Master Organizational Change Management Practices

Assess the roles and resources that might be needed to help support these OCM efforts

1.2.5 30 minutes

The PMO leader will need to delegate responsibility for many to all of these OCM activities throughout the project lifecycle.

Compile a list of PMO staff, project workers, and other stakeholders who will likely be required to support these processes at each step, keeping in mind that we will be doing a more thorough consideration of the resources required to support an OCM program in Phase 3.

Info-Tech Insight

OCM processes require a diverse network to support them.

While we advocate an approach to org change that is centralized through the PMO, this doesn’t change the fact that the PMO’s OCM processes will need to engage the entirety of the project eco-system.

In addition to IT/PMO directors, org change processes will engage a group as varied as project sponsors, project managers, business analysts, communications leads, and HR/training leads.

Ensure that you are considering resources and infrastructure beyond IT as you plan your OCM processes – and engage these stakeholders early in this planning process.

Establish core transition team roles and a reporting structure

1.2.6 30 minutes

Once you’ve identified OCM resources and assessed their availability, start to sketch the structure of the core transition team.

In many cases, the core team only has one or two people responsible for impact analysis and plan development in addition to you, the sponsor, who is accountable for leadership and benefits realization.

For larger initiatives, the core team might include several co-sponsors or advisors from different departments or lines of business, along with a handful of staff working together on analysis and planning.

Some team structure templates/examples:

Small (e.g. Office 365)

• Sponsor
• PM/BA

Medium-Large (e.g. business process initiative)

• Sponsor
• PM
• BA
• OCM Consultant

Complex Transformational (e.g. business model initiative, company reorg)

• Exec. Sponsor (CxO)
• Steering Committee
• Project Lead/Champion (VP)
• Business Lead(s)
• IT Lead
• HR/Training Lead
• OCM Consultant

Ultimately, organizational change is a collaborative effort

Effective organizational change involves overlapping responsibilities.

In keeping with the eclectic network of stakeholders that is required to support OCM processes, Phase 2 is broken up into sections that will, by turn, engage project sponsors, project managers, business analysts, communications leads, and HR/training leads.

At each step, our intention is to arm the PMO with a toolkit and a set of processes that will help foster a project culture that is proactive about change.

"It is amazing what you can accomplish if you do not care who gets the credit." – Harry Truman

Update the Transition Team Communications Template

1.2.7 10 minutes

Participants

• PMO leader
• PMO staff

Input

• The outcomes of various activities in this step

Output

• Key sections of the Transition Team Communications Template completed

Use Info-Tech’s Transition Team Communications Template to help communicate the outcomes of this step.

• Use the template to document the goals, benefits, and milestones established in 1.2.3, to record the project timeline and schedule for OCM activities from 1.2.4, to document resources available for OCM activities (1.2.5), and to record the membership and reporting structure of the core transition team (1.2.6).

Download Info-Tech’s Transition Team Communications Template.

"Managers and user communities need to feel like they are a part of a project instead of feeling like the project is happening to them. It isn't just a matter of sending a few emails or putting up a page on a project website." – Ross Latham

Build organizational change management capabilities by bringing in required skills

Case Study

Industry Natural Resources

Source Interview

Challenge

• Like many organizations, the company is undergoing increasing IT-enabled change.
• Project managers tended to react to effects of change rather than proactively planning for change.

"The hard systems – they’re easy. It’s the soft systems that are challenging... Be hard on the process. Be easy on the people." – Business Analyst, natural resources company

Solution

• Change management was especially challenging when projects were led by the business.
• IT was often brought in late in business-led projects.
• As a result, the organization incurred avoidable costs to deal with integration, retraining, etc.
• The cost of managing change grows later in the project as more effort needs to be spent undoing (or “unfreezing”) the old state or remediating poorly executed change.

Results

• The company hired a business analyst with a background in organizational change to bring in the necessary skills.
• The business analyst brought knowledge, experience, and templates based on best practices and is sharing these with the rest of the project management team.
• As a result, organizational change management is starting earlier in projects when its effectiveness and value are maximized.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

• To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
• Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
• Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

1.1.1 Evaluate your current capabilities for managing organizational change

Take Info-Tech’s OCM capabilities questionnaire and receive custom analyst recommendations concerning next steps.

1.1.2 Perform a change management SWOT exercise

Work with a seasoned analyst to assess your PMO’s strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats to becoming an org change leader.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

1.1.3 Define success metrics for your PMO’s efforts to become an org change leader

Work with an analyst to clarify how the success of this initiative will be measured and what conditions are necessary for success.

1.2.2 Determine the appropriate OCM initiative to pilot at your organization

Receive custom analyst insights on rightsizing your OCM planning efforts based on project size, timeline, and resource availability.

1.2.4 Develop an OCM timeline that aligns with key project milestones

Harness analyst experience to develop a project-specific timeline for the PMO’s change management activities to better plan your efforts and resources.

Phase 2

Plant the Seeds for Change During Project Planning and Initiation

Phase 2 outline

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 2: Plant the seeds for change during project planning and initiation

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 1 week

Step 2.1: Foster OCM considerations during the ideation phase

Discuss these issues with an analyst:

• Disengaged or absent sponsors on change initiatives.
• Lack of organizational desire for change.
• How to customize an OCM strategy to suit the personality of the organization.

Then complete these activities…

• Develop a sponsorship action plan to help facilitate more engaged change sponsorship.
• Build a process for making the case for change throughout the organization.

With these tools & templates:

• Activity 2.1.3: “Refine your change story”
• Activity 2.1.4: “Develop a sponsorship action plan”
• Transition Team Communications Template

Step 2.2: Perform an organizational change impact analysis

Work with an analyst to:

• Perform an impact analysis to make your change planning more complete.
• Assess the depth of change impacts across various stakeholder groups.

Then complete these activities…

• Assign accountability for managing change impacts.
• Update the business case with risks and opportunities identified during the impact analysis.

With these tools & templates:

• Organizational Change Management Impact Analysis Tool

Step 2.1: Foster OCM considerations during the ideation phase

Phase 2 - 2.1

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Assess leadership support for change.
• Highlight the goals and benefits of the change.
• Refine your change story.
• Define success criteria.
• Develop a sponsorship action plan.

This step involves the following participants:

• PMO Director
• Project sponsor for the pilot OCM project
• Additional project staff: project managers, business analysts, etc.

Outcomes of this step

• Strategy to shore up executive alignment around the need for change.
• Increased definition around the need for change.
• Increased engagement from project sponsors around change management and project outcomes.

Accountability for change management begins in advance of the project itself

As early as the request phase, project sponsors and requestors have a responsibility to communicate the need for the changes that they are proposing.

Org Change Step #1: Make the case for change during the request phase

Initiation→Planning→Execution→Monitoring & Controlling→Closing

Even before project planning and initiation begin, sponsors and requestors have org change responsibilities around communicating the need for a change and demonstrating their commitment to that change.

In this step, we will look at the OCM considerations that need to be factored in during project ideation.

The slides ahead will cover what the PMO can do to help foster these considerations among project sponsors and requestors.

While this project may already be in the planning phase, the activities in the slides ahead will help lay a solid OCM foundation as you move ahead into the impact assessment and stakeholder engagement steps in this phase.

Strongly recommended: include the sponsor for your pilot OCM project in many of the following activities (see individual activity slides for direction).

Info-Tech Insight

Make active sponsorship a criteria when scoring new requests.

Projects with active sponsors are far more likely to succeed than those where the sponsor cannot be identified or where she/he is unable or unwilling to champion the initiative throughout the organization.

Consider the engagement level of sponsors when prioritizing new requests. Without this support, the likelihood of a change initiative succeeding is far diminished.

What does effective sponsorship look like?

Somewhere along the way a stereotype arose of the project sponsor as a disengaged executive who dreams up a project idea and – regardless of that idea’s feasibility or merit – secures funding, pats themselves on the back, and does not materialize again until the project is over to pat themselves on the back again.

Indeed, it’s exaggerated, based partly on the fact that sponsors are almost always extremely busy individuals, with very demanding day jobs on top of their responsibilities as sponsors. The stereotype doesn’t capture the very real day-to-day project-level responsibilities of project sponsors.

Leading change management institute, Prosci, has developed a checklist of 10 identifiable traits and responsibilities that PMO leaders and project managers should help to foster among project sponsors. As Prosci states, the checklist “can be used as an audit tool to see if you are utilizing best practices in how you engage senior leaders on your change initiatives.”

Prosci’s Change Management Sponsor Checklist:

Are your sponsors:

• Aware of the importance they play in making changes successful?
• Aware of their roles in supporting org change?
• Active and visible throughout the project?
• Building necessary coalitions for change success?
• Communicating directly and effectively with employees?
• Aware that the biggest mistake is failing to personally engage as the sponsor?
• Prepared to help manage resistance?
• Prepared to celebrate successes?
• Setting clear priorities to help employees manage project and day-to-day work?
• Avoiding trends and backing change that will be meaningful for the long term?

(Source: Prosci’s Change Management Sponsor Checklist)

Assess leadership support for change

2.1.1 30 minutes

Participants

• PMO leader
• Other PMO/PM staff

Output

• Leadership support strategy

Many change initiatives require significant investments of political capital to garner approval, funding, and involvement from key executives. This process can take months or even years before the project is staffed and implementation begins.

• In cases where leadership opposition or ambivalence to change is a critical success inhibitor, project sponsors or change leaders need a deliberate strategy for engaging and converting potential supporters.
• You might need to recruit someone with more influence or authority to become sponsor or co-sponsor to convert supporters you otherwise could not.
• Use the table below as an example to begin developing your executive engagement strategy (but keep it private).

“The stakes of having poorly engaged executive sponsors are high, as are the consequences and costs. PMI research into executive sponsorship shows that one in three unsuccessful projects fail to meet goals due to poorly engaged executive sponsors.”

– PMI, 2014

Highlight the goals and benefits of the change

2.1.2 30-60 minutes

Participants

• PMO leader
• PMO staff
• Project sponsor

Build desire for change.

The project sponsor is accountable for defining the high-level scope and benefits of the project. The PMO needs to work with the sponsor during the ideation phase to help establish the need for the proposed change.

Use the table below to begin developing a compelling vision and story of change. If you have not already defined high-level goals and deliverables for your project, download Info-Tech’s Light Project Request Form (a Detailed Project Request Form is also available).

