Creating a Value Delivery Machine Part 3 of 3: Guiding Organizations through Change

Creating a Value Delivery Machine [Part 3 of 3]

Catastrophic failure introduced me to change management as a discipline. I was a member of the leadership team charged with radically transforming the enterprise practices and processes while deploying a broad ranging ERP platform. It was a multi-process, multi-phased, multi-year effort to radically improve the performance of a large multinational company. The program was so large that our team of vice presidents and directors, around 20 of us, were sized as its own function with hundreds of employees working full time on the effort. After over a year of discovery and design we were poised to launch the first phase. As we tend to do with these large efforts, we chose the “easiest” changes to deploy first. The expense and accounting processes were our most rigorously documented and well understood. So we believed that launching those processes first would be straight forward. Launch proved us wrong. The delivered capability proved unusable and was rolled back within days. Our executive leader was relieved of her duties and the reshuffle of our leadership team immediately followed. I was asked, well urged, to join a hastily assembled change management team to lead business readiness.

Guiding Organizations through Change

At the time I knew nothing about formal change management. I had led and delivered a number of sizable enterprise improvement programs and had delivered a couple of enterprise platforms as a program manager. For those programs we certainly had to align executive teams and navigate user needs, but we did it as a casual aside to the program delivery efforts. This transformational program was a significantly larger beast than anything I had previously led. The stakes were existential and the first phase failure ramped urgency to the extreme. I was pulled into a change management team led by a seasoned, masterful change manager who taught me everything I know about leading change management efforts with grace in the face of extreme circumstances. As we churned on the failure post mortem, using the change management lens, a picture emerged of failure of a competently built platform that failed due to lack of a comprehensive change management plan. What went wrong? To answer that question we need to better understand what change management is and what problems it addresses.

In the two previous articles we solutioned for value and structured the solution delivery program for success.

• Solutioning for Value
• Managing Large Scale Programs

The change management effort is our final chapter in the value delivery spine, making this the final article in the ‘Creating a Value Delivery Machine’ series.

What is Change Management?

Change management is focused on the organization and people aspects of a solution and supports planned change, whether revolutionary or evolutionary. Planned change delivers solutions that, regardless of how they are delivered, will disrupt business and product development operations if not curated. Curation focuses on organizational readiness to receive the change and ensuring that adoption targets are met. That curation is designed to support the roll out strategy that launches the solution. This article includes some of the most popular strategies and tactics for solution delivery and trade-offs that you will have to consider.

We Operate in Constant Flux

No organization sits still. There is no finish line at which we say, “We are there. We can rest now.” Rather, there is always a next opportunity to pursue or challenge to be met. Organizations are living organisms, ever adjusting, consuming, expelling, healing, and growing. This means that internally they are ever changing. With that change comes risk. The risk of stumbling during that change. The risk of the change not taking hold within the culture of the organization. Or, even if it takes, the risk of unintended consequence from that change. To that end change must be managed. We must answer the questions framing the change impact.

Changes occur in all shapes and sizes from minor workflow tweaks to major enterprise transformation which might encompass company direction, the business model. policies, organization structure, key practices, enterprise processes, tooling and platform delivery, and expertise demands. While change management for the former might require publishing an updated guide, the latter requires a comprehensive change management strategy involving potentially thousands of players.

The goal of any change is to integrate the ‘new’ with little to no hiccups.

In What Forms Does Change Come?

We have just acknowledged that organizational change is continuous. However, change comes in different forms. Each form calls for a different type of change curation.

Organic Evolution

Organic change comes with day-to-day, normal operations. Organic evolution encompasses the myriad of unplanned changes often arriving as tactical improvements that enhance the current framework or as band aids to solve small or local problems. The ‘change management’ efforts are minimal and not deeply planned with little to no alignment or oversight. Could be a simple email telling teammates and users ‘this has changed.’

Directed Evolution

Guided change is necessary when an organization needs to progress towards specific goals and priorities. Planned incremental ongoing change supports improvements that are aligned with the current organizational direction. Change may come in the form of continuous improvement, incremental changes or in larger leaps. Disruptions come in the form of forwarding the organization down a familiar path. Regardless, this sort of change calls for some level of organizational alignment and curated, formal and durable change management that provides regular communications and some level of guidance.

