Demystify the New PMBOK Guide and the PMI Certifications

The PMP certification is still valuable and worth your time in 2023.

Analyst Perspective

The PMP (Project Management Professional) certification is still worth your time.

I often get asked, “Is the PMP worth it?” I then proceed with a question of my own: “If it gets you an interview or a foot in the door or bolsters your salary, would it be worth it?” Typically, the answer is a resounding “YES!”

CIO magazine ranked the PMP as the top project management certification in North America because it demonstrates that you have the specific skills employers seek, dedication to excellence, and the capacity to perform at the highest levels.

Given its popularity and the demand in the marketplace, I strongly believe it is still worth your time and investment. The PMP is a globally recognized certification that has dominated for decades. It is hard to overlook the fact that the Project Management Institute (PMI) has more than 1.2 million PMP certification holders worldwide and is still considered the gold standard for project management.

Yes, it’s worth it. It gets you interviews, a foot in the door, and bolsters your salary. Oh, and it makes you a more complete project manager.

Long Dam, PMP, PMI-ACP, PgMP, PfMP

Executive Summary

Info-Tech Insight

The PMP certification is still valuable and worthy of your time in 2023.

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks are used throughout all four options.

The PMP dominated the market for decades and got over 1 million people certified

Info-Tech Insight

The PMI’s flagship PMP certification numbers have not significantly increased from 2021 to 2022. However, PMP substantially outpaces all competitors with over 1.2 million certified PMPs.

Source: projectmanagement.com

The PMP penetrated over 200 countries

PMP is the global project management gold standard.

• CIO magazine ranked the PMP as the top project management certification because it demonstrates you have the specific skills employers seek, dedication to excellence, and the capacity to perform at the highest levels.
• It delivers real value in the form of professional credibility, deep knowledge, and increased earning potential. Those benefits have staying power.
• The PMP now includes predictive, Agile, and hybrid approaches.
• The PMP demonstrates expertise across the wide array of planning and work management styles.

Source: PMI, “PMP Certification.” PMI, “Why You Should Get the PMP.”

The PMP was valuable in the past specifically because it was the standard

79% of project managers surveyed have the PMP certification out of 30,000 respondents in 40 countries.

The PMP became table stakes for jobs in project management and PMO’s.

Source: PMI’s Earning Power: Project Management Salary Survey—Twelfth Edition (2021)

The PMP put itself on a collision course with Agile

• The Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) was introduced in 2012 which initially clashed with the PMP for project management supremacy from the PMI.
• Then the Disciplined Agile (DA) was introduced in 2019, which further compounded the issue and caused even more confusion with both the PMP and the PMI-ACP certification.
• Instead of complementing the PMP, these certifications began to inadvertently compete with it head-to-head.

There is a new PMBOK Guide Seventh Edition in town

The PMI made its most significant changes between 2017 and 2021.

Timeline adapted from Wikipedia, “Project Management Body of Knowledge.”

Roughly every 3-5 years, the PMI has released a new PMBOK version. It’s unclear if there will be an eighth edition.

The market got confused by PMBOK Guide – Seventh Edition

• Die-hard traditional project managers have a hard time grasping why the PMI messed around with the PMBOK Guide. There is sentiment that the PMBOK Guide V7 got diluted.
• Naysayers do not think that the PMBOK Guide V7 hit the mark and found it to be a concession to Agilists.
• The PMBOK Guide V7 was significantly trimmed down by almost two-thirds to 274 pages whereas the PMBOK V6 ballooned to 756 pages!
• Some Agile practitioners found this to be a refreshing, bold move from the PMI. Most, however, ignored or resisted it.

PMBOK Guide – Seventh edition released in 2021

• The PMBOK Guide – Seventh Edition was released in late 2021. It was the most radical change since 1987. For the first time, the PMI went from a process-based standard to a principles-based standard, and the guide went from knowledge areas to project performance domains. This may have diluted the traditional predictive project management practices. However, it was offset by incorporating more iterative, Agile, and hybrid approaches.
• The market is confused and is clearly shifting toward Agile and away from the rigor that is typically associated with the PMI.
• The PMI transitioned most of the process-based standards & ITTO to their new digital PMIStandards+ online platform, which can be found here (access for PMI members only).
• The PMBOK Guide is not the sole basis of the certification exam; however, it can be used as one of several reference resources. Using the exam content outline (ECO) is the way forward, which can be found here.

The Agile certification seems to be the focus for the PMI in the coming years

• The PMI started to get into the Agile game with the introduction of Agile certifications, which is where all the confusion started. Although the PMI-ACP & the DASM have seen a steady uptake recently, it appears to be at the expense of the PMP certification.
• The PMI acquired the Discipline Agile (DA) in late 2019, which expanded their offerings and capabilities for project managers and teams to choose their “way of working.”
• This was an important milestone for the PMI to address the new way of working for Agile practitioners with this offering to provide more options and to better support enterprise agility.

Source: projectmanagement.com as of July 2022

The PMI has lost more certified PMPs than they have gained so far in 2022

PMP – Project Management Professional

It is a concerning trend that their bread and butter, the PMP flagship certification, has largely stalled in 2022. We are unsure if this was attributed to them being displaced by competitors such as the Agile Alliance, their own Agile offerings, or the market’s lackluster reaction to PMBOK Guide – Seventh Edition.

Source: projectmanagement.com as of July 2022

The PMI’s total memberships have stalled since September 2021

The PMI’s membership appears to have a direct correlation to the PMP numbers. As the PMP number stalls, so do the PMI’s memberships.

Source: projectmanagement.com as of July 2022

The PMP and the PMBOK Guide are more focused on project management

• It became evident that other certifications were more tightly aligned to program and portfolio management for the PMOs. The PMI provides the following:
  • Program Management Professional (PgMP)
  • Portfolio Management Professional (PfMP)
• Axelos also has certifications for program management and portfolio management, such as:
  • Managing Successful Programmes (MSP)
  • Management of Portfolios (MoP)
  • Portfolio, Programme, and Project Offices (P3O)

The market didn’t know what to do with the PgMP or the PfMP

These were relatively unknown certifications for Program and Portfolio Management.

• The PMI’s story was that you would start as a project manager with the PMP certification and then the natural progression would be toward either Program Management (PgMP) or Portfolio Management (PfMP).
• The uptake for the PgMP and the PfMP certification has been insignificant and underwhelming. The appetite and the demand for PMO-aligned certifications has been lackluster since their inception.

Source: projectmanagement.com as of July 2022

There are other non-PMI certifications to consider

Depending on your experience level

Other non-PMI project management certifications

PRINCE2 and CSM appear to be the more popular ones in the market.

In April 2022, CIO.com outlined other popular project management certifications outside of the PMI.

Source: CIO.com

Project managers have an image problem among senior leaders

There is a perception that PMs are just box-checkers and note-takers.

• Project managers are seen as tactical troubleshooters rather than strategic partners. This suggests a widespread lack of understanding of the value and impact of project management at the C-suite level.
• Very few C-suite executives associate project managers with "realizing visions," being "essential," or being "changemakers."
• Strong strategic alignment between the PMO and the C-suite helps to reinforce the value of project management capabilities in achieving wider strategic aims.

Source: PMI, Narrowing The Talent Gap, 2021

Hiring practices have yet to change in response to the PMI’s moves

The PMP is still the standard, even for organizations transitioning to Agile and PMO/portfolio jobs.

• Savvy business leaders are still unsure about how Agile will impact them in the long term.
• According to the Narrowing the Talent Gap report, PMI and PwC’s latest global research indicates that talent strategies haven’t changed much. There’s a widespread lack of focus on developing and retaining existing project managers, and a lack of variety and innovation in attracting and recruiting new talent. The core problem is that there isn’t a business case for investment in talent.

Noteworthy Agile certifications to consider

Source: PMI, “Agile Certifications,” and ScrumAlliance, “Become a Certified ScrumMaster.”

Info-Tech Insight

There is a lot of chatter about which Agile certification is better, and the jury is still out with no consensus. There are pros and cons to both certifications. We believe the PMI-ACP will give you more mileage and flexibility because of its breath of coverage in the Agile practice compared to the CSM.

The talent shortage is a considerable risk to organizations

• According to the PMI’s 2021 Talent Gap report1, the talent gap is likely to impact every region. By 2030, at least 13 million project managers are expected to have retired, creating additional challenges for recruitment. To close the gap, 25 million new project professionals are needed by 2030.
• Young project managers will change the profession. Millennials and Generation Z are bringing fresh perspectives to projects. Learning to work alongside these younger generations isn't optional, as they increasingly dominate the labor force and extend their influence.
• Millennials have already arrived: According to Pew Research2, this group surpassed Gen X in 2016 and is now the largest generation in the US labor force.

1. PMI, Talent Gap, 2021.
2. PM Network, 2019.

Money talks – the PMP is still your best payoff

It is a financially rewarding profession!

The median salary for PMP holders in the US is 25% higher than those without PMP certification.

On a global level, the Project Management Professional (PMP) certification has been shown to bolster salary levels. Holders of the PMP certification report higher median salaries than those without a PMP certification – 16% higher on average across the 40 countries surveyed.