See Info-Tech’s Optimize Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization blueprint for more detailed advice on working with requestors to define requirements and business value of new requests.

Stories are more compelling than logic and facts alone

Crucial facts, data, and figures are made more digestible, memorable, and actionable when they are conveyed through a compelling storyline.

While you certainly need high-level scope elements and a rigorous cost-benefit analysis in your business case, projects that require organizational change also need a compelling story or vision to influence groups of stakeholders.

As the PMO works with sponsors to identify and document the goals and benefits of change, begin to sketch a narrative that will be compelling to the organization’s varied audiences.

Structuring an effective project narrative:

Research shows (Research and impacts cited in Torben Rick’s “Change Management Require[s] a Compelling Story,” 2014) that when managers and employees are asked about what most inspires them in their work, their responses are evenly split across five forms of impact:

1. Impact on society – e.g. the organization’s role in the community.
2. Impact on the customer – e.g. providing effective service.
3. Impact on the company – e.g. contributing positively to the growth of the organization.
4. Impact on the working team – e.g. creating an inclusive work environment.
5. Impact on the individual – e.g. personal development and compensation.

"Storytelling enables the individuals in an organization to see themselves and the organization in a different light, and accordingly take decisions and change their behavior in accordance with these new perceptions, insights, and identities." – Steve Denning

Info-Tech Insight

A micro-to-macro change narrative. A compelling org change story needs to address all five of these impacts in order to optimally engage employees in change. In crafting a narrative that covers both the micro and macro levels, you will be laying a solid foundation for adoption throughout the organization.

Refine your change story

2.1.3 45 to 60 minutes

Participants

• PMO leader
• PMO staff
• Project sponsor

Input

• 5 levels of change impact
• Stakeholder groups

Output

• Improved change justification to help inform the request phase and the development of the business case.

Materials

• Whiteboard and markers

Using a whiteboard to capture the discussion, address the 5 levels of change impact covered on the previous slide.

1. Develop a list of the stakeholder groups impacted by this project.
   • The impacts will be felt differently by different groups, so develop a high-level list of those stakeholder groups that will be directly affected by the change.
   • Keep in mind, this activity is not an impact assessment. This activity is meant to elicit how the change will be perceived by the different stakeholder groups, not how it will actually impact them – i.e. this activity is about making the case for change, not actually managing the change.
2. Brainstorm how the five impact levels will be perceived from the point of view of each stakeholder group.
   • Spend about 5 to 10 minutes per impact per stakeholder group.
   • The goal here isn’t to create a detailed plotline; your change story may evolve as the project evolves. A point or two per impact per group will suffice.
3. As a group, prioritize the most prescient points and capture the results of your whiteboarding to help inform future artifacts.
   • The points developed during this activity should inform both the ad hoc conversations that PMO staff and the sponsor have with stakeholders, as well as formal project artifacts, such as the request, business case, charter, etc.

When it comes to communicating the narrative, project sponsors make the most compelling storytellers

Whatever story you develop to communicate the goals and the benefits of the change, ultimately it should be the sponsor who communicates this message to the organization at large.

Given the competing demands that senior leaders face, the PMO still has a pivotal role to play in helping to plan and facilitate these communications.

The PMO should help sponsors by providing insights to shape change messaging (refer to the characteristics outlined in the table below for assistance) and by developing a sponsorship action plan (Activity 2.1.4).

“[T]he sponsor is the preferred sender of messages related to the business reasons and organizational implications for a particular initiative; therefore, effective sponsorship is crucial in building an awareness of the need for change.

Sponsorship is also critical in building the desire to participate and support the change with each employee and in reinforcing the change.”

– Prosci

Base the style of your communications on the organization’s receptiveness to change

Not all organizations embrace or resist change in the same ways. Base your change communications on your organization’s cultural appetite for change in general.

Use the below dimensions to gauge your organization’s appetite for change. Analyzing this will help determine the form and force of communications.

In the next slide, we will base aspects of your sponsorship action plan on whether an organization’s indicator is “high” or “low” across these three dimensions.

• Organizations with low appetite for change will require more direct, assertive communications.
• Organizations with a high appetite for change are more suited to more open, participatory approaches.

Three key dimensions determine the appetite for cultural change (Dimensions taken from Joanna Malgorzata Michalak’s “Cultural Catalysts and Barriers of Organizational Change Management: a Preliminary Overview,” 2010):

"Societies with a high indicator of power distance, individualism, and uncertainty avoidance create vital inertial forces against transformation." – Michalak

Develop a sponsorship action plan

2.1.4 45 to 60 minutes

Participants

• PMO leader
• PMO staff
• Project sponsor

Use the table below to define key tasks and responsibilities for the project sponsor.

1. Populate the first column with the stakeholder groups from Activity 2.1.3.
2. With reference to the Sponsor Checklist, brainstorm key sponsorship responsibilities for this project across each of the groups.
3. When gauging the frequency of each activity and the “Estimated Weekly Effort” required by the sponsor to complete them, consider the organization’s appetite for change.
   • Where indicators across the three dimensions are low, the sponsor’s involvement can be less hands-on and more collaborative in nature.
   • Where indicators across the three dimensions are high, the sponsor’s involvement should be hands-on and direct in her/his communications.

"To manage change is to tell people what to do... but to lead change is to show people how to be." – Weick & Quinn

Update the Transition Team Communications Template

2.1.5 10 minutes

Participants

• PMO leader
• PMO staff

Input

• The outcomes of various activities in this step

Output

• Key sections of the Transition Team Communications Template completed

Use Info-Tech’s Transition Team Communications Template to help communicate the outcomes of this step.

The following activities should be recorded in the template:

Activity 2.1.2

In addition, the outcome of Activity 2.1.4, the “Sponsorship Action Plan,” should be converted to a format such as Word and provided to the project sponsor.

Download Info-Tech’s Transition Team Communications Template.

"In most work situations, the meaning of a change is likely to be as important, if not more so, than the change itself."

– Roethlisberger (cited in Burke)

Step 2.2: Perform an organizational change impact assessment

Phase 2 - 2.2

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Perform change impact survey.
• Assess the depth of impacts for different stakeholders and stakeholder groups.
• Determine overall adoptability of the OCM effort.
• Establish a game plan for managing individual impacts.
• Review risks and opportunities.
• Determine how the value of the change will be measured.

This step involves the following participants:

• PMO Director
• Project sponsor for the pilot OCM project
• Additional project staff: project managers, business analysts, members of the transition team, etc.

Outcomes of this step:

• A change impact analysis.
• An adoptability rating for the change initiative to help the PMO plan its OCM efforts.
• A better understanding of the risks and opportunities associated with the change to inform the business case.

Analyze change impacts across multiple dimensions to ensure that nothing is overlooked

Ensure that no stone is left unturned as you prepare for a comprehensive transition plan.

In the previous step, we established a process and some accountabilities to help the PMO and project sponsors make the case for change during the ideation and initiation phase of a project.

In this step, we will help with the project planning phase by establishing a process for analyzing how the change will impact various dimensions of the business and how to manage these impacts to best ensure stakeholder adoption.

Brace for Impact…

A thorough analysis of change impacts will help the PMO:

• Bypass avoidable problems.
• Remove non-fixed barriers to success.
• Acknowledge and minimize the impact of unavoidable barriers.
• Identify and leverage potential benefits.
• Measure the success of the change.

Assign the appropriate accountabilities for impact analysis

In the absence of an assigned change manager, organizational change impact assessments are typically performed by a business analyst or the project manager assigned to the change initiative.

• Indeed, as with all change management activities, making an individual accountable for performing this activity and communicating its outcomes is key to the success of your org change initiative.
• At this stage, the PMO needs to assign or facilitate accountability for the impact analysis on the pilot OCM initiative or it needs to take this accountability on itself.

Sample RACI for this activity. Define these accountabilities for your organization before proceeding with this step.

Info-Tech Insight

Bring perspective to an imperfect view.

No individual has a comprehensive view of the potential impact of change.

Impact assessment and analysis is most effective when multiple viewpoints are coordinated using a well-defined list of considerations that cover a wide breadth of dimensions.

Revisit and refine the impact analysis throughout planning and execution, as challenges to adoption become more clear.

Perform a change impact analysis to make your planning more complete

Use Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Management Impact Analysis Tool to weigh all of the factors involved in a change and to formalize discipline around impact analysis.

Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Management Impact Analysis Tool helps to document the change impact across multiple dimensions, enabling the PMO to review the analysis with others to ensure that the most important impacts are captured. The tool also helps to effectively monitor each impact throughout project execution.

• Change impact considerations can include: products, services, states, provinces, cultures, time zones, legal jurisdictions, languages, colors, brands, subsidiaries, competitors, departments, jobs, stores, locations, etc.
• Each of these dimensions is an MECE (Mutually Exclusive, Collectively Exhaustive) list of considerations that could be impacted by the change. For example, a North American retail chain might consider “Time Zones” as a key dimension, which could break down as Newfoundland, Atlantic, Eastern, Central, Mountain, and Pacific.

Download Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Impact Analysis Tool.

• Required Participants for this Step: PMO Leader; project manager or business analyst
• Recommended Participants for this Step: Project Sponsor; IT/PMO staff

Info-Tech Insight

Anticipate the unexpected. Impact analysis is the cornerstone of any OCM strategy. By shining a light on considerations that might have otherwise escaped project planners and decision makers, an impact analysis is an essential component to change management and project success.

Enter high-level project information on the “Set Up” tab

2.2.1 15 minutes

The “2. Set Up” tab of the Impact Tool is where you enter project-specific data pertaining to the change initiative.

The inputs on this tab are used to auto-populate fields and drop-downs on subsequent tabs of the analysis.

Document the stakeholders (by individual or group) associated with the project who will be subject to the impacts.

You are allowed up to 15 entries. Try to make this list comprehensive. Missing any key stakeholders will threaten the value of this activity as a whole.

If you find that you have more than 15 individual stakeholders, you can group individuals into stakeholder groups.

Keep in mind...

An impact analysis is not a stakeholder management exercise.

Impact assessments cover:

• How the change will affect the organization.
• How individual impacts might influence the likelihood of adoption.

Stakeholder management covers:

• Resistance/objections handling.
• Engagement strategies to promote adoption.

We will cover the latter in the next step.

“As a general principle, project teams should always treat every stakeholder initially as a recipient of change. Every stakeholder management plan should have, as an end goal, to change recipients’ habits or behaviors.”