Revolution

Revolution is required when an organization is shifting direction and generating a new business model to support that direction. Revolution navigates a highly risky period, requiring tight organizational alignment around a highly orchestrated, prioritized, highly visible, high risk effort. These changes are highly disruptive and move the organization onto an unfamiliar path. It requires substantial, formal change management to keep the organization on track as we shift into a new operating paradigm. The stakes and risks are highest when shifting an organization in a new direction.

One thing to keep in mind about managing change for a revolution is that at some point the new, unfamiliar path becomes the norm. And, as the new paradigm becomes normalized, your change work will shift into directed evolution. Your change management structure should be prepared for that eventuality.

These three types of change are driven by the organization’s circumstances which, in essence, ‘pull’ the organization into the ‘new’. In this article we will look at how we ‘push’ change into the organization via designed solutions.

Change Management Methodologies

There are a number of frameworks available with which you can put together your change management model. Some of the more popular frameworks include:

• ADKAR Change Management Model
• The McKinsey 7-S Model
• Kotter’s Change Management Theory
• Kübler-Ross Change Management Framework
• Lewin’s change Management Model
• Nudge theory
• Bridges transition model
• The Satir change management methodology

Some of the above emphasize structural frameworks while others address the human psyche and the phases we go through when faced with change. All are applicable and each have their strengths and weaknesses for any given situation.

The following discussion extracts pieces and parts from most of them and is a practical approach to change management developed from my own experience and the battle scars from my mistakes. Whatever approach you take, it has to be customized to the demands of the change you are managing.

Meeting Your Target Audience Where They Are

Change management is all about preparing the organization for the coming change. In order to do that you must understand the various audiences are and where they stand in respect to the change at hand. Let’s take a look at:

• The engagement phases for any audience
• Type of audiences you might engage, what their needs are, and engagement types.
• Typically where each audience needs to be for each program phase.

The Audience Engagement Phases

Individuals are typically all over the map when it comes to change. They will range from excited for it to committed to its early death. Organizational changes will impact individuals differently depending on their seniority, tenure, specific role and work assignments, team, function, and location. One of the jobs that change management has, is to move the entire organization in understanding, supporting and accepting the change. Ultimately, we want the change to be fully adopted. To assess where the constituents are I like to use marketing phases.

Aware

Awareness is just what it sounds like. It is taking your constituency from not aware to aware. Aware indicates no depth of understanding. It means that they understand simply that it exists. The most basic level of awareness comes in the form of images, icons, and headlines. The most obvious awareness advertisements I have observed are the Apple billboards. They provide emotional imagery thatoffer no detail. The awareness I have in seeing such a billboard is that a new version of the displayed product is available. That’s all. I’m simply aware. In practice, change awareness within an organization might be limited to the program name, the general problem being solved, and the rough schedule. For those not impacted by the change, this level of engagement is sufficient.

Engaged

Engaged is the phase in which the constituency is hungry to know more. Change management seeks to capitalize on that growing interest and feed the hungry beast through a cadence of orchestrated communications and focused documentation. For those impacted by the change ‘engaged’ is not a destination. It is a step along the path.

Committed

Committed indicates investment. Investment has a couple of connotations. For leadership it means investing organizational resources to the effort and potentially participating in the program governance. For individuals, it has a range of connotations including providing requirements and feedback, being their part of the organization’s representative for program updates, being part of the development team, testing the solution, and so on. Committed is an active position with stakes in the game. Most of the organization’s affected constituents will live in the committed phase.

Evangelist

An evangelist is an influence role which is filled by leadership, influential experts and functional ambassadors. These folks hold and express the vision of the change and value we will capture on the other side of it. Ideally, we want everyone to evangelize. Driving change in an organization that can’t wait for the change to come makes change management really easy. However, in reality a major change needs a handful of influencers banging the drum with a steady cadence of messages that drive home the value and importance of the coming change.

