Organisations pursue change for a variety of reasons, often with the intention of improving operational efficiency or simply staying ahead of the competition.

Digital transformations, post-merger integrations and product launches are all examples of significant change events, and if delivered as planned, can deliver great outcomes for organisations and their customers. But what if something goes wrong?

Change also has the potential to cause significant disruption. We don’t need to look back far to see examples of major operational outages which resulted in thousands of customers being unable to access key services because of a technology upgrade or change programme. In some cases, these incidents have left organisations with lasting reputational damage.

Whilst large-scale change programmes place significant emphasis on ensuring the success of ‘Plan A’ (i.e. what we want to happen), history tells us that it is also important to consider the possibility that things might go wrong. Developing a robust set of contingency plans provides organisations with options to continue delivery of key services, even if ‘Plan A’ fails. Developing contingency plans specifically in the context of change programmes can help to give leadership the confidence to ‘go-live’ safe in the knowledge that, should the worst happen, plans are in place to minimise disruption. Regulators, customers, and Boards as well as other stakeholders are increasingly invested in how organisations prepare for these types of major operational risks.

This article explores approaches to building resilience and readiness to help organisations to better prepare for a significant change programme. 

Where do we see readiness programmes work well?

The size and scale of international sports tournaments create a complex operating environment. Delivering operational excellence from Day 1 is essential to fans, organisers, sponsors, and governments. The world is watching and there is little margin for error. Local organising committees responsible for delivering some of the world’s largest sports events, such as the Olympic Games, must be ready to deliver whatever the circumstances, and this means developing and testing a range of contingency plans to minimise disruption.

Complex operations typically undertake readiness programmes to manage the risk of disruption. Starting by identifying a range of risks, threats, and scenarios to inform the development of contingency plans, which in turn will be progressively exercised and tested to demonstrate that plans are fit for purpose. Different variations of readiness exercises can be conducted across all levels (Strategic, Tactical, Operational), to:

• Challenge plan assumptions.
• Build awareness of plan contents.
• Rehearse key teams involved in plan execution, from those operating venues through to senior leadership.

This readiness programme of activity helps to give organisers the confidence that, should things go wrong on match day (which they often do), teams have the muscle memory and experience to manage issues, maintain operational continuity and, crucially, minimise disruption to fans and athletes – which can be the difference between success and failure.

Applying sport event readiness learnings to large-scale transformations

Like the organising committees responsible for large sporting events, organisations undertaking major transformation, such as post-merger integration (PMI) following a Merger and Acquisition (M&A) transaction, or a technology go-live, face similar challenges to deliver success from Day 1.

Even relatively minor disruptions including migration delays or data integrity issues have the potential to cause lasting damage to an organisation’s reputation if not effectively managed. Developing a mature set of contingencies such as roll-back plans, disaster recovery procedures (ITDR), manual workarounds (BCPs) etc. can help reassure leadership that the right response and recovery procedures are in place. While existing resilience capabilities offer a valuable starting point, significant organisational changes can outpace conventional BCPs and ITDR strategies. The scope and scale of disruption resulting from a failed go-live typically goes beyond the remit of traditional BC and ITDR planning, meaning new thinking and planning is often required to manage this type of disruption scenario.

There are a range of activities that can be performed to prepare for Day 1. To get started, below is a series of key questions and actions to meet typical readiness challenges: