By Jeff Bell
If you have ever embarked on a major change project, you will have felt the pain.
No matter how much change is anticipated, there will be pain. If you haven’t seen it coming, there will be even more pain.
Change is inevitable. Unfortunately, it seems that our reluctance to plan for and embrace change is also inevitable.
As an organisational change specialist, most of my appointments come from people in pain. The majority ask for help only after they have no other option. The minority, who anticipate change, look widely and think deeply. Then they devise a detailed plan and implementation schedule.
They also know that there are no guarantees—there are many other forces out there—but they will be controlling what they can control.
I ask my client a series of questions in planning for change. Here they are, as my gift to you:
- What is about to change? What has been the compelling event? What is the story so far? Is this strategic or tactical? Is the organisation used to major change? How significant is this likely to be for each stakeholder group? Is there a dedicated budget?
- What benefits do we expect? How will this make the world/the company a better place to be? What is the cost of not taking the planned action? What measures are there for benefits realisation? Can we calculate Return on Investment? What do the owners want?
- What options have been considered? Has there been a rigorous discussion between the owners and the executive to identify the change options? Including, “what if we do nothing?”. Have these options been weighted and ranked—customer model? If no discussion, will they do it now?
- Who is affected by this? Stakeholder analysis—can we map everyone involved by name, role and number (of people)? Can we provide for everyone the answer to: ‘What does the change mean for me?’ Will anyone lose their job? Will people be invited to provide ideas?
- What key processes will change? Have all processes in the business been documented—into a comprehensive quality system? What Standards apply? Which of those will be affected by this change? How will they now operate; will it be necessary to remove/replace, improve or re-engineer any processes?
- Which executive ‘owns’ this change? Which person in the organisation has the final responsibility for this change program’s completion and success. Who sits above and below that person? What are the risks and rewards for this person from this project? Are there incentives on offer?
- Who’s in the change team? People/team who sits below the change owner. Who is the change architect? Who is the program director and who are the project managers? Who is in admin and who else is involved? Where are their locations and where are their offices?
- What is the communication plan? Is there an in-house program management office and officer? What are the mandated milestones? What is the reporting schedule? Who is in the communication team? Is there a mechanism for escalation of issues? Is there a risk management strategy?
- What are our change tools? Do we have: change principles; project management application; stakeholder chart; budget spreadsheet; project and/or implementation schedules; Gantt charts; communication strategy; risk matrix; technical manuals; training needs analysis and plan. And where are they located—in a centralised, secure database?
- What are the specific initiatives? Programs, strategies, tactics and tools to make this change program effective and enduring:leadership and management training and information; software; hardware; infrastructure and networks; staff education and training; coaching; facilitation and mentoring; change narrative and documentation; celebratory events.
- What is the change budget? Have the above initiatives been costed and folded into a dedicated budget? In regard to the education component, has there been an analysis of the additional cost of replacing staff while they attend their change management and skills training courses?
- How long do we have? In the implementation schedule, what are the milestones leading to the final date? What will be consequences to the business of any delays? Are there advantages in finishing early? Are there damages and/or penalties to any external contractors for late completion?
Do you have the answers?