Implementing Effective Changes to Address Execution Challenges
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Freedom from
Project Surprises Newsletter - Issue #42
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October 2008 |
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Managing Change or Change Management are analogous terms
referring to the
rolling out of changes to business processes and/or organizational
structure. Many people cringe when these phrases are mentioned, largely
due to our natural resistance to things being different today than they
were yesterday; change pushes us out of our comfort zone. The harsh
reality is that without an ongoing emphasis on change, things will stay
the same and existing issues will continue to disrupt projects. We can
talk about an issue at length, however, positive change will not occur
until specific action is taken to fully understand the origin of an
issue, followed by largely agreed modifications to resolve it. This
month our newsletter is on managing towards change.
Jeff Jorvig, NPD Process Consultant
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News of Interest
- Leadership
- Great article on the the new age of leadership titled "Leadership:
Post-industrial management requires a different skill set". Go to article.
- Interesting LinkedIN answers to my question on what motivates us to look at things
differently. Here's the link to the Q&A.
- Check out this web
based
solution to managing your NPD/NPI process here.
- Check out our quick
start instant downloads for managing design
projects.
Leadership Quote of the month:
"Outstanding
leaders go out of their way to boost self-esteem of their
personnel.
If people believe in themselves, it's amazing what they can accomplish."
--Sam Walton |
Breaking Down Barriers to Enable
Positive Change
The
majority of teams that I talk to have something that they wish would be
different, something that has been a problem for a while and is
limiting productivity or predictability in some fashion. What I find
interesting is the length of time project thorns such as this continue.
The difficulty gets plenty of dialogue around the lunch table, or at
the local watering hole, however an actionable plan to do something
about it is frequently put on the back burner. The reasons sited are
typically one or more of money, time, "it will never get better" or
"not my problem".
These long term project thorns are similar to
an old pair of our favorite shoes. They may be ugly in ways, have
obvious defects to most people and everyone is telling us we need to
get new ones. We are blind to these facts because they are so
comfortable and we know how to walk just fine with them. However, in
reality they are probably causing us some physical problems that we may
not even be aware of, since the negative change with time is so subtle.
Why are we reluctant to buy new shoes? We are comfortable with the ones
we have and new shoes will hurt for a while until we work into them. In
reality we are afraid of how peculiar the new shoes will feel vs. the
familiar old ones and how long it will take for us to adjust to them.
For
our projects the major reason we tend to hold back on changing
something is also fear centered more often than not. Ouch - am I really
afraid to change something? The odds are high that fear is a major
non-starter for implementing changes to improve a less than perfect
workflow situation. Fear is the result of the unknowns that exist on
the path to a change. If we diddle with something to make it better,
will I be OK with any impact on my work situation? The common reasons
for this fear are outlined below:
- Things may end up worse after the change.
- I already feel overwhelmed; will defining and
making this change increase my load?
- Skeptical - will my concerns/ideas be heard and
addressed?
- I may be impacted by a change in an unfavorable
fashion.
- Change
of Habit - Things may not be perfect now, but I know what I am going to
do every day when I go to work. How will this change my day?
- I am not responsible for the issue we have.
Will I somehow end up more responsible for the problem?
Ignore
the reality of fears such as those identified above and plans for
change will either never leave the starting gate or drag on and on
without any attainable value, leaving you to potentially deal with
"see, I told you that would never work" type of criticism.
Acknowledgement and handling of the prospective fears will enable a
smooth course to the development and roll out of a change.
So
how do you handle the diffusion of the fears? The simplest means to a
minimally fear filled, maximally beneficial change practice is "Broad
Involvement". Each individual's potential solution vector will have
different magnitudes and phases for a specific problem. They all need
to be as aligned as possible to maximize the effective magnitude and
the only way to do that is to engage them, really engage them. Any
problem to be addressed and the resulting change will have far reaching
impact; therefore a strategy of far-reaching inclusion rather than
exclusion of individuals will alleviate fears and tip the scales
towards success. Consider that the problem you want to resolve is
rarely contained within a given organizational silo, although it may
appear as though that is the case due to a narrow view of the project
execution landscape.
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Managing
Towards
Change - the Basics of Addressing an Issue
Making
a change to address an workflow issue can be a fairly straightforward
process, assuming some basic concepts are followed. A change activity
must start off with a clear objective; be careful to keep any bias
towards solution out of the objective.  An
objective must be purely results oriented such as "reduce requirements
closure time by 30%" or "implement a scope change process that formally
addresses any change in requirements and provides continuous clarity of
requirements to the team".
People will be the most challenging
aspect of a change because of their emotions, notions, passions, fears,
opinions and motivations. Additionally each person is a firm believer
that they have the right solution to what's ailing the
organization.
Your mission is to align the majority of them to a common solution, one
that they believe in. Failure in achieving this and any change is
destined for the change graveyard. Inclusion over exclusion of
individuals must be a priority, no matter how painful that may be. The
pain of dealing with those excluded will be far worse later on than it
will be by engaging them from the start.
Another major step is
clearly identifying what it is that you are doing now; that is what is
the current process of today. One of the greatest errors in
implementing a change is to make any assumptions about how things are
currently being done. You must investigate it, map it out and gain
consensus that you have captured the "as-is process". This exercise in
itself will likely be enlightening, with a lot of "I did not know you
did that" or "I did not know you needed that" along the way. A success
here will make a smooth transition to solutions. I always suggest
formal discovery as a predecessor to defining the as-is process,
thereby ensuring that no activities, decisions or deliverable
expectations are buried and left behind.
The final step is to
make the necessary changes and finalize consensus. The problem areas to
be resolved should be fairly obvious; assuming some quality work was
completed in defining the "as-is" process. Work out the solution
possibilities in a brainstorming type fashion and then whittle them
down to a largely agreed upon solution. Odds of 100% agreement are
slim, although if you practice inclusion over exclusion of members,
everyone will understand the behind the scenes reason for a decision.
Those that participate will be apt to respect the decision, even though
they may not fully agree with it. Document your changes, update any
process guides and rollout the change. Follow this simple formula and
you will successfully change something for the better, even when many
believe it could not be done. Now do this again and again to become a
practitioner of continuous improvement. Even better, let the ideas for
change flow from the bottom up and then facilitate the details,
decisions and implementations. Become an agent for change in everything
you do, every day.
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| How we
can Help
"Providing solutions to the hidden, behind the scenes project
roadblocks that quietly steal early revenue opportunity"
- Managing
Change -
If you have a thorn in your development process that has been impacting
your businesses for while, it's time to remove it. We make thorns go
away, pure and simple.
- Discovery -
Are you certain that you know everything that is impacting project
execution? We are expert private investigators at uncovering the
unknowns in an organizations development process.
- NPD team workshop to improve planning, execution and monitoring skills.
- Web based NPD workflow management.
- Ready made downloads:
schedule, checklist, analog design guide.
- Increase design management bandwidth via Virtual Design Manager.
- Full listing of common services here.
Contact us today via email, 480-895-0478 or
877-895-0478 |
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