On this episode of Frontline Innovators, Michelle Pacilli, the Change Adoption Manager at Echo Global Logistics, joins host Justin Lake to talk about the biggest challenges facing frontline workers today and how a sense of community amongst deskless workers and management can help those on the frontline get through issues they are facing.      Takeaways    The biggest challenge that frontline workers face today is how they can make working from home easier on themselves. The sense of community that has occurred during the pandemic is helpful for frontline workers. It helps them to feel connected to management and not alone. During the pandemic, many companies switched from making their typical products to help those in need, which influenced how those on the frontline do their work. The frontline workers are the ones that speak directly to the customers, so they need to be up to date on all the latest technology and information. Letting the stakeholders and frontline workers try out new technologies is a great way to get realistic feedback on what works and what doesn’t. TMS is a Transportation Management System; it’s how companies like Echo Global Logistics manage their day to day tasks such as billing and invoicing. Quote of the Show:    1:34 “The silver lining of everything that's happened over the last two years is that we've developed a community in a sense, in any aspect, whether that be at work or at home frontline workers.   We've developed this sense of 'got to get through this together and what are you doing to help you get through this?’ And so it's very interesting.”  Links   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/michelle-pacilli-0636946a/ Company Website: https://www.echo.com Twitter: https://twitter.com/michellepacilli?lang=en Ways to Tune In:   Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS  Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw YouTube - https://youtu.be/Ex4IILopYiw

Maddie Neuman shares her admiration for the bravery and courage of frontline workers - particularly during the pandemic. Neauman, is the Manager, Learning & Development & Organizational Change Management Office within the Technology organization at T-Mobile. She joins host Justin Lake to give her insight on how upper management can show appreciation for those deskless workers. Takeaways    The biggest issue facing the deskless worker is the lack of communication. Sometimes communication can be like a game of telephone tag and the meaning of the message gets lost on the way to those on the frontline. There isn’t one certain way to do change management. There are plenty of different strategies and it’s worth trying a few different ones to get the one that works for you. Those on the frontline are the ones who have the best perspective of what the customers want or need. With everyone working remotely, it’s important to think of ways to have employees be engaged, and a great way of doing that is by listening to the questions deskless workers have. Frontline workers were the ones keeping the stores alive during the pandemic, going into the store everyday and answering the phone and providing anything customers need. Change fatigue is what happens when humans reach their limit of how much change they can handle. Quote of the show:   1:28  “I think sometimes even if communication is trickling down, it changes and morphes as it moves along. And so I think sometimes the issue is the lack of communication. And sometimes the issue is the changing of the communication as it makes its way through. So I think that's a really big challenge. And I would also say an opportunity for organizations to look at how to get that right, and how to make sure that employee voices and sentiment from the frontline is heard and taken seriously.” Links   LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/maddieneuman/ Company Website: https://www.t-mobile.com/ Ways to Tune In:   Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS  Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw YouTube - https://youtu.be/HlZ3n7ypFsQ

Today’s guest is a former frontline employee, and uses his past experience to help make life easier for other deskless workers. Lee Goldstein is a Change Manager at a major energy corporation, and he joins host Justin Lake to give his insight on how to help those frontline employees and make their lives easier through the use of new technology. Takeaways    The biggest challenge that deskless workers face today is communication. Often these employees are working odd hours, holidays, and weekends which makes it difficult for them to reach someone in management with any issues or questions. Those in management can go out in the field or ride in a truck with those frontline workers to understand what their daily life is like and the struggles they face, and have a better understanding of how to solve any issues they face.  It’s difficult to get frontline workers to adopt new technology. These employees are keeping the lights on and their job depends on understanding how the new technology works, if it’s too complicated there could be major issues.  If you leave the frontline workers out when thinking of new technology, that isn’t helpful. Their input is incredibly valuable as they are the ones that will be using the technology all the time. The buy-in for your organization starts with asking “why?”. Just asking why you are doing something can determine if it is something that is necessary or not.  Getting to know the frontline workers in your company is a valuable thing. They are people with their own hopes and dreams for the company, it’s worth listening to them. Quote of the show:   12:04 “There's two real parts to project management, change management, if you will. There's the technical side and then there's the people side. So I was on the technical side, so if you're creating a product or you're introducing something, building something, whatever, just call it technical. And then there's the people side of it.  So I really made that jump from the operations technical side over to the people side because I've tried to tell people, it's just that altruistic jump that you make at some point. You really want to help people. And it might not make sense, but it's a path to get to the people in a new and special and impactful way. And so for the past couple of years, I've been in a change management role and it's been incredible.” Links   LinkedIn:   https://www.linkedin.com/in/lee-goldstein-7756ab30/ Company Website: https://www.duke-energy.com/Home Ways to Tune In:   Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS  Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw YouTube - https://youtu.be/ZZdqTGjuJ1U