– PMI, 2015

Determine the relevant considerations for analyzing the change impacts of a project

2.2.2 15 to 30 minutes

Use the survey on tab 3 of the Impact Analysis Tool to determine the dimensions of change that are relevant.

The impact analysis is fueled by the thirteen-question survey on tab 3 of the tool.

This survey addresses a comprehensive assortment of change dimensions, ranging from customer-facing considerations, to employee concerns, to resourcing, logistical, and technological questions.

Once you have determined the dimensions that are impacted by the change, you can go on to assess how individual stakeholders and stakeholder groups are affected by the change.

Screenshot of tab “3. Impact Survey,” showing the 13-question survey that drives the impact analysis.

Ideally, the survey should be performed by a group of project stakeholders together. Use the drop-downs in column K to record your responses.

"A new system will impact roles, responsibilities, and how business is conducted within an organization. A clear understanding of the impact of change allows the business to design a plan and address the different levels of changes accordingly. This approach creates user acceptance and buy-in."

– January Paulk, Panorama Consulting

Impacts will be felt differently by different stakeholders and stakeholder groups

As you assess change impacts, keep in mind that no impact will be felt the same across the organization. Depth of impact can vary depending on the frequency (will the impact be felt daily, weekly, monthly?), the actions necessitated by it (e.g. will it change the way the job is done or is it simply a minor process tweak?), and the anticipated response of the stakeholder (support, resistance, indifference?).

Use the Organizational Change Depth Scale below to help visualize various depths of impact. The deeper the impact, the tougher the job of managing change will be.

Determine the depth of each impact for each stakeholder group

2.2.3 1 to 3 hours

Tab “4. Impact Analysis” of the Analysis Tool contains the meat of the impact analysis activity.

1. The “Impact Analysis” tab is made up of thirteen change impact tables (see next slide for a screenshot of one of these tables).

• You may not need to use all thirteen tables. The number of tables you use coincides with the number of “yes” responses you gave in the previous tab.
• If you no not need all thirteen impact tables (i.e. if you do not answer “yes” to all thirteen questions in tab 2, the unused/unnecessary tables will not auto-populate.)

• Column B in each table will auto-populate with the stakeholder groups from the Set Up tab.

• Each of the options in these drop-downs is tied to a ranking table that informs the ratings on the two subsequent tabs.

See the next slide for an accompanying screenshot of a change impact table from tab 4 of the Analysis Tool.

Screenshot of “Impact Analysis” tab

The stakeholder groups entered on the Set Up will auto-populate in column B of each table.

Your “yes” responses from the survey tab will auto-populate in the cells to the right of the “Change Impact” cells.

Use the drop-downs in this column to select how often the impact will be felt for each group (e.g. daily, weekly, periodically, one time, or never).

“Actions” include “change to core job duties,” “change to how time is spent,” “confirm awareness of change,” etc.

Use the drop-downs to hypothesize what the stakeholder response might be. For now, for the purpose of the impact analysis, a guess is fine. We will come back to build a communications plan based on actual responses in Phase 3 of this blueprint.

Review your overall impact rating to help assess the likelihood of change adoption

Use the “Overall Impact Rating” on tab 5 to help right-size your OCM efforts.

Based upon your assessment of each individual impact, the Analysis Tool will provide you with an “Overall Impact Rating” in tab 5.

• This rating is an aggregate of each of the individual change impact tables used during the analysis, and the rankings assigned to each stakeholder group across the frequency, required actions, and anticipated response columns.

Projects in the red should have maximum change governance, applying a full suite of OCM tools and templates, as well as revisiting the impact analysis exercise regularly to help monitor progress.

Increased communication and training efforts, as well as cross-functional partnerships, will also be key for success.

Projects in the yellow also require a high level of change governance. Follow the steps and activities in this blueprint closely, paying close attention to the stakeholder engagement activities in the next step to help sway resistors and leverage change champions.

In order to free up resources for those OCM initiatives that require more discipline, projects in green can ease up in their OCM efforts somewhat. With a high likelihood of adoption as is, stakeholder engagement and communication efforts can be minimized somewhat for these projects, so long as the PMO is in regular contact with key stakeholders.

"All change is personal. Each person typically asks: 'What’s in it for me?'" – William T. Craddock

Use the other outputs on tab 5 to help structure your OCM efforts

In addition to the overall impact rating, tab 5 has other outputs that will help you assess specific impacts and how the overall change will be received by stakeholders.

Top-Five Highest Risk Impacts table: This table displays the highest risk impacts based on frequency and action inputs on Tab 4.

Top-Five Most Impacted Stakeholders table: Here you’ll find the stakeholders, ranked again based on frequency and action, who will be most impacted by the proposed changes.

Top Five Supporters table: These are the 5 stakeholders most likely to support changes, based on the Anticipated Response column on Tab 4.

The stakeholder groups entered on the Set Up Tab will auto-populate in column B of each table.

In addition to these outputs, this tab also lists top five change resistors, and has an impact register and list of potential impacts to watch out for (i.e. your “maybe” responses from tab 3).

Establish a game plan to manage individual change impacts

2.2.4 60 to 90 minutes

The final tab of the Analysis Tool can be used to help track and monitor individual change impacts.

• Use the “Communications Plan” on tab 7 to come up with a high-level game plan for tracking communications about each change with the corresponding stakeholders.
• Update and manage this tab as the communication events occur to help keep your implementation on track.

Document the risk assumptions stemming from your impact analysis

2.2.5 30 to 60 minutes

Use the Analysis Tool to produce a set of key risks that need to be identified, communicated, mitigated, and tracked.

A proper risk analysis often reveals risks and mitigations that are more important to other people in the organization than those managing the change. Failure to do a risk analysis on other people’s behalf can be viewed as negligence.

In the table below, document the risks related to the assumptions being made about the upcoming change. What are the risks that your assumptions are wrong? Can steps be taken to avoid these risks?

"One strategy to minimize the impact is to determine the right implementation pace, which will vary depending on the size of the company and the complexity of the project" – Chirantan Basu

Record any opportunities pertaining to the upcoming change

2.2.6 30 to 60 minutes

Use the change impacts to identify opportunities to improve the outcome of the change.

Use the table below to brainstorm the business opportunities arising from your change initiative. Consider if the PMO can take steps to help improve the outcomes either through supporting the project execution or through providing support to the business.

Info-Tech Insight

The bigger the change, the bigger the opportunity. Project and change management has traditionally focused on a defensive posture because organizations so often fail to mitigate risk. Good change managers also watch for opportunities to improve and exploit the outcomes of the change.

Determine how to measure the value of the change

2.2.7 15 to 30 minutes

Describe the metrics that will be used to assess the management of this change.

Now that you’ve assessed the impacts of the change, and the accompanying risks and opportunities, use the table below to document metrics that can be used to help assess the management of the change.

• Don’t rely on the underlying project to determine the value of the change itself: It’s important to recognize the difference between change management and project management, and the establishment of value metrics is an obvious source of this differentiation.
• For example, consider a project that is introducing a new method of remitting travel expenses for reimbursement.
  • The project itself would be justified on the efficiency of the new process.
  • The value of the change itself could be measured by the number of help desk calls looking for the new form, documentation, etc.

Document risks and other impact analysis considerations in the business case

2.2.8 10 minutes

Participants

• PMO leader
• Project Manager

Input

• The risks and issues identified through the impact analysis.

Output

• Comprehensive list of risks documented in the business case.

Use the outcomes of the activities in this step to help inform your business case as well as any other risk management artifacts that your project managers may use.

• Because long-term project success depends upon stakeholder adoption, high-risk impacts should be documented as considerations in the risk section of your business case.
• In addition, the “Overall Impact Rating” graph and the “Impact Management Worksheet” could be used to help improve business cases as well as charters on some projects.

If your organization doesn’t have a standard business case document, use one of Info-Tech’s templates. We have two templates to choose from, depending on the size of the project and the amount of rigor required:

Download Info-Tech’s Comprehensive Business Case Template for large, complex projects or our Fast Track Business Case Template for smaller ones.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

• To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
• Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
• Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

2.1.3 Create a convincing sponsor-driven story to help build the case for change

Work with an analyst to exercise your storytelling muscles, building out a process to help make the case for change throughout the organization.

2.1.4 Develop a sponsorship action plan

Utilize analyst experience to help develop a sponsorship action plan to help facilitate more engaged change project sponsors.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

2.2.3 Assess different change impacts across various stakeholder groups

Get an analyst perspective on how each impact may affect different stakeholders in order to assist with the project and OCM planning process.

2.2.4 Develop a proactive change impact management plan

Rightsize your response to change impacts by developing a game plan to mitigate each one according to adoption likelihood.

2.2.5 Use the results of the impact analysis to inform and improve the business case for the project

Work with the analyst to translate the risks and opportunities identified during the impact analysis into points of consideration to help inform and improve the business case for the project.

Phase 3

Facilitate Change Adoption Throughout the Organization

Phase 3 outline

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 3: Facilitate Change Adoption Throughout the Organization

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 4 to 6 weeks

Step 3.1: Ensure stakeholders are engaged and ready for change

Discuss these issues with analyst:

• Lack of alignment between IT and the business.
• Organizational resistance to a command-and-control approach to change.

Then complete these activities…

• Develop a stakeholder engagement plan.

With these tools & templates:

• Stakeholder Engagement Workbook

Step 3.2: Develop and execute the transition plan

Discuss these issues with analyst:

• Org change initiatives often fail due to the influence of resistors.
• Failure to elicit feedback contributes to the feeling of a change being imposed.

Then complete these activities…

• Develop a communications strategy to address a variety of stakeholder reactions to change.

With these tools & templates:

• Transition Plan Template
• Activity 3.2.7: “Objections Handling Template”

Step 3.3: Establish HR and training plans

Discuss these issues with analyst:

• Training is often viewed as ineffective, contributing to change resistance rather than fostering adoption.

Then complete these activities…

• Rightsize training content based on project requirements and stakeholder sentiment.

With these tools & templates:

• “Training Requirements” tab in the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook
• “Training Plan” section of the Transition Plan Template

Step 3.1: Ensure stakeholders are engaged and ready for change

Phase 3 - 3.1

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Involve the right stakeholders in the change.
• Define project roles and responsibilities.
• Define elicitation methods for obtaining stakeholder input.
• Perform a stakeholder analysis to assess influence, interest, and potential contribution.
• Assess communications plan requirements.