Source: PMI, Earning Power, 2021

Determine which skills and capabilities are needed in the coming years

• A scan of 2022 PM and PMO postings still shows continued dominance of the PMP certification requirement.
• People and relationships have become more important than predicting budgets and timelines.
• The PMI and PwC Global Survey on Transformation and Project Management 2021 identified the top five skills/capabilities for project managers (in order of priority):
  1. Relationship building
  2. Collaborative leadership
  3. Strategic thinking
  4. Creative problem solving
  5. Commercial awareness

Source: PMI, Narrowing The Talent Gap, 2021.

Prepare for product delivery by focusing on top digital-age skills

According to the PMI Megatrends 2022 report, they have identified six areas as the top digital-age skills for product delivery:

1. Innovative mindset
2. Legal and regulatory compliance knowledge
3. Security and privacy knowledge
4. Data science skills
5. Ability to make data-driven decisions
6. Collaborative leadership skills

Many organizations aren’t considering candidates who don’t have project-related qualifications. Indeed, many more are increasing the requirements for their qualifications than those who are reducing it.

Source: PMI, Narrowing The Talent Gap, 2021

Prioritize training and development at the C-suite level

Currently, there is an imbalance with more emphasis of training on tools, processes, techniques, and methodologies rather than business acumen skills, collaboration, and management skills. With the explosion of remote work, training needs to be revamped and, in some cases, redesigned altogether to accommodate remote employees.

Lack of strategic prioritization is evident in how training and development is being done, with organizations largely not embracing a diversity of learning preferences and opportunities.

Source: PMI, Narrowing The Talent Gap, 2021

PM is evolving into a more strategic role

• Ensure program and portfolio management roles are supported by the most appropriate certifications.
• For project managers that have evolved beyond the iron triangle of managing projects, there is applicability to the PgMP and the PfMP for program managers, portfolio managers, and those in charge of PMOs.
• Although these certifications have not been widely adopted due to lack of awareness and engagement at the decision-maker level, they still hold merit and prestige within the project management community.

Project managers are evolving. No longer creatures of scope, schedule, and budget alone, they are now – enabled by new technology – focusing on influencing outcomes, building relationships, and achieving the strategic goals of their organizations.

Source: PMI, Narrowing the Talent Gap, 2021

Overhaul your recruitment practices to align with skills/capabilities

Talent managers will need to retool their toolbox to fill the capability gap and to look beyond where the role is geographically based by embracing flexible staffing models.

They will need to evolve their talent strategies in line with changing business priorities.

Organizations should be actively working to increase the diversity of candidates and upskilling young people in underrepresented communities as a priority.

Most organizations are still relying on traditional approaches to recruit talent. Although we are prioritizing power skills and business acumen, we are still searching in the same, shrinking pool of talent.

Source: PMI, Narrowing the Talent Gap, 2021.

Bibliography

“Agile Certifications for Every Step in Your Career.” PMI. Web.

“Become a Certified ScrumMaster and Help Your Team Thrive.” ScrumAlliance. Web.

“Become a Project Manager.” PMI. Accessed 14 Sept. 2022.

Bucero, A. “The Next Evolution: Young Project Managers Will Change the Profession: Here's What Organizations Need to Know.” PM Network, 2019, 33(6), 26–27.

“Certification Framework.” PMI. Accessed 14 Sept. 2022.

“Certifications.” PMI. Accessed 14 Sept. 2022.

DePrisco, Mike. Global Megatrends 2022. “Foreword.” PMI, 2022. Accessed 14 Sept. 2022.

Earning Power: Project Management Salary Survey. 12th ed. PMI, 2021. Accessed 14 Sept. 2022.

“Global Research From PMI and PwC Reveals Attributes and Strategies of the World’s Leading Project Management Offices.” PMI, 1 Mar. 2022. Press Release. Accessed 14 Sept. 2022.

Narrowing the Talent Gap. PMI, 2021. Accessed 14 Sept. 2022.

“PMP Certification.” PMI. Accessed 4 Aug. 2022.

“Project Management Body of Knowledge.” Wikipedia, Wikimedia Foundation, 29 Aug. 2022.

“Project Portfolio Management Pulse Survey 2021.” PwC. Accessed 30 Aug. 2022.

Talent Gap: Ten-Year Employment Trends, Costs, and Global Implications. PMI. Accessed 14 Sept. 2022.

“The Critical Path.” ProjectManagement.com. Accessed 14 Sept. 2022.

“True Business Agility Starts Here.” PMI. Accessed 14 Sept. 2022.

White, Sarah K. and Sharon Florentine. “Top 15 Project Management Certifications.” CIO.com, 22 Apr. 2022. Web.

“Why You Should Get the PMP.” PMI. Accessed 14 Sept. 2022.

Diagnose Brand Health to Improve Business Growth

Have a significant and well-targeted impact on business success and growth by knowing how your brand performs, identifying areas of improvement, and making data-driven decisions to fix it.

EXECUTIVE BRIEF

SoftwareReviews is a division of Info-Tech Research Group Inc., a world-class IT research and consulting firm established in 1997.
Backed by two decades of IT research and advisory experience, SoftwareReviews offers the most comprehensive insight into the enterprise software landscape and client-vendor relationships.

Analyst Perspective

Brand Diagnostic and Monitoring

In the ever-changing market landscape in which businesses operate, it is imperative to ensure that the brand stays top of mind and quickly adapts. Having a good understanding of where the brand stands and how it performs has become crucial for any company to stand out from its competitors and succeed in a crowded and very dynamic market.

Unfortunately, the brand does not always receive the attention and importance it deserves, leaving it vulnerable to becoming outdated and unclear to the target audience and to losing its equity.

Knowing how the brand is perceived, as opposed to how individuals within an organization perceive it, addressing any brand-related issues in a timely manner, and implementing processes to continuously monitor its performance have become key tactics for any company that wants to thrive in today's highly competitive market.

Nathalie Vezina Marketing Research Director SoftwareReviews Advisory

Executive Summary

SoftwareReviews Advisory Insight

The brand is a company’s most valuable asset that should never fall into disrepair. In fact, business leaders should ensure that at least half of their marketing budget is allocated to brand-building efforts.

What is a brand?

The brand – both intangible and the most valuable asset for businesses.

Despite its intangible nature, the brand is at the heart of every business, small and large, around which rotates what drives business success and growth. While measuring its real value on the marketplace can be difficult, a brand with high salience will attract and retain customers for as long as it keeps evolving and adapting to its dynamic environment. Up to 90% of the total market value of companies is based on intangible assets, such as brand recognition. (Source: Ocean Tomo, 2020)

Investing in building a brand, a top priority for businesses

Symptoms of a weakened brand

Know if your brand is suffering and needs to be fixed.

Building a strong brand, an everyday challenge

Brand leaders are often faced with overwhelming obstacles in building a strong brand.

Limited visibility on brand perception and overall performance	Insufficient information to make clear, undisputable data-driven decisions and convince key stakeholders how to improve brand performance
Misunderstanding of the benefits of a strong brand and negative impacts of a weak brand on business valuation and growth	Limited resources (time, budget, headcount, tools) to diagnose, measure, and execute

Making brand performance visible

Implement data-driven strategies and make fact-based decisions to continuously optimize brand performance.

Diagnose your brand’s health Know how your brand is being perceived and have visibility on its performance.		Identify trends and areas of improvement Rely on undisputable and reliable data to make clear decisions and educate and communicate with key stakeholders.
Keep monitoring your brand’s performance Stay on top of the game and keep away competitors by continuously monitoring your brand’s health.		Fix issues with your brand in a timely manner Don’t lose the momentum. Achieve better results and have a greater impact on your success and chances to grow.

Qualitative and quantitative brand performance measures

Segmented by SoftwareReviews Advisory into three categories for a comprehensive diagnostic.

Brand Equity Awareness Perception Positioning Recognition/recall Trust	Buyer’s Behavior Interaction with the brand Preference Purchase intent Product reviews Social engagement Website traffic Lead generation	Financial Revenue Profit margin Customer lifetime value (CLV) Customer acquisition cost (CAC) Intangible asset market value (IAMV)

Benefits of a strong and healthy brand

A healthy brand is the foundation of your success.

Who benefits from diagnosing the brand?

SoftwareReviews’ Brand Diagnostic Methodology

Insight summary

The Brand: Intangible, yet a company’s most valuable asset

Intangible assets, such as brand recognition, account for almost all of a company’s value.1 Despite its intangible nature, the brand is at the heart of every business and has a direct impact on business growth, profitability, and revenue. While measuring its real value on the marketplace can be difficult, a brand with high traction will attract customers and keep them for as long as it keeps evolving and adapting to its dynamic environment.

Making brand issues visible

Having a clear understanding of how the brand performs has become crucial for any company that wants to stand out from its competitors and succeed in a crowded and highly dynamic marketplace.

Data-driven decisions for a strong brand

Intuition-based or uninformed decisions are obsolete. Brand leaders must base their decisions on facts to be able to convince key stakeholders.

Building a strong brand, an everyday challenge

Brand leaders often face overwhelming obstacles building strong brands. They need guidance and tools to support them to drive the business forward.

Get team buy-in and alignment

Brand leaders must ensure that the key stakeholders are aware of the importance of a strong brand to business growth and value increase and that they are aligned and committed to the efforts required to build a successful brand.

Investing in brand-building efforts means investing in your success

Successful business leaders allocate at least half of their marketing budget2 to brand-building efforts, enabling them to set themselves apart, significantly increase their market share, grow their business, and thrive in a highly competitive marketplace.

Guided Implementation

A Guided Implementation (GI) is a series of calls with a SoftwareReviews Marketing Analyst to help implement our best practices in your organization.