Making sure the lights and power stay on are often things that are taken for granted, but the men and women on the frontlines are hard at work every day keeping everything going. Kurt Kidwell, a continuous improvement manager for a major electric utility, joins the host Justin Lake to talk about ways that management can listen to those on the frontline and come up with helpful solutions to their problems.    Takeaways  The biggest challenge facing the deskless worker right now is how virtual meetings impact those frontline employees. Virtual meetings make it difficult to connect with those working outside on the frontline. The frontline workers are the most impacted and the most at risk when it comes to technology. It’s important to make sure the technology is easy enough to master and able to use it anywhere on the road. Give the deskless workers one device and have them do all their work from that one device and limit the amount of things they are asked to do. That will allow them to be freed up to do their job.  A common problem when creating a new app or a new way of doing work for those on the frontline is that people focus on what sounds good in an office, but that often doesn’t apply to those deskless workers and it isn’t good in the field. You can't build mobile technology solutions from a conference room. The worker is the solution, not the problem to be solved. Management often tries to find new technologies to help the frontline workers, and those workers are the most important part of the equation. Frontline workers have been through so much change that the older workers won’t be as surprised as the younger workers will be.   Quote of the show: 17:08 In terms of developing new technology... “what sounds good in an office - most times that isn't good in the field. And a lot of times we see a transfer of responsibility of gathering information down to the field and it's not intentional. I think it's something that as this technology develops and we're learning and I'm trying to get better. It's something that kind of just happens and we have to really be careful to be mindful and watch what responsibilities and what things that are we asking of our frontline employees to do.”   Links LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/kurt-kidwell-2a38811b/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/kidwellkurt?lang=en Company Website: https://www.aep.com   Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS  Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw YouTube - https://youtu.be/l0v1J92e1Pw

With technology constantly evolving, it can be difficult for deskless workers to keep up with all the change. Nikki Tollefson, Principal Change Consultant, Human Resources at C.H. Robinson, joins host Gene Signorini to give her insight on how to properly execute changing technology for those on the frontline without overwhelming them at the same time.  Takeaways    Over the last 18 months, frontline workers have been faced with so much change to make their role more efficient but at the same time it creates a challenge of trying to avoid so much change at one time. There’s no need to make any new changes or projects overly complicated. Keeping it simple is the best way to go because that won’t overwhelm people, and it allows them the chance to ease into the change. It’s no longer about making change the “new shiny toy”, instead it’s important to be humble about it and be mindful of how you connect the dots. Change management is like a three legged stool. HR, Finance and Technology all need to work together in order to make sure the entire structure remains strong. Technology isn’t necessarily the solution, it is the impetus to change.  Really strong stakeholder management, strong partnerships with those deskless workers, and a strong dose of humility is incredibly important when it comes to change management.  Quote of the show:   5:15   “Our employees, whether they sit at a desk or they're on that frontline, they're that deskless worker, have more going on than they've ever had going on before. And how I think that's shifted my approach to how I think about the work that I do is I think how do I make it less about my change really in some ways.  Because again, I think if we can get really, really excited about the project that we're working on and how do I make it more about what's going to make sense for them. And really that is my guiding principle that I've tried to use over this last year specifically is don't over-engineer it right? Like, keep it as simple as possible for people.” Links LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/nikkimtollefson/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/nikkitollefson Company Website: https://www.chrobinson.com/en-us/ Peloton: MinneAppleMomma Ways to Tune In:   Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS  Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw YouTube - https://youtu.be/y5lu52L7UhI

