lerner change management: a journey planner 10-2013

Privileged and Confidential Information

Change Management for Project Managers

A Journey Planner October 2013

Privileged and Confidential Information 1

This proposal is protected under the copyright laws of the United States and other countries as an unpublished work. This proposal contains information that is proprietary and confidential to LERNER Consulting, llc, which shall not be disclosed outside the recipient’s company or duplicated, used or disclosed in whole or in part by the recipient of any purpose other than to evaluate this proposal. Any other use or disclosure in whole or in part of this information without the express written permission of LERNER Consulting, llc is prohibited. 2011 LERNER Consulting, llc !unpublished". All rights reserved.


Overview •  Arguably the two greatest inventions of the 20th century

were –  Management –  Globalization

•  Management enabled us to run businesses in multiple locations and geographies

•  Globalization changed the way we interact, purchase and think about Supply Chains

•  Technology comes into play and is successful because of the role it plays as a change agent

•  These are the catalysts to “Projects” and the change they create

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Overview •  Project managers are often the greatest

catalysts for change •  Yet they are split or conflicted as to their

responsibility •  Change activities must go hand-in-hand

with Delivery elements – Run them in parallel

•  Not all projects are right for a full Change Management program

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“It is good to have an end to journey toward; but it is the journey that matters, in the

end.” Ernest Hemingway


JCPenney “An Unexpected Journey”

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•  Johnson not addressing anyone in particular

•  Those in charge of communication !middle managers, PR, Marketing" removed before a new strategy was put in place

•  Media is highly critical but no responses from management

•  “Lurching” within the strategy •  Think of yourselves as the CEO of your

project


A Journey, not a Destination •  Change Management starts at the beginning of a project

–  It needs to happen throughout the project and measured for effectiveness –  If you bring it in during the project, you must overcome

•  Objections •  Habits that have already formed •  The Status Quo

•  Listen –  “I don’t know what’s going on but what I hear isn’t good” –  “I thought you meant…”

•  It important to use what you pick up and learn along the way •  Needs change, events happen, priorities shift

–  Having a route to your destination allows for course corrections

•  The problem with JCPenney’s change was not setting the expectation of shoppers –  Worked for Apple stores because technology is change –  Clothing is not

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Growth vs. Transformation •  There are two fundamental types of change

management projects –  Growth –  Transformation

•  Growth –  Adds to the way we are doing things

•  Transformation –  Change the way we are doing something in holistic fashion

•  Both require resetting of expectations –  Inform and mange your stakeholders, team and end-users

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Change via Constructive Disruption •  Start with the root cause of the change •  Technology projects are generally disruptive

in nature. – They break the status quo in order to enable

advances

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What is Constructive Disruption?

Disruption brings about the often-needed transformation in organizations that ask why the status quo isn’t achieving their goals. Constructive is the well-laid out

journey to growth or transformation.


Change Enabled by Constructive Disruption •  Uncover

–  Discover without trying to understand

•  Examine –  Take apart and understand the need

•  Prepare –  Develop a solution and material that

supports the need

•  Satisfy –  Present the solution to the need

•  Active/Passive Learning –  Supporting process through

knowledge acquisition

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Phase I – Uncovering the need •  What’s the motivation behind the change? •  It’s almost never technology. Inspect –  People –  Process –  (Operational" Systems

•  Healthcare Exchanges •  Loan Origination

–  Economic •  Can you identify the themes? –  Regulatory or compliance needs –  “We need to grow market share” –  “Too much waste in our product development initiatives”

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Journey Planner •  Assess

–  Understand environment (People, process, behaviors, beliefs" –  What is influencing and creating the need?

–  What are analogies from like problems in other areas? –  How does the organization behave under change?

•  Observe –  Listen –  Question –  Interact (Be here; now"

•  Organize –  Develop a vocabulary –  Create a matrix of what was uncovered

–  Build a Semantic Map of opinions, beliefs with examples

–  What is unexplored?

–  What don’t you know?