Your engagement managers will work with you to schedule analyst calls.

What does a typical GI on this topic look like?

Bibliography

“71% of Consumers More Likely to Buy a Product or Service From a Name They Recognise.” Global Banking & Finance Review, 5 December 2018. Web.

B2B Marketing Leaders Report. Circle Research, n.d. Web.

Binet, Les, and Peter Field. Effectiveness In Context: A manual for Brand Building. Institute of Practitioners in Advertising, 12 October 2018. Ebook.

“Current Trends in the World of B2B Marketing, 2016 Survey.” B2B International, 2016. Web.

Intangible Asset Market Value Study. Ocean Tomo, July 2020. Web.

Largest Software Companies By Market Cap. Companies Market Cap, May 2022. Web.

“Unilever, purpose-led brands outperform.” Unilever, 6 October 2019. Web. qtd. in Kounkel, Suzanne, Amy Silverstein, and Kathleen Peeters. “2021 Global Marketing Trends.” Deloitte Insights, 2020. Web.

Schaefer, Mark. “The Future Of Branding Is Human Impressions.” Mark Schaefer Blog, 3 June 2019. Web.

The 5 Principles Of Growth In B2B Marketing - Empirical Observations on B2B Effectiveness. LinkedIn B2B Institute, 2019. Web.

Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Learning objectives

Describe the benefits of virtual teams.

Create a plan for adopting effective management practices and setting clear expectations with virtual teams.

Identify potential solutions to the challenges of managing performance and developing members of virtual teams.

Create an action plan to increase effectiveness in managing virtual teams.

Target audience

People managers who manage or plan to manage virtual teams.

Training length

Two three-hour sessions

Training material

• Use the speaker’s notes in the notes pane section of each slide to plan and practice the training session.
• Activity slides are scattered throughout this training deck and are clearly numbered in the slide title.
• Notes in italics are written to the facilitator and are not meant to be read aloud.
• Download the Workbook for participants to use.

Suggested materials for activities:

• Index cards or sticky notes
• Markers
• Whiteboard/large table space/flip chart

Agenda & activities

Recommended Customization

Review all slides and adjust the language or content as needed to suit your organizational context and culture.

The pencil icon to the left denotes slides requiring customization of the slide and/or the speaker’s notes, e.g. adding in an organization-specific process.

Customization instructions are found in the notes pane.

Tips

• Adjust the speaker’s notes on the slides before (or after) any slides you modify or delete to ensure logical transitions between slides.
• Update the agenda to reflect new timings if major modifications are made.
• Even seasoned leaders need to be reminded of the basics now and again. Rather than delete more basic slides, cut back on the amount of time spent covering them and frame the content as a refresher.

• Participant Workbooks
• Relevant organization-specific documents (see side panel)
• Training Session Feedback Form

Required Information

• Communication guidelines for managers (e.g. cadence of manager interactions)
• Performance management process and guidelines
• Employee development guidelines
• List of available resources (e.g. social collaboration tools)

Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Section 1.1

Practical foundations for managing teams in a remote environment

Feasibility of virtual IT teams

Most organizations are planning some combination of remote and onsite work in 2022.

Source: IT Talent Trends, 2022; n=199

Speaker’s Notes:

Most organizations are planning some combination of remote and onsite work in 2022 – the highest reported plans for WFH were hybrid, balanced, and partial work-from-home. This builds on our findings in the IT Talent Trends 2022 report.

Feasibility of virtual IT teams

What percentage of roles in IT are capable of being performed remotely permanently?

Approximately what percentage of roles in IT are capable of being performed remotely permanently?

IT Talent Trends, 2022; n=207

Speaker’s Notes:

80% of respondents estimated that 50 to 100% of IT roles can be performed remotely.

Virtual teams take all kinds of forms

A virtual team is any team that has members that are not colocated and relies on technology for communications.

Speaker’s Notes:

Before we start, it will be useful to review what we mean by the term “virtual team.” For our purposes we will be defining a virtual team as any team that has members that are not colocated and relies on technology for communications.

There are a wide variety of virtual work arrangements and a variety of terms used to describe them. For example, some common terms include:

• “Flexible work arrangements”: Employees have the option to work where they see fit (within certain constraints). They may choose to work from the office, home, a shared office space, the road, etc.
• “Remote work,” “work from home,” and “telecommuting”: These are just various ways of describing how or where people are working virtually. They all share the idea that these kinds of employees are not colocated.
• “Multi-office team”: the team members all work in office environments, but they may not always be in the same office as their team members or manager.

Our definition of virtual work covers all of these terms. It is also distance neutral, meaning that it applies equally to teams that are dispersed globally or regionally or even those working in the same cities but dispersed throughout different buildings. Our definition also applies whether virtual employees work full time or part time.

The challenges facing managers arise as soon as some team members are not colocated and have to rely on technology to communicate and coordinate work. Greater distances between employees can complicate challenges (e.g. time zone coordination), but the core challenges of managing virtual teams are the same whether those workers are merely located in different buildings in the same city or in different buildings on different continents.

1.1 What kind of virtual team do you lead?

15 Minutes

Working on your own, take five minutes to figure out what kind of virtual team you lead.

1. How many people on your team work virtually (all, most, or a small percentage)?
2. How often and how regularly do they tend to work virtually (full time, part time regularly, or part time as needed)?
3. What kinds of virtual work arrangements are there on your team (multi-site, work from home, mobile employees)?
4. Where do your workers tend to be physically located (different offices but in the same city/region or globally dispersed)?
5. Record this information in your workbook.
6. Discuss as a group.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Size of virtual team
• Current remote work practices

Output

• Documented list of current state of remote work

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Advantages

Speaker’s Notes:

Remote work arrangements are becoming more and more common, and for good reason: there are a lot of benefits to the organization – and to employees.

#1: Save Money

Perhaps one of the most common reasons for opting for remote-work arrangements is the potential cost savings. One study found that organizations could save about $11,000 per employee working from home half the time (Global Workplace Analytics, 2021).

#2 Increased Attraction

In addition, supporting remote-work arrangements can attract employees. One study found that 71% of employees would likely choose one employer over another based on WFH offerings (Owl Labs, 2019).

#3 Improve productivity.

There are also improvements to productivity. Fifty percent of employees report they would maintain or increase their productivity while working from home (Glassdoor Team, 2020).

Remote work also has benefits to employees.

#1: Save Money

As with organizations, employees also benefit financially from remote work arrangements, saving between $2,500 and $4,000 and on average 11 working days while working from home half of the time.

#2: Improved Wellbeing

Most employees agree that working from home makes them happier, reduces stress, and provides an improved work-life balance through increased flexibility.

Challenges

Organizations

• Concerns that WFH may stifle innovation (Scientific American, 2021), likely due to the potential lack of collaboration and knowledge sharing.
• Fewer organic opportunities for informal interaction between employees working from home means active efforts are required to foster organizational culture.

Leaders

• 42% of managers believe that monitoring the productivity of their direct reports is a top challenge of WFH (Ultimate Software, 2019).
• The lack of in-person supervision compounded with a lack of trust in employees leads many leaders to believe that WFH will result in a drop in productivity.

Employees

• 20% of employees report collaboration/communication as their top struggle with WFH (Owl Labs, 2021).
• Employees often experience burnout from working longer hours due to the lack of commute, blurring of work and home life, and the perceived need to prove their productivity.

Many of these barriers can be addressed by changing traditional mindsets and finding alternative ways of working, but the traditional approach to work is so entrenched that it has been hard to make the shift.

Speaker’s Notes:

Many organizations are still grappling with the challenges of remote work. Some are just perceived challenges, while others are quite real.

Limited innovation and a lack of informal interaction are a potential consequence of failing to properly adapt to the remote-work environment.

Leaders also face challenges with remote work. Losing in-person supervision has led to the lack of trust and a perceived drop in productivity.

A study conducted 2021 asked remote workers to identify their biggest struggle with working remotely. The top three struggles remote workers report facing are unplugging after work, loneliness, and collaborating and/or communicating.

Seeing the struggles remote workers identify is a good reminder that these employees have a unique set of challenges. They need their managers to help them set boundaries around their work; create feelings of connectedness to the organization, culture, and team; and be expert communicators.

1.2 Virtual teams: benefits and challenges

20 Minutes

1. Discuss and list:
   1. Any positives you’ve experienced since managing virtual employees.
   2. Any challenges you’ve had to manage connected to managing virtual employees.
2. Record information in the workbook.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Personal experiences managing remote teams

Output

• List of benefits and challenges of remote work

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Section 1.2

Laying the foundations for a virtual team

The 3i’s: Inform, interact, and involve your way to effective management:

Speaker’s Notes:

Effectively managing a virtual team really comes down to adopting management approaches that will engage virtual employees.

Managing a virtual team does not actually require a new management style. The basics of effective management are the same in both colocated and virtual teams; however, the emphasis on certain behaviors and actions we take often differs. Managing a virtual team requires much more thoughtfulness and planning in our everyday interactions with our teams as we cannot rely on the relative ease of face-to-face interactions available to colocated teams.

The 3i’s Engaging Management Model is useful when interacting with all employees and provides a handy framework for more planful interactions with virtual employees.

Think of your management responsibilities in these three buckets – they are the most important components of being an effective manager. We’re first going to look at inform and involve before moving on to interact.

Inform: Relay information down from senior management and leaders to employees. Communicate the rationale behind decisions and priorities, and always explain how they will directly affect employees.

Why is this important? According to McLean & Company’s Engagement Survey data, employees who say their managers keep them well informed about decisions that affect them are 3.4 times more likely to be engaged (Source: McLean & Company, 2020; N=77,363). Your first reaction to this might be “I already do this,” which may very well be the case. Keep in mind, though, we sometimes tend to communicate on a “need-to-know basis,” especially when we are stressed or short on time. Engaging employees takes more. Always focus on explaining the “why?” or the rationale behind business decisions.

It might seem like this domain should be the least affected, since important company announcements probably continue in a remote environment. But remember that information like that also flows informally. And even in formal settings, there are question-and-answer opportunities. Or maybe your employee might come to your office to ask for more details. Virtual team members can’t gather around the watercooler. They don’t have the same opportunities to hear information in passing as people who are colocated do, so managers need to make a concerted effort to share information with virtual team members in a clear and timely way.

Swinging over to the other end, we have involve: Involve your employees. Solicit information and feedback from employees and collaborate with them.

However, it’s not enough to just solicit their feedback and input; you also need to act on it.

Make sure you involve your employees in a meaningful way. Such collaboration makes employees feel like a valued part of the team. Not to mention that they often have information and perspectives that can help make your decisions stronger!

Employees who say their department leaders act on feedback from them are 3.9 times more likely to be engaged than those whose leaders don’t. (Source: McLean & Company, 2020; N=59,779). That is a huge difference!

Keeping virtual employees engaged and feeling connected and committed to the organization requires planful and regular application of the 3i’s model.

Finally, Interact: Connect with employees on a personal level; get to know them and understand who they are on a personal and professional level.

Why? Well, over and above the fact that it can be rewarding for you to build stronger relationships with your team, our data shows that human connection makes a significant difference with employees. Employees who believe their managers care about them as a person are 3.8 times more likely to be engaged than those who do not (Source: McLean & Company, 2017; N=70,927).

And you might find that in a remote environment, this is the area that suffers the most, since a lot of these interactions tend to be unscripted, unscheduled, and face to face.

Typically, if we weren’t in the midst of a pandemic, we’d emphasize the importance of allocating some budget to travel and get some face-to-face time with your staff. Meeting and interacting with team members face to face is crucial to building trusting relationships, and ultimately, an effective team, so given the context of our current circumstances, we recommend the use of video when interacting with your employees who are remote.

Relay information down from senior management to employees.

Ensure they’ve seen and understand any organization-wide communication.

Share any updates in a timely manner.

Connect with employees on a personal level.
Ask how they’re doing with the new work arrangement.
Express empathy for challenges (sick family member, COVID-19 diagnosis, etc.).
Ask how you can support them.
Schedule informal virtual coffee breaks a couple of times a week and talk about non-work topics.

Get information from employees and collaborate with them.
Invite their input (e.g. have a “winning remotely” brainstorming session).
Escalate any challenges you can’t address to your VP.
Give them as much autonomy over their work as possible – don’t micromanage.

1.3 Identify behaviors to inform, interact with, and involve team members

20 Minutes

Individually:

1. Identify one behavior for each of Inform, Interact, and Involve to improve.
2. Record information in the workbook.

As a group:

1. Discuss behaviors to improve for each of Inform, Interact, and Involve and record new ideas to incorporate into your leadership practice.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• 3i's Model
• Current leadership behaviors to improve

Output

• List of behaviors to better inform, interact, and involve team members

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Laying the foundation: Set clear expectations

Tasks

• What are the daily and weekly team activities? How do they affect one another?

Goals

• Clarify any adjustments to strategy based on the situation; clarify metrics.

Communication

• How often and when will you check in? What should they come to you for? What modalities will you use and when?

Roadblocks

• Involve your team in deciding how to handle roadblocks and challenges.

Speaker’s Notes:

Clear expectations are important in any environment, remote or not. But it is much harder to do in a remote environment. The barrier to seeking clarification is so much higher (For example, email vs. catching someone in hallway, or you can’t notice that a colleague is struggling without them asking).

Communication – This is one area where the importance actually changes in a remote context. We’ve been talking about a lot of practices that are the same in importance whether you’re in an office or remote, and maybe you just enact them differently. But clarity around communication processes is actually tremendously more important in a remote environment.

Adopt a five-step process to set specific and documented expectations

1. Check in with how your team member is doing on a daily basis. Don’t forget to ask how they are doing personally.
2. Follow up on previously set expectations. Ask how things are going. Discuss if priorities or expectations have changed and update expectations accordingly.
3. Ask if they are experiencing any roadblocks and collaborate to find solutions.
4. Provide feedback and recognition as appropriate.
5. Document newly set expectations – either through a collaboration tool or through email.

Speaker’s Notes:

Suggested best practices: Hold daily team check-ins and hold separate individual check-ins. Increase frequency of these.

During Check-in

1. Set up a running Teams chat for your team.

• This is your community. You must be the biggest cheerleader and keep the team feeling like they are contributing. Make sure everyone is involved.

• Ask: What are you working on today? What will your momentum metrics be? What do you need from me?

After a Check-in

1. Be accessible:
   • Ensure your team knows the best way to get in touch with you.
   • Email is not ideal for informal, frequent contact – use messaging instead.
2. Be available:
   • Keep a running conversation going in Teams.
   • Respond in a timely manner; address issues quickly so that your team has what they need to succeed.
   • Let your team know if you’ll be away/offline for longer than an hour during the workday and ask them to do the same (e.g. for an appointment).
   • Help address roadblocks, answer questions, clarify priorities, etc.

Define communication requirements

• Set up an ongoing communication with your team.
  • E.g. a running conversation on Slack or Teams
• Schedule daily virtual meetings and check-ins.
  • This can help to maintain a sense of normalcy and conduct a pulse check on your team.
• Use video for important conversations.
  • Video chat creates better rapport, shows body language, and lessens feelings of isolation, but it can be taxing.
• Set expectations about communication.
  • Differentiate between day-to-day communication and updates on the state of events.
• Clearly communicate the collaboration toolkit.
  • What do we have available? What is the purpose of each?

Speaker’s Notes:

With organizational expectations set, we need to establish team expectations around how we collaborate and communicate.

Today there is no lack of technology available to support our virtual communication. We can use the phone, conference calls, videoconferencing, Skype, instant messaging, [insert organization-specific technological tools.], etc.

However, it is important to have a common understanding of which tools are most appropriate when and for what.

What are some of the communication channel techniques you’ve found useful in your informal interactions with employees or that you’ve seen work well between employees?

[Have participants share any technological tools they find useful and why.]

Check in with your team on communication requirements

• Should we share our calendars, hours of availability, and/or IM status?
• How often should we meet as a team and one on one? Should we institute a time when we should not communicate virtually?
• Which communication channel should we use in what context? How should we decide which communication method to use?
• Should I share guidelines for email and meeting etiquette (or any other communication methods)?
• Should we establish a new team charter?
• What feedback does the team have regarding how we’ve been communicating?

Speaker’s Notes:

Whenever we interact, we make the following kinds of social exchanges. We exchange:

• Information: Data or opinions
• Emotions: Feelings and evaluations about the data or opinions
• Motivations: What we feel like doing in response to data or opinions

We need to make sure that these exchanges are happening as each team member intends. To do this, we have to be sensitive to what information is being conveyed, what emotions are involved in the interaction, and how we are motivating each other to act through the interaction. Every interaction will have intended and unintended effects on others. No one can pay attention to all of these aspects of communication all the time, but if we develop habits that are conducive to successful exchanges in all three areas, we can become more effective.

In addition to being mindful of the exchange in our communication, as managers it is critical to build trusting relationships and rapport with employees as we saw in the 3i's model. However, in virtual teams we cannot rely on running into someone in the kitchen or hallway to have an informal conversation. We need to be thoughtful and deliberate in our interactions with employees. We need to find alternative ways to build these relationships with and between employees that are both easy and accepted by ourselves and employees. Because of that, it is important to set communication norms and really understand each other’s preferences. For example:

• Timing of responses. Set the expectation that emails should be responded to within X hours/days unless otherwise noted in the actual email.
• When it’s appropriate to send an email vs. using instant messaging.
• A team charter – the team’s objectives, individual roles and responsibilities, and communication and collaboration guidelines.

1.4 Identify and share ways you prefer to communicate for different activities

20 Minutes

1. Brainstorm and list the different types of exchanges you have with your virtual employees and they have with each other.
2. List the various communication tools in use on your team.
3. Assign a preferred communication method for each type of exchange

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Current types of exchanges on team
• Communication methods used

Output

• Defined ways to communicate for each communication method

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Section 2.1
Balancing wellbeing and performance in a virtual team context

The pandemic has taken a significant toll on employees’ mental wellbeing

44% of employees reported declined mental wellbeing since the start of the pandemic.

• 44% of those who work from home.
• 34% of those who have other work arrangements (i.e. onsite).
  (Qualtrics, 2020)

"If one of our colleagues were to fall, break their leg, and get a cast, colleagues would probably rally around that person signing their cast. But, really, we don’t view the health of our brain the same as we do the health of our body."
– Centre for Addiction and Mental Health (CAMH) Employee

Speaker’s Notes:

Despite being over two years into the pandemic, we are still seeing its effect on the physical and mental health of employees.

The mental health aspect has been often overlooked by organizations, but in order to have a safe, happy, and productive team, you need to give mental health the same level of focus as physical heath. This requires a change in mindset in order for you as a leader to support your team's mental wellbeing during the pandemic and beyond.

Employees are reporting several key mental wellbeing challenges

Stress: 67%

Employees report increasingly high levels of stress from the onset of COVID-19, stating that it has been the most stressful time in their careers.
(Qualtrics, 2020)

Anxiety: 57%

Similarly, employees’ anxiety levels have peaked because of the pandemic and the uncertainty it brings.
(Qualtrics, 2020)

Four main themes surrounding stress & anxiety

• Fear of contracting COVID-19
• Financial pressures
• Job security and uncertainty
• Loneliness caused by social isolation

Speaker’s Notes:

The stress and uncertainty about the future caused by the pandemic and its fallout are posing the biggest challenges to employees.

Organizations shutting down operations, moving to fully remote, or requiring some of their employees to be on site based on the current situation causes a lot of anxiety as employees are not able to plan for what is coming next.

Adding in the loss of social networks and in-person interactions exacerbates the problem employees are facing. As leaders, it is your job to understand and mitigate these challenges wherever possible.

Re-examine your workplace barriers to mental wellbeing

Key considerations:

• Work Environment
  • Accessibility of mental wellbeing programs and initiatives
• Organizational Culture
  • Modeling of wellbeing
  • Paid time off
  • Discussions around mental wellbeing
• Total Rewards
  • Benefits coverage
  • Employee assistance programs (EAPs)
  • Manager knowledge

Speaker’s Notes:

Organizational barriers to mental wellbeing are sadly not new. Workloads, stigma around mental health, lack of sick days, and limits to benefits for mental health supports were challenges before the pandemic. Adding in the new barriers can very easily result in a tipping point for many employees who are simply not equipped to deal with or supported in dealing with the added burden of remote work in a post-pandemic world.

To provide the needed support to your employees, it’s important to be mindful of the key considerations.

Holistic employee wellbeing has never been more critical than it is right now

Employee Wellbeing

Physical

The physical body; ensuring a person has the freedom, opportunities, and resources needed to sustainably maintain bodily health.

Mental

The psychological ability to cope with information, emotions, desires, and stressors (e.g. change, threats, etc.) in a healthy and balanced way. Essential for day-to-day living and functioning.

Social

The state of personal and professional relationships, including personal and community engagement. The capability for genuine, authentic, and mutually affirming interactions with others.

Financial

The state of a person’s finances; ensuring that a person feels capable to handle their financial situation and behaviors. The ability to live productively without the weight of financial stress.

Speaker’s Notes:

As a manager, you need to be mindful of all of these. Create an atmosphere where people are able to come to you for help if they are struggling in one of these areas. For example, some people might be more comfortable raising physical safety or comfort concerns (personal protective equipment, ergonomics) than concerns about mental health. Or they might feel like their feelings of loneliness are not appropriate to bring into their professional life.

Wellbeing is a delicate subject, and most of the time, people are reluctant to talk about it. It requires vulnerability. And here’s the thing about it: Your staff will not drive a change in your team around making these topics more acceptable. It has to be the manager. You have to be the one to not just tell but show them that it’s OK to talk about this

Encourage human-centered workplace behaviors

Promote empathy as a focus value

• Listen and show compassion.
• Allow room for emotions.

Encourage social connection

• Leverage networks.
• Infuse fun where possible.
• Encourage community and sense of joint purpose.

Cultivate a growth mindset

• Encourage mindfulness and resilience.
• Express gratitude.

Empower others

• Ask employees what they need and co-create solutions.
• Integrate needs of personal and family life with work life.
• Be clear on accountability.

Speaker’s Notes:

As a leader, your focus should be on encouraging the right behaviors on your team and in yourself.
Show empathy; allowing room for emotion and showing you are willing and able to listen goes a long way to establishing trust.

A growth mindset applies to resilience too. A person with a growth mindset is more likely to believe that even though they’re struggling now, they will get through it.

Infuse fun – schedule social check-ins. This is not wasted time, or time off work – it is an integral part of the workday. We have less of it now organically, so you must bring it back deliberately. Remember that theme? We are deliberately reinfusing important organic elements into the workday.

The last item, empowerment, is interesting – being clear on accountability. Have clear performance expectations. It might sound like telling people what to do would be disempowering, but it’s the opposite. By clarifying the goals of what they need to achieve, you empower them to invent their own “how,” because you and they are both sure they will arrive at the place that you agreed on. We will talk more about this in performance management.

Emphasize the importance of wellbeing by setting the tone for the team

Managers must…

• LEAD BY EXAMPLE
  • Employees look to their managers for cues about how to react in a crisis. If the manager reacts with stress and fear, the team will follow.
• ENCOURAGE OPEN COMMUNICATION
  • Frequent check-ins and transparent communication are essential during a time of crisis, especially when working remotely.
• ACKNOWLEDGE THE SITUATION
  • Recognizing the stress that teams may be facing and expressing confidence in them goes a long way.
• PROMOTE WELLBEING
  • Managers who take care of themselves can better support their teams and encourage them to practice good self-care too.
• REDUCE STIGMA
  • Reducing stigma around mental health encourages people to come forward with their struggles and get the support they need.

Speaker’s Notes:

Emphasize the importance of wellbeing with what you do. If you do not model self-care behavior, people will follow what you do, not what you say.

Lead by example – Live the behaviors you want to see in your employees. If you show confidence, positivity, and resiliency, it will filter down to your team.

Encourage open communication – Have regular meetings where your team is able to set the agenda, or allow one-on-ones to be guided by the employee. Make sure these are scheduled and keep them a priority.

Acknowledge the situation – Pretending things are normal doesn’t help the situation. Talk about the stress that the team is facing and express confidence that you will get through it together.

Promote wellbeing – Take time off, don’t work when you’re sick, and you will be better able to support your team!

Reduce stigma – Call it out when you see it and be sure to remind people of and provide access to any supports that the organization has.

Conduct dedicated conversations around wellbeing

1. Check in with how each team member is doing frequently and ask how they are doing personally.
2. Discuss how things are going. Ask: “How is your work situation working out for you so far? Do you feel supported? How are you taking care of yourself in these circumstances?”
3. Ask if there are any stressors or roadblocks that they have experienced and collaborate to find solutions.
4. Provide reassurance of your support and confidence in them.
5. Document the plan for managing stressors and roadblocks – either through a collaboration tool or through email.

Speaker’s Notes:

Going back to the idea of a growth mindset – this may be uncomfortable for you as a manager. So here’s a step-by-step guide that over time you can morph into your own style.

With your team – be prepared to share first and to show it is OK to be vulnerable and address wellbeing seriously.

1. Make sure you make time for the personal. Ask about their lives and show compassion.
2. Give opportunities for them to bring up things that might stay hidden otherwise. Ask questions that show you care.
3. Help identify areas they are struggling with and work with them to move past those areas.
4. Make sure they feel supported in what they are going through and reassured of their place on the team.
5. Roll wellbeing into your planning process. This signals to team that you see wellbeing as important, not just a checklist to cover during a team meeting, and are ready to follow through on it.

Recognize when professional help is needed

Speaker’s Notes:

As a leader, it is important to be on the lookout for warning signs of burnout and know when to step in and direct individuals to professional help.

Poor work performance – They struggle to maintain work performance, even after you’ve worked with them to create coping strategies.

Overwhelmed – They repeatedly tell you that they feel overwhelmed, very stressed, or physically unwell.

Frequent personal disclosure – They want to discuss their personal struggles at length on a regular basis.

Trouble sleeping and focusing – They tell you that they are not sleeping properly and are unable to focus on work.

Frequent time off – They feel the need to take time off more frequently.

Strained relationships – They have difficulty communicating effectively with coworkers; relationships are strained.

Substance abuse – They show signs of substance abuse (e.g. drunk/high while working, social media posts about drinking during the day).

Keeping an eye out for these signs and being able to step in before they become unmanageable can mean the difference between keeping and losing an employee experiencing burnout.

Remember: Managers also need support

• Added burden
• Lead by example
• Self-care

Speaker’s Notes:

If you’ve got managers under you, be mindful of their unique stressors. Don’t forget to check in with them, too.

If you are a manager, remember to take care of yourself and check in with your own manager about your own wellbeing.

2.1 Balance wellbeing and performance in a virtual team context

30 Minutes

1. Brainstorm and list current practices and challenges connected to wellbeing on your teams.
2. Choose one or two wellbeing challenges that are most relevant for your team.
   
3. Discuss as a group and identify one solution for each challenge that you can put into action with your own virtual team. Document this under “Action plan to move forward” on the workbook slide “2.1 Balancing wellbeing and performance in a virtual team context.”

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Current practices and challenges connected to wellbeing

Output

• Action plan for each challenge listed

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Section 2.2

Managing performance in a virtual team context

Virtual employees are craving more meaningful interactions with their managers

A survey indicated that, overall, remote employees showed less satisfaction with manager interactions compared to other non-remote employees.

1. 16% less likely to strongly agree their manager involves them in setting goals at work.
2. 28% less likely to strongly agree they continually work with their manager to clarify work priorities.
3. 29% less likely to strongly agree they have reviewed their greatest successes with their manager in the last six months.
4. 30% less likely to strongly agree they have talked with their manager about progress toward goals in the last six months.

Speaker’s Notes:

In many cases, we have put people into virtual roles because they are self-directed and self-motivated workers who can thrive with the kind of autonomy and flexibility that comes with virtual work. As managers, we should expect many of these workers to be proactively interested in how they are performing and in developing their careers.

