Change Management! April Callis Birchmeier, CSP, CCMP, is the newest guest on Espresso with Experts!

All right, hi everybody, Randy Dean here, email sanity expert, and it's time for the next episode of Espresso with the Experts. And I have a very special guest for you today, uh, April Callis Birchmeier, who's the author of Ready, Set, Change. But she's also, um, very influential in the whole change management professional community, including part of the group that is helping people get ready for the change management exam. So if you're a change management pro, you really, really want to pay attention to today's program. So with all of that, I'm going to bring April into the discussion now. There she is. Look at her right there on the screen. But what we're going to do is I'm going to go off screen sharing mode so that we can go to a more open discussion. Here we go. How you doing today, April?

Oh, I'm great. How are you?

Oh, doing wonderful. And you know the format. The format is, I hope you brought it, the coffee cup. As you can see, I have the one where I went to Miami and they gave me a Yeti, which I thought was sort of funny that I've been Miami with a, and I get an insulated drink cup. So—

Should be called a My Yeti, not a Miami.

My Yeti, there you go. Hey, yeah, very nice.

All right, so—

Oh, you're like all coordinated, look. You got like the colors and the book, and you must have like a PR promotions expert like standing off to the side talking to you about, you know, layout and setup.

That's fun. I wish. I do love my Ready, Set, Change cup.

Yeah. Any story behind your Ready, Set, Change cup that you have?

Well, I, or when I was getting some business cards for the book, my, my promotional company suggested a mug, and I thought, oh well, that's kind of cute. Well, then I was doing a lot of Zoom calls for PMI chapters and SHRM chapters, and I would hold it up and say, this is my shameless plug mug.

So there you have it, a shameless plug mug. I need to get one of those. So I, I will be talking to my graphics person and say, hey, Maybe I could do a hat though, or something.

Yeah, you need a shameless plug mug.

That's all you need. Yeah, you know, yeah. So that's very fun. Okay, well, cool. Well, you've been on a tear. I've been sort of watching you on social. I mean, not only do you have the book, Ready, Set, Change, which we can all see in the background, but you've been doing some very significant work within the change management community. Can you tell me a little bit more about what you've been up to here?

Well, it's been a really busy year and it's been exciting. About a year ago, I developed a course and I, I was able to, um, have the Association of Change Management Professionals, uh, designated as a qualified education provider course. So it qualifies people to be able to take the Certified Change Management exam, and it also helps project managers and HR professionals and change management professionals understand how to apply the Ready, Set, Change framework to a change initiative or project. So it's really a very exciting program to have developed. And from that, uh, I wanted to help people get really ready for the exam, so we developed a, um, a Ready, Set, CCMP Study Challenge that's 1 week that allows people to study for the exam. And many people are signing up for the exam, then taking the Study Challenge, and then right away taking the exam. So it kind of all sticks in there. Um, and I noticed though that we were having people who were coming to this Study Challenge who had not yet finished their CCMP, their Certified Change Management Professional. They hadn't, um, finished their designations application yet, so they were studying for the exam, but they hadn't been approved to take the exam. They hadn't even applied. So I thought, well, this is a kind of a mishmash a little bit. It wasn't matching up very well because, um, there were two of us on the call, and I would send the group who was ready to study off with the, uh, my facilitator, and then I would take the folks who were trying to fill out their application. I thought, let's just break this group in half. So if you haven't finished your application, we have the Ready, Set, CCMP Application Challenge. It's 5 days, and at the end of the 5 days, you submit your application to take the exam. And then we have the Ready, Set, CCMP Study Challenge, and that one is to help people prepare to take their exam. So it's all study. And from that, we developed an exam simulator, which is an online tool that you can play by yourself that asks you questions that are on, you know, similar to those on the exam, and then you can answer the questions. And it's built in Kahoot. I don't know if you are aware of Kahoot, Randy Dean.

I've heard of Kahoot, yes.

Kahoot is a fabulous tool, and it's a great way to take quizzes, and it's a great way to have fun. And then there's a couple of different types of quizzes. Well, there's 7 different types of 21 quizzes There's 7 different types of quizzes, and then we also have multiple ways you could play. You can play against yourself, you can play against, uh, virtual characters, um, you can play with somebody else, and then you can study for the exam. And we've had great success so far.

And you put all this all together in like the last 2 years basically, right?

In the last year, yes.