Sean Higgins, Organizational Change Manager for Insight Global, has empathy for the frontline workers after his time working at a grocery store. He uses this empathy to better relate to those deskless workers and the struggles that they face on a daily basis.  On this episode of Frontline Innovators, Sean and Justin discuss how the deskless worker can be better prepared for the changes in technology that they face.      Takeaways    The way in which the roles will be changing for frontline employees in terms of new technology being implemented is one of the biggest challenges they face.  Having empathy for those working on the frontline is extremely important. The struggles that they face are important to management and should be taken notice of.  When working for a grocery store, Sean noticed the positive change of introducing new technology into the store, such as being able to communicate with any other employee at a moment’s notice to answer any questions. Change saturation is about assessing the changes that are happening within the organization. Management doesn’t want to deflect you from anything that can make the frontline worker more successful. You need to be able to stand firm on your goals and know when they are not on track, and what to do to get them back on track. Quote of the show:   9:30 "​​When I went into some of the stores as part of the team to develop the training, update the communications and so forth - there was, I don't want to say equal group, but - there was a group of people, very excited about being able to use technology in their day-to-day work. So maybe they had been in a role in that store for a few years. They'd done different things, different departments. Now they're introducing this kind of new, fresh way of working. It's got a high profile, you get a different shirt than the rest of the employees. So you also want to leverage that too.” Links   LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/seanmhigginsohio/ Company Website: https://insightglobal.com/ Ways to Tune In:   Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS  Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw YouTube - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X5aGz0pSWkM

Jimmy Alyea, Senior Planner and Change Management Specialist at Oxiteno, is a demonstrated leader in both supply chain management and marketing. After working for an oil company where he saw that there were ways to speed up general processes and make them more efficient, he decided to get into change management. On this episode of Frontline Innovators, Jimmy and Justin discuss how the deskless worker can be better prepared for the changes in technology that they face.    Takeaways    Communication is the biggest challenge facing the deskless worker. Ever since the iPhone came out and we entered the digital age officially, we started migrating from old fashion in person meetings to phone calls, to text messages, video chatting. There are two ways to do any job; the easy way or the hard way. Jimmy got into change management as a way to get a job done in an easier way.  The frontline workers need to be more empowered. They are the ones who are using the technology on a daily basis, they deserve to have their voices heard on any changes. The men and women on the frontline represent 80% of the global workforce.  There are 5 outcomes for change to be successful: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement (ADKAR Method) The change management process is a team process. You either move forward as a team or you move backward as a team. Quote of the show:   19:39  “Frontline workers are talking to upper management and saying, Hey, we should be doing it this way. And It's interesting to see how they sell their ideas to upper management, which tends to be more effective because they're not forcing it on them.   They're telling them, Hey, we want to be more efficient. This is a better idea. As, I guess you could say as a generation X-er, I'm having to learn. Okay. That is a good idea. How do I do it? And I'm having to go to them to get taught how to work their ideas with their technology. And they have a lot of great ideas.   And if you don't empower them and listen to them and give them that microphone to speak up, then you're going to see companies fail. And the upper managers, the older, more experienced workforce is going to get pushed out.” Links   LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jlalyea/ Company Website: https://oxiteno.com/us/en/ Twitter: https://twitter.com/jimmymba Personal website: http://jimmyalyea.blogspot.com/ Ways to Tune In:   Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS  Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw YouTube - https://youtu.be/ApLb3wFTJ5g

