AI in Organizational Change Management

Monique Frazier:

Hi, I'm Monique Frazier, US Practice Lead of Organizational Change Management and Training for Infosys Public Services. Today, I'm here with Jennifer Hanks, CEO of MMC GovSolutions. Here today, we're going to be talking about AI and organizational change management in the public sector. Jennifer?

Jennifer Hanks:

Thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here.

Monique Frazier:

Glad you're here. Tell me a little bit about yourself.

Jennifer Hanks:

So serving as the CEO of MMC Government Solutions, I have the honor and responsibility to lead an organization that helps not just the private sector, but also the public sector. And one of the ways that we're doing that is helping the government buy things better, but bringing innovative ways to doing that and taking a look at how we help them bridge organizational change management into their solutions and how they serve their workforce.

Monique Frazier:

And just so everybody has context about how the wealth of your experience, tell me how it went for you before started with the agency that you started with.

Jennifer Hanks:

So my background dates back to almost 20 years ago, and I started in the public sector, in the private sector actually, supporting both large and small federal contractors. And one of my mentors said, if you really want to do well in this space, you need to go support the the private sector, the public sector. And so from that experience, I was able to understand both sides. How does industry support government and vice versa? And that led to us being able to start MMC and share how our thought process and what we learned supporting both sides, how we can bring our solutions to bear with an understanding of how to properly engage to lead to positive outcomes for both organizations.

Monique Frazier:

Now you also did work with USAID.

Jennifer Hanks:

I did, so I was a contracting officer for USAID where we help them through managing both contracts and grants, supporting international development efforts.

Monique Frazier:

So how is AI shaping, research shaping, organizational change management in public agencies?

Jennifer Hanks:

It's really requiring them to focus on the data. Previously, I think, it was just, we're trying to get to an end state. Now it's really looking at what is the best way to get there and how are we really proving how we got there so that we have a trail of best practices to lead us forward. And having data and being able to utilize historical data into the future really helps hold organizations accountable for how they measure success and what was successful. How did those outcomes really lean in on the process that was implemented?

Monique Frazier:

And I believe with that reshaping, it's going to improve overall efficiency.

Jennifer Hanks:

Yes, and right now lot of the work that we do, our customers are requiring that you define how you get to efficiency and what are those things that go into that? What are the KPIs that allow you to identify how you made those efforts and those outcomes come to bear?

Monique Frazier:

Which brings me to my second question. What is the most effective way to build continuous learning and AI upscaling into workforce training?

Jennifer Hanks:

We've had lot of opportunities to talk around organizational change management and for the learning piece, which I'm really passionate about, I think you have to create a culture of learning. And I think once you have that in place, you get the buy-in of the workforce. You get them to listen a little bit better because they know that you have a vested interest. Not only in them as individuals, but how they bring their best to the organization. And so that culture plays a big role in terms of the level of success that you can have.

Monique Frazier:

I have to agree because I realize that more people I talk to about AI that are not familiar are very scared. And if the organization from the top down can encourage learning and adoption and take away the fear of losing their job and identify ways to upskill, I think it will really improve the adoption and also improving efficiency and usage.

Jennifer Hanks:

I think also just adding on to that with the culture aspect, you know, being able to fail or say that you don't know or you don't understand, right? There shouldn't be an expectation by leadership that you're going to get it right every time, that you're going to understand something brand new the first time out the gate. And so again, just having that level of transparency of what the expectations are for the organization and providing the resources and the environment to succeed, I think is a win for everyone.

Monique Frazier:

Good way to talk about responsible AI as well. So how do you pinpoint those skill gaps when a new AI tool comes in? How do you identify an organization? How do you assess it to think about what tools they need?

Jennifer Hanks:

Yeah, I think you need to dig deep, really understand what are the strengths and weaknesses of the workforce and do a complete assessment from the bottom up. You know, what is their background? What are they passionate about? What have they been doing?

Does their role align with the work that they're doing still? Have there been shifts in the responsibilities of individuals across the organization in which potentially they're operating in a role that they just maybe don't have the skill set for and they're kind of operating blindly and hoping for success.

Monique Frazier:

And that also probably increases that fear. The unknown always increases fear.