Audience Types

Organizational change has several different types of audiences. To effectively move the audiences through the engagement phases, you need to know who they are, where they stand, and what their needs are. The typical audience sets includes leadership, development team, development/delivery partners, heavy users, and light/non-users.

Leadership

For enterprise change the leadership includes most or all of the C-suite executives. Various leaders may be more or less involved depending on how the change impacts their part of the organization. However, they must all be onboard to lubricate a successful change. Ensuring that you have a fully aligned leadership team is critical to program success.

Change role: Organization leadership delegates authority for the change to the program/change leadership while keeping tight oversight of the effort performance. They determine the direction and goals of the program, and provide the necessary resourcing. Escalations land in the leadership body to resolve. Most critical evangelists will either come from the leadership body or delegated by the leadership body.

Needs: Initially, their input will shape the program and define outcomes and some of the conditions for satisfaction. Throughout the life of the program / change they need to be tightly aligned to progress via focused updates with clear, concise requests as needed.

Development Team

The development team are the folks actively engaged in developing and delivering the change. These folks include project managers, business experts and analysts, solution developers and engineers, if needed.

Change role: The development team does all of the heavy lifting. They are the solution experts that will be deep in the tactics of development and delivery. They need to remain tightly aligned as a team on the efforts at hand, the emerging problems and any tactical adjustments to the work at hand.

Needs: Daily alignment and weekly planning sessions.

Development/Delivery Partners

Partners are the folks that support the change from an extended or external perspective. They might represent support organizations that will take the brunt of post delivery issues, analyst orgs that may contribute narrow assessments and analyses. They also include consultancies, integrators and tooling vendors if needed.

Change role: Supporting specific aspects of the solution development or change efforts.

Needs: They too need access to regular updates and adjustments, and may be satisfied with team updates and planning. If the change effort is large enough they may also be part of the governance.

Heavy Users

Heavy users will be deeply impacted by the change. It needs to work and work well for them. They will carry the change on their backs. Their grasp and enthusiasm for the solution will make or break the success of the change.

Change role: Select members of the heavy user community will validate requirements, review solution proposals, represent functional and team needs, test the delivered solution, and advocate for the solution within their part of the organization. They ultimately need to be highly versed in the details of the solution.

Needs: They need to be deeply engaged in the development process second only to the development team. The roles vary from phase to phase focused on effective design and then effective use of the change.

Light / Non-Users

These folks will be least impacted by the change and least engaged.

Change role: They need to be aware of the broad strokes of the change and where we are in the change process.

Needs: These folks need a limited group update with clear headlines about the effort.

What Changes When Deliver a Solution

The previous article in this series, ‘Managing Large Scale Programs’, covered the three aspects that a solution addresses to bridge the gap to our commitments. They include practices and processes, systems architecture, and organization and people. We covered the first two aspects in that previous article. In this article we focus on organization and people. Specifically, in addressing this aspect we have two key goals in mind — ensure the organization is ready to receive the change and that we hit our post launch adoption targets until we ‘land’ the solution fully in the organization as our new way of doing business.

Change Management Components

Change Management is the term coined for the formal efforts to prepare the organization and decrease the challenges to adoptions. There are four work streams or components addressed in change management.

• Cultural adjustments
• Communications
• Business Readiness
• Training

All four have a strong role in contributing to the readiness and adoption outcomes.

Culture

We covered culture extensively in the ‘Power of Culture’ series. If you have not had a chance to read the culture articles please take time to review them. That said, let’s keep in mind that if your solution does not thrive in your current culture it will fail. I recommend that you test that before you get started with solution development.

Communications

Communications covered a broad spectrum of efforts that span 1:1 conversations, alignment reviews, team meetings, organizational update sessions, website structure, email blasts, newsletter publications, and so on. Our change management strategy should include a communications plan that lays out the cadence of communications indicating:

• What is to be messaged
• The goal for that communication
• The targeted audience that is addressed in the communications
• The timing of the communications

The communications plan addresses where each audience is in the engagement phases, consider what they need to know about what has happened to date and where we are headed. The goal is never simply informational. These communications bring the audiences along so they are adequately engaged, to the degree that they need to be, for each phase of development and delivery. We will frame this up for you in a bit.

