How a core process was radically changed without (many) tears...

1. Changing Processes,
Changing People
How a core process was radically changed
without (many) tears…
Liz Hunt
Lynsey Hopkins
The University of Sheffield Admissions Service
July 2016

2. Introduction
What?
• Our project: the Admissions Service going paperless
When?
• Happened over the course of several years
• Covered lots of staff and process changes
How?
• Planned as far as possible…
• But large elements of making it up!
Now?
• Where are we now?
Learn?
• What did we learn?
• Advice for those embarking on change
• ‘Takeaways’ throughout the presentation

3. The Background

4. Background
harnessing an external driver can help get
over lack of internal momentum
Admissions used to be paper heavy
PG processes flabby and labour-intensive
UG based around UCAS
Sector pushed for UCAS paperless ultimatum
External driver gave power when fighting for resource

5. Making it happen

6. Some basics:
• Getting a good spec makes all the difference (in-
house vs. external systems)
• Don’t reinvent the wheel: once we had built a
great PG system, we based our UG system on it
• Review your processes (this provided the
internal impetus for getting our PG system built
– we realised how much waste there was)
• AUA Good Practice Guide No 43
• Make your case (internal as well as external
drivers: in our case, more centralised activity)
• Marshall your resources

7. The biggie:
communicate!!
Stakeholder
engagement
Admissions
Service
Admissions
Tutors
Computing
Services
Senior
Managers
Stakeholder
engagement:
all staff able to
give input at all
stages, through
design,
development and
implementation

8. Gaining Momentum

9. Business as usual?
constraints can be your best friend
PG system made its own
argument and gave
momentum to UG
Tight time constraints but
used this as a positive to aid
prioritisation
Keeping business as usual
going is essential and helps
remind us of what is
important at every stage
Involve new people as they
come along – necessary but
also helpful to have fresh
eyes
Momentum

10. Communications again…
Constant communications over the course of the project
Use a range of channels – forums, meetings, task groups,
emails, briefings, newsletters
Open up opportunities for involvement – we used volunteers
from junior and senior staff for the project team
Don’t underestimate the drip-drip effect of taking every
opportunity to remind and update people about the project
Use communication channels to gain feedback and ideas to
constantly feed into project development

11. More communications…
Making the argument for the project can be easy (our
Admissions Service couldn’t wait…)
…but can also be the most difficult part (some Admissions
Tutors were worried to the point of tears…)
…so take all concerns seriously and take time to reassure
where needed
Think about communication timings, especially around the
academic cycle
don’t underestimate the effect of constant
drip-drip communications

12. Implementation

13. Passing ‘Go’
as they (nearly) say in the military, prior
preparation prevents particularly poor
performance
‘UG Online’ was heavily
time-constrained – two
weeks to implement
between the summer
madness and the new
cycle
But, constraints proved
our friend again: swift and
effective buy-in, good
concentration of
resources, institution-
wide focus
Good preparation counts:
getting the right rooms
for training, providing
‘drop-ins’, having simple
but helpful
documentation
We didn’t pilot but would
recommend you do!

14. Did we mention comms?
Good communications remain as essential at implementation
point as throughout development
You will never have a better opportunity to get feedback
than in the early weeks of implementation
Be ready to tweak your written guides and send out
regular operational updates
Feedback loops are essential at this stage – done well, positive
reinforcement really beds your system in and moves it on
strike while the iron’s hot and get your
feedback immediately and regularly

15. After the storm

16. Don’t think you can relax now
embrace continuous improvement
Put in place a
system for
ongoing
development
and
improvement
Implement
formal and
informal
channels for
continuing to
gather
feedback
Secure
resource for
after the
project is
formally
completed
(easier said
than done…)
Be prepared
to have to
make tweaks
and even
bigger
changes for a
long time
Bring your lessons to bear on other projects – we did and got an
amazing Confirmation system

17. Lessons

18. What did we learn?
3 big
lessons
Plan and map as much
as you can
Establish your rationale for the
project and make the argument
that will give it momentum
Get buy-in at every level and every
step of the way – design,
development and implementation

19. Ongoing challenges and
unintended consequences
1
• Once the project is ‘live’ resource can disappear
2
• Working practices can change in unintended ways
• People de-skill themselves in the face of good systems
3
• Nothing is forever – our systems may already be reaching the
end of their lives
• Moving on from a good system is more difficult than changing
from a poor one

20. Change management models
We didn’t use a model, but you might want to
Lewin’s Unfreeze-
Change-Refreeze
model
The ADKAR
model
Kotter’s 8 step
change model
We recommend looking at the model first…
We’re about to have massive technology change
again and we are going to take our own advice!

21. Final thoughts
harnessing an external driver can help get over lack of
internal momentum
communicate!!
constraints can be your best friend
don’t underestimate the effect of constant drip-drip
communications
as they (nearly) say in the military, perfect preparation
prevents particularly poor performance
strike while the iron’s hot and get your feedback
immediately and regularly
embrace continuous improvement

22. Any questions?
Lynsey Hopkins
Head of Admissions
l.hopkins@sheffield.ac.uk
Liz Hunt
Undergraduate Admissions Manager
e.hunt@sheffield.ac.uk