetoli developed the capacity for the L&D Team who delivered the Learning Intervention.  The capacity building for the L&D Team entailed the following:
• Understanding the change content that is woven into the programme
• Appropriate facilitation techniques/tools required to inform and engage learners around the NCA change content
• Building Block Six – Change Management advisory Role: Laetoli also played a change management advisory role as and when required. This was achieved through participation in regular project team meetings and planning sessions, where issues related to the change dynamics experienced in the NCA Project were discussed and addressed.

 

Change Impact Analysis

The purpose of the change impact analysis was to conduct a comprehensive assessment of the NCA from a human perspective (culture, mindset, and behaviour) and to identify the gaps between the current culture, mindsets, and behaviour and the desired culture, mindsets, and behaviour, ensuring compliance with the NCA.

The following process was used:

• Engaged leaders in the identified areas to explain the purpose of the impact assessment, why their areas were chosen, the proposed process, as well as proposed resource implications and timelines
• Change Specialists reviewed the Outcome of the Impact Analysis of systems, processes, products and services and identified possible impacts from a human/cultural perspective based on experience/learning insights and research on other change projects
• Conducted individual interviews with senior managers in the identified areas
• Designed a schedule of possible impacts with a rating scale
• Designed and facilitated a half-day workshop with each of the identified areas with a cross-section of individuals from the identified areas (Managers, Team leaders and staff) to:
  • Obtain their sense of the possible impacts as well as of the gap between the current culture, mindset and behaviour and the desired culture, mindset and behaviour in terms of complying with the NCA
  • Assess the magnitude of each gap
• Documented outcome of this process and provided feedback to the Project Team
• Informed Change Management Plan and Communication Strategy
• Decided whether a refinement of the content of the learning is required

 

Change Readiness Assessment

The change readiness assessment was used to determine levels of readiness and/or resistance to the NCA. This informed both the Change Management Plan and the Communication Strategy. Given the nature of the change dynamics likely to be experienced, a framework developed by Hultman (as amended) was used to conduct the Change Readiness Assessment. The main reasons for resistance/factors impacting readiness are summarised below:

• Managers/Staff/Stakeholders believe their core human needs are already being met

 

In other words, they have no incentive or motivation to change, because they are content with the way things are now – if it’s not broken, don’t fix it. As long as this is true, change will only be viewed as unnecessary or harmful.

• Managers/Staff/Stakeholders believe the change will make it harder for them to meet their core human needs

 

They view the change as a threat rather than an opportunity for something beneficial.

• Managers/Staff/Stakeholders believe the risks outweigh the benefits

 

For people to resist harmful change is a healthy response. The focus, however, is on situations in which people believe the change is harmful when this isn’t actually true. As long as they believe the risks outweigh the benefits, they’ll be afraid of change and try to defend themselves against it. It is essential to help them explore what they perceive as the risks; otherwise, fear will prevent them from considering the benefits.

• Managers/Staff/Stakeholders believe change is unnecessary to avoid or escape a harmful situation

 

Often, leaders maintain that change is necessary to survive, but many employees don’t believe this since they can’t literally see the competition. They believe the changes are just another way for employers to get more work out of them. These employees are in denial. They need to face reality or risk being left behind.

• Managers/Staff/Stakeholders believe the change processes are handled improperly

 

People are capable of resisting not only the change itself but also the methods used to bring it about. This can happen if they didn’t have any input into the decision, they dislike how the change was introduced, the change came as a surprise, the timing of the change was unfavourable, or they feel manipulated and deceived by management. People react with anger because the methods used contradict their values and violate their need for respect.

• Managers/Staff/Stakeholders believe the change will fail

 

People can resist change because they lack confidence that it will be effective, or they doubt the availability of necessary resources to implement the change successfully. The anxiety stemming from these concerns will make it more difficult for people to support the change effort.

• Managers/Staff/Stakeholders believe the change is inconsistent with their values

 

Since values represent people’s beliefs about what is important, they will resist change that is inconsistent with their standards or priorities. Gaining support for new or different priorities is one of the greatest challenges of leading others through change.

• Managers/Staff/Stakeholders believe those responsible for the change can’t be trusted

 

People will resist change if they believe that the Sponsor, Head Office, Project Team, Change Services, or their direct manager doesn’t have their best interest at heart or isn’t being open and honest with them about the change and its impact.

The following process was used to carry out the change readiness assessment:

• Engaged leaders in the identified areas to explain the purpose of the impact assessment, why their areas were chosen, the proposed process, as well as proposed resource implications and timelines
• Held focus groups with Staff, Team Members and Managers in each of the proposed sites on their general experience with the rollout of similar change processes (e.g. Fais, Fica)
• Designed/ customised and carried out a quantitative change readiness assessment
• Distributed the questionnaires to the various categories
• Prepared a high-level Report with findings
• Extrapolate results and use findings to inform the following:
• Change Management Plan and Communication Strategy (Building Block Three)
• Change Management Capacity Building for Managers and Team Leaders (Building Block Four)
• Change Management content to be woven into Functional and Technical Training Material (Building Block Five)
• Advise on major change enablement risk

 

Change Enablement Capacity Building

Laetoli developed the Change Management capacity of Line Managers and Team Members to equip them with the necessary knowledge, attitudes and tools to manage change dynamics/ people’s reactions likely to be experienced with the introduction of NCA as well as other projects and included all Leaders (Branch Managers, Lead Branch Managers, Manager Client Management, Manager Sales and Services and Team Leaders).

 

Impact

The client successfully implemented a piece of legislation that impacted processes, structures, systems, competencies, mindset, behaviour and culture.

The impact of the capacity building on managers was so positive that the client engaged Laetoli to equip internal specialists to train managers using a train-the-trainer approach.

The client also decided to develop its own internal change methodology and toolkit (the Change Navigator). Laetoli was contracted to assist with this process. The client bought the rights to use Laetoli’s change enablement training programme and customised a training programme to support Nedbank’s Change Navigator.