This step involves the following participants:

• Required: PMO Director; project manager or business analyst
• Recommended: Project Sponsor; the Transition Team; other IT/PMO staff

Outcomes of this step

• A stakeholder analysis.
• Requirements for the communications plan.

The nature of change is changing

The challenge of managing change is complicated by forces that are changing change.

Empowerment: Increased worker mobility, effect of millennials in the workforce, and lower average tenure means that people are less tolerant of a hierarchical, command-and-control approach to change.

• Additionally, lower average tenure means you can’t assume everyone has the same context or background for change (e.g. they might not have been with the organization for earlier phases when project justification/rationale was established).

Noise: Inundation with communications and diversity of channels means the traditional “broadcast” approach to communicating change doesn’t work (i.e. you can’t expect every email to get everyone’s attention).

As a result, disciplines around organizational change tend to be less linear and deliberate than they were in the past.

"People don’t resist change. They resist being changed."

– Peter Senge

How to manage change in organizations of today and the future:

• New realities require a more collaborative, engaging, open, and agile approach to change.
• Communication is increasingly more of a two-way, ongoing, iterative engagement process.
• Project leaders on change initiatives need to engage diverse audiences early and often.
• Information about change needs to reach people and be easily findable where and when stakeholders need it.

Info-Tech Insight

Accountabilities for change management are still required. While change management needs to adopt more collaborative and organic approaches, org change success still depends on assigning appropriate accountabilities. What’s changed in the move to matrix structure is that accountabilities need to be facilitated more collaboratively.

Leading change requires collaboration to ensure people, process, and technology factors are aligned

In the absence of otherwise defined change leadership, the PMO needs to help navigate every technology-enabled change, even if it isn’t in the “driver’s seat.”

PMO leaders and IT experts often find themselves asked to help implement or troubleshoot technology-related business projects that are already in flight.

The PMO will end up with perceived or de facto responsibility for inadequate planning, communications, and training around technology-enabled change.

IT-Led Projects

Projects led by the IT PMO tend to be more vulnerable to underestimating the impact on people and processes on the business side.

Make sure you engage stakeholders and representatives (e.g. “power users”) from user populations early enough to refine and validate your impact assessments.

Business-Led Projects

Projects led by people on the business side tend to be more vulnerable to underestimating the implications of technology changes.

Make sure IT is involved early enough to identify and prepare for challenges and opportunities involving integration, user training, etc.

"A major impediment to more successful software development projects is a corporate culture that results in a lack of collaboration because business executives view the IT departments as "order takers," a view disputed by IT leaders."

– David Ramel (cited by Ben Linders)

Foster change collaboration by initiating a stakeholder engagement plan through the PMO

If project stakeholders aren’t on board, the organization’s change initiatives will be in serious trouble.

Stakeholders will not only be highly involved in the process improvement initiative, but they also may be participants, so it’s essential that you get their buy-in for the initiative upfront.

Use Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Engagement Workbook to help plan how stakeholders rate in terms of engagement with the project.

Once you have identified where different stakeholders fall in terms of interests, influence, and support for/engagement with the change initiative, you can structure your communication plan (to be developed in step 3.2) based on where individuals and stakeholder groups fall.

• Required participants for the activities in this step: PMO Leader; project manager or business analyst
• Recommended participants for the activities in this step: Project Sponsor; IT/PMO staff

Download Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Engagement Workbook.

The engagement plan is a structured and documented approach for:

• Gathering requirements by eliciting input and validating plans for change.
• Cultivating sponsorship and support from key stakeholders early in the project lifecycle.

Download Info-Tech’s Stakeholder Engagement Workbook.

Involve the right people to drive and facilitate change

Refer to your project level assessment from 1.2.2:

• Level 1 projects tend to only require involvement from the project team, sponsors, and people affected.
• Level 2 projects often benefit from broad support and capabilities in order to take advantage of opportunities.
• Level 3 projects require broad support and capabilities in order to deal with risks and barriers.

Info-Tech Insight

The more transformational the change, the more it will affect the org chart – not just after the implementation, but also through the transition.

Take time early in the project to define the reporting structure for the project/transition team, as well as any teams and roles supporting the transition.

• Project manager: Has primary accountability for project success.
• Senior executive project sponsor: Needed to “open doors” and signal organization’s commitment to the change.
• Technology SMEs and architects: Responsible for determining and communicating requirements and risks of the technology being implemented or changed.
• Business unit leads: Responsible for identifying and communicating impact on business functions, approving changes, and helping champion change.
• Product/process owners: Responsible for identifying and communicating impact on business functions, approving changes, and helping champion change.
• HR specialists: Most valuable when roles and organizational design are affected, i.e. change requires staff redeployment, substantial training (not just using a new system or tool but acquiring new skills and responsibilities), or termination.
• Training specialists: If you have full-time training staff in the organization, you will eventually need them to develop training courses and material. Consulting them early will help with scoping, scheduling, and identifying the best resources and channels to deliver the training.
• Communications specialists (internal): Valuable in crafting communications plan; required if communications function owns internal communications.

Use the RACI table on the next slide to clarify who will be accountable, responsible, consulted, and informed for key tasks and activities around this change initiative.

Define roles and responsibilities for facilitating change on your pilot OCM initiative

3.1.1 60 minutes

Perform a RACI exercise pertaining to your pilot change initiative to clarify who to include in the stakeholder engagement activity.

Don’t reinvent the wheel: revisit the list of stakeholders and stakeholder groups from your impact assessment. The purpose of the RACI is to bring some clarity to project-specific responsibilities.

Copy the results of this RACI exercise into tab 1 of the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook. In addition, it can be used to inform the designated RACI section in the Transition Plan Template. Revise the RACI Table there as needed.

Formalize the stakeholder analysis to identify change champions and blockers

Define key stakeholders (or stakeholder groups) who are affected by the project or are in positions to enable or block change.

• Remember to consider customers, partners, and other external stakeholders.
• People best positioned to provide insight and influence change positively are also best positioned to create resistance.
• These people should be engaged early and often in the transition process – not just to make them feel included or part of the change, but because their insight could very likely identify risks, barriers, and opportunities that need to be addressed.

In tab three of the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook, compile the list of stakeholders who are touched by the change and whose adoption of the change will be key to project success.

To save time, you can copy and paste your stakeholder list from the Set Up tab of the Organizational Change Management Impact Analysis Tool into the table below and edit the list as needed.

Formal stakeholder analysis should be:

• Required for Level 3 projects
• Recommended for Level 2 projects
• Optional for Level 1 projects

Info-Tech Insight

Resistance is, in many cases, avoidable. Resistance is commonly provided by people who are upset about not being involved in the communication. Missed opportunities are the same: they usually could have been avoided easily had somebody known in time. Use the steps ahead as an opportunity to ensure no one has been missed.

Perform a stakeholder analysis to begin cultivating support while eliciting requirements

3.1.2 60 minutes

Use tab 4 of the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook to systematically assess each stakeholder's influence, interest, and potential contribution to the project as well as to develop plans for engaging each stakeholder or stakeholder group.

Use the drop-downs to select stakeholders and stakeholder groups. These will automatically populate based on your inputs in tab 3.

Rate each stakeholder on a scale of 1 to 10 in terms of her/his influence in the organization. Not only do these rankings feed the stakeholder map that gets generated on the next slide, but they will help you identify change champions and resistors with influence.

Similar to the ranking under “Influence,” rate the “Interest” and “Potential Contribution” to help identify stakeholder engagement.

Document how you will engage each stakeholder and stakeholder group and document how soon you should communicate with them concerning the change. See the following slides for advice on eliciting change input.

Use the elicitation methods on the following slides to engage stakeholders and gather change requirements.

Elicitation methods – Observation

Info-Tech Insight

Observing stakeholders does not uncover any information about the target state. Be sure to use contextual observation in conjunction with other techniques to discover the target state.

Elicitation methods – Surveys

Info-Tech Insight

Surveys can be useful mechanisms for initial drafting of raw requirements (open response) and gauging user interest in proposed requirements or feature sets (closed response). However, they should not be the sole focus of your elicitation program due to lack of interactivity and two-way dialogue with the business analyst.

Elicitation methods – Interviews

Info-Tech Insight

Interviews should be used with “high-value targets.” Those who receive one-on-one face time can help generate good requirements, as well as allow effective communication around requirements at a later point (i.e. during the analysis and validation phases).

Elicitation methods – Focus Groups

Info-Tech Insight

Group elicitation techniques are most useful for gathering a wide spectrum of requirements from a broad group of stakeholders. Individual or observational techniques are typically needed for further follow-up and in-depth analysis with critical power users or sponsors.

"Each person has a learning curve. Take the time to assess staff individually as some don’t adjust to change as well as others. Some never will." – CEO, Manufacturing Firm

Refine your stakeholder analysis through the input elicitation process

3.1.3 30 minutes

Review all of these elicitation methods as you go through the workbook as a group. Be sure to document and discuss any other elicitation methods that might be specific to your organization.

1. Schedule dates and a specific agenda for performing stakeholder elicitation activities.

• If scheduling more formal methods such as a structured interview or survey, take the time to develop some talking points and questions (see the questionnaire and survey templates in the next step for examples).

Info-Tech Insight

Engagement paves the way for smoother communications. The “engagement” approach (rather than simply “communication”) turns stakeholders and users into advocates who help boost your message, sustain change, and realize benefits without constant, direct intervention.

Develop a stakeholder engagement strategy based on the output of your analysis

Use the stakeholder map on tab 5 of the Workbook to inform your communications strategy and transition plan.

Tab 5 of the Workbook provides an output – a stakeholder map – based on your inputs in the previous tab. Use the stakeholder map to inform your communications requirements considerations in the next tab of the workbook as well as your transition plan in the next step.

This is a screenshot of the “Stakeholder Analysis” from tab 5 of the Workbook. The four quadrants of the map are:

• Engage (High Interest/High Influence)
• Communicate – High Level (High Interest/Low Influence)
• Passive (Low Interest/Low Influence)
• Communicate – Low Level (Low Interest/High Influence)

How to interpret each quadrant on the map:

Top Quadrants: Supporters

1. Engage: Capitalize on champions to drive the project/change.
2. Communicate (high level): Leverage this group where possible to help socialize the program and to help encourage dissenters to support.

