DENVER (Change Management Chronicle) -
It is time to add one more certainty to death and taxes - change. During the last decade, the frequency, number and size
of changes that organizations face
have all increased substantially. External pressures to meet
market demand and internal pressures to improve efficiency
and effectiveness have resulted in change saturation for many organizations. One organization, however, has found
that a dedication to becoming competent at managing change
has truly paid off - in project success, market success,
employee satisfaction and
the bottom line.
Three years ago, ACME was struggling with
the amount of change it was facing. "Everything was changing
around here, from our processes to our systems to our
organizational structures," said CEO Juliann Jacobson. "Our
people knew that change was necessary and was going to
happen, but we were turning everything on its ear and
were not giving our employees a way to succeed during
the transitions.
Jacobson was brought in by the board in early 2007 to
replace the CEO Bruce Baxter, who was ousted because he was
unable to deliver on a number of strategic initiatives. When
the board announced that Baxter was going to be replaced,
they cited his "inability to effectively
manage the employees of ACME through change" as the reason
they were looking for a new leader.
Susan Smith, a long-time employee and business unit
director, said, "Bruce just told people to do it, without
ever appealing to what they cared about and why the change
was needed." While the initiatives seemed like the right
thing to do, employees resisted with such fervor that some
of the projects were cancelled outright, while many others
failed to meet their objectives. "People just weren't
getting on board. Without people on board, the projects
were doomed to fail," continued Smith.
When Jacobson joined as the CEO, her first goal was to
begin building the competency to manage change into the
organization and culture. Jacobson's previous role as Chief
Transformation Officer had exposed her to a number of
innovative and systematic approaches to managing people
through change, and she began applying the lessons she had
learned immediately.
ACME knew that Jacobson meant business from the very
beginning. Her very first interaction with the employees of
ACME was a town hall meeting that was held in the
corporate auditorium and broadcast in real-time to each and
every desktop. During her impassioned speech, Jacobson stated, "we need to
get better at implementing change. Each and every one of you
plays a crucial role in making changes successful. We are
going to arm you with a powerful new framework and tools to
help you succeed in the face of change, but ultimately you
will be the ones who make changes successful." The
employees of ACME heard the message loud and clear.
Kicking off the program
Immediately after the session, Jacobson called together
her executive team and again reiterated that becoming
competent at handling change was one of the strategic goals
she would be pursuing over the next year. She established a
task force and charged the team with creating a strategy and a
plan for building change management competencies in the
organization.
Mike McMillen, director of ACME's Project Management
Office, was not convinced. "We already had a methodology in
place for managing projects", said McMillen. "I was
worried about dedicating so much time and resources on the 'soft'
side of change. I always thought we just needed to be more
concrete when telling people what needed to be done."
"We got off to a very slow start," stated Clive Chester,
chairman of the change management task force. "None of us
had tackled this type of a problem before. We had
representatives from throughout the business, as well as
from HR, OD, communications and training. Each of us was
pushing in one direction or another, and we didn't have a
framework to guide our efforts."
As the team progressed, they realized that they were not
dealing with a small undertaking. The competency to manage
change reached across the entire organization and
stretched from the most senior leaders to front-line
employees. "Becoming competent at managing change is a
transformation to how our organization operated. Jacobson
provided the strong vision and leadership we needed, but we
were still missing structure," said Chester.
One of the biggest breakthroughs for Chester and his team
was the recognition that this type of transformation was
itself a project that had to be managed. "It was a real
awakening", said Chester. The team began looking for outside
help that could provide a better framework for the task
ahead. Ultimately, the team utilized a research-based approach called
'Enterprise Change Management (ECM)'.
This ECM approach offered two key pieces: 1) an ECM Deployment
Process that walked through the creation of plans and
activities based on the future state and the current state
and 2) an ECM Strategy Map that outlined five different areas
to focus the competency building program around. Embedded in
this approach was the application of project management,
solution design and change management disciplines. "In the
same way that a new system had to be effectively managed,
this change of becoming good at managing change also had to
be managed," said Chester.