Business Readiness

As mentioned in the ‘Managing Large Scale Programs’ article, broad solution delivery often leaves local gaps from the legacy operating method. Business readiness is the effort of identifying and addressing the local gaps that the new solution creates. This effort requires the engagement of experts and heavy users that are intimately familiar with the operating requirements for their specific area. Gaps typically emerge in:

• Local policies and practices
• Specific team and functional processing requirements
• Local process gaps
• Specific expertise requirements

Readiness assessment is often completed through a template framework and facilitated by a change agent in collaboration with the local experts and heavy users.

Training

Training is a bit of a tricky proposition these days. The bar has been set on our expectations by iPhones and iPads. We want our user interface to be intuitive, easy to understand and easy to figure out. Complex enterprise platforms with our organization specific configurations and customization rarely conforms to that high bar standard. So we have to find ways to reach toward that standard.

Additionally, traditional instructor led training is a fairly inefficient way to prepare users for an undisrupted migration to the new solution. Particularly complex solutions require a lengthy list of ‘how-to’ use case guidance scenarios. Even if a user jumps into a new solution fresh from instructor-led training there is no way for even the largest brains to keep that level of detail in their collective heads.

Instructor led training is great for providing broad conceptual information such as the why the solution is being deployed, the output and performance expectations, the broad strokes of the solution components and how they work together. This sort of training can be done effectively in person, on orchestrated video conference calls, or even just stand alone video training that can be accessed at the trainee’s convenience.

For how-to support, we want the ‘training’ as close to the action as possible. When the user gets stuck they want to have help available that is specific to the action at hand. For example, if the user is adding data into a particular web page and is confused about what information to enter or the form that information needs to take, they want help on that page for that task. Options for providing that help have varying levels of proximity and sophistication. We will start with the closest proximity, highest sophistication support methods and work our way down to the furthest proximity, most simple approach.

• Software support wrappers are available for many platform offerings that provide clickable guidance bubbles that open up either task specific guidance or a short demonstration videos.
• For those users that learn kinesthetically, we can set up a ‘sandbox’, that is a fully capable version of the solution that is not in production. It is a place where users can go, try things and make mistakes without consequences
• Most platforms allow for adding a link to each user window that takes you out of the solution a separate video, guidance and/or frequently asked questions [FAQ] documents. Because the guidance is page-based vs. task-based the guidance may be less task nuanced or simply more verbose. Likewise we can link them to demo videos as well.
• If we are not able to create page links for each window we can add a link from the solution introduction page to a fully developed task guide that has a table of content for solution activities and tasks. Finding the answer to a user’s how-to questions will take more time to navigate but ultimately can be found.
• For answers that do not require an immediate answer, the user can attend scheduled office hours to discuss the issues with an expert.

The above list of training and guidance alternatives are listed in order of the effort and expense required to establish them as a capability. If we have limited time and resources our approach will skew toward the lower in the list alternatives.

Phases of Change

In the ‘Managing Large Scale Programs’ article we describe the program phases — discovery, planning, developing, and launch-to-land. We covered the practice and process, and systems architecture considerations. In this article we return to those same phases and add int the organization and people activities as well.

For this tour through the phases we will consider the engagement phases and audience types and address efforts to coax them through the phases in terms of right leveled engagement and readiness preparation.

Change Management Efforts for Each Program Phase

Discovery Phase

Discovery is the phase in which we pull the pieces of the solution together, do our due diligence on our requirements and define the problem. It is also the period in which we align leadership on the direction and effort in front of us.

The priority is in developing a common understanding of and leadership alignment on the problem statement and emerging proposed solution. Program sponsors and lead may track leadership alignment and heatmap rating leaders as evangelist, supportive, neutral, unsupportive, or antagonist. For unsupportive or antagonist leaders develop plans to shift them to neutral at minimum. Years ago I was discussing an enterprise level program steering committee with the executive vice president of an organization’s customer satisfaction organization. HIs response to my description of the effort was, “I’m joining that steering committee just so I can kill the program.” Since he was key to the success of the program we needed to work with him to bring him into the solution fold to at least ‘committed’.

