Business Change Manager Video Series: My Journey to becoming a Business Change Manager
I’m Nicola Graham, the founder of Simplify Change and a Business Change Manager, but why am I a Business Change Manager, and what is my story?
I started my career years ago in IT Procurement, moving quickly into IT Sales before I started the most important role I have in my life by having two lovely boys.
As they grew older and needed less of my time, I wanted to return back to work, and therefore started exploring what career I would like to pursue.
Did you know three quarters of mothers return to work? If you’re a new mother, have you considered how you need to keep your skills up to date, or which industry you would like to join?” See: https://www.theguardian.com/money/2019/oct/24/three-quarters-of-mothers-now-in-work-figures-reveal
Having owned a small successful distribution company whilst maintaining a household and co-ordinating the hectic schedules of two young boys, I recognised that I had many of the attributes needed to successfully run projects, and with my existing experience and interest in technology, I decided to explore opportunities in this industry.
"It was surprising to learn during this research stage, that only 27% of women would consider a role in technology, which for me, meant that there are massive opportunities to progress change and be a success. See: https://www.cleverism.com/latest-stats-on-women-in-tech/
So I upskilled and found a career as an IT Project Manager, managing several large projects which involved designing and publishing websites, as well as delivering applications for regional, national and international organisations.
Little did I know that whilst in a ‘survival bubble’ of raising my kids, I really hadn’t kept up to date with the latest technologies, this resulted in a big personal transition from going from a full time mum, into a full time role working in the revolutionary technical disruption of ‘cloud based platforms.
For example, the word ‘the cloud’ made me visualise physical clouds, which meant that I literally thought that servers that I had been used to seeing stacked up in server rooms in my earlier days had somehow transformed into clouds in the sky, or sent into space. I didn’t understand at first, and it took me a conversation or two to realise that this meant huge clusters of servers situated in a data centre instead.
As part of my re-introduction to the new paradigm of cloud based solutions, I quickly focused and got up to speed on the amazing technologies, changes and benefits of clouds, new UI’s and SaaS solutions including Azure, AWS, Salesforce and Office 365.
This opened my eyes to the problems that business colleagues and people in similar positions to myself experience when new products and changes are introduced to people who are focused on achieving their day jobs which gave me a business persons view towards user adoption and why it is so important.
It immediately became clear that there was something missing in projects, the ‘gloss’ as I used to call it. You can have the best product in the world, but if no one understands why or how … what’s the point? All my efforts as a project manager focusing on time, cost and quality are pointless if no one actually adopts the wonderful products that I’m implementing. I became a highly successful project manager, not because of my ability to manage a project, but more that my business colleagues not only knew how to use the products, but raved about how beneficial they were for them. So what did I do different ? I sold them the opportunity, and kept them informed all the way throughout the project!
So began my career as a Business Change Manager or Business Change Coach as I prefer, using my project management skills coupled with knowledge of technology, skills in communication and engagement helping people not to mention my sales and marketing experience to convince people why a change is worthwhile, and beneficial to be involved in.
While training and becoming certified for this change in my career I knew that one of the key areas that we had to focus on was the need to think of a range of people when a change was occurring, not just focusing on one person or a single persona. Translating what technology terms mean, knowing people, understanding cultural differences, and using my skills in project, sales & marketing to present a change as a saleable entity coupled with training, guidance and support became my approach as I gained real-world experience in the role.
“I learnt during my training (which was backed up by my real world experience) that 42% of organizations are resistant to change, which immediately shows the importance of Change Management.” See: https://www.business2community.com/strategy/project-management-statistics-45-stats-you-cant-ignore-02168819
To conclude, why am I a Business Change Manager?
It’s obvious to anyone who’s met me:
I love working with technology and am continually excited by the improvements that it can bring to our lives.
I am a people person and absolutely love how my job can help deliver lasting positive change to many people.
Lastly, but most important to me is that I love to help others, making their lives better and more satisfying.
People should love their jobs like I do, and I get to help them do that.
Doing what I do, gives me the opportunity to do all of this and more, so if you have my set of skills, get in touch as I am sure you can be a successful Business Change Manager too.