Bottom Quadrant: Blockers

1. Passive: Focus on increasing these stakeholders’ level of support.
2. Communicate (low level): Pick your battles – focus on your noise makers first and then move on to your blockers.

Document communications plan requirements based on results of engagement and elicitation

3.1.4 60 minutes

Use the Communications Requirements tab in the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook.

Do this as a 1–2 hour project team planning session.

The table will automatically generate a list of stakeholders based on your stakeholder analysis.

Update the assumptions that you made about the impact of the change in the Impact Analysis with results of stakeholder engagement and elicitation activities.

Use the table on this tab to refine these assumptions as needed before solidifying your communications plan.

Define the action required from each stakeholder or stakeholder group (if any) for change to be successful.

Continually refine messages and methods for communicating with each stakeholder and stakeholder group.

Note words that work well and words that don’t. For example, some buzzwords might have negative connotations from previous failed initiatives.

Designate who is responsible for developing and honing the communications plan (see details in the following section on developing the transition plan).

Step 3.2: Develop and execute the transition plan

Phase 3 - 3.2

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Create a communications timeline.
• Establish communications strategy for stakeholder groups.
• Determine communication delivery methods.
• Define the feedback and evaluation process.
• Assess the full range of support and resistance to change.
• Prepare objections handling process.

This step involves the following participants:

• PMO Director
• Transition Team
• Project managers
• Business analyst
• Project Sponsor
• Additional IT/PMO staff

Outcomes of this step

• A communications strategy
• A stakeholder feedback process
• An objections handling strategy
• A transition plan

Effective change requires strategic communications and rightsized training plans

Develop and execute a transition plan through the PMO to ensure long-term adoption.

In this step we will develop and introduce a plan to manage change around your project.

After completing this section you will have a realistic, effective, and adaptable transition plan that includes:

• Clarity around leadership and vision.
• Well-defined plans for targeting unique groups with specific messages.
• Resistance and contingency plans.
• Templates for gathering feedback and evaluating success.

These activities will enable you to:

• Execute the transition in coordination with the timeline and structure of the core project.
• Communicate the action plan and vision for change.
• Target specific stakeholder and user groups with unique messages.
• Deal with risks, resistance, and contingencies.
• Evaluate success through feedback and metrics.

"Everyone loves change: take what you know and replace it with a promise. Then overlay that promise with the memory of accumulated missed efforts, half-baked attempts, and roads of abandoned promises."

– Toby Elwin

Assemble the core transition team to help execute this step

Once the stakeholder engagement step has been completed, the PMO needs to facilitate the involvement of the transition team to help carry out transition planning and communications strategies.

You should have already sketched out a core transition team in step 1.2.6 of this blueprint. As with all org change activities, ensuring that individuals are made accountable for the execution of the following activities will be key for the long-term success of your change initiative.

• At this stage, the PMO needs to ensure the involvement of the transition team to participate in the following activities – or the PMO will need to take on the transition planning and communication responsibilities itself.

Refer to the team structure examples from Activity 1.2.6 of this blueprint if you are still finalizing your transition team.

Download Info-Tech’s Transition Plan Template to help capture and record the outcomes of the activities in this step.

Create a high-level communications timeline

3.2.1 30 minutes

By now the project sponsor, project manager, and business analysts (or equivalent) should have defined project timelines, requirements, and other key details. Use these to start your communications planning process.

If your members of the transition team are also part of the core project team, meet with them to elicit the project timeline and requirements.

Info-Tech Insight

Communicate, communicate, communicate.

Staff are 34% more likely to adapt to change quickly during the implementation and adoption phases when they are provided with a timeline of impending changes specific to their department. (Source: McLean & Company)

Schedule time to climb out of the “Valley of Despair”

Many change initiatives fail when leaders give up at the first sign of resistance.

OCM experts use terms like “Valley of Despair” to describe temporary drops in support and morale that inevitably occur with any significant change. Don’t let these temporary drops derail your change efforts.

Anticipate setbacks and make sure the project plan accommodates the time and energy required to sustain and reinforce the initiative as people move through stages of resistance.

Based on Don Kelley and Daryl Conner’s Emotional Cycle of Change.

Identify critical points in the change curve:

1. Honeymoon of “Uninformed Optimism”: There is usually tentative support and even enthusiasm for change before people have really felt or understood what it involves.
2. Backlash of “Informed Pessimism” (leading to “Valley of Despair”): As change approaches or begins, people realize they’ve overestimated the benefits (or the speed at which benefits will be achieved) and underestimated the difficulty of change.
3. Valley of Despair and beginning of “Hopeful Realism”: Eventually, sentiment bottoms out and people begin to accept the difficulty (or inevitability) of change.
4. Bounce of “Informed Optimism”: People become more optimistic and supportive when they begin to see bright spots and early successes.
5. Contentment of “Completion”: Change has been successfully adopted and benefits are being realized.

Tailor a communications strategy for each stakeholder group

Leveraging the stakeholder analyses you’ve already performed in steps 2.2 and 3.1, customize your communications strategy for the individual stakeholder groups.

Think about where each of the groups falls within the Organizational Change Depth Scale (below) to determine the type of communications approach required. Don’t forget: the deeper the change, the tougher the job of managing change will be.

Base your communications approaches on our Organizational Change Depth Scale

Use the below “change chakras” as a quick guide for structuring your change messages.

Categorize stakeholder groups in terms of communications requirements

3.2.2 30 minutes

Use the table below to document where your various stakeholder groups fall within the depth scale.

The deeper the impact, the more complex the communication strategy

Interposal, vocational, and cultural changes each require more nuanced approaches when communicating with stakeholders.

Straightforward → Complex

When managing interpersonal, vocational, or cultural changes, you will be required to incorporate more inspirational messaging and gestures of empathy than you typically might in a business communication.

Communications that require an appeal to people’s emotions can be, of course, very powerful, but they are difficult to craft. As a result, oftentimes messages that are meant to inspire do the exact opposite, coming across as farfetched or meaningless platitudes, rather than evocative and actionable calls to change.

Refer to the tactics below for assistance when crafting more complex change communications that require an appeal to people’s emotions and imaginations.

• Tell a story. Describe a journey with a beginning (who we are and how we got here) and a destination (our goals and expected success in the future).
• Convey an intuitive sense of direction. This helps people act appropriately without being explicitly told what to do.
• Appeal to both emotion and reason. Make people want to be part of the change.
• Balance abstract ideas with concrete facts. Writers call this “moving up and down the ladder of abstraction.” Without concrete images and facts, the vision will be meaninglessly vague. Without abstract ideas and principles, the vision will lack power to unite people and inspire broad support.
• Be concise. Make your messages easy to communicate and remember in any situation.

"Instead of resisting any emotion, the best way to dispel it is to enter it fully, embrace it and see through your resistance."

– Deepak Chopra

Fine-tune change communications for each stakeholder or audience

3.2.3 60 to 90 minutes

Use Info-Tech’s “Message Canvas” (see next slide) to help rationalize and elaborate the change vision for each group.

Build upon the more high-level change story that you developed in step 1.1 by giving more specificity to the change for specific stakeholder groups.

Questions to address in your communication strategy include: How will the change benefit the organization and its people? How have we confirmed there is a need for change? What would happen if we didn’t change? How will the change leverage existing strengths – what will stay the same? How will we know when we get to the desired state?

Remember these guidelines to help your messages resonate:

• People are busy and easily distracted. Tell people what they really need to know first, before you lose their attention.
• Repetition is good. Remember the Aristotelian triptych: “Tell them what you’re going to tell them, then tell them, then tell them what you told them.”
• Don’t use technical terms, jargon, or acronyms. Different groups in organizations tend to develop specialized vocabularies. Everybody grows so accustomed to using acronyms and jargon every day that it becomes difficult to notice how strange it sounds to outsiders. This is especially important when IT communicates with non-technical audiences. Don’t alienate your audience by talking at them in a strange language.
• Test your message. Run focus groups or deliver communications to a test audience (which could be as simple as asking 2–3 people to read a draft) before delivering messages more broadly.

Info-Tech Insight

Change thy language, change thyself.

Jargon, acronyms, and technical terms represent deeply entrenched cultural habits and assumptions.

Continuing to use jargon or acronyms after a transition tends to drag people back to old ways of thinking and working.

You don’t need to invent a new batch of buzzwords for every change (nor should you), but every change is an opportunity to listen for words and phrases that have lost their meaning through overuse and abuse.

3.2.3 continued - Example “Message Canvas”

If there are multiple messages or impacts that need to be communicated to a single group or audience, you may need to do multiple Message Canvases per group. Refer back to your Stakeholder Engagement Workbook to help inform the stakeholder groups and messages that this activity should address.

Go to tab 6 of the Organizational Change Impact Analysis Toolfor multiple message canvas template boxes that you can use. These messages can then help inform your communication plan on tab 7 of that tool.

Determine methods for communications delivery

Review your options for communicating your change. This slide covers traditional methods of communication, while the following slides cover some options for multimedia mass-communications.

Review multimedia communication methods for reaching wider audiences in the organization

Document communication methods and build the Communications Delivery Plan

3.2.4 30 minutes

1. Determine when communications need to be delivered for each stakeholder group.
2. Select the most appropriate delivery methods for each group and for each message.

• Meetings and presentations
• Email/broadcast
• Intranet and other internal channels (e.g. internal social network)
• Open houses and workshops

This is a screenshot from the “Stakeholder/Audience” section of Info-Tech’s Transition Plan Template. Use the template to document your communication strategy for each audience and your delivery plan.

"The role of project communication is to inspire, instigate, inform or educate and ultimately lead to a desired action. Project communication is not a well presented collection of words; rather it is something that propels a series of actions."

– Sidharth Thakur

Info-Tech Insight

Repetition is crucial. People need to be exposed to a message 7 times before it sticks. Using a variety of delivery formats helps ensure people will notice and remember key messages. Mix things up to keep employees engaged and looking forward to the next update.

Define the feedback and evaluation process to ensure an agile response to resistance

3.2.5 46 to 60 minutes

1. Designate where/when on the roadmap the project team will proactively evaluate progress/success and elicit feedback in order to identify emerging challenges and opportunities.
2. Create checklists to review at key milestones to ensure plans are being executed. Review…

• Key project implementation milestones (i.e. confirm successful deployment/installation).
• Quick wins identified in the impact analysis and determined in the transition plan (see the following slides for advice in leveraging quick wins).

