How to get people excited about change
One of the most important things to realize early on, is that change management is as much about the people as it is the processes and/or tool, said Peters.
"If the organization or the individual isn’t familiar with how to create value with the new capabilities, then it isn’t enough to just teach people how to use the tool. They can click around, but they won’t know what to actually do with it or how to create value. They won’t keep using it, and you won’t get any value."
So you need to zoom out a bit, and start with why this tool is important, why it should matter to them, what benefit it will deliver to them — either as an individual or for the organization.
And this is where feelings come into the mix. According to Peters, change is not a negative, and doesn’t need to feel like one.
"Holding onto things gives us a false sense of security and stability. But change is in our nature. Changes are necessary to secure the future we want. Change is unstoppable in life."
"What we need to do is to raise awareness for the need for change, and create the desire to drive and contribute to the change. Driving and contributing to change puts us in control of the change and lets us shape our own future," Peters continued.
Putting people in control is one of the key ways to drive user adoption. With software like process mining, Peters said it’s easy for people to feel blamed. You show them a process that is inefficient, and the way to fix it, they feel like they’ve done a bad job.
But he says if you make their process transparent and ask them what they see, what they need to change to make their life easier, they take control, suggest fixes themselves, and feel empowered to drive value and change for the better.