•  Don’t make any judgments, yet

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“Don’t arrive before you get there” Lesson #26


Change Assessment •  Review outstanding cultural issues with members of the Management

team •  Conduct Skill vs. Will assessments •  Interview project participants to understand their perspective •  Identify change agents and candidates for re-purposing amongst the

groups –  Work with them to understand and address cultural issues

•  Develop action plans to address the issues •  Place emphasis on those areas felt to be most at risk through

–  communications, –  training, –  tangible performance metrics, –  incentives –  and penalties.

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Skill vs. Will

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•  Ask “Who?” early on •  Get to know all the users involved in

change –  Think about it like jury selection

•  Identify the “WIFM” –  “What’s in it for me”

•  Don’t under estimate emotional investment or intelligence

•  Understand user sentiment


Help Users: “Where do I fit in?” •  Change is the New Normal •  People want to know how they remain relevant –  Penney’s employees didn’t know where they fit in the

new order –  Customers were confused –  Inadequate communication and communication

mechanisms to the new customers

•  Help the users with “Where do I fit in?” –  Audience engagement – Empower, guide and reward –  Training –  Role re/definition –  Timing

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Deploy Your Change Agents •  Deploy Change Agents to work on – Socializing awareness and promoting change – Encourage behaviors that support new systems – Gaining a breakthrough in knowledge – Alter the current mode of thinking

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Chaos Group Then/Now: Drivers of #FAIL and Success*

1.  Lack of User Input 2.  Incomplete Requirements 3.  Changing Requirements 4.  Lack of Executive Support 5.  Technology Incompetence 6.  Lack of Resources 7.  Unrealistic Expectations 8.  Unclear Objectives 9.  Unrealistic Time Frames 10.  New Technology

1.  Direct User Input 2.  Prioritized Requirements 3.  Aligned Requirements 4.  Clear Executive Support 5.  The Right Technical Skills 6.  Effective Resourcing 7.  Aligned Expectations 8.  Aligned Objectives 9.  Credible Delivery Plan 10.  Current Technical Skills,

Architectures and Frameworks

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*The Standish Group 1994, 2004


Another Standish Group Slide

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Develop a Semantic Map

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What the CEO said What the Team said

Early stage company –  Well-funded –  Social Media Company –  Well known CEO –  Team leaders with deep domain experience


Root Cause Analysis for Change •  Start with Process Maps at Level 1 or 2

–  Define business needs and handoffs between functional units

•  “Run the business” – Level 3 and Level 4 maps –  Define responsibility at the individual

role level

•  Identify how specific business processes will be integrated near and long term

1.  Help improve communication and understanding

2.  Define hand-offs between groups 3.  Define roles and responsibilities of the

groups during project initiation phase

4.  Define workflows

5.  Indicate control points, where applicable

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Best practice: 90% Process 10% Common Sense

Identify the groups involved


Phase II – Examine •  Analyze

–  Take apart and categorize

–  Discover elements !reduce simplest form"

•  Methods

•  Properties

•  Attributes

–  Discover relationships in simplest form

•  Isolate and address issues

•  Re-organize –  Refine vocabulary and system of classification !taxonomy"

–  Refine relationship map !semantic map"

•  Exercise parts of the need –  Examine for consistency in statements, processes and elements !are they in simplest form possible" in context of

problem statement

–  Example consistency in context of larger scope

–  Examine outcomes

–  Observe and record

•  Research –  Find related or useful data, information and beliefs

–  Find related and undiscovered parts of the need

–  Combine with data/elements previously discovered

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“Influence Only” Change •  Have specific examples to

discuss •  Make it about the numbers •  Demonstrate sensitivity •  Work backwards from dates and

milestones •  Behavior change is a lot like

marketing –  It requires reinforcement –  Frequent messaging

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Themes&heard&most&o,en&We’re&like&three&different&

companies&

We&have&no&direc7on&from&execu7ve&leadership&

Priori7es&change&almost&daily&

We&have&no&technical&direc7on&

I&love&this&company&and&its&poten7al&


Mapping The Change Journey •  Develop a set of internal themes for communicating the reasons and

measurements for change •  All communications should be based and revolve around these central themes •  Identify three to five core measurements by which everything is driven. Sample:

