The expected outcomes of change, such as reduced expense, increased productivity, happier students/staff, are the benefits. It may take many months after the implementation of the change for the benefits to be fully realised.

Back in the Case for Change as part of putting a business case together, the benefits of the change will have been identified. During a change project these will be monitored by the change sponsor in case there are any impacts to the expected benefits.

For example: reduction of paper based forms may have been an expected benefit but during testing, an issue may have arisen which means not as many forms have been made digital. The benefit target will need to have been reassessed in the light of this.

Once the change is launched, typically, existing or the newly updated management information is used to do track benefits. The information is then analysed and the findings reported in a benefits realisation report at agreed checkpoints.

Leaders may continue to celebrate success as their benefits are shown to be trending in the right direction or they may face the challenge of a slow benefits realisation.

If the benefits are not on track, a root cause analysis may need to be performed to see what has occurred. Key questions include:

•Has any other change occurred which may have impacted the expected benefit?

•Are the changes properly embedded? Are people performing well in their new roles or in the performance of the processes? Is more training required?

•Is there something not quite right with the solution? Does the process need further change or a technical solution further development? What is the cost of doing these improvements and are the anticipated benefits worth the continued investment?

This is another time when leaders need to ensure they don’t give up. Cynicism may be growing among the organisation about the change, mutterings of ‘it didn’t work and nobody thought it would’ be heard. Continued good engagement and communication is required to ensure negativity is addressed and people continue to believe in the vision.

The final step in a change is to agree that the benefit has been realised or as much of the benefit has been realised as possible – other change projects may have been proposed which will impact the measurement, for example. Any final reporting is made and the change is agreed as complete.

• Benefits Realisation Report