It would be a mistake to take a hands-off approach when managing virtual workers. A recent survey indicated that, overall, remote employees showed less satisfaction with manager interactions compared to other non-remote employees. It was also one of the aspects of their work experience they were least satisfied with overall (Gallup, State of the American Workplace, 2017). Simply put, virtual employees are craving more meaningful conversations with their managers.

While conversations about performance and development are important for all employees (virtual or non-virtual), managers of remote teams can have a significant positive impact on their virtual employees’ experience and engagement at work by making efforts to improve their involvement and support in these areas.

During this module we will work together to identify ways that each of us can improve how we manage the performance of our virtual employees. At the end of the module everyone will create an action plan that they can put in place with their own teams. In the next module, we go through a similar set of activities to create an action plan for our interactions with employees about their development.

Building blocks of performance management

• Goal Setting

• Setting Expectations

• Measuring Progress

• Feedback & Coaching

Speaker’s Notes:

[Include a visualization of your existing performance management process in the slide. Walk the participants through the process to remind them of what is expected. While the managers participating in the training should know this, there may be different understandings of it, or it might just be the case that it’s been a while since people looked at the official process. The intention here is merely to ensure everyone is on the same page for the purposes of the activities that follow.]

Now that we’ve reviewed performance management at a high level, let’s dive into what is currently happening with the performance management of virtual teams.

I know that you have some fairly extensive material at your organization around how to manage performance. This is fantastic. And we’re going to focus mainly on how things change in a virtual context.

When measuring progress, how do you as a manager make sure that you are comfortable not seeing your team physically at their desks? This is the biggest challenge for remote managers.

2.2 Share current performance management practices for virtual teams

30 Minutes

1. Brainstorm and list current high-level performance management practices connected to each building block. Record in your workbook.
2. Discuss current challenges connected to implementing the building blocks with virtual employees.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Current performance management practices
• Challenges surrounding performance management

Output

• Current state of virtual performance management defined

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Communicate the “why”: Cascade organizational goals

Speaker’s Notes:

When assisting your employees with their goals, think about the organization’s overall mission and goals to help you determine team and individual goals.

• Organizational goals: Employee goals should align with organizational goals. Goals may cascade down through the organization.
• Department or team goals: Create a clear strategy based on high-level goals for the year so employees can link short-term goals to the larger picture.
• Individual goals: Employees should draw on their individual development plan to help set performance goals.

Sometimes it’s difficult to get employees thinking about goals and they need assistance from managers. It’s also important to be clear on team goals to help guide employees in setting individual ones.

The basic idea is to show people how their individual day-to-day work contributes to the overall success of the organization. It gives them a sense of purpose and a rationale, which translates to motivation. And also helps them problem solve with more autonomy.

You’re giving people a sense of the importance of their own contribution.

How to set clear expectations for job performance

Ensure employees have a clear understanding of what’s expected for their role:

1. Review their metrics so they understand how they’re being evaluated.
2. Outline daily, weekly, monthly, and quarterly goals.
3. If needed, help them plan when and how each part of their job should be done and what to prioritize.
4. Ask them to come to you early if they experience a roadblock so that you can help rather than having them flounder on their own.
5. Document instances where employees aren’t meeting role or performance expectations.

Speaker’s Notes:

Tailor performance goals to address any root causes of poor performance.

For example:

• If personal factors are getting in the way, work with the employee (and HR if necessary) to create a strategy to address any impediments to performing in the role.

Tips for managing performance remotely

• Reflect on one key question: What needs to happen for my direct reports to continue their work while working remotely?
• Manage for results – not employee visibility at the office.
• Use metrics to measure performance. If you don’t have any, define tasks and deliverables as clearly as possible and conduct regular check-ins.
• Work with the employee to set goals and metrics to measure progress.

Focus on results: Be flexible about how and when work gets done, as long as team members are hitting their targets.

• For example, if they have childcare duties from 3 to 5pm during school closures and want to work later in the evening to make up the time, that’s fine – as long as the work gets done.
• Set clear expectations about which work must be done during normal work hours (e.g. attend team meetings, client calls) and which can be done at other hours.
• Team members must arrange with you any nonstandard working hours before they start using an altered schedule. It is your responsibility to keep track of hours and any alternate arrangements.
• Don’t make team members feel constantly monitored (i.e. “Where were you from 10 to 11am?”); trust them until you have reason not to.

Encourage your team members to unplug: If they’re sending you emails late at night and they haven’t made an alternate work hours agreement with you, encourage them to take time away from work.

• It’s harder to unplug when working at home, and everyone needs a break to stay productive.

Avoid micromanagement with holistic performance measures

Quality

How well tasks are accomplished

Behavior

Related to specific employee actions, skills, or attitudes

Quantity

How much work gets done

Holistic measures demonstrate all the components required for optimal performance. This is the biggest driver in having comfort as a manager of a remote team and avoiding micromanagement. Typically these are set at the organizational level. You may need to adjust for individual roles, etc.

Speaker's Notes:

Metrics come in different types. One way to ensure your metrics capture the full picture is to use a mix of different kinds of metrics.

Some metrics are quantitative: they describe quantifiable or numerical aspects of the goal. This includes timeliness. On the other hand, qualitative metrics have to do with the final outcome or product. And behavioral metrics have to do with employees' actions, skills, or attitudes. Using different kinds of metrics together helps you set holistic measures, which capture all the components of optimal performance toward your goal and prevent gaming the system.

Let's take an example:

A courier might have an objective to do a good job delivering packages. An example of a quantitative measure might be that the courier is required to deliver X number of packages per day on time. The accompanying metrics would be the number of packages delivered per day and the ratio of packages delivered on time vs. late.

Can you see a problem if we use only these quantitative measures to evaluate the courier's performance?

Wait to see if anyone volunteers an answer. Discuss suggestions.

That's right, if the courier's only goal is to deliver more packages, they might start to rush, may ruin the packages, and may offer poor customer service. We can help to guard against this by implementing qualitative and behavioral measures as well. For example, a qualitative measure might be that the courier is required to deliver the packages in mint condition. And the metric would be the number of customer complaints about damaged packages or ratings on a satisfaction survey related to package condition.

For the behavioral aspect, the courier might be required to provide customer-centric service with a positive attitude. The metrics could be ratings on customer satisfaction surveys related to the courier's demeanor or observations by the manager.

Managing poor performance virtually: Look for key signs

It’s crucial to acknowledge that an employee might have an “off week” or need time to balance work and life – things that can be addressed with performance management (PM) techniques. Managers should move into the process for performance improvement when:

1. Performance fluctuates frequently or significantly.
2. Performance has dropped for an extended period of time.
3. Expectations are consistently not being met.

Key signs to look for:

• PM data/performance-related assessments
• Continual absences
• Decreased quality or quantity of output
• Frequent excuses (e.g. repeated internet outages)
• Lack of effort or follow-through
• Missed deadlines
• Poor communication or lack of responsiveness
• Failure to improve

Speaker’s notes:

• Let’s talk more about identifying low performance.
• Everybody has off days or weeks. And what if they are new to the role or new to working remotely? Their performance may be low because they need time to adjust. These sort of situations should be managed, but they don’t require moving into the process for performance improvement.
• When managing employees who are remote or working in a hybrid situation, it is important to be alert to these signs and check in with your employees on a regular basis. Aim to identify and work with employees on addressing performance issues as they arise rather than waiting until it’s too late. Depending on your availability, the needs of the employee, and the complexity of their role, check-ins could occur daily, weekly, and/or monthly. As I mentioned, for remote employees, it’s often better to check-in more frequently but for a shorter period of time.
• You want to be present in their work life and available to help them manage through roadblocks and stay on track, but try to avoid over-monitoring employees. Micromanaging can impact the manager-employee relationship and lead to the employee feeling that there is a lack of trust. Remember, the employee needs to be responsible for their own performance and improvement.
• Check-ins should not just be about the work either. Take some time to check in personally. This is particularly important when managing remotely. It enables you to build a personal relationship with the employee and also keeps you aware if there are other personal issues at play that are impacting their work.
• So, how do you know what does require performance improvement? There are three key things that you should look for that are clear signals that performance improvement is necessary:
  1. Their performance is fluctuating frequently or significantly.
  2. Their performance has dropped for an extended period of time.
  3. Expectations are consistently not being met.
• What do you think are some key signs to look for that indicate a performance issue is occurring?

Managing poor performance virtually: Conducting remote performance conversations

Video calling

Always use video calls instead of phone calls when possible so that you don’t lose physical cues and body language.

Meeting invitations

Adding HR/your leader to a meeting invite about performance may cause undue stress. Think through who needs to participate and whether they need to be included in the invite itself.

Communication

Ensure there are no misunderstandings by setting context for each discussion and having the employee reiterate the takeaways back to you.

Focus on behavior

Don’t assume the intent behind the behavior(s) being discussed. Instead, just focus on the behavior itself.

Policies

Be sure to adhere to any relevant HR policies and support systems. Working with HR throughout the process will ensure none are overlooked.