"While creating and administering a survey represent(s) additional time and cost to the project, there are a number of benefits to be considered: 1) Collecting this information forces regular and systematic review of the project as it is perceived by the impacted organizations, 2) As the survey is used from project to project it can be improved and reused, 3) The survey can quickly collect feedback from a large part of the organization, increasing the visibility of the project and reducing unanticipated or unwelcome reactions."

– Claire Schwartz

Use the survey and questionnaire templates on the following two slides for assistance in eliciting feedback. Record the evaluation and feedback gathering process in the Transition Plan Template.

Sample stakeholder questionnaire

Use email to distribute a questionnaire (such as the example below) to project stakeholders to elicit feedback.

In addition to receiving invaluable opinions from key stakeholders and the frontline workers, utilizing questionnaires will also help involve employees in the change, making them feel more engaged and part of the change process.

Sample survey template

Similar to a questionnaire, a survey is a great way to assess the lay of the land in terms of your org change efforts and the likelihood of adoption.

Using a free online survey tool like Survey Monkey, Typeform, or Google Forms, surveys are quick and easy to generate and deploy. Use the below example as a template to build from.

Use survey and questionnaire feedback as an occasion to revisit the Impact Analysis Tool and reassess the impacts and roadblocks based on hard feedback.

To what degree do you agree or disagree with each of the following statements?

1=Strongly Disagree, 2=Disagree, 3=Somewhat Disagree, 4=Somewhat Agree, 5=Agree, 6=Strongly Agree

1. I understand why [this change] is happening.
2. I agree with the decision to [implement this change].
3. I have the knowledge and tools needed to successfully go through [this change].
4. Leadership/management is fully committed to the change.
5. [This change] will be a success.

Rate the impact of this change.

1=Very Negative, 2=Negative, 3=Somewhat Negative, 4=Somewhat Positive, 5=Positive, 6=Very Positive

1. On you personally.
2. On your team/department/unit.
3. On the organization as a whole.
4. On people leading the change.

Develop plans to leverage support and deal with resistance, objections, and fatigue

Assess the “Faces of Change” to review the emotions provoked by the change in order to proactively manage resistors and engage supporters.

The slides that follow walk you through activities to assess the different “faces of change” around your OCM initiative and to perform an objections handling exercise.

Assessing people’s emotional responses to the change will enable the PMO and transition team to:

• Brainstorm possible questions, objections, suggestions, and concerns from each audience.
• Develop responses to questions, objections, and concerns.
• Revise the communications messaging and plan to include proactive objections handling.
• Re-position objections and suggestions as questions to plan for proactively communicating responses and objections to show people that you understand their point of view.
• Develop a plan with clearly defined responsibility for regularly updating and communicating the objections handling document. Active Subversion Quiet Resistance Vocal Skepticism Neutrality / Uncertainty Vocal Approval Quiet Support Active Leadership

Hard Work Vs. Tough Work

Carol Beatty’s distinction between “easy work,” “hard work,” and “tough work” can be revealing in terms of the high failure rate on many change initiatives. (“The Tough Work of Managing Change.” Queen’s University IRC. 2015.)

• Easy work includes administrative tasks like scheduling meetings and training sessions or delivering progress reports.
• Hard work includes more abstract efforts like estimating costs/benefit or defining requirements.
• Tough work involves managing people and emotions, i.e. providing leadership through setbacks, and managing resistance and conflict.

That is what makes organizational change “tough,” as opposed to merely hard. Managing change requires mental and emotional toughness to deal with uncertainty, ambiguity, and conflict.

Assess the full range of support and resistance to change

3.2.6 20 minutes

Categorize the feedback received from stakeholder groups or individual stakeholders across the “faces of change” spectrum.

Use the table below to document where different stakeholders and stakeholder groups fall within the spectrum.

Review strategies and tactics for engaging different responses

Use the below tactics across the “faces of change” spectrum to help inform the PMO’s responses to sources of objection and resistance and its tactics for leveraging support.

Don’t let speed bumps become roadblocks

Use the Objections Handling Template on the next slide to brainstorm specific objections and forms of resistance and to strategize about the more effective responses and mitigation strategies.

Copy these objections and responses into the designated section of the Transition Plan Template. Continue to revise objections and responses there if needed.

Objections Handling Template

3.2.7 45 to 60 minutes

Info-Tech Insight

There is insight in resistance. The individuals best positioned to provide insight and influence change positively are also best positioned to create resistance. These people should be engaged throughout the implementation process. Their insights will very likely identify risks, barriers, and opportunities that need to be addressed.

Make sure the action plan includes opportunities to highlight successes, quick wins, and bright spots

Highlighting quick wins or “bright spots” helps you go from communicating change to more persuasively demonstrating change.

Specifically, quick wins help:

• Demonstrate that change is possible.
• Prove that change produces positive results.
• Recognize and reward people’s efforts.

Take the time to assess and plan quick wins as early as possible in the planning process. You can revisit the impact assessment for assistance in identifying potential quick wins; more so, work with the project team and other stakeholders to help identify quick wins as they emerge throughout the planning and execution phases.

Make sure you highlight bright spots as part of the larger story and vision around change. The purpose is to continue to build or sustain momentum and morale through the transition.

"The quick win does not have to be profound or have a long-term impact on your organization, but needs to be something that many stakeholders agree is a good thing… You can often identify quick wins by simply asking stakeholders if they have any quick-win recommendations that could result in immediate benefits to the organization."

– John Parker

Tips for identifying quick wins (Source: John Parker, “How Business Analysts can Identify Quick Wins,” 2013):

• Brainstorm with your core team.
• Ask technical and business stakeholders for ideas.
• Observe daily work of users and listen to users for problems and opportunities; quick wins often come from the rank and file, not from the top.
• Review and analyze user support trouble tickets; this can be a wealth of information.
• Be open to all suggestions.

Info-Tech Insight

Stay positive. Our natural tendency is to look for what’s not working and try to fix it. While it’s important to address negatives, it’s equally important to highlight positives to keep people committed and motivated around change.

Document the outcomes of this step in the Transition Plan Template

3.2.8 45 minutes

Consolidate and refine communication plan requirements for each stakeholder and group affected by change.

Upon completion of the activities in this step, the PMO Director is responsible for ensuring that outcomes have been documented and recorded in the Transition Plan Template. Activities to be recorded include:

• Stakeholder Overview
• Communications Schedule Activity
• Communications Delivery
• Objections Handling
• The Feedback and Evaluation Process

Going forward, successful change will require that many responsibilities be delegated beyond the PMO and core transition team.

• Delegate responsibilities to HR, managers, and team members for:
  • Advocating the importance of change.
  • Communicating progress toward project milestones and goals.
  • Developing HR and training plan.
• Ensure sponsorship stays committed and active during and after the transition.
  • Leadership visibility throughout the execution and follow-up of the project is needed to remind people of the importance of change and the organization’s commitment to project success.

Download Info-Tech’s Transition Plan Template.

"Whenever you let up before the job is done, critical momentum can be lost and regression may follow." – John Kotter, Leading Change

Step 3.3: Establish HR and Training Plans

Phase 3 - 3.3

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Analyze HR requirements for involvement in training.
• Outline appropriate HR and training timelines.
• Develop training plan requirements across different stakeholder groups.
• Define training content.
• Assess skills required to support the change and review options for filling HR gaps.

This step involves the following participants:

• PMO Director
• Transition Team
• HR Personnel
• Project Sponsor

Outcomes of this step

• A training plan
• Assessment of skill required to support the change

Make sure skills, roles, and teams are ready for change

Ensure that the organization has the infrastructure in place and the right skills availability to support long-term adoption of the change.

The PMO’s OCM approach should leverage organizational design and development capabilities already in place.

Recommendations in this section are meant to help the PMO and transition team understand HR and training plan activities in the context of the overall transition process.

Where organizational design and development capabilities are low, the following steps will help you do just enough planning around HR, and training and development to enable the specific change.

In some cases the need for improved OCM will reveal the need for improved organizational design and development capabilities.

• Required Participants for this Step: PMO Leader; PMO staff; Project manager.
• Recommended Participants for this Step: Project Sponsor; HR personnel.

This section will walk you through the basic steps of developing HR, training, and development plans to support and enable the change.

For comprehensive guidance and tools on role, job, and team design, see Info-Tech’s Transform IT Through Strategic Organizational Design blueprint.

Info-Tech Insight

Don’t make training a hurdle to adoption. Training and other disruptions take time and energy away from work. Ineffective training takes credibility away from change leaders and seems to validate the efforts of saboteurs and skeptics. The PMO needs to ensure that training sessions are as focused and useful as possible.

Analyze HR requirements to ensure efficient use of HR and project stakeholder time

3.3.1 30-60 minutes

Refer back to Activity 3.2.4. Use the placement of each stakeholder group on the Organizational Change Depth Scale (below) to determine the type of HR and training approach required. Don’t impose training rigor where it isn’t required.

22%

In a recent survey of 276 large and midsize organizations, eighty-seven percent of survey respondents trained their managers to “manage change,” but only 22% felt the training was truly effective. (Towers Watson)

Outline appropriate HR and training timelines

3.3.2 15 minutes

Revisit the high-level project schedule from steps 1.2.4 and 3.4.1 to create a tentative timeline for HR and training activities.

Revise this timeline throughout the implementation process, and refine the timing and specifics of these activities as you move from the development to the deployment phase.

"The reason it’s going to hurt is you’re going from a state where you knew everything to one where you’re starting over again."

– BA, Natural Resources Company

Develop the training plan to ensure that the right goals are set, and that training is properly timed and communicated

3.3.3 60 minutes

Use the final tab in the Stakeholder Engagement Workbook, “7. Training Requirements,” to begin fleshing out a training plan for project stakeholders.

The table will automatically generate a list of stakeholders based on your stakeholder analysis.

If your stakeholder list has grown or changed since the stakeholder engagement exercise in step 3.1, update the “Stakeholder List” tab in the tool.

Estimate when training can begin, when training needs to be completed, and the total hours required.

Training too early and too late are both common mistakes. Training too late hurts morale and creates risks. Training too early is often wasted and creates the need for retraining as knowledge and skills are lost without immediate relevance to their work.

Brainstorm or identify potential opportunities to leverage for training (such as using existing resources and combining multiple training programs).