1.  Reduction of defects –> Reduce/remove business impact of defects in Production 2.  Overall productivity improvements in SDLC = Improvements in Development + QA 3.  Improved responsiveness to business needs 4.  Measurably better use of IT resources

5.  Process improvements

•  Identify different stakeholder and ‘at-risk’ groups and develop tailored messages •  Utilize multi-modal communications !presentations, meetings, memos, website,

FAQs"

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Mapping The Change Journey •  There cannot be enough communication in a major change program

–  One of the biggest problems is ensuring an adequate amount of communications

•  Make sure that communications are always two-way –  Listen to the feedback and loop it back into the process

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Engineer Success •  What are the metrics? •  Make the metrics SMARRT

–  Specific – Identify very well-defined measurements –  Measureable – If you cannot measure, you cannot manage –  Reasonable – It must be within the capabilities and reach of the team –  Reliable – Are the metrics persistent? –  Timely – Pick a frequency !monthly" that’s appropriate !monthly"

•  Engage your Change Agents •  Improve your hindsight 20/20. Six months after we go live

–  Finish this statement “I am glad we did this for the following reasons” •  1 •  2

•  3

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Business Owners

Product Owner!s"

Release Manager!s"

Busin

ess

Portf

olio

Pr

ogra

m/R

elea

se

Business Vision Compliance/ Regulatory

Demand Planning

Architecture

Business Priorities

Portfolio Objective

Framework Design Pattern Roadmap

Feature1

Feature2

Feature3

Architecture 1

Architecture 2

Architecture 3

Architecture 4

Feature4

Feature5

Feature6

Architecture 5

Feature n1

Feature n2

Feature n3

Architecture n1

As Required

Release 1 Release 2 Release n Release 0

Emergency Release !on standby"

1

Prod

uct

Back

log

Business Value

1

Prog

ram

Ba

cklo

g

Architects,

Analysts and Tester

Developers, Analysts and

Tester

1

User

Sto

ries


Tester

1

User

Sto

ries


Tester

1

User

Sto

ries 1

Tech

nica

l Sto

ries

Product Owner

Coach

Agile

Tea

ms

Planning Feature/Function

Delivery

Architect

NFRs/Security

Agile Portfolio Model

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Other Components of Change •  Tie the change initiative to the tangible –  “Greater Good” isn’t enough – People want to see you/us succeed

•  Don’t problem solve alone – Fix the process not the steps

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Engaging others in the Journey

•  Take the time to do your journey planning first and completely. –  While there may be detours in the road, a well thought out plan helps you to

journey’s end

•  Create a set of external themed communications and have all of your plans driven from there

•  From those themes identify five key metrics to judge success. If you cannot do that you will never know how close you are to journey’s end

•  Today’s employees use many modes of communication! –  Mirror them with websites, brown bag lunches, –  FAQs

–  Internal tweet!s"-of-the-day

•  Identify different stakeholder and ‘at-risk’ groups and develop tailored messages –  All stakeholders must have “a seat at the table.” Ensure you know who they are

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Keeping change alive and on track is more difficult than simply stating the goal. It may seem counterintuitive but change is not self-sustaining. A plan that is equal parts roadmap, process, technology and systems with well-developed communication themes is necessary. It needs to be nurtured with active support and management guidance. If that weren’t the

case, incumbents would always be re-elected.


Lessons Learned from Change Management •  The journey is more important than the destination •  Bad decisions can be reversed, slow decisions sow doubt •  Know how your corporate culture thrives during change •  Be firm but not aggressive

–  When push comes to shove, management must be willing to step in and do what’s necessary

•  Be sensitive to middle management, they have it coming from both sides

•  Mean what you say, say what you mean •  Say it all or not at all

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Lawrence I Lerner, President LERNER Consulting [email protected] +1.630.248.0663 @RevInnovator

Thank You!

excel lence.perspect ive. innovat ion.