Organization & People Objectives

The efforts we must complete during the discovery phase includes:

• Aligning leadership
• Assessing solution delivery roll out strategy for delivery cadence
• Identifying championship opportunities.
• Develop change management and communications plan framework

Engagement & Readiness Objectives by Audience

At this stage engagement is only as needed to shape the program including leadership and nascent development team engagement for due diligence. The flavor of this phase is information capture and validation. The effort may be on a timeline but will be relatively unstructured.

Efforts by Audience

Largely the effort in the discovery phase is key stakeholder alignment as we crystalize the solution. Each audience will end up in different phases of the engagement effort.

Discovery Phase Change Management by Audience

Planning Phase

By the time we reach the planning phase we have a reasonably clear picture of what the solution will be, or at least the early stage thinking with a clear set of outcome KPIs and the broad strokes of operational performance. We are now working on the design/build structure and schedule to meet the roll out strategy. During the planning phase we have a resourced development team, contracted vendors, deep engagement among them and functional experts and selected heavy users to establish and validate the working plan. The planning phase change management objectives are

• Aligning organization to the direction, problem being solved and proposed solution.
• Embedding solution commitments into strategy & objectives to ensure program priority.
• Establishing success criteria for the effort.
• Specifying the solution build and delivery schedule and workstreams.
• Defining governance and oversight with steering committee, sponsors, PMO, program lead, workstream leads, and escalation framework.
• Communications planning for this and the next two phases.

Engagement & Readiness Objectives by Audience

The planning phase is a period of ramping engagement and organizational awareness. Typically a buzz will grow with curious individuals reaching out to understand more, to either assess the impact to themselves and their part of the organization or out of interest in participating as a member of the program.

Key Organization & People Questions to Answer

During the planning phase we need to answer two critical questions for the program:

1. Have we timed the delivery to minimize overwhelm and disruption?
2. Do we sufficiently understand the implications of the change and its effects across a complex, multi-functional organization?

Efforts by Audience

Planning Phase Change Management by Audience

Developing Phase

During the solution developing phase we immerse ourselves in the details of the solution designing, then building out the solution that should meet our desired outcomes and performance standards. This is the phase in which we grow to understand the realities and shortcomings of the solution design.

Engagement & Readiness Objectives by Audience

It is the phase in which we capture the operating details that tell us specifically what will be delivered, how it impacts the organization for better and worse, and understand specifically how the solution must be engaged to achieve the desired results. It is also the period in which we have the opportunity to inform key stakeholders, with continuously increasing detail, about the specifics. Finally, we have this confined period in which to prepare the organization for launch. All in all, the developing phase is arguably the heavy lifting period for change management. As we hurtle toward launch we must determine and close the stakeholder knowledge, user understanding, and local solution gaps. All this work must be completed by launch.

As the reality of the solution begins to manifest in the build we must:

• Reinforce and grow alignment ensuring peripheral leadership [to the solution] are onboard.
• Establishing champions, local go-to’s, and administrators.
• Define and bridge the knowledge, experience & expertise gap.
• Determine and bridge the readiness gap.
• Establish the post-launch support structure.
• Provide progress communications.

Key Organization & People Questions to Answer

While we are dealing with this heavy lift the two meta questions we need to answer are:

• Does the organization have the wherewithal to digest the change?
• Are we sufficiently ready to receive the change?

Efforts by Audience

Developing Phase Change Management by Audience

Launch-to-Land Phase

We initiate the launch-to-land phase with the culmination of all of our efforts today… the launch. All of the readiness efforts have been successfully put to bed, the necessary training completed, and guidance collateral, and support structure are in place. Now we have to monitor performance, capture feedback, and urgently respond to issues lest the solution stumble badly enough to drive away initial adopters.

Additionally, the work is not done. We have adoption targets to meet as we progress toward full landing and the solution becomes the new normal for running operations.

The critical aspects of this phase are:

• Monitoring performance and determining if any next steps are required.
• Compiling, triaging & addressing feedback and issues.
• Finalizing any solution documentation open items.
• Making sure that training and guidance documentation are fresh.
• Closing newly identified local gaps
• Publishing launch communications and follow ups.

