Rescuing a Stalled Digital Claims Transformation
Meridian Insurance has spent 18 months and £2.4m on a digital claims transformation. Adoption of the new workflow is 40% among claims handlers; many continue to use the old system 'just in case'. The sponsor is the operations director, who is enthusiastic but has attended only two of eight steering meetings. The project team is focused on technical fixes. The original change plan is a generic template with a list of training sessions. Benefits were described as 'improved efficiency' but not quantified. A recent audit found duplicate data entry and rising error rates. The new CEO wants a reset and has asked the change manager to 'make adoption happen' in 90 days. The change manager suspects the issues are not primarily technical.
1. What would you do in the first 30 days to diagnose why adoption is low and reset the change?
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Run a structured diagnosis rather than commissioning more training. Interview claims handlers and team leaders, observe the workflow, review the audit findings, and map barriers against awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, and reinforcement. Check whether the new workflow fits the real claims process and whether incentives still reward old behaviour. Assess sponsor engagement honestly: two of eight steering meetings is a risk. Reconfirm the benefits with quantified measures such as cycle time, error rate, and cost per claim. Build a change history to understand previous failed initiatives. Then reset with a tailored plan: sponsor actions, manager routines, process fixes, and a phased adoption target. Present the CEO with evidence and trade-offs, not a promise that 90 days will fix everything. The first 30 days should produce a shared diagnosis and a credible plan.
2. How would you measure change success beyond adoption rate, and what would you do if the sponsor asks you to present only positive data?
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Use a balanced set of measures: adoption quality, capability, process performance, benefits realisation, and sustainability. For example, track the percentage of claims processed end-to-end in the new workflow, duplicate entry rates, error rates, cycle time, cost per claim, and customer satisfaction. Add leading indicators such as handler confidence and manager coaching frequency. Adoption alone can be gamed or hollow. If the sponsor asks for only positive data, explain the professional and commercial risk: selective reporting hides the duplicate-entry problem and undermines the reset. Offer to present a balanced scorecard with risks and mitigations, and ask the sponsor to own the improvement narrative. If pressure continues, escalate through governance or a professional body. Honest reporting is part of the change manager's role, not an optional extra.