In the last year. So somebody has been very productive with their time in the pandemic, I would say. That's impressive as heck. And it looks, you know, the neat thing is you just mentioned how you started doing your, um, you know, study challenge and you realized there was this organic thing happening in the room with these two different audiences, the ones that are fully queued up and ready to take the exam and the other ones haven't even got through the application process. It reminds me when I started my business, you know, what, almost 18 years ago. I started it just doing generic time management for Outlook users. That was basically the principle. And I would get to the email segment and everybody go, this is the problem. And I went, ooh, opportunity. I think you've nailed an opportunity right there because that's what blew up the whole Email Sanity thing for me was realizing that that was the big issue. I think you've got a beautiful little business model here with prepping for the actual application, prepping for the exam, the simulator for the exam, and your related study groups.

Wow, wow, I'm pretty excited about it. It's, it's been really terrific. And I'll tell you my secret weapon, Randy Dean, for this year is, is a year ago— my daughter is an actress, she lives in New York— a year ago I said, come work for me. She was wait— waiting tables, and then of course COVID hit, she couldn't wait tables anymore. I said, come work for me. She is fantastic. She's been instrumental in pushing things out with me. And so we've really discovered this, as you said, organic group where I would send everybody off with Emma to go study because I had to help the Application Challenge folks. And I thought, well, why don't we break these groups apart and we can give them both full attention from both of us the whole time. So that's exciting.

Wow. Yeah, that is exciting. And plus you got to work with your kid, which is fantastic.

She's terrific. She's terrific. Yeah.

Now, is this gonna become a full-time gig for her then?

What you two are doing together? I hope so.

Yeah. Yeah. Sounds like you have a, what do they call that? A exit strategy in place now, you know? So I'm ready to retire. It's all you. Just pay me a commission. Thank you.

And our next thing is, uh, just about 3 weeks away, we're publishing, um, an ebook, uh, a study guide. So on Amazon. So we'll be able to, you know, people who are looking for a book to study for the CCMP, there's really very few resources right now. So we're— we have an ebook going on, and that's—

that's wonderful. You got an open field. That's great.

Yeah.

Yeah. So, so, um, yeah, I just can't reiterate, uh, anymore that all of you that are seriously looking into the change management field and are thinking about getting some change management credentials, or at least just getting much, much better at this, you got your resource right here, you know. So, so take advantage of this because, um, April is going to be a wealth of, um, not just knowledge, but prep, which is even bigger. That's great. Now, coming out of that, what's hot in change? What is the hot discussion topics and area within the change management field right now? I mean, it's got to be nutty with what's going on with this pandemic.

It has been, and there's been a lot of focus on, you know, what to do— two pieces, right? The first one was, you know, working from home and how are people going to adapt and adjust. And then that second piece has been this kind of great resignation.

The great resignation. Exactly. Yeah.

Has been a huge issue for many companies and they're looking for assistance. And that's one of the things about organizational change management is that it's a very broad field in, in many ways. It's, um, there are some, some areas that are very focused on technology, you know, implementing technology, helping adoption, uh, end user and stakeholder adoption for projects. Yeah, there's many areas of it that are more focused on workplace culture. So, you know, how to retain your employees, how to, you know, onboard new employees and then retain them because it's so expensive to bring on new folks. And in 2021, one of the really exciting things that happened was I was recognized as a Global Guru for workforce, workplace culture. So that was very exciting.

Oh yeah. And, and you nailed it. You know, that's been a big part of the topic discussions I've been having with a lot of my other expert author friends, uh, has been, um, you know, I don't think we're going back to the old normal at all. It's going to be hybrid for sure. I think there will be in-person meetings and stuff again, but I doubt very few organizations are going to be able to go back full-time full office staff, office building, traditional old school environment. Because if they try to do that, they're just going to have people leave. And they're going to go someplace where they have more flexibility to do what they've been doing here. And so I have to imagine that this is a huge part of your discussions right now.

It is. In fact, I was just working with a client recently. And part of their issue is that they have some of their team members have to be on site. And some can work remotely. And there's a lot of resentment and frustration between those groups who can have a more flexible, like, I'm in the office maybe 1 or 2 days a week and I'm home the rest of the time, to, you know, I have to be on site every day. And so there seems to be just a lot of, you know, friction there. Yeah, it's difficult, difficult.

Yeah. And any, any discussion about possible solutions to that? I mean, what, what can you do? Because I mean, there are certain jobs that have to be there. You know, how, how do you, how do you ameliorate that friction that's happening with the two different groups?