Engagement & Readiness Objectives by Audience

Audience engagement continues until the solution becomes normalized and the adoption targets are met. Remember that solution delivery failures are rarely the fault of the new capabilities of the solution. Failures usually occur due to lack of readiness, high organizational resistance to the solution, or both.

Key Organization & People Questions to Answer

Immediately post launch there will be lots of issues and feedback to deal with. However, after the first few weeks we will slowly start to normalize. During that normalization process there is only one question to answer.

• What is holding us back from full adoption to targets?

This question will keep us focused on the normalizing process. Only when normalization is complete, and the solution becomes the broadly understood way of operating, is the change complete.

Efforts by Audience

Launch-to-Land Phase Change Management by Audience

Multiple Programs Change Management Framework

Should we be supporting multiple programs, deploying phases, or launching workstream launches separately this process repeats itself for each separate effort. If we are managing a portfolio with multiple launches we may want to set up a change management framework that supports each of the programs in whatever phase it happens to fall. For these situations we may establish a single change management framework that supports all efforts into the foreseeable future.

Takeaways

Change management is focused on the organization and people aspects of a solution and supports planned change, focused on organizational readiness to receive the change and ensuring that adoption targets are met. That curation is designed to support the roll out strategy that launches the solution.

The goal of any change is to integrate the ‘new’ with little to no hiccups.

Engagement Phases — The change management heavy lift is to move the entire organization in understanding, supporting and accepting the change. Ultimately, we want the change to be fully adopted. The typical phases that impacted folks go through are awareness, engagement, commitment, and championship. The change management people related efforts move key stakeholders through the engagement phases to wherever they need to be to ensure that the solution is successfully delivered.

Audiences — To effectively move the audiences through the engagement phases, you need to know who they are, where they stand, and what their needs are. The typical audience sets includes leadership, development team, development/delivery partners, heavy users, and light/non-users. Typical audience types include leadership, development team, development/delivery partners, heavy users, and light / non-users.Each of those audience types need to be in different places engagement-wise from program phase to program phase. For example, leadership needs to be committed to the program very early in the program/solution development while light / non-users only need to be engaged after solution launch.

Workstreams — Change management consists of four work streams that work together to achieve readiness goals and adoption targets.

• Culture — Often big changes require a culture refresh or update usually captured in the vision, mission, and values for the organization. Those changes should be made early and emphasized often.
• Communications — Big changes require ongoing formal and informal communications that come in multiple forms from individual conversations to email blasts and newsletters. Our communications plan should schedule a cadence of focused communications that support the solution development and launch.
• Business Readiness — Readiness focuses on the local gaps between the solution and local needs. It pays to understand these gaps early and resolve them before the solution launches.
• Training — Training covers a lot of sins from classic instructor led training to guidelines and FAQs. Training needs to bring stakeholders up to speed to the level that they need to understand and effectively use the solution. How-to training should be ‘as close’ to use points as possible.

Phases of Change — Change management is aligned with the program phases and has different goals for each of those phases.

• Discovery Phase — The phase in which we complete due diligence and rough out the proposed solutions with leadership, experts, heavy users, and vendors [if required]. This phase provides everything we need to know to plan out solution delivery. The change management goals include aligning key development stakeholders on the solution and solution expected outcomes, and ensure that leadership is committed to the program.
• Planning Phase — The objective of this phase is to align impacted organizational key stakeholders on the direction, problem being solved and proposed solution. Additionally, the governance and oversight structure is established during this period and the communications plan is developed.
• Developing Phase — In this phase we continue to reinforce and grow alignment, establish the key functional roles such as champions, local go-tos and administration. Additionally, we need to determine and bridge the knowledge, experience, expertise, and readiness gaps. This period requires the change management heavy lift.
• Launch-to-Land Phase — The key requirements for this phase are to focus on hitting the adoption targets and ensuring that the support infrastructure is in place and performing well to support user issues.

Multi-Program Support — Change management can be durably structured as an ongoing effort to support multiple programs and their change management needs.

With a solid solution, effective program management, and a well developed change management strategy we can continuously deliver high value to the organization.

Find more articles from Sarah at: www.operations-architect.com.