Review the Change Management Impact Analysis to assess skills and knowledge required for each group in order for the change to succeed.

Depending on the type of change being introduced, you may need to have more in-depth conversations with technical advisors, project management staff, and project sponsors concerning gaps and required content.

Define training content and make key logistical decisions concerning training delivery for staff and users

3.3.4 30-60 minutes

Ultimately, the training plan will have to be put into action, which will require that the key logistical decisions are made concerning content and training delivery.

1. Use the “Training Plan” section in Info-Tech’s Transition Plan Template to document details of your training plan: schedules, resources, rooms, and materials required, etc.
2. Designate who is responsible for developing the training content details. Responsibilities will include:
   • Developing content modules.
   • Determining the appropriate delivery model for each audience and content module (e.g. online course, classroom, outsourced, job shadowing, video tutorials, self-learning).
   • Finding and booking resources, locations, equipment, etc.

“95% of learning leaders from organizations that are very effective at implementing important change initiatives find best practices by partnering with a company or an individual with experience in the type of change, twice as often as ineffective organizations.”

Source: Implementing and Supporting Training for Important Change Initiatives.

Training content should be developed and delivered by people with training experience and expertise, working closely with subject matter experts. In the absence of such individuals, partnering with experienced trainers is a cost that should be considered.

Assess skills required to support the change that are currently absent or in short supply

3.3.5 15 to 30 minutes

The long-term success of the change is contingent on having the resources to maintain and support the tool, process, or business change being implemented. Otherwise, resourcing shortfalls could threaten the integrity of the new way of doing things post-change, threatening people’s trust and faith in the validity of the change as a whole.

Use the table below to assess and record skills requirements. Refer to the tactics on the next slide for assistance in filling gaps.

Review your options for filling HR gaps

Report HR and training plan status to the transition team

3.3.6 10 minutes (and ongoing thereafter)

Ensure that any changes or developments made to HR and training plans are captured in the Transition Plan Template where applicable.

1. Upon completion of the activities in this step, ensure that the “Training Plan” section of the template reflects outcomes and decisions made during the preceding activities.
2. Assign ongoing RACI roles for informing the transition team of HR and training plan changes; similarly define accountabilities for keeping the template itself up to date.

• Record these roles within the template itself under the “Roles & Responsibilities” section.

Info-Tech Insight

Try more ad hoc training methods to offset uncertain project timelines.

One of the top challenges organizations face around training is getting it timed right, given the changes to schedule and delays that occur on many projects.

One tactic is to take a more ad hoc approach to training, such as making IT staff available in centralized locations after implementation to address staff issues as they come up.

This will not only help eliminate the waste that can come from poorly timed and ineffective training sessions, but it will also help with employee morale, giving individuals a sense that they haven’t been left alone to navigate unfamiliar processes or technologies.

Adoption can be difficult for some, but the cause is often confusion and misunderstanding

CASE STUDY

Industry Manufacturing

Source Info-Tech Client

Challenge

• The strategy team responsible for the implementation of a new operation manual for the subsidiaries of a global firm was monitoring the progress of newly acquired firms as the implementation of the manual began.
• They noticed that one department in a distant location was not meeting the new targets or fulfilling the reporting requirements on staff progress.

Solution

• The strategy team representative for the subsidiary firm went to the manager leading the department that was slow to adopt the changes.
• When asked, the manager insisted that he did not have the time or resources to implement all of these changes while maintaining the operation of the department.
• With true business value in mind, the manager said, they chose to keep the plant running.

Results

• The representative from the strategy team was surprised to find that the manager was having such trouble fitting the changes into daily operations as the changes were the daily operations.
• The representative took the time to go through the new operation manual with the manager and explain that the changes replaced daily operations and were not additions to them.

"The cause of slow adoption is often not anger or denial, but a genuine lack of understanding and need for clarification. Avoid snap decisions about a lack of adoption until staff understand the details." – IT Manager

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

• To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
• Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
• Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

3.1.2 Undergo a stakeholder analysis to ensure positive stakeholder engagement

Move away from a command-and-control approach to change by working with the analyst to develop a strategy that engages stakeholders in the change, making them feel like they are a part of it.

3.2.3 Develop a stakeholder sentiment-sensitive communications strategy

Work with the analyst to fine-tune the stakeholder messaging across various stakeholder responses to change.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

3.2.5 Define a stakeholder feedback and evaluation process

Utilize analyst experience and perspective in order to develop strategy for effectively evaluating stakeholder feedback early enough that resistance and suggestions can be accommodated with the OCM strategy and project plan.

3.2.7 Develop a strategy to cut off resistance to change

Utilize analyst experience and perspective in order to develop an objections handling strategy to deal with resistance, objections, and fatigue.

3.3.4 Develop the training plan to ensure that the right goals are set, and that training is properly timed and communicated

Receive custom analyst insights on rightsizing training content and timing your training sessions effectively.

Phase 4

Establish a Post-Project Benefits Attainment Process

Phase 4 outline

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 4: Establish a Post-Project Benefits Attainment Process

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 1 to 2 weeks

Step 4.1: Determine accountabilities for benefits attainment

Discuss these issues with analyst:

• Accountability for tracking the business outcomes of the project post-completion is frequently opaque, with little or no allocated resourcing.
• As a result, projects may get completed, but their ROI to the organization is not tracked or understood.

Then complete these activities…

• Perform a post-implementation project review of the pilot OCM initiative.
• Assign post-project benefits tracking accountabilities.
• Implement a benefits tracking process and tool.

With these tools & templates:

• Portfolio Benefits Tracking Tool
• Activity 4.1.2: “Assign ownership for realizing benefits after the project is closed”
• Activity 4.1.3: “Define a post-project benefits tracking process”

Step 4.1: Determine accountabilities for benefits attainment

Phase 4 - 4.1

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Conduct a post-implementation review of pilot OCM project.
• Assign ownership for realizing benefits after the project is closed.
• Define a post-project benefits tracking process.
• Implement a tool to help monitor and track benefits over the long term.

This step involves the following participants:

• PMO Director
• Project Sponsor
• Project managers
• Business analyst
• Additional IT/PMO staff

Outcomes of this step

• Appropriate assignment of accountabilities for tracking benefits after the project has closed
• A process for tracking benefits over the long-run
• A benefits tracking tool

Project benefits result from change

A PMO that facilitates change is one that helps drive benefits attainment long after the project team has moved onto the next initiative.

Organizations rarely close the loop on project benefits once a project has been completed.

• The primary cause of this is accountability for tracking business outcomes post-project is almost always poorly defined, with little or no allocated resourcing.
• Even organizations that define benefits well often neglect to manage them once the project is underway. If benefits realization is not monitored, the organization will miss opportunities to close the gap on lagging benefits and deliver expected project value.
• It is commonly understood that the project manager and sponsor will need to work together to shift focus to benefits as the project progresses, but this rarely happens as effectively as it should.

With all this in mind, in this step we will round out our PMO-driven org change process by defining how the PMO can help to better facilitate the benefits realization process.

This section will walk you through the basic steps of developing a benefits attainment process through the PMO.

For comprehensive guidance and tools, see Info-Tech’s Establish the Benefits Realization Process.

Info-Tech Insight

Two of a kind. OCM, like benefits realization, is often treated as “nice to have” rather than “must do.” These two processes are both critical to real project success; define benefits properly during intake and let OCM take the reigns after the project kicks off.

The benefits realization process spans the project lifecycle

Benefits realization ensures that the benefits defined in the business case are used to define a project’s expected value, and to facilitate the delivery of this value after the project is closed. The process begins when benefits are first defined in the business case, continues as benefits are managed through project execution, and ends when the loop is closed and the benefits are actually realized after the project is closed.

*For the purposes of this step, we will limit our focus to the PMO’s responsibilities for benefits attainment at project close-out and in the project’s aftermath to ensure that responsibilities for tracking business outcomes post-project have been properly defined and resourced.

Ultimate project success hinges on a fellowship of the benefits

At project close-out, stewardship of the benefits tracking process should pass from the project team to the project sponsor.

As the project closes, responsibility for benefits tracking passes from the project team to the project sponsor. In many cases, the PMO will need to function as an intermediary here, soliciting the sponsor’s involvement when the time comes.

The project manager and team will likely move onto another project and the sponsor (in concert with the PMO) will be responsible for measuring and reporting benefits realization.

As benefits realization is measured, results should be collated by the PMO to validate results and help flag lagging benefits.

The activities that follow in this step will help define this process.

The PMO should ensure the participation of the project sponsor, the project manager, and any applicable members of the business side and the project team for this step.

Ideally, the CIO and steering committee members should be involved as well. At the very least, they should be informed of the decisions made as soon as possible.

Initiation-Planning-Execution-Monitoring & Controlling-Closing

Conduct post-implementation review for your pilot OCM project

4.1.1 60 minutes

The post-project phase is the most challenging because the project team and sponsor will likely be busy with other projects and work.

Conducting a post-implementation review for every project will force sponsors and other stakeholders to assess actual benefits realization and identify lagging benefits.

If the project is not achieving its benefits, a remediation plan should be created to attempt to capture these benefits as soon as possible.

Assign ownership for realizing benefits after the project is closed

4.1.2 45 to 60 minutes

The realization stage is the most difficult to execute and oversee. The project team will have moved on, and unless someone takes accountability for measuring benefits, progress will not be measured. Use the sample RACI table below to help define roles and responsibilities for post-project benefits attainment.

Info-Tech Insight

A business accountability: Ultimately, the sponsor must help close this loop on benefits realization. The PMO can provide tracking tools and gather and report on results, but the sponsor must hold stakeholders accountable for actually measuring the success of projects.

Define a post-project benefits tracking process

4.1.3 45 minutes

While project sponsors should be accountable for measuring actual benefits realization after the project is closed, the PMO can provide monitoring tools and it should collect measurements and compare results across the portfolio.

Steps in a benefits tracking process.

1. Collate the benefits of all the projects in your portfolio. Document each project’s benefits, with the metrics, targets, and realization timelines of each project in a central location.
2. Collect and document metric measurements. The benefit owner is responsible for tracking actual realization and reporting it to the individual(s) tracking portfolio results.
3. Create a timeline and milestones for benefits tracking. Establish a high-level timeline for assessing benefits, and put reminders in calendars accordingly, to ensure that commitments do not fall off stakeholders’ radars.
4. Flag lagging benefits for further investigation. Perform root cause analysis to then find out why a benefit is behind schedule, and what can be done to address the problem.