Well, I do think that there's, there are things we can do to make it simpler for people. I mean, there are a number of people who like to be in person. So one of the first things is really kind of assessing your, your workforce, right. And figuring out like, Who wants to be in person? Because there are people who want to be in person, right? And, you know, seeing if we can shift things so that those folks are able to be in person, but recognize that they may, you know, feel the desire for a little bit more flexibility around, you know, I need a personal day here and there so that I, I, I'm not 100% of the time in the office. Maybe I'm 95% of the time there or something. I think also, um, it's important to recognize not only preferences, but just this understanding that all organizations have different roles, and we might just have to kind of, you know, shift things around until we find the right fit for everyone. And sometimes people choose to, you know, move on and find something different, but there are a lot of folks out there who are looking for organizations who are flexible and open. So that group I was mentioning, I had done a change management workshop with them because they had been experiencing change prior to the pandemic and they hadn't been able to make it through that change journey yet.

Oh, so they were sort of left out there and then all of a sudden big whammy hits. Yeah.

Yes. And so one of the things that we were talking about was just, you know, what is the change process look like and how do we get through that more quickly? And that's one thing I really can help with is helping people to understand here's how that change journey looks. And here's how to move through it quickly.

Yeah, and it's interesting because, uh, you know, I was actually talking to my wife about this, uh, who, you know, is at a high-level position in a specific organization. And, you know, one of the things that she's discovered is, you know, they've been having some discussions and realizing we have all of these historical cultural norms in place about workspace and work, uh, culture that we now need to question all of them because of this, you know. And part of it was that, you know, everybody's in the office together workspace, you know. The other one was 8-to-5 workday, um, Monday through Friday. Uh, should it go to a 4-day week for some people? Should you let some people work shorter days but 6 days? Do you, you know, how do you do all of this? And, and realizing that you may not be able to not do some of these things because of how competitive the labor market is, you know. So it's sort of like you're positioning yourself to be able to recruit the best talent by showing how flexible you can be for those employees. It's really sort of changed. Yes, change.

Yeah, change. Yes, and not only recruiting, but that retention is so key because when you lose an employee, it's so, so expensive to replace them. You know, all of that lost knowledge, um, you know, it is— it's very difficult on organizations right now to not be flexible. I mean, they really kind of just have to understand that this is the new normal, to be really flexible and try to figure out a way that we can get the work done and still people are feeling connected and like they really want to be there and want to be a part of the organization. I think that's a really important piece.

That's interesting. Have you run into any organizations that are in desperate straits because they maybe weren't flexible enough? And so all of a sudden they realized they were having a really— and I don't want you to name names clearly, uh, but they realized that, oh my gosh, we're at a major competitive disadvantage for, for our professional staff right now because of our policies? Have you, have you run into anything like that?

Well, I have, um, in higher education. I've seen, I've seen in higher ed, you know, there is a need for in-person work. And that is where sometimes there's, you know, um, this, this gap, this problem with, you know, many people have gotten used to working at home and they think, well, I don't really want to go back to campus. You know, I, I'm really content working from home. And yet they're looking to kind of build that team again where they have some, some on-site real people. And so that's been a difficulty. I also know of an organization that I worked with who had done a big reorganization of their, their HR and talent team. And the problem they ran into though was when the pandemic hit, they weren't quite finished with their, with their training for it, and they weren't really finished with the process, the change process, but they ended up having to move everybody remote. And that took them, took them about 3 months to figure out how to get everybody remote. And then they had to bring everybody back in. Then they had to take them out remote and all progress stopped on the change. It just became like a day-to-day survival thing. So I think that's been a real issue for a number of organizations as well, that they have had to kind of put on hold some of the initiatives they had hoped to accomplish because they've just been tied up with dealing with, you know, COVID and how are we supposed to be in or out or what with the office.

Yeah. So they had, they had a change process in place and then a desperation change process popped up, crisis change. And then they had to sort of table things. It sounds to me though, like you would be the kind of person that can come in and help them think through all this kind of stuff. Is that a fair assessment?

Well, if you say so. Yes, I think it's a fair assessment. Yeah. And one of the things that I think is very interesting is that many of our CEOs are aware of these issues. You know, they know they have this need, but they think, you know, who does that? Well, that's what change management professionals can help with. You know, they can assist in that change journey and helping move people from, you know, that current state to the future state.

Are you seeing any C-level positions in change? All right, have you seen that, uh, start to rise up within the industry, like, you know, the, um, Chief Change Management Officer? Have you seen anything like that?