Jessica Sirico, Senior Training and Change Management Specialist at Suez, is here to help the deskless worker navigate an ever changing world. On this episode of Frontline Innovators, Justin and Jessica discuss how they can better prepare those on the frontline for rapid changes.      Takeaways    The amount of changes happening at one time is the biggest challenge facing deskless workers today.  It’s more critical now than ever for companies to have change management so employees can thoroughly understand how the changes coming up will impact them.  It’s important for the frontline workers to feel connected to the people who work in corporate. Going out to the field and seeing what a day in their life looks like can strengthen those relationships. In IT, the impact of new technology implementation often neglects the human side and how the change can make people feel.  Change management is really a collective effort. It’s not just the managers themselves that are leading it, but middle managers and frontline employees all need to be a part of it. When you are training frontline workers on new technology, the goal is to make the training as simple as possible and work your way up to the complicated steps.  Jessica’s favorite part of change management is when she can see the employees she has trained are comfortable and prepared for the changes they will soon face.  Quote of the show 50:15  “I always say that learning a new technology for work is like breaking in a new pair of workboots. You are very comfortable in your current pair but maybe they are falling apart, maybe they aren’t safe anymore, so you have to change, you have to get a new pair. It might take a week to break them, you might get some blisters, you might not feel comfortable but it’s going to get better. That’s the message I always have to portray.  It’s going to be rocky the first couple of days and that’s expected, no one expects you to come out of the gate perfect but you will get past all those bumps and all those hiccups and we are here to support you as well.” Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jessica-sirico-pmp-shrm-cp-658ba633/ Company Website: https://www.suez-na.com/en-us   Ways to Tune In:   Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS  Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw YouTube - https://youtu.be/xUZfBAiYEVk    

Andrea Johnson, Senior Manager of Change Management at Sprouts, is passionate about continuous learning and empowering change. She improves customer and employee experiences through human-centered design and technology enablement.  On this episode of Frontline Innovators, Andrea and Justin discuss how change management professionals can help deskless workers understand new changes and how it benefits them.      Takeaways    The speed of change is one of the biggest challenges facing deskless workers today. It’s a lot easier to digest change if you understand why it’s happening, but the message doesn’t always get down to frontline employees. Andrea started her career in digital product marketing with huge teams that developed products for customers, but the systems they used didn’t line up with what they needed You can invest millions of dollars into a system but at the end of the day if people aren’t using it then the residual income is zero. People still need to use the system to make it worthwhile. You need all hands on deck and everyone needs to have bought in so that they can tell you what can work and what might not work.  If leadership hasn’t bought in, that rolls down hill and eventually the end-user won’t buy-in. The fact that technology is always changing is something that is exciting to Andrea. It makes each day different.  There are many different learning styles in any given workplace that each span different generations, learning to teach to each one is beneficial. Quote of the show: 18:53 “You have 5 generations in the workforce. There’s not a one size fits all OCM plan, rinse and repeat. You have to, one, account for all the generations and learning styles, how readily they are to embrace technology and respond in different ways.  Some people want to get help in different ways. Some people don’t want to sit in an instructor-led training, they’d rather just have some bite-sized video online. It’s really understanding the audiences and their pain points with the current state and figuring out how to make that case for them that it might be a little painful at first, nothing is going to be without its hiccups but at the end of the day when we get through this.  We’re going to make your job easier, be more productive, whatever those benefits and they have to believe it.”      Links   LinkedIn:  https://www.linkedin.com/in/andreaannjohnson/ Company Website: https://www.sprouts.com Personal website: https://www.andreaannjohnson.com Ways to Tune In:   Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS  Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw YouTube - https://youtu.be/SmbM_SvU6pw

Blanca Nieto, Change Management Specialist, joins host Justin Lake on this episode of Frontline Innovators Change Management Leadership series. They discuss keeping up with the rapid pace of technology and how to facilitate these changes for employees with different levels of understanding and comfort.     Takeaways    We grow in community, we don’t grow in isolation. Change is inevitable, but it’s not easy. Don’t make assumptions. For you, one thing might be easy. For me, it might be hard.  Use QR technology as a resource. Don’t wait for customers to tell you what they need. Understand the future for them. There will always be diversity in the level of adoption and comfort with technology.   Links LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/blancagnieto/ Ways to Tune In: Amazon Music - https://music.amazon.com/podcasts/2f4ecd92-6468-4769-b0bf-254e236510b7/FRONTLINE-INNOVATORS  Apple Podcast - https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/frontline-innovators/id1572329402 Spotify - https://open.spotify.com/show/29m3wnK8pbFjdSvJ9wjmyS Stitcher - https://www.stitcher.com/show/frontline-innovators Google Play - https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuZnJvbnRsaW5laW5ub3ZhdG9ycy5jb20vZmVlZC54bWw YouTube - Full video - https://youtu.be/FhRxVxOmgu8