A Lesson in Change Management

1. Don’t berate those who think differently.
2. Don’t criticize.
3. Show them a better way.

New Lens on Change Management

I’ve recently started a new Squidoo lens on Change Management. It’s a work in progress, but check it out and let me know what you think.

I’ll be adding content over the next few months, and you have the opportunity to contribute as well. Cast a vote, nominate a great Change Management resource book, slideshow, video, cartoon or whatever.

Enjoy.

Storytelling as a Change Management Agent

I just stumbled upon Steve Denning’s presentation at a BIF (Business Innovation Factory) Conference.

Steve was the driving force behind a corporatewide knowledge sharing initiative at the World Bank. He relates how storytelling was an effective means of getting the notion “heard” in the midst of huge resistance to the idea.

Here’s the video.

The Apathy War

Seth Godin has a great blog this morning about the Two kinds of “Don’t Know“. While Seth points out these observations as a warning to Marketers, his blog should serve as a beacon to I.T. Project Leaders as well.

My team faced the two kinds of “Don’t Know” first hand, when trying to educate and train employees on a new business system.

I had been through the process before, during a Global SAP system implementation for a prior company. For my new company, to help get the message out and to help our employees get trained, (to address “Don’t Know”) our team did a LOT of stuff.

1. Our team provided monthly project updates via email.
2. We posted project information on a blog.
3. We created a spot on the corporate intranet for project updates.
4. We provided detailed process transaction documentation.
5. We provided “cheat sheets” featuring transaction shortcuts.
6. We provided online web based (self-paced) training, available 24×7.
7. We provided online integrated help within the application.
8. We provided a tool free phone number for any questions.
9. We pre-trained our Helpdesk to answer questions and to support our employees.
10. We built and provided access to a duplicate, test environment, where employees could actually logon and practice their transactions (available months before our “go live”).
11. We held classroom system transaction training.
12. We held Process overview training.
13. We built a train the trainer model, to develop local experts, who could be relied upon as a “first line of defense”.
14. We created process user groups so our employees could rely on their community for support (and we led the monthly meetings).

None of it mattered, because many of the employees, fell into the second “Don’t Know” group.

They didn’t care.

And no amount of communications, training materials or practice opportunities can overcome apathy.

In retrospect, our time would have been much better spent “engaging employees”, measuring their committment, motivation and project understanding, rather than focusing on training/communications tools and expecting employees to listen and learn.

To defeat “Don’t Care”, you need strong corporate committment. You need leadership. You need to win “hearts and minds”.

We didn’t need another training brochure. We were fighting an Apathy War.

The Bizdev Rule that Every CIO Must Know

Seth Godin made an interesting point today in his blog about the Verizon COO who turned down the iPhone.

The words that jumped off the (web)page at me were: “The iPhone/AT&T deal is almost certainly the exception that proves Godin’s law of bizdev: No is the default answer. The spreadsheets and the marketing team and the CFO and the lawyers have no trouble at all defending the status quo, because, it’s their status quo. They created it and they like it that way.”

No truer words have ever been spoken.

And Godin’s law of bizdev is the same reason that CIOs face such an uphill battle when it comes to making step-level changes within I.T.

To affect change, you have to convince business leaders that their status quo, is wrong or defective or deficient. You have to convince them, they’re wrong.

If you can get by that hurdle, you next have to convince all their people of the same.

And finally, you need to overcome people’s natural resistance to ANY change.

I’m willing to bet that an inverse correlation exists between the amount of I.T. change at an organization and the lifespan of a typical CIO.

Pulling Together

It amazes me how little time businesses invest in selling a new initiative within their organization. Whether you’re embarking on a new sales strategy, a new product launch or a new computer system, often times, we fail to address the natural forces of resistance.

Perhaps you believe the value of the initiative is self-evident – so obvious that only a fool wouldn’t buy in. Or perhaps you’ll proceed with the expectation that “once people understand, they’ll be on board”.

Think again.

Take a major ERP implementation for example. There’s a reason that more than 50% of all major I.T. projects fail.

And it’s not the software.

And it’s not the consultants.

It’s YOU.

Projects are only powered forward by the incremental effort expended to overcome the resistance to change. When projects are first proposed, images like the one at the top of this post dance around our heads. Won’t it be great when we get this thing done?

In reality, when projects are first announced, half the rowers are facing the opposite way! Fear of change, discomfort with the goals, fear of losing or changing one’s job, learning something new, are all powerful resistance factors.

You wouldn’t dream of starting a race with half the crew facing the opposite way – but companies do, everyday.

THE most important success factor for any corporate project involves getting your entire crew facing in the same direction, before you begin. You can do that with patience, understanding, training, education, coercion, rewards, threats or firings.

Successful companies vigorously address change management up front, before the race begins. And they continue to be vigilant throughout “the race”, calling to task anyone who isn’t pulling their weight.

The rewards are significant.

Not only will your project most likely be successful, you’ll do it in less time and for less money.

To get you started, here’s a Strategy and Business article which discusses the 10 Principles of Change Management.