I have been seeing that. One thing I've been seeing, uh, a great deal of is in job postings, I've been seeing a requirement for a CCMP, which is very interesting because, ah, yeah, Certified Change Management Professional designation is only 5 years old. So, uh, previously you saw change management postings or HR postings, or sometimes for project management, um, they'd want a change management role, but they were saying they wanted Prosci training, which is a, a, uh, a methodology vendor. They have their own methodology. But now instead of saying Prosci, I see they're saying CCMP required. And so that's been a real shift because—

and are these people coming out of the HR function that they're trying to hire with that, or is it at an even higher level? Because I'm like, I'm sort of thinking like, you know, Chief Operations Officers and people like that might have that requirement now for change management, just because that's the world we're in now.

Yeah, yes, I have seen, I have seen some COO roles, you know, really highlight ability to lead change. And so I have seen that. Posting. And I think it's interesting because so many times, I think in the past, perhaps COO roles were, you know, really focused on operations, really focused on keeping things going. And now they have to have sort of this strategy hat on all the time as well. And that strategic vision is so key to being able to be successful going into this, you know, unknown territory.

So now COOs listening to today's call, listen to what I'm about to say closely. Having this change knowledge, showing that you have the strategic ability to do so, sure sounds like it would position you pretty well for a CEO position at some point, correct? Absolutely. Yeah. I mean, it seems like this is the part of the toolkit that would make you more competitive for even the higher level next step.

I'm telling you, if you can lead change, yeah, you know, that's what we need.

And especially now, this is such a unique time, um, you know, uh, and what is it, the old, uh, I think they said that it was the, um, Chinese symbol, uh, for—

oh yes, danger also.

Yeah, yeah, yin and yang, opportunity, opportunity and threat, danger, danger and opportunity right together, you know, and, and and it certainly seems like that's the case. It seems like the companies that can best address all of this are probably going to be the ones that not only survive, but thrive and grow. Fair assessment?

Yes, very fair assessment.

Yeah.

And one of the things that I've noticed is many CEOs are quite good at this, you know, understanding the vision of the change and being able to communicate it. I think that is a key skill And one, I, I've been teaching for a Project Management Institute. They've just changed from PMI Seminars World to PMI Training. I've been teaching classes for them for the past year. And one of the things that was asked for from my classes was how to tell the story of change. People don't always understand how to tell the story in a way that can be really effective in helping people move through that change. So that's a new course coming out and it's exciting because I love helping executives frame the change in a way that people can understand it, as opposed to—

yeah, yeah. And that's what I was— one of the things I was going to ask you, hearing, you know, CEOs are usually pretty good at seeing the strategy and understanding the need for the change, but, you know, I would imagine that some of them probably need help with the nuts and bolts of, uh, enacting the change and communicating the change. Maybe that's not their core suit. And it seems like that would be where you and other people like you would be the people that could maybe help step in for that period of time and help with that. Fair? Another fair assessment? Does that seem, seem reasonable?

Yes. And well, and one of the things that I have in the Ready, Set, Change framework, the first step is really identifying the relevant and relatable story of the change.

Yeah.

And it has to be a story. It can't be bullet points. It can't be numbers. You know, this is going to save us 80%, our productivity should rise 27%. I mean, people are like, yeah, boring. Yeah, it's like the Charlie Brown teacher.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.

So, you know, being able to, to tell a story that helps people to understand why we're doing something. Key skill, key skill for executives.

Yeah. Now, uh, I, I think one last thing I'd like to ask you about here, um, there's always people that resist. How are you dealing with the change resistors, and what do you do to help an organization deal with those that really, really don't like any kind of change at all?

That's a great point.

Avoid even hiring them in the first place.

Well, you know, resistance is natural and it's very inevitable and we should expect it. So it should never come as a shock to us. Like, I can't believe people don't want to change. You know, it shouldn't be like this big moment of surprise. We need to plan for that. And that's why that, that relevant, relatable story of change is so powerful.

I get it. Yeah.

When people understand the why of the change, it's not as easy to resist it, right? Because now I have a sense of like, oh, I can see it. I still don't want to do it. So, in the, in Ready, Set, Change, I put together a grid of different resistance modes that people go into. So sometimes we have people who are commanders. They're very directive. They like to support the change. They're out in front telling people about it. Many CEOs are commanders, but when they don't have enough information or they feel like they're being left out of a conversation or decision, they will flip into a resistance mode of fighter. They'll become a fighter and they'll start to fight against the team. They may become resistant to the change themselves without recognizing it. And then you see kind of this mixed message thing coming from the top. We also have folks who are very good at socializing ideas, communicating with others. We call them, you know, our social butterflies, sometimes our socializers, but they can very easily resist and turn into saboteurs where they start to be sarcastic and negative and they do it kind of behind your back. So you're not—

I was thinking they were probably subversive when they're doing it.