"Checking the results of a decision against its expectations shows executives what their strengths are, where they need to improve, and where they lack knowledge or information."
– Peter Drucker

Implement a tool to help monitor and track benefits over the long term

4.1.4 Times will vary depending on organizational specifics of the inputs

Download Info-Tech’s Portfolio Benefits Tracking Tool to help solidify the process from the previous step.

1. Document each project’s benefits, with the metrics, targets, and realization timelines. Tab 1 of the tool is a data entry sheet to capture key portfolio benefit forecasts throughout the project.
2. Collect and document metric measurements. Tab 2 is where the PMO, with data from the project sponsors, can track actuals month after month post-implementation.
3. Flag lagging benefits for further investigation. Tab 3 provides a dashboard that makes it easy to flag lagging benefits. The dashboard produces a variety of meaningful benefit reports including a status indication for each project’s benefits and an assessment of business unit performance.

Continue to increase accountability for benefits and encourage process participation

Simply publishing a set of best practices will not have an impact unless accountability is consistently enforced. Increasing accountability should not be complicated. Focus on publicly recognizing benefit success. As the process matures, you should be able to use benefits as a more frequent input to your budgeting process.

• Create an internal challenge. Publish the dashboard from the Portfolio Benefits Tracking Tool and highlight the top 5 or 10 projects that are on track to achieve benefits. Recognize the sponsors and project team members. Recognizing individuals for benefits success will get people excited and encourage an increased focus on benefits.
• With executive level involvement, the PMO could help institute a bonus structure based on benefits realization. For instance, project teams could be rewarded with bonuses for achieving benefits. Decide upon a set post-project timeline for determining this bonus. For example, 6 months after every project goes live, measure benefits realization. If the project has realized benefits, or is on track to realize benefits, the PM should be given a bonus to split with the team.
• Include level of benefits realization in the performance reviews of project team members.
• As the process matures, start decreasing budgets according to the monetary benefits documented in the business case (if you are not already doing so). If benefits are being used as inputs to the budgeting process, sponsors will need to ensure that they are defined properly.

Info-Tech Insight

Don’t forget OCM best practices throughout the benefits tracking process. If benefits are lagging, the PMO should revisit phase 3 of this blueprint to consider how challenges to adoption are negatively impacting benefits attainment.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

• To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
• Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
• Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

4.1.2 Assign appropriate ownership and ensure adequate resourcing for realizing benefits after the project is closed

Get custom insights into how the benefits tracking process should be carried out post-project at your organization to ensure that intended project outcomes are effectively monitored and, in the long run, achieved.

4.1.4 Implement a benefits tracking tool

Let our analysts customize a home-grown benefits tracking tool for your organization to ensure that the PMO and project sponsors are able to easily track benefits over time and effectively pivot on lagging benefits.

Phase 5

Solidify the PMO’s Role as Change Leader

Phase 5 outline

Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.

Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.

Guided Implementation 5: Solidify the PMO’s role as change leader

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 1 to 2 weeks

Step 5.1: Institute an organizational change management playbook

Discuss these issues with an analyst:

• With the pilot OCM initiative complete, the PMO will need to roll out an OCM program to accommodate all of the organization’s projects.
• The PMO will need to facilitate organization-wide OCM accountabilities – whether it’s the PMO stepping into the role of OCM leader, or other appropriate accountabilities being assigned.

Then complete these activities…

• Review the success of the pilot OCM initiative.
• Define organizational roles and responsibilities for change management.
• Formalize the Organizational Change Management Playbook.

With these tools & templates:

• Organizational Change Management Playbook
• Activity 5.1.1: “Review lessons learned to improve organizational change management as a core discipline of the PMO”
• Activity 5.1.3: “Define ongoing organizational roles and responsibilities for change management”

Step 5.1: Institute an organizational change management playbook

Phase 5 - 5.1

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Review lessons learned to improve OCM as a core discipline of the PMO.
• Monitor organizational capacity for change.
• Define organizational roles and responsibilities for change management.
• Formalize the Organizational Change Management Playbook.
• Assess the value and success of the PMO’s OCM efforts.

This step involves the following participants:

• Required: PMO Director; PMO staff
• Strongly recommended: CIO and other members of the executive layer

Outcomes of this step

• A well-defined organizational mandate for change management, whether through the PMO or another appropriate stakeholder group
• Definition of organizational roles and responsibilities for change management
• An OCM playbook
• A process and tool for ongoing assessment of the value of the PMO’s OCM activities

Who, in the end, is accountable for org change success?

We return to a question that we started with in the Executive Brief of this blueprint: who is accountable for organizational change?

If nobody has explicit accountability for organizational change on each project, the Officers of the corporation retained it. Find out who is assumed to have this accountability.

Info-Tech Insight

Will the sponsor please stand up?

Project sponsors should be accountable for the results of project changes. Otherwise, people might assume it’s the PMO or project team.

Keep your approach to change management dynamic while building around the core discipline

The PMO will need to establish an OCM playbook that can scale to a wide variety of projects. Avoid rigidity of processes and keep things dynamic as you build up your OCM muscles as an organization.

Continually Develop

Change Management Capabilities

Progressively build a stable set of core capabilities.

The basic science of human behavior underlying change management is unlikely to change. Effective engagement, communication, and management of uncertainty are valuable capabilities regardless of context and project specifics.

Regularly Update

Organizational Context

Regularly update recurring activities and artifacts.

The organization and the environment in which it exists will constantly evolve. Reusing or recycling key artifacts will save time and improve collaboration (by leveraging shared knowledge), but you should plan to update them on at least a quarterly or annual basis.

Respond To

Future Project Requirements

Approach every project as unique.

One project might involve more technology risk while another might require more careful communications. Make sure you divide your time and effort appropriately for each particular project to make the most out of your change management playbook.

Info-Tech Insight

Continuous Change. Continuous Improvement. Change is an ongoing process. Your approach to managing change should be continually refined to keep up with changes in technology, corporate strategy, and people involved.

Review lessons learned to improve organizational change management as a core discipline of the PMO

5.1.1 60 minutes

1. With your pilot OCM initiative in mind, retrospectively brainstorm lessons learned using the template below. Info-Tech recommends doing this with the transition team. Have people spend 10-15 minutes brainstorming individually or in 2- to 3-person groups, then spend 15-30 minutes presenting and discussing findings collectively.

2. Develop recommendations based on the brainstorming and analysis above.

Monitor organizational capacity for change

5.1.2 20 minutes (to be repeated quarterly or biannually thereafter)

Perform the Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment in the wake of the OCM pilot initiative and lessons learned exercise to assess capabilities’ improvements.

As your OCM processes start to scale out over a range of projects across the organization, revisit the assessment on a quarterly or bi-annual basis to help focus your improvement efforts across the 7 change management categories that drive the survey.

• Cultural Readiness
• Leadership & Sponsorship
• Organizational Knowledge
• Change Management Skills
• Toolkit & Templates
• Process Discipline
• KPIs & Metrics

Info-Tech Insight

Continual OCM improvement is a collaborative effort.

The most powerful way to drive continual improvement of your organizational change management practices is to continually share progress, wins, challenges, feedback, and other OCM related concerns with stakeholders. At the end of the day, the PMO’s efforts to become a change leader will all come down to stakeholder perceptions based upon employee morale and benefits realized.

Define ongoing organizational roles and responsibilities for change management

5.1.3 60 minutes

1. Decide whether to designate/create permanent roles for managing change.

• Recommended if the PMO is engaged in at least one project at any given time that generates organizational change.

• Make sure any permanent roles are embedded in the organization (e.g. within the PMO, rather than trying to establish a one-person “Change Management Office”) and have leadership support.

Info-Tech Insight

Avoid creating unnecessary fiefdoms.

Make sure any permanent roles are embedded in the organization (e.g. within the PMO) and have leadership support.

Copy the RACI table from Activity 3.1.1. and repurpose it to help define the roles and responsibilities.

Include this RACI when you formalize your OCM Playbook.

Formalize and communicate the Organizational Change Management Playbook

5.1.4 45 to 60 minutes

1. Formalize the playbook’s scope:
   1. Determine the size and type of projects for which organizational change management is recommended.
   2. Make sure you clearly differentiate organizational change management and enablement from technical change management (i.e. release management and acceptance).
2. Refine and formalize tools and templates:
   1. Determine how you want to customize the structure of Info-Tech’s blueprint and templates, tailored to your organization in the future.
      1. For example:
         1. Establish a standard framework for analyzing context around organizational change.
   2. Add branding/design elements to the templates to improve their credibility and impact as internal documents.
   3. Determine where/how templates and other resources are to be found and make sure they will be readily available to anyone who needs them (e.g. project managers).
3. Communicate the playbook to the project management team.

Download Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Management Playbook.

Regularly reassess the value and success of your practices relative to OCM effort and project outcomes

5.1.5 20 minutes per project

Use the Value tab in the Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment to monitor the value and success of OCM.

Measure past performance and create a baseline for future success:

• % of expected business benefits realized on previous 3–5 significant projects/programs.
  • Track business benefits (costs reduced, productivity increased, etc.).
• Costs avoided/reduced (extensions, cancellations, delays, roll-backs, etc.)
  • Establish baseline by estimating average costs of projects extended to deal with change-related issues.

If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop

Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:

• To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
• Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
• Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:

5.1.3 Define ongoing organizational roles and responsibilities for change management

As you scale out an OCM program for all of the organization’s projects based on your pilot initiative, work with the analyst to investigate and define the right accountabilities for ongoing, long-term OCM.

5.1.4 Develop an Organizational Change Management Playbook

Formalize a programmatic process for organizational change management in Info-Tech’s playbook template.

Related research

Develop a Project Portfolio Management Strategy

Grow Your Own PPM Solution

Optimize Project Intake, Approval, and Prioritization

Develop a Resource Management Strategy for the New Reality

Manage a Minimum-Viable PMO

Establish the Benefits Realization Process

Manage an Agile Portfolio

Project Portfolio Management Diagnostic Program: The Project Portfolio Management Diagnostic Program is a low effort, high impact program designed to help project owners assess and improve their PPM practices. Gather and report on all aspects of your PPM environment in order to understand where you stand and how you can improve.

Bibliography

Basu, Chirantan. “Top Organizational Change Risks.” Chiron. Web. June 14, 2016.

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