Jennifer Hanks:

And accountability. Are they going to be held accountable for something that they weren't given the right resources to succeed in?

Monique Frazier:

Absolutely. So that would be great for if you had to do an assessment like one of the things you brought on to me, we started talking about is that you already identified ways of doing assessments to identify those skill gaps.

Jennifer Hanks:

Right, so having been a contracting officer and a buyer for the government, one of the things that we did was look at the level of stress that the workforce encounters throughout the life cycle of the task that they do. And we created a proprietary process for how we do that and how we measure that. And that's really been eye-opening for organizations that have seen the results of understanding, well, we're in the process when you look at every responsibility and task that they have to do for their job, where they're stressed, understanding why they're potentially stressed, and being able to look critically at those specific tasks, then you can say, okay, well, I need to get them training or on the job training or pair them with someone who excels in the areas where they don't. What are some ways in which we can really fill those gaps? And it can be a multi-pronged approach.

Monique Frazier:

That's great because I think about how from an organizational change management perspective, how identifying those gaps, identifying how you can complete them with proper training and skills, and also increasing adoption is also reducing the risk, and also reducing the resistance to change, which is always going to happen with anything new. So one strategy, what's one strategy that would truly, you would think that would engage employees more in terms of learning more about AI and how they can use it and also adopting change?

Jennifer Hanks:

Yes, so I say you have to have a champion in the organization. Who is that AI champion that understands the advantages of using AI for both the organization and the individual being able to communicate?

Why they should want to utilize AI, but also making them comfortable with doing it, right? And giving them opportunities to use it in a manner where they don't feel like their job is going to be threatened by the use of AI. And, you know, one of our team members felt bad that they use AI. I said, I use AI. I'm a CEO and I'm using it. So I expect you to use it. If you need training, I support all the training that you want to take. There's so many resources for AI training that are actually free and they're good. And we encourage our teammates to use it and to share it. That's what they're learning. If there's ways that we can enhance our processes and how we deliver, share that information back and it's a win again for the organization.

Monique Frazier:

So how do you bring the stakeholders? Because the decision makers can also be afraid. And they can also be afraid of the lack of adoption and resistance and how they're going to face it. So one thing I'm going to say from an OCM perspective is a great comm strategy and a great stakeholder engagement strategy to really bring everybody to the same place. Do you have any thoughts about that, about how stakeholder engagement can improve?

Jennifer Hanks:

Yeah, I think it all starts with a conversation, right? Understanding how AI can be incorporated into their organization, but really understanding why. What are the challenges that they're having? What are the problems that they're trying to solve for? And then how do you align AI with solving those challenges for them and with them, right? And so I think when you have that comms plan and who do you need to talk to?

Understanding everyone's role and how AI is actually launched throughout an organization. Again, I think it goes back to the five W's, of who, what, when, how, when, and where. Being able to answer those questions, I think, puts everyone on the same page. And when that goes into the comms plan, the stakeholders all understand what the expectations are and what are the next steps.

Monique Frazier:

That is wonderful. So some of the things you just said are good communication tactics. Something that I would like to just say that we've been doing more of is micro learning to give them snippets of how to do what. So I think also that's been very big. We've been utilizing that a lot in Infosys and I found that it working. It works very well with just learning something that could be difficult if you take it in a big chunk. But if you take 15 minutes here and there with very directed strategies, it will be very helpful to the workforce.

Jennifer Hanks:

Yeah, and I think it makes it less overwhelming, right? They're already trying to do their job. They're trying to be successful in that but taking on something for some that is just brand new. And maybe they have a perception, maybe a negative perception around AI. Now they're kind of being asked to use it, overcoming the mental barriers of adoption, I think. Just doing it in those small snippets with the micro learns, I think, is a great way to start. And maybe having pilots within the organization that they can test out before they go and do it with a client so that they get that level of comfort and confidence. And I think building that confidence with the individuals and then as an organization that we can do this really well. We have the tools, we have the resources, and the support of our leadership.

Monique Frazier:

Thank you so much for joining me today. I know you took a great effort to get here, so I'm very grateful that you were able to make it.

Jennifer Hanks:

Thank you, I appreciate you Monique.