If we accept as they say that change is a constant, getting it right becomes even more important. On Thursday night, the 2017 ChangeConnect Awards will again pay tribute to the best examples of SA businesses taking their change management seriously – and it’s paid off.
The four projects that are finalists in this year’s ChangeConnect Awards are all exceptional examples of how investing time, money and effort in change management is paying dividends for some of Adelaide’s most prominent businesses.
The Judging Panel, featuring outstanding change leadership experience, was led by Commissioner for Public Sector Employment Erma Ranieri, and included Chris Wood, General Manager People, Performance and Culture at Adelaide Football Club, Peter Seltsikas, Senior Manager, Asset Management for SA Water (and 2015 ChangeConnect Award winner) and ChangeConnect Chair Susan Stewart.
“Sharing stories and acknowledging excellence is key to elevating the value and role of change management,” Ms Stewart said. “ChangeConnect is proud to again celebrate the best change management projects in South Australia with the ChangeConnect Awards, featuring some outstanding examples in this year’s finalists.”
The ChangeConnect Award Finalists
Finalist 1: Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences Building (AHMS) Project
The Adelaide Health and Medical Sciences Building (AHMS) Project sought to establish a presence for the University of Adelaide within the South Australian BioMed City precinct, alongside existing research partner SAHMRI.
Through the development of a 13-storey building, the AHMS Project co-located the Schools of Medicine, Dentistry, Public Health and Nursing adjacent the new Royal Adelaide Hospital, representing a once-in-a-generation opportunity to redefine research and teaching, and enable the University to bring together previously dispersed teams.
To date over 700 staff have transitioned into the AHMS building and are currently occupying four shared laboratory spaces, teaching in more than a dozen state of the art learning spaces and conducting clinical trials in a purpose-built trial facility. Through a comprehensive change management program, the benefits of this cutting-edge facility are now being realised.
Finalist 2: Department for Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR) Workplace Relocation Project
In 2012 the Department of Environment and Natural Resources and the Department for Water amalgamated to establish the Department for Environment, Water and Natural Resources (DEWNR).
The physical impact of the amalgamation was significant – out of 1,800 people, 900 Adelaide-based people were operating out of seven locations across the CBD; essentially dividing the culture, hindering collaboration, escalating leasing and travel costs and increasing the environmental footprint of the sustainability-driven organisation.
The modern, flexible 6 Star Green Star rated fitout has reduced the organisation’s environmental footprint an astonishing 40%, with expected cost savings of $30m returned to the state government over the organisation’s 12-year lease. Significantly, the project was awarded the ‘People’s Choice’ award at DEWNR’s internal staff awards program; a remarkable achievement considering the relocation disrupted every staff member involved in the move.
Finalist 3: SA Power Networks Project Lhotse
Technology upgrades are generally disruptive and often unwanted by staff. This was the challenge faced by the “Program Lhotse” (named after the fourth highest mountain in the world) team at SA Power Networks, when upgrading their Citrix platform and ten-year-old Microsoft Office suite, and standardising the server configuration.
With little ‘appetite for change’, the project team needed to make sure that there was minimal impact and disruption to the staff, and determined that going directly to the people to build a sustainable support framework was going to provide the best outcomes longer term.
However geography was not on their side but the team persisted, engaging 2,500 staff dispersed across 35 geographically disparate sites requiring more than 30 000km travel. The change team developed a continuous improvement approach to the project, aligning objectives and milestones to change management framework ADKAR. Training was paramount in all stages of the pre- and post-implementation, along with reviews and improvements to the approach following each site implementation.
Finalist 4: SA Power Networks RedEye Project
In 2016, SA Power Networks reimagined the way they could work together using emerging technology. In the past, primary communication for field teams was via paper copy drawings – not ideal when working with critical infrastructure during major weather conditions, often in hazardous areas across South Australia.
The result was a joint initiative between Network Planning, Field Services Engineering, construction groups and IT, to implement a central drawing management solution, called RedEye, across 400 substation assets and over 100,000 drawings.
Letting the end users decide which drawing management solution would be best for the business, how it could be used and implemented to suit their needs, created buy-in by end users.
2017 ChangeConnect Awards
Thursday, 9 November 2017, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm CDST
ChangeConnect 
Leave a Reply