Speaker’s notes:

There are a few best practices you should follow when having performance conversations:

• First, if you are in a different work environment than your employee, always use video calls instead of phone calls whenever possible so that you don’t miss out on physical cues and body language. If videoconferencing isn’t the norm, encourage them to turn on their video. Be empathic that it can feel awkward but explain the benefits, and you will both have an easier time communicating and understanding each other.
• As I’ve mentioned, be considerate of the environment they are in. If they are in the office and you are working remotely, be sure to book a private meeting room for them to go to for the conversation. If they are working from home, be sure to check that they are prepared and able to focus on the conversation.
• Next, carefully consider who you are adding to the meeting invite and whether it’s necessary for them to be there. Adding HR or your leader to a meeting invite may cause undue stress for the employee.
• Consider the timing of the invite. Don’t send it out weeks in advance. When a performance problem exists, you’ll want to address it as soon as possible. A day or two of notice would be an ideal approach because it gives them a heads up but will not cause them extended stress or worrying.
• Be considerate about the timing of the meeting and what else they may have scheduled. For example, a Friday afternoon before they are heading off on vacation or right before they are leading an important client call would not be appropriate timing.
• As we just mentioned clear communication is critical. Ensure there are no misunderstandings by setting context for each discussion and having the employee reiterate takeaways back to you.
• Focus on the behavior and don’t assume their intent. It can be tempting to say, “I know you didn’t mean to miss the deadline,” but you don’t know what they intended. Often people are not aware of the impact their behavior can have on others.
• Lastly, be sure to adhere to any relevant HR policies and support systems. Working with HR throughout the process will ensure nothing is overlooked.

2.3 Identify challenges of current practices and propose solutions

30 Minutes

1. Select one or two challenges from the previous activity.
2. Identify one solution for each challenge that you can put into action with your own virtual team. Document in the workbook.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Current performance management practices
• Challenges surrounding performance management

Output

• Action plan to move forward

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Optional Section

Employee development in a virtual team setting

There are three main development approaches for both colocated and virtual employees

Speaker’s Notes:

As we have seen, our virtual employees crave more meaningful interactions with their managers. In addition to performance conversations, managers should also be having regular discussions with their employees about their employee development plans. One key component of these discussions is career planning. Whether you are thinking shorter term – how to become better at their current role – or longer term – how to advance beyond their current role – discussions about employee development are a great way to engage employees. Employees are ultimately responsible for creating and executing their own development plans, but managers are responsible for making sure that employees have thought through these plans and helping employees identify opportunities for executing those plans.

To help us think about our own employee development practices, identify challenges they pose when working with virtual employees, and create solutions to these challenges, it is useful to think about employee development opportunities according to three types:

1. The first kind of development opportunity is formal training. Formal training is organized and has a clearly defined curriculum and desired outcome. It usually takes the form of a group training session (like this one) or training videos or materials that employees can watch individually and on their own time. These opportunities usually end with a test or assignment that can be used to evaluate the degree to which the participant achieved the desired learning outcomes.
2. The second kind of development opportunity is relational learning. Perhaps the most common form of this type of learning is coaching or mentoring. By establishing a long-term work relationship, checking in with employees about their daily work and development goals, and sharing their own experiences and knowledge, mentors help employees reflect and draw out learning from everyday, on-the-job development activities. Other examples include a peer support group or communities of practice. In these group settings peers share best practices and work together to overcome challenges.
3. The third kind of development opportunity is experiential learning. This kind of opportunity provides employees the chance to work on real work problems, and the output of the development work can directly benefit the organization. Most people learn best by doing. On-the-job experiences that are challenging or new can force people to use and develop new skills and knowledge based on what worked effectively and what failed. Examples of experiential learning are on-the-job learning for new hires, stretch assignments, or special projects that take the employee beyond their daily routine and allow them to try new activities and develop competencies that they would not have the chance to develop as part of their regular job.

According to McLean & Company, organizations should use the “70-20-10” rule as a rough guideline when working with employees to create their development plans: 10% of the plan should be dedicated to formal training opportunities, 20% to relational learning, and 70% to experiential learning. Managers should work with employees to identify their performance and career goals, ensure that their development plans are aligned with these goals, and include an appropriate mixture of all three kinds of development opportunities.

To help identify challenges and solutions, think about how virtual work arrangements will impact the employee’s ability to leverage each type of opportunity at our organization.

Here are some examples that can help us start thinking about the kinds of challenges virtual employees on our team face:

Career Planning

• One challenge can be identifying a career path that is consistent with working virtually. If switching from a virtual arrangement to an onsite arrangement is not a viable option for an employee, some career paths may not feasibly be open to them (at least as the company is currently organized). For example, if an employee would eventually like to be promoted to a senior leadership role in their business function but all senior leaders are required to work onsite at corporate headquarters, the employee will need to consider whether such a move is possible for them. In some cases employees may be willing to do this, but in others they may not. The important thing is to have these conversations with virtual employees and avoid the assumption that all career paths can be done virtually, since that might not be the case

Formal Training

• This is probably the least problematic form of employee development for virtual employees. In many cases this kind of training is scheduled well in advance, so virtual employees may be able to join non-virtual employees in person for some group training. When this is not possible (due to distance, budget, or time zone), many forms of group training can be recorded and watched by virtual employees later. Training videos and training materials can also easily be shared with virtual employees using existing collaboration software.

Relational Learning

• One major challenge here is developing a mentoring relationship virtually. As we discussed in the module on performance management, developing relationships virtually can be challenging because people cannot rely upon the kind of informal and spontaneous interactions that occur when people are located in the same office. Mentors and mentees will have to put in more effort and planning to get to know each other and they will have to schedule frequent check-ins so that employees can reflect upon their progress and experience (with the help of their mentors) more often.
• Time zones and technology may pose potential barriers for certain candidates to be mentors. In some cases, employees that are best qualified to be mentors may not be as comfortable with collaborative software as other mentors or their mentees. If there are large time zone differences, some people who would otherwise be interested in acting as a mentor may be dissuaded. Managers need to take this into consideration if they are connecting employees with mentors or if they are thinking of taking on the mentor role themselves.

Experiential Learning

• Virtual employees risk being overlooked for special projects due to the “out of sight, out of mind” bias: When special projects come up, the temptation is to look around the room and see who is the best fit. The problem is, however, that in some cases the highest performers or best fit may not physically be in the room. In these cases it is important for managers to take on an advocate role for their employees and remind other managers that they have good virtual employees on their team that should be included or contacted. It is also important for managers to keep their team informed about these opportunities as often as possible.
• Sometimes certain projects or certain kinds of work just cannot be done virtually in a company for a variety of reasons. The experiential learning opportunities will not be open to virtual employees. If such opportunities are open to the majority of other workers in this role (potentially putting virtual employees’ career development at a disadvantage relative to their peers), managers should work with their virtual employees to identify alternative experiences. Managers may also want to consider advocating for more or for higher quality experiential learning opportunities at the organization.

Now that we have considered some general examples of challenges and solutions, let’s look at our own employee development practices and think about the practical steps we can take as managers to improve employee development for our virtual employees.

Employee development basics

• Career planning & performance improvement
• Formal training
• Relational learning
• Experiential learning

Speaker’s Notes:

[Customize this slide according to your organization’s own policies and processes for employee development. Provide useful images that outline this on the slide, and in these notes describe the processes/policies that are in place. Note: In some cases policies or processes may not be designed with virtual employees or virtual teams in mind. That is okay for the purposes of this training module. In the following activities participants will discuss how they apply these policies and processes with their virtual teams. If your organization is interested in adapting its policies/processes to better support virtual workers, it may be useful to record those conversations to supplement existing policies later.]

Now that we have considered some general examples of challenges and solutions, let’s look at our own employee development practices and think about the practical steps we can take as managers to improve employee development for our virtual employees.

2.4 Share current practices for developing employees on a virtual team

30 Minutes

1. Brainstorm and list current high-level employee development practices. Record in your workbook.
2. Discuss current challenges connected to developing virtual employees. Record in your workbook.
3. Identify one solution for each challenge that you can put into action with your own virtual team.
4. Discuss as a group.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Current employee development practices
• Challenges surrounding employee development

Output

• Action plan to move forward

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Refine Action Plans

2.5 Refine your action plan and commit to implementing it

30 Minutes

1. Review your action plans for consistency and overlap. Highlight any parts you may struggle to complete.
2. Meeting with your group, summarize your plans to each other. Provide feedback and discuss each other’s action plans.
3. Discuss how you can hold each other accountable.

Download the Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Input

• Action items from previous activities.

Output

• Action plan to move forward

Materials

• Workbook: Equip Managers to Effectively Manage Virtual Teams

Participants

• All managers with direct reports working virtually

Summary of Accomplishment

• We do not need to go out and learn a new set of manager responsibilities to better manage our virtual teams; rather, we have to “dial up” certain responsibilities we already have or adjust certain approaches that we already take.
• It is important to set clear expectations. While managers are ultimately responsible for making sure expectations are set and are clearly communicated, they are not the only ones with responsibilities. Employees and managers need to work together to overcome the challenges that virtual work involves.
• Virtual employees crave meaningful interactions with their managers and team. Managers must take charge in fostering an atmosphere of openness around wellbeing and establish effective performance management strategies. By being proactive with our virtual teams’ wellness and mindful of our performance management habits, we can take significant steps toward keeping these employees engaged and productive.
• Effective management in virtual contexts requires being more deliberate than is typical in non-virtual contexts. By working as a group to identify challenges and propose solutions, we have helped each other create action plans that we can use going forward to continually improve our management practices.

If you would like additional support, have our analysts guide you through an info-tech workshop or guided implementation.

