Course Details

Accountants are thought of as being "bad at change," but evidence suggests this may not actually be true. Under the right conditions, firms and individuals can be very adept at change
 
 So why does the practice management system sit half-used, the client portal go unopened, or the subscriptions for great SaaS products go unused?

  • Why the profession is better at change than it maybe thinks: RTI, auto enrolment, money laundering regimes, online VAT filing and MTD for VAT all landed, in firms of every size. So what can we learn from this, and how can we apply it to desired changes that seem to stall?
  • Technique one. Looking at individual behaviour. What are the levers we can pull to influence behaviour - and what tends to be missed?
  • Technique two. The critical piece of change planning that most people miss, leading to the potential for one or two individuals to derail the entire project - willingly or not.
  • Technique three. Design the change so it lands and lasts. How to give a voluntary change the properties of a mandated one. 
  • In closing - why can't people just do it? In a perfect world they would. That is not where any of us work.


By attending this session, you will be able to:

  • Explain why your firm adapts to some changes, but not others.
  • State the change you want as a specific behaviour(s) rather than an outcome, so it can be diagnosed and measured
  • Use science backed methods to more clearly define the change required and select appropriate tactics to encourage it.
  • Map the stakeholders in your own firm in ten minutes, and spot the blockers before they derail the project.
  • Identify the risk your firm is already carrying and make it visible, so a change has real urgency behind it before a lost client supplies one
  • Recognise change fatigue for what it is, depleted capacity rather than a bad attitude, and sequence what is coming so your firm can absorb it


This session will be of interest to:

  • Partners in firms who have bought software that their team isn't using as intended.
  • Practice managers and operations leads responsible for making new systems land.
  • Bookkeepers running their own practice.
  • Anyone leading a firm through a system change, a migration or a mandated compliance change.


Course level: Foundation

(No change management background needed and nothing technical content)

CPD Course Speaker

Nomad Flow

Leigh Stallard

Leigh has been in the accounting profession since 2001. Ten years in practice and fifteen in accounting tech, including being Xero UK's first internal account manager. He now runs Nomad Flow, working with accounting firms and software vendors on the gap between buying a tool and actually using it - the Activation Gap.