Change management deployment strategy
"The plan that the task force produced had five
key components," explained Jacobson. "The team moved beyond
a simple training focus, and eventually created a strategy
that encompassed leadership, project, process, skills and
structure. This holistic approach moved change management
from something we talked about, to something we did on a
day-to-day basis."
Elements of ACME's
deployment strategy based on Prosci's ECM
Strategy map:
- Leadership - engaging executives and senior
leaders
- Process - adopting a common approach to
managing change
- Project - attaching change management to new
initiatives
- Skills - building competencies in all levels
of the organization
- Structure - creating a governance body, process
ownership and tools
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Under each of the five areas, the team created
specific tactics for making 'effectively managing change'
part of the way ACME operated.
The team brought in a research-based methodology for
managing change and created a step-by-step process
each project team could embrace. The process was
integrated into the existing project
methodology. A new change management risk
assessment was completed at the launch of each
new project to help understand the importance of
the human-side of change for that particular
initiative.
Training was developed for
front-line managers, middle managers, senior
managers, executives, project teams and other
functional support groups. The training was
aimed at explaining why change had to be managed
and the role each group played in making changes
successful. Rather than just making the training
available, the change management group outlined a
systematic approach and sequence for deploying the training. Performance management systems were
adjusted to include the management of change as
a key competency of managers throughout the
organization.
Ultimately, the task force created a change management
group that oversaw the deployment of the process, tools and
training into the organization. This organizational
'footprint' was located under the Chief Transformation
Officer and included representation from a number of
business functions and units. The change management team
frequently held meetings with the Project Management Office, Human Resources
and the executive team to
ensure their needs were being met. The change management
group also met monthly with the heads of each business and
assembled teams of influential managers to continue to
socialize change management throughout the business.
Results
The
results of taking on the change management competency are
evident. Throughout ACME, people
have internalized their role in making changes successful.
Change management is no longer viewed by employees as
someone else's job, it is truly seen as part of 'my' job. "When
headquarters used to tell us what to do, most of us
cringed," said a front-line supervisor named Denise Doudry.
"Now, we feel like we own the changes, even when they come
from the top. They tell us why it is important, why it has
to happen now, and then we take what we have learned and
coach our employees through the change."
Even
McMillen, the skeptical leader of the Project Management
Office, changed his mind. "Early on, I thought the change
management effort was going to be a huge black hole. But as
the team began reaching throughout the organization, I
realized that this initiative was really going to make a
difference." McMillen's team worked closely with the change
management task force in the process integration parts of
the initiative. "Change management is not a burden for
project managers, it is a powerful tool that has helped our
projects meet their objectives. We are now some of the
biggest allies in the entire organization."
Chester, who
was recently promoted to the Chief Transformation Officer
position, described the outcome his team was able to
achieve. "Up front, we defined success in our ECM effort
along three dimensions. We wanted to incorporate a common
process and set of tools, build leadership competencies
throughout the organization, and establish the strategic
capability to thrive during change. With three years, a
structured approach, and a solid framework, we have achieved
all three of these goals."
One needs to look no further than the project portfolio
to see the impact of building the competency to manage
change. "Last quarter, I had four major strategic
initiatives come to a close. All four ended on time, and all
four surpassed the expected ROI and benefits they were
looking to achieve," says Ginger Gomez, president of one of
the business units. "Four years ago, we were pulling the
plug on projects. Today, we are finishing projects with such
momentum that my division can't wait for the next one."
Jacobson agrees. "In today's marketplace, the only thing
certain is change. Three years ago we were not even sure if
we would make it to the end of 2007. But we buckled down,
invested the time and effort to become good at change
management, and now we are number one in
our market. From the top to the bottom, we have implemented
the processes, tools and competencies to manage change - an
investment that pays off every day and will continue to pay off
well into the future."
