How the road to hell is paved with good intentions, and how redirection succeeds.
For quite a few project managers, the effort to keep the project baselines in check seems about as easy as nailing a pudding to the wall. If, to make matters worse, the beautiful new solution is not accepted, good advice is – often very – expensive. The key to success here is change management.
Manage the change
First of all, a short insertion for the conceptual demarcation. Change management (also described as a „change management“ process, e.g. in ITIL) deals with changes to a product or service, and is not meant here. The „Change Management“ meant here deals with change processes in an organization.
It focuses on the fact that the implementation of any initiative entails some need for change. As has been learned repeatedly in painstaking experience, very few organizations give in to this necessity untreated. Thus, counter-pressure builds up and must first be overcome. The unanimous view is that this is all the more difficult the later and the more unstructured one devotes oneself to this topic. At a time when organizations – formerly protected by the supply chain – are communicating directly with end customers in a highly professional and modern manner (B2C), previously well-hidden market players are also exposed to enormous expectations of their projects.
It is therefore worthwhile to think about the timing and content of incoming and outgoing communication. This brings us to the core of change management. The first loose approaches (cf. Levin) to this are already a bit older (early 20th century), but the structured breakthrough only came from Kotter with his change management bible „Manage the change“. In his book, Kotter defined a very clear process model, which at least gives a good idea of the task at hand.
Ultimately, all existing approaches are about providing a structure for how to approach organizational change. This is helpful to first understand the problem. In addition to simply describing possible measures, I would definitely also focus on providing care that is appropriate for the target group. This begins – how could it be otherwise – with the determination of the target group.
Target groups of change management
- Support – overtly supportive, or constructively questioning „I want to help, and I want it to be good“.
- Acceptance – covertly supportive „I agree“.
- Passivity – silent „fine by me“
- Resistance – openly rejecting „I don’t want it (like this)“
Since the senders do not have their role written on their foreheads, savvy change management does well to listen more carefully to the other person. It is possible that all those affected are skeptical at first, as it could be that a similar project 3 years earlier ended in disaster. Or an experienced interim manager may have reduced staff by 20% in the last initiative. This means that groups 1-3 can also be quite skeptical, but can be captured well by a thoughtful change management.
Group 4, on the other hand, can be recognized by the fact that despite careful analysis, recording of feedback, reaction to it and numerous satisfied(er) colleagues cannot be appeased. So, unfortunately, relatively late in the process. Nevertheless, it is helpful to keep in mind that there are such stakeholders.
Tolerating the echo
To actually tailor change management for a target group, two-way communication is recommended. On the one hand, this creates trust between the project and the stakeholders, and on the other hand, it prevents change approaches that are too textbook – because if you ask, you know what is wanted.
Nevertheless, the focus of change management is of course that the project acts as a sender. While every individual in organizations is always sending (even and often especially when they are not saying anything), the goal of change management is to structure this sending. Among other things, it helps that information is provided in a uniform, understandable, consistent and available manner. Central, permanent portal solutions – preferably with linked documents and media – are just as suitable for this as (temporary) meetings and calls set up for the individual topics and phases. Content can be, for example:
Open communication (factual content – direct, documented, long-term)
- Communication on project initiation, phase completion, end of project
- Trainings and training documents for user preparation
- Solution documentation
Covert communication (emotional content – indirect, temporary)
- Courtesy in dealing with inquiries and employees
- Setting up and organizational anchoring of change management
- Appearance in public, presentation
On the other hand – and here the target group orientation is once again particularly important – a project should definitely also position itself as a recipient. Here, too, it is important to create feedback channels as efficiently as possible through which you can obtain valuable information from the organization. This applies both to project preparation and implementation, as well as to the (hopefully much longer) phase after the rollout. Here, too, the use of various instruments is conceivable, from feedback questionnaires to focus group workshops to online surveys. Contents here can be:
„Lessons Learned“ surveys in the project team.
Recording the satisfaction of the LoB stakeholders with the project
Focus group testing with early iterations of the solution
Customer satisfaction surveys on a regular basis
Grievance boxes (time limit usage!)
What to do?
If we now link the target groups with the communication considerations, a more precise picture emerges of how to proceed in change management. As already indicated, Group 4 is almost always present, but is not always recognized as such. Sometimes they are simply rolled over, sometimes they are overheard, but it is usually the case that they show up sooner or later. So be prepared for that.
However, even groups 1 to 3 are by no means immune to all resistance – they each bring individual barriers with them, which also want to be addressed differently depending on the cause:
As you can see, the focus of each target group is at different points in the marked activities. Make sure that you maintain the target group-specific treatment of the stakeholders throughout, especially in longer projects.
Particularly perfidious: group 4 resisters in particular have learned in modern organizations to camouflage their unwillingness as critical support (group 1). It can normally be determined quite quickly who actually supports and who does not. After all, a Group 4 obstructionist who is not noticed at all during the entire course of the project has not achieved anything.
For the members of group 4, sooner or later you can assume that they will have to be disciplinarily overruled. You would therefore do well, depending on the strength of your resistance, to have a good line to the top for this kind of emergency, and – no less important – to keep good documentation of your interactions with this group and keep it safe. If you don’t need them in the end, so much the better.
Managing expectations
In practice, implementing effective change management has proven helpful, but not easy. This applies not least to complex projects in a global environment, where not only time zones but also cultural peculiarities need to be taken into account.
With all the „change is good“ talk, one must not forget that a stable system has always been an evolutionary advantage. Those who constantly change without allowing organizational rest periods to consolidate and solidify weaken the organization and are inferior to more stable constructs. Moreover, structural characteristics as well as individual personality traits influence the degree of change that is perceived as welcome – or at least still acceptable. If fear is a pronounced characteristic (in one or the other), change will always be hindered, or – depending on the management level of the fearful – even prevented.
You can face these challenges with an open eye, design a strategy and implement it. But what you probably cannot do (as mentioned above) is to convince all employees completely. The bigger the project, the bigger the amount of people who are skeptical – despite all the change. Organize the displeasure, don’t let it surprise you – then you have already achieved a lot.
Good luck with this,
