‘Please don’t waste this time,’ European Council President Donald Tusk tells Britain.
The latest Brexit update is that the United Kingdom will remain a member of the European Union until the 31st of October 2019, with the option to leave earlier if Theresa May can secure support for her withdrawal deal from the House of Commons.
As of January 2019, the Brexit deal has been debated in the House of Common 16 times, and nine Ministers have resigned over May’s deal, eight of which before the deal was even struck (at the time of writing). Some components of Brexit have moved from “Unknown unknowns” to “Known unknowns,” to quote former U.S. Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld; for example the withdrawal deal enables EU citizens to keep their current freedom of movement and other citizenship rights until 31st December 2020 when the Brexit transition period ends. However, most key issues remain undecided. Under these circumstances, it’s not about creating a project plan or even tracking risks for our clients. So, you might ask, how do you plan in uncertain times and what have we learnt from the work we’ve done for our clients?
We’ve pulled together our key takeaways from managing a large Brexit programme at a major investment bank over the past year. Here’s what we learned:
- Sharpen Your Data Skills
Managing data at scale is a challenge in itself – capturing and keeping track of hourly changes and updates to data at scale is another challenge. Establishing a single source of data is the golden rule when it comes to maintaining a coherent master data set that works over long periods. Its original intended purpose could evolve – requiring it to be used by different departments and for different purposes and outputs. This means it is essential not to narrow the final use of the data set prematurely. It will also need to be accessible by many and version- controlled to track and manage updates. Use of Sharepoint is one example of a readily available system allowing you to create major and minor versions of documents, where edits are ‘user-stamped’ and include a section for decision rationale. In other words, changes to the data can be easily tracked, understood, and reverted. Whether Sharepoint or another system – the key is to set up the tools you’ll need well in advance. The intended purpose of a data set could later expand into multiple end destinations; for example, HR data could later have applicability for finance. It is essential not to narrow the final use of a data set too early in its use nor in design of the output.
- Communicate Before It’s Too Late
We have emphasized the importance of communication and continue to do so. We saw numerous clients prefer the perceived lesser of two evils: keeping their employees in the dark due to Brexit uncertainty making facts difficult to rely on. There’s plenty of evidence to suggest that it is better to communicate something than nothing – even when there’s little to say, or the facts are still unclear. Whether it’s upward or downward communications, spend time upfront setting expectations and be clear about your communications plan. As a fallback, communicate the various scenarios that you are contemplating and don’t be scared to explain where and how uncertainty is impacting decision-making. Create reassurance of regular communication and communicate that leadership are taking employee concerns seriously.
- Manage your people
Keeping pace with change is neither straightforward nor convenient. You will be required to draw upon SMEs throughout the Brexit process but will have to contend with their BAU responsibilities. The solution? Having an effective secession plan in place. Identify and develop new leaders who can replace key individuals and nominate a deputy in the interim. At North Highland, we recommend a proven five-step process: (1) Identify key areas within your organisation and the capabilities within it. (2) Identify interested employees and assess them against these capabilities. (3) Off the back of this, develop and (4) implement secession and knowledge transfer plans. (5) The final, but equally crucial element, is to evaluate the effectiveness.
Lift and Shift
Brexit is an extreme example of market uncertainty and regulatory upheaval and can be approached as you would other major regulatory change initiatives.
When the UK eventually leaves the EU, there will be changes to the requirements for placing certain products and providing services in the UK and EU markets. We helped numerous clients deal with the uncertainty brought by large-scale regulatory change such as the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and the Law Enforcement Directive (LED).
We believe that a proactive strategy and framework to meet regulatory standards is key. How can organisations set a clear strategy to address key areas like reputational, financial, and business operations risk?
- Develop a full set of programme and workstream plans
- Implement a pragmatic, disciplined, and rigorous set of governance and control mechanisms
- Lead the programme by providing best practice programme and change management approaches, enabling the delivery of required changes
By managing Brexit with the same rigour you would apply to any other large-scale regulation shift, you’ll narrow your focus and prioritise what is really important for your organisation. And when the dust settles, carry these learnings into the next regulatory upheaval.
We are working with clients to co-create the future in a world post-Brexit—looking at everything from data management to communication best practices. Applying the approach we use with any pivotal regulation, we are not waiting for Brexit to “just happen.” Are you?
