The Emotional Journey of Scottish Water (case study)

When Scottish water implemented a new CRM system, it acknowledged that full attention had to be paid to the emotional impact on staff. Patrick Gambin explains:

In a bid to establish effective new business processes to improve field operations productivity, and place the customer at the heart of what the company does, Scottish water recruited operational consulting specialist Celerant Consulting. Central to the brief was the installation of a new customer relationship management system. One thing of particular interest to emerge from the 12-month project was the attention paid to the human element of the change programme.

People have profound reactions to change, reactions that need to be understood and worked with, not against, if sustained and successful improvement is to be achieved.
The emotional response to change in the workplace can be described as an emotional journey. This journey is characterised by four key stages: fear (what does this mean for me?) denial (nothing new here, I’ve seen it all before) acceptance (how will I be doing this and will I be able to cope?) and growth (what’s next?)

Four main groups of people make this emotional journey. Although each group will at some point experience ach of the four states, they will do so at different phases. The four key groups are:

- The leadership team: these are senior people who typically instigate change projects. They are directly accountable for them and they have a clear vested interest in successful outcomes. For the leadership team, emotions take a marked dip from high hopes relatively soon after a change project begins. It can be embarrassing for leaders to see the “warts and all” revelations of faults in existing process being highlighted.

But their emotional journey takes a turn for the better when new processes and systems kick in and the first benefits trigger a fresh sense of confidence. This sense is exemplified by Jon Hargreaves, Scottish water’s chief executive: “I’m very proud of what the project team has achieved and particularly the way our frontline employees have taken on board the changes… and made them work. I’ve waited 14 years from having the idea of an integration project…to today when I can see the results.”

-Middle managers: their emotional journey through change begins with a distinct drop at the start of the project. The cause is very often the sense of personal exposure – sometimes extending to a feeling of failure – as the change team looks to them for detailed data that needs to be analysed early on. Such data may put their management ability in a less than flattering light.

To ensure middle managers ‘emotional journeys remain constructive, Scottish Water devoted a lot of time to coaching the leadership team. As a result, they knew how and when to support their middle management through the early stages. Then, typically, as early change creates the first quick wins, confidence rises and the emotional journey takes a more positive turn.

-Individual workers: at the sharp end of service delivery, Scottish Water employs 220 mobile field operatives looking after a 70,000 km water and wastewater network. The key problem this group experiences emotionally is its sense of detachment in the early phases of a change project. Because the people in it are the numerical majority, it is rarely possible to involve all or even very many of the individual workforce early on.

Uncertainty can develop, especially if a headcount reduction either looks likely or has already taken place. Communication is always key in these situations – dispelling, wherever possible, rumour with reality. Good communication should be backed as soon as practicable with implementation of new work processes that lead to quick wins and a renewed sense of worth and security.

In such a context, “bounce back” is usually both quick and pronounced. But leaders and managers need to be aware that there will be a second “dip” in the workforce’s emotional journey when new working practices kick in to their full extent and people realise that things are going to stay different.

One of the keys to avoiding “change fatigue” was found to be an intensive level of involvement in real world issues and practical ways to resolve them. For example, the change team organised workshops to explore in details what each operational area physically did to help deliver customer service, how they did it and how it needed to fit with other areas of the business to make every promise to customers a reality.

The team then sustained the momentum of the workshops by rolling out the detailed Management Control and Reporting System in conjunction with coached issue identification and resolution, review meetings and one-to one performance management training.

- Implementers/change agents: a major emphasis was placed on early identification of individuals within the Scottish Water’s workforce who were willing and able to be part of a core team driving understanding and implementation of new processes.

Enthusiasm is characteristic of the change agent’s emotional journey. At the start it is usually abundant, as opportunities occur to learn new skills and to be involved with high profile project. But the picture may not remain rosy for long. Change agents may cause resentment or even suspicion among colleagues, which leads to a corresponding dip in the change agent’s own emotional journey. Confidence does reassert itself, however, as new processes start to have a positive impact.

A second dip occurs as they begin to implement new systems on a company-wide basis. The initial trialling phase and its challenges are magnified as they engage with persuading dozens or even hundreds of their colleagues to embrace change as enthusiastically as they have. Scottish Water ensured its change agents were fully supported and recognised for their work.

Scottish Water stresses that, far from being “psycho babble”, the emotional journey concept and the realisations that go with it are far more a product of common sense and personal style than anything else.

Ultimately, it is clearly defined and well executed business process that has helped to deliver the following results:
- £18 million saved in the first year of operation;
- Scottish Water on track to meet its target of 85 per cent first call resolutions (it was 53 per cent before the programme was implemented);
- customer service measures improved 10 per cent since the start of the project.