Organisation change is a marriage between effective change management and technical expertise. There can be times when a change team wants to bring in a subject matter expert or even an external guru only to meet resistance. It’s not uncommon for the change expert to hear a question like this: We’ve got you, what use would the subject matter expert be to us?” When in this kind of setting, what the change expert needs to do is to make a clear contrast between their own expertise, which is change, and the expertise of the subject matter expert. This may mean explaining just what it is that the subject matter expert brings to the table.
The subject matter expert is very well trained with the small details of the business. Because they are experienced, they are well trained to handle even the smallest details, have outstanding credentials, and they have very good business sense and intuition. During organisation change, this is a very important skill to have. Furthermore, a subject matter expert can examine the technical aspects of the change initiative. This vetting process is often their most critical role.
Due to overeagerness of the change team, there are times when they will just come up with a change project, develop it, and launch it without properly consulting a subject matter expert about the technical details. The change team takes this proposal to the senior management member that is sponsoring the project. The thing is, the higher management will usually not even ask if the proposal has been vetted already for technical issues. They will probably assume that the team has already done what they had to do in that aspect. As a result, the proposal is approved. The organisation change process moves forward only to come crashing to an almost immediate halt over a minor technical detail that should have been reviewed.
To avoid this result, it’s best to have a subject matter expert on hand. They are experts with the technical stuff and they know the business by heart, so they’ll be able to examine the proposal thoroughly for technical problems. Even more importantly, the subject matter expert can also provide effective solutions to the technical problems, because they are familiar with all the technology involved.
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