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Strategy 5: The Human Element: Ensuring Success Through Organizational Change Management

  • Conduit Consulting, LLC
  • Sep 25, 2025
  • 5 min read

The Efficiency Imperative: A 5-Part Series for the Future-Ready Utility



Welcome to the final installment of The Efficiency Imperative. Over the past four weeks, we've built a blueprint for the modern, efficient utility, covering Predictive Maintenance (Part 1), Mobile Field Operations (Part 2), Strategic Asset Management (Part 3), and Advanced Analytics (Part 4). We've discussed technology, data, and processes. Now, we turn to the most essential element of all: your people.


A utility can invest tens of millions of dollars in the most advanced predictive analytics platform, the most sophisticated enterprise asset management system, or the most streamlined mobile work order management software, only to see the project fail to deliver its promised returns. The reason for this failure is rarely technical. The most common and potent threat to any major transformation initiative is human resistance to change. New technology and redesigned processes can only succeed if the people who must use them every day understand, accept, and embrace them. Implementing new systems without a structured plan to manage the human side of the transition is a recipe for low user adoption, widespread frustration, and a failed return on investment.[1] This is where Organizational Change Management (OCM) becomes an essential, non-negotiable component of any efficiency strategy.


Organizational Change Management is not a "soft skill" or an afterthought; it is a rigorous and structured discipline focused on managing the people side of change to achieve a required business outcome. A formal OCM approach ensures that employees at all levels understand the "why" behind the changes, are properly trained on the new tools and processes, and feel supported and engaged throughout the transition. By proactively addressing the human element, OCM turns potential resistance into enthusiastic adoption, ensuring that technology and process initiatives deliver their full, intended value.


The merger of Duke Energy and Progress Energy, and their subsequent initiative to create a unified, enterprise-wide Project Management Center of Excellence (PMCoE), provides a comprehensive blueprint for best practices in OCM within the utility sector.[2] Their successful approach was built on several key pillars:

  • Active and Visible Sponsorship: The single most critical success factor for any change is the unwavering, visible sponsorship of senior leadership. Leaders cannot simply authorize the project; they must become its most vocal champions, consistently communicating its importance and articulating the vision for the future state in executive forums and employee communications.[2]

  • Stakeholder Engagement and Co-Creation: Change cannot be dictated from the top down; it must be built with the involvement of those it will affect. The Duke team spent considerable time upfront identifying all stakeholder groups, from executives to front-line project teams. They appointed "Change Agents"—influential managers from within the business units—to serve as liaisons, gather feedback, and help tailor the enterprise-wide standards to fit specific departmental needs. This collaborative approach builds ownership and buy-in from the ground up.[2] A key lesson from other utility transformations is to actively seek out contrary opinions and collaborate with those who are resistant. Their concerns are often valid and can help strengthen the final solution.[3]

  • Consistent, Multi-Channel Communication: A detailed communication plan is essential to build awareness and desire for the change. The messaging must be consistent, timely, and focused on explaining the rationale and benefits of the new approach. The Duke team used a variety of channels, including webinars, formal presentations, and targeted emails, to ensure the message was heard and reinforced across the organization.[2]

  • Robust, Tailored Training: Training must go beyond teaching employees which buttons to click in a new software application. It must focus on the new workflows, processes, and mindsets required for success. As one utility maintenance scheduler noted, "When you think you've done enough training, do more".[3] Duke developed specific, tailored training modules for different audiences: one for senior leaders focused on their role as sponsors, another for middle managers on how to lead their teams through the change, and a third for the project management community focused on the new technical standards and tools.[2]

  • Proactive Resistance Management: Resistance to change is a natural human reaction and should be anticipated. An effective OCM plan includes mechanisms to monitor and control performance, such as dashboard-style status reports and key performance indicators that track adoption rates and training effectiveness. These tools allow the project team to identify pockets of resistance or confusion early and provide targeted coaching, additional training, or support before they derail the initiative.[3]


A useful framework for conceptualizing these components is the "Six C's" model, which assesses an organization's change readiness across six key dimensions: Commitment from leadership, Capacity to absorb the change, Co-Creation with stakeholders, alignment with the existing Culture, developing new Capabilities through training, and clear Communication.[4]


Ultimately, effective OCM should be viewed as a critical exercise in risk management. The single greatest risk to a multi-million dollar technology investment is not a server failure or a software bug; it is the risk of human rejection. A utility may invest tens of millions of dollars in a new EAM system, with the business case built on assumptions of 100% user adoption and adherence to new, more efficient processes. Without a strong OCM program, adoption rates will inevitably be lower. Field crews will develop inefficient workarounds, middle managers will not enforce the new standards, and the quality of data entering the new system will be poor because people are using it incorrectly or not at all. As a result, the projected productivity gains, cost savings, and data-driven insights that justified the investment will never fully materialize. The ROI is destroyed. In this light, the budget allocated to OCM should not be seen as a project overhead cost. It should be seen as an insurance policy that protects the entire capital investment in the technology. A strategic 5-10% investment in professional Organizational Change Management de-risks the other 90-95% of the project budget, making it one of the highest-return investments a utility can make.


Conclusion: Your Strategic Ally in Building a More Efficient Future


Boosting operational efficiency is not a destination; it is a continuous journey. The five strategic levers detailed in this series—shifting to predictive maintenance, digitizing field operations, optimizing the asset management lifecycle, leveraging data analytics, and mastering organizational change management—are not isolated initiatives. They are deeply interconnected components of a powerful flywheel for continuous improvement. Predictive maintenance generates the high-quality data that advanced analytics interprets; analytics provides the intelligence that informs a more strategic asset management plan; that plan is executed with precision by a digitized and mobile field force; and the entire system is enabled and sustained by a workforce that has been guided, trained, and empowered to embrace new ways of working.


Returning to the Utility Trilemma—the colliding pressures of surging demand, aging infrastructure, and the energy transition—it becomes clear that the adoption of these five strategies is not an option. It is an imperative for survival, resilience, and success in the 21st-century utility landscape. By systematically reducing waste, enhancing productivity, and unlocking the full potential of their people, processes, and technology, utilities can create the financial and operational capacity needed to invest in the future: to build a grid that is more reliable, a system that is more sustainable, and an organization that is more responsive to the evolving needs of its customers.


Embarking on this transformation requires more than just a technology vendor; it requires a strategic partner who understands the unique complexities of the utility industry. At Conduit Consulting, our team is composed of former utility professionals. We have not just studied these challenges; we have lived them. We bring a dual perspective, combining deep industry experience with proven consulting methodologies to help our clients turn strategic vision into operational reality. We speak your language, understand your constraints, and are relentlessly focused on delivering tangible, measurable outcomes. As your strategic ally, we are ready to help you build a more resilient, efficient, and future-ready organization.


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