Change Management
Planning for Success: The Importance of a Sound Change Management Plan
by Richard Carey
27-Jun-2002 --
The introduction of new information technologies is usually disruptive to the status quo in companies or workgroups. This is especially important to consider when planning Information Management solutions (known variously as Asset Management, Content Management Document Management, Knowledge Management, or Rights Management), which by their nature can change long-established business processes.
Anticipating and accommodating change proactively, rather than reactively, is the most effective course of action. Project managers responsible for planning and implementing these systems should make sure to build an effective change management process into the project plan from the beginning.
Nevertheless, the practice of change management remains something of a mystery, especially for technical project managers. So let’s answer seven key change-management questions that can get you on the right track.
What is Change Management?
The simplest definition of change management is making change in a planned and managed fashion. Today’s proliferation of digital media is making the conscious practice of change management more important than it was only five or ten years ago.
In the context of Information Management systems, change management requires a thorough understanding how your company does business, how it plans to grow, and then identifying the workflows that need to change to successfully implement a new IM system.
Even more fundamentally, it is important to understand that change management is a political process that requires corporate management and project managers to share their vision of how users lives will change (presumably for the better) because of a new system, and then get the users to agree to implement the changes necessary to make it work.
How Can We Get People to Buy Into the New System?
For a new Information Management system to be successful, change management planning should begin during a project’s earliest stages. Gaining buy-in from users is vital, however because people become comfortable with the status quo, they often find ways to resist or sabotage change, particularly if they feel uninvolved.
When confronted by the possibility of a new IM system, the first thing most people want to know is “What’s in it for me?” By soliciting their concerns up front, addressing them in your plans, and then implementing incremental changes whenever the schedule permits, you’ll be most effective. Although such a deliberate approach may take more time, in the end it will help you win internal advocates, instead of enemies.
“Good change management practice is one of the key success criteria for new technology projects,” according to Brian Margolies, Director of Corporate Systems at Scholastic. “Even the best technology can fail, while a mediocre low-tech solution can succeed if it is supported by change management.”
“For instance, let’s say you have done careful business analysis and acquired the greatest software package for your needs. Without a plan for introducing it to the users, you’re looking for trouble. By comparison, consider the new copier, fax or voicemail system that purchasing has imposed, the one with the inscrutable user interface. Yet everyone makes accommodation and uses it, thanks to a flurry of supportive management memos and a little user training,” notes Margolies.
Of course depending on the technology and the users themselves, workflow changes wrought by new systems will affect departments differently. Some may be open and receptive, while others will be closed and resistant. So the real art of change management is pre-determining the effects of a new technology on the people who must work with it, anticipating their objections, then being prepared to overcome those objections when they arise.
What If They Refuse?
Change is easiest if it starts from the ground up and is supported from the top down, because users feel involved. Of course this is not always the case, and often the demand for Information Management systems is driven by management’s quest for operational efficiency. Under these circumstances, there are several ways change can occur. Either those affected can be persuaded that change is a) in their best interests, b) inevitable, or in the absence of that, c) as the project manager you may need to impose some form of “change enforcement.”
To some degree you can implement around the reluctant parties, ultimately putting your organization at odds with their refusal to change. If this is the case, however, it must be made known that there is a penalty for those who do not go along, be it the lack of advancement, raises, or opportunity within the company. Although this approach can increase the amount of time it takes to complete the roll out, sometimes the only remedy is institutional patience and isolation, until those slow to accept change either acquiesce or decide to depart.
Change management – and change enforcement – takes many forms and sometimes is necessary within your own team. For example on one e-commerce project I managed, we had a major problem with the lead developer who took greater pride in the size of his staff and the brilliance of his “big iron” approach than in the success of the project. Unfortunately, he had many allies in management, which made him all but untouchable. To get around this roadblock we set up a small “skunk works” team to create an irrefutable proof-of-concept demonstration of the desirable approach. Once our internal client and his management saw the alternative, the lead developer was reassigned.
Systems and software implementation projects can also reduce risks by leveraging methodologies and best practices from the realm of software development. One example of a methodology that supports change management and helps manage risks is the “Spiral” development model, an evolutionary approach first propounded by Barry Boehm, and described in more detail by Steve McConnell in “Rapid Development,” from Microsoft Press.
With this iterative approach, a user impact evaluation can be performed continuously during business analysis and prototyping, again during development and testing, and after each release as well. When you consider the impact on users at each step of the way, change management is built in from the beginning, resulting in greater sensitivity to user satisfaction and the promise of continuous system improvement.
Can We Succeed Without the Support of Senior Leadership?
Abby DeMillo, Director of Technology for Scholastic’s Corporate Graphics unit, calls support from senior management “The single most critical factor for success.” Regular progress reports to users from the project management office during implementation are important too, and both will help workflow changes take place naturally and easily.
Marsha Weiner, an international management consultant who helps executives, managers and organizations change, observes that: “When senior management is supportive, breakdowns do not get viewed as stops to the project. It's more effective to treat a breakdown from the perspective that something is missing, rather than something is wrong. When you approach something from right and wrong, you start to look for who's responsible for what's ‘wrong’, and blame and finger pointing can become the background against which you are trying to accomplish your goal. This tends to erode the relationship to management and users of those who are accountable for bringing about this new way of doing business, and rob the initiative of its power.”
Is it Really Best to Start Small?
What about deadlines? Though a realistic schedule is essential to a good project plan, business needs often will drive the decision for incremental vs. global roll out. Yet there’s no doubt that incremental change is less risky than the “big bang” approach, and functional prototypes during each phase of the project can add tremendous credibility.
In the experience of IT consultant Raymond Topkis, of Raymond D. Topkis Associates, Inc., “If the objective of the project is clear and you set a range of intermediate milestones that deliver value, senior management and those affected can see that you are achieving the goals. In other words, if you under-promise to begin with and over-deliver along the way, both you and your project will be a winner.”
How Do You Deal With the Complexity of Implementing Common Technology Solutions in an International Business?
For projects that will roll out internationally, you need to involve an international team at the beginning. Trying to make one system fit everywhere without all the primary players at the table can be very difficult.
However, the good news is that as long as senior managers across the organization buy in to the change, it should be little different than if the project were occurring in the same building. Likewise, the danger is the same: people who are not yet enrolled in the project will react to change rather than support it. Thus in international situations, it is even more important to find commonality and mutuality, and build from there. The more common issues, concerns and objectives that can be demonstrated, the greater the success your project will enjoy.
Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, or Spy?
Is change management overrated? It’s a truism that change is constant, and in business continuous change and evolution is usually necessary to be competitive. So to a certain degree, good change management practice simply means practicing good management, and outside assistance is often desirable when true objectivity is required.
But as always, you have a choice. Software vendor, integrator, or consultant: who is the best party to help address your change management needs? Having a plan to start with, perhaps developed with guidance from non-interested parties (either internal or external) is the essential foundation. The rest of the way is up to you.
Marsha Weiner believes, “A consultant from outside of the corporate culture, with no vested interest, will provide the clearest perspective. You need someone whose sole interest is the success of the project.” Brian Margolies adds, “Either you have the skills, or you need to acquire them. The most important skill is persuasion, ether from senior management or from other project sources.”
In the final analysis, the most effective change management is all about articulating and sharing a vision, so that the people being affected believe that buying in is the right thing to do.
Change Management Resources
Change Management Resource Library
Rapid Development: Taming Wild Software Schedules