Yeah, they are. Yes. And so, you know, figuring out, you know, how do we help those folks get out of that resistant mode and and stay in that socializer mode. You know, we have to include them in a lot of things. We have the, the—

Yeah, it seems like, just real quickly, it seems like if you did it right, they could become your evangelists and your champions. Yes, because they're, they're so good at— Yeah, but if, boy, if they go subversive on you, you're going to have some big problems. I can see too. Yeah. So now you were saying another one.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, then there's this understander, and these folks in an organization love to understand. To understand things at a very deep level. They love to really understand the process and all the pieces, and they're not quick to react, but they are very— they provide a lot of stability in the organization. And when we are kind of flipping them into resistance mode because we're not giving them time to— time or opportunity to understand, then they'll become an underminer and they'll just flat out say, well, I'm not going to do that. I'm going to resign. I'm going to go retire. I'll retire on the job, you know. So that's, that's one of the things that we can do is really kind of pull them in by letting them be, you know, if we're doing an agile process, we can let them be a part of the product review. If we're doing some sort of a workforce or workplace culture, we can ask them to be on the planning committee, something so they can truly understand it from the inside out. And then the final one is the detailer. Who can become a derailer. So the detailer loves details. They love facts and figures and numbers, and they can derail the whole thing by asking for so much detail that they can never be satisfied and can never make a decision. They hold everything up. And so, you know, helping them to have the, the amount of details plus the timeline and the understanding of what the risk is if they don't meet these timelines, that can help them break out of that resistant mode of being a derailer.

It sounds like some great strategies in terms of workforce analysis to, you know, help organizations figure out where their points of resistance might be and work through those points of resistance to get people onto the so-called change team more quickly and allow the change process to go more smoothly. Fair?

Yes. And I think, I think just that, you know, as you said, that recognition of those resistors and then having strategies to, um, address it is, is a big piece. You're absolutely right.

Wow, what a great conversation. I mean, you know, I, I think about, you know, the discussion of what you built and how you're helping prepare all these people to get ready for this in terms of professional certifications, uh, you know, uh, the discussion about the change that's happened in the workplace, uh, prompted even more so by COVID in the hybrid workplace. And then this finalizing little discussion about people types and, you know, promoters and resistors of change. Wow. Pretty awesome little discussion we've just had here.

Yeah.

Uh, obviously this might be a good resource for you, everybody. I'm going to go back into screen share mode because Let's do this. Let's share screen. I want to give you April's contact info. And look at this. Okay, everybody get ready for a little bit of a laugh here. Notice April was apparently very ready for this interview and got the memo. Yeah, so that's fun. I went and snipped this photo right off her website. And my gosh, she's like Nailing it. So here's her website, and notice that she's got a website for her speaking business, but she's also got the website for the CCMP training information. And so take a look at both. I think both could be very good options. As you can see, you know, these discussion points could be fantastic information for organizations right now. Boy, talk about a great time to be a change management pro.

I know.

I have to imagine you've been a bit busy.

Yeah, great timing, I think. Yeah.

All right. Any final thoughts or anything, April? Anything final you want to share here while we're on your contact page?

Well, I just want to, to reassure everybody, you know, that, that there's a lot of research and there's a lot of information about how to help an organization and its individuals move through change more quickly, to move from that current state to the future state. And so, you know, I would just say please reach out if you have any questions. I'd be happy to connect you to resources and to provide additional information if needed.

Wonderful, fantastic, fun interview. I'll finish this up now. Of course, I am Randy Dean. There I am hiding in the background, a little bit more casual here in my my home office today, but I'd like to thank you for your time. If you'd like to learn more about me and my programs, go visit my website, randydean.com, which is right now undergoing a major website upgrade, probably to be launched early in 2022. Also, obviously, if you like these videos, please like, please subscribe, please make comments. I'd like to see these turn, you know, more interactive with the comment streams. And watch for very soon, one of my projects over the holidays is to take all of these interviews like the one we just did here with April and make them into a, listen to this, free course on my e-learning academy with all of the expert podcasts that I've been doing. So watch for that coming soon. And if you would like to get my bonus materials, Send me an email, randy@randaldean.com, put YouTube PDF, and I'll send you a whole bunch of bonus stuff to keep you busy on your change process to become more efficient with your technology. How about that? Awesome.

That's good.

Awesome. All right. Hey, and one last thing, I'm gonna go back. There's April's contact information one more time. Grab it quick. Easy, easy peasy. All right. Thanks, April. This was a lot of fun.

Thank you, Randy.

All right.

Great to see you. Thanks.