Contact your account representative for more information

workshops@infotech.com

1-888-670-8889

Speaker’s Notes:

First, let’s take a moment to summarize the key things we have learned today:

1. We do not need to go out and learn a new set of manager competencies to better manage our virtual teams; rather, we have to “dial up” certain competencies we already have or adjust certain approaches that we already take. In many cases we just need to be more aware of the challenges that virtual communication poses and be more planful in our approaches.
2. It is important to set clear expectations. While managers are ultimately responsible for making sure expectations are set and clearly communicated, they are not the only ones with responsibilities. Employees and managers need to work together to overcome the challenges that virtual work involves. Making sure that teams have meaningful conversations about expectations, come to a shared understanding of them, and record them will create a firm foundation for all other interactions on the virtual team.
3. Virtual employees crave meaningful interactions with their managers related to performance and employee development. By creating action plans for improving these kinds of interactions with our teams, we can take significant steps toward keeping these employees engaged and productive.
4. Effective performance management and employee development in virtual contexts require more planfulness than is required in non-virtual contexts. By working as a group to identify challenges and propose solutions, we have helped each other create action plans that we can use going forward to continually improve our management practices.

Is there anything that anyone has learned that is not on this list and that they would like to share with the group?

Finally, were there any challenges identified today that were not addressed?

[Note to facilitator: Take note of any challenges not addressed and commit to getting back to the participants with some suggested solutions.]

Additional resources

Manager Training: Lead Through Change

Train managers to navigate the interpersonal challenges associated with change management and develop their communication and leadership skills. Upload this LMS module into your learning management system to enable online training.

Manager Training: Build a Better Manager: Manage Your People

Management skills training is needed, but organizations are struggling to provide training that makes a long-term difference in the skills managers use in their day to day.

Many training programs are ineffective because they offer the wrong content, deliver it in a way that is not memorable, and are not aligned with the IT department’s business objectives.

Blueprint: Manage Poor Performance While Working From Home

Assess and improve remote work performance with our ready-to-use tools.

Works Cited

April, Richard. “10 KPIs Every Sales Manager Should Measure in 2019.” HubSpot, 24 June 2019. Web.

Banerjea, Peter. “5 Powerful Strategies for Managing a Remote Sales Team.” Badger - Maps for field sales, n.d. Web.

Bibby, Adrianne. “5 Employers’ Awesome Quotes about Work Flexibility.” FlexJobs, 9 January 2017. Web.

Brogie, Frank. “The 14 KPIs every field sales rep should strive to improve.” Repsly, 2018. Web.

Dunn, Julie. “5 smart tips for leading field sales teams.” LevelEleven, March 2015. Web.

Edinger, Scott. “How great sales leaders coach.” Forbes, 2013. Web.

“Employee Outlook: Employee Views on Working Life.” CIPD, April 2016. Web.

Hall, Becki. “The 5 biggest challenges facing remote workers (and how to solve them).” interact, 7 July 2017. Web.

Hofstede, Geert. “National Cultural Dimensions.” Hofstede Insights, 2012. Web.

“Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks: 1990-2014 (EPA 430-R-16-002).” Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), 15 April 2016.

“Latest Telecommuting Statistics.” Global Workplace Analytics, June 2021. Web.

Knight, Rebecca. “How to manage remote direct reports.” Harvard Business Review, 2015. Web.

“Rewards and Recognition: 5 ways to show remote worker appreciation.” FurstPerson, 2019. Web.

Palay, Jonathan. "How to build your sales management cadence." CommercialTribe, 22 March 2018. Web.

“Sales Activity Management Matrix.” Asian Sales Guru, 2019. Web.

Smith, Simone. “9 Things to Consider When Recognizing Remote Employees.” hppy, 2018. Web.

“State of Remote Work 2017.” OWL Labs, 2021. Web.

“State of the American Workplace.” Gallup, 2017. Web.

“Telework Savings Potential.” Global Workplace Analytics, June 2021. Web.

“The Future of Jobs Employment Trends.” World Economic Forum, 2016. Web.

“The other COVID-19 crisis: Mental health.” Qualtrics, 14 April 2020. Web.

Thompson, Dan. “The straightforward truth about effective sales leadership.” Sales Hacker, 2017. Web.

Tsipursky, Gleb. “Remote Work Can Be Better for Innovation Than In-Person Meetings.” Scientific American, 14 Oct. 2021. Web.

Walsh, Kim. “New sales manager? Follow this guide to crush your first quarter.” HubSpot, May 2019. Web.

“What Leaders Need to Know about Remote Workers: Surprising Differences in Workplace Happiness and Relationships.” TINYpulse, 2016.

Zenger, Jack, and Joe Folkman. “Feedback: The Leadership Conundrum.” Talent Quarterly: The Feedback Issue, 2015.

Contributors

Anonymous CAMH Employee

Master Organizational Change Management Practices

PMOs, if you don't know who is responsible for org change, it's you.

Analyst Perspective

Don’t leave change up to chance.

"Organizational change management has been a huge weakness for IT departments and business units, putting projects and programs at risk – especially large, complex, transformational projects.

During workshops with clients, I find that the root of this problem is twofold: project planning tends to fixate on technology and neglects the behavioral and cultural factors that inhibit user adoption; further, accountabilities for managing change and helping to realize the intended business outcomes post-project are not properly defined.

It makes sense for the PMO to be the org-change leader. In project ecosystems where no one seems willing to seize this opportunity, the PMO can take action and realize the benefits and accolades that will come from coordinating and consistently driving successful project outcomes."

Matt Burton,

Senior Manager, Project Portfolio Management

Info-Tech Research Group

Our understanding of the problem

This Research is Designed For:

• PMO Directors who need to improve user adoption rates and maximize benefits on project and program activity.
• CIOs who are accountable for IT’s project spend and need to ensure an appropriate ROI on project investments.

This Research Will Help You:

• Define change management roles and accountabilities among project stakeholders.
• Prepare end users for change impacts in order to improve adoption rates.
• Ensure that the intended business outcomes of projects are more effectively realized.
• Develop an organizational change management toolkit and best practices playbook.

This Research Will Also Assist:

• Project managers and change managers who need to plan and execute changes affecting people and processes.
• Project sponsors who want to improve benefits attainment.
• Business analysts who need to analyze the impact of change.

This Research Will Help Them:

• Develop communications and training plans tailored to specific audiences.
  • Identify strategies to manage cultural and behavioral change.
• Maximize project benefits by ensuring changes are adopted.
• Capitalize upon opportunities and mitigate risks.

Drive organizational change from the PMO

Situation

• As project management office (PMO) leader, you oversee a portfolio of projects that depend heavily on users and stakeholders adopting new tools, complying with new policies, following new processes, and learning new skills.
• You need to facilitate the organizational change resulting from these projects, ensuring that the intended business outcomes are realized.

Complication

• While IT takes accountability to deliver the change, accountability for the business outcomes is opaque with little or no allocated resourcing.
• Project management practices focus more on the timely implementation of projects than on the achievement of the desired outcomes thereafter or on the behavioral and cultural factors that inhibit change from taking hold in the long term.

Resolution

• Plan for human nature. To ensure project success and maximize benefits, plan and facilitate the non-technical aspects of organizational change by addressing the emotional, behavioral, and cultural factors that foster stakeholder resistance and inhibit user adoption.
• Make change management as ubiquitous as change itself. Foster a project culture that is proactive about OCM. Create a process where OCM considerations are factored in as early as project ideation and change is actively managed throughout the project lifecycle, including after the project has closed.
• Equip project leaders with the right tools to foster adoption. Effective OCM requires an actionable toolkit that will help plant the seeds for organizational change. With the right tools and templates, the PMO can function as a hub for change, helping business units and project teams to consistently achieve project and post-project success.

Info-Tech Insight

Make your PMO the change leader it’s already expected to be. Unless accountabilities for organizational change management (OCM) have been otherwise explicitly defined, you should accept that, to the rest of the organization – including its chief officers – the PMO is already assumed to be the change leader.

Don’t shy away from or neglect this role. It’s not just the business outcomes of the organization’s projects that will benefit; the long-term sustainability of the PMO itself will be significantly strengthened by making OCM a core competency.

Completed projects aren’t necessarily successful projects

The constraints that drive project management (time, scope, and budget) are insufficient for driving the overall success of project efforts.

For instance, a project may come in on time, on budget, and in scope, but…

• …if users and stakeholders fail to adopt…
• …and the intended benefits are not achieved…

…then that “successful project” represents a massive waste of the organization’s time and resources.

A supplement to project management is needed to ensure that the intended value is realized.

Mission (Not) Accomplished

50% Fifty percent of respondents in a KPMG survey indicated that projects fail to achieve what they originally intended. (Source: NZ Project management survey)

56% Only fifty-six percent of strategic projects meet their original business goals. (Source: PMI)

70% Lack of user adoption is the main cause for seventy percent of failed projects. (Source: Collins, 2013)

Improve project outcomes with organizational change management

Make “completed” synonymous with “successfully completed” by implementing an organizational change management strategy through the PMO.

Organizational change management is the practice through which the PMO can improve user adoption rates and maximize project benefits.

Why OCM effectiveness correlates to project success:

• IT projects are justified because they will make money, save money, or make people happier.
• Project benefits can only be realized when changes are successfully adopted or accommodated by the organization.

Without OCM, IT might finish the project but fail to realize the intended outcomes.

In the long term, a lack of OCM could erode IT’s ability to work with the business.

What is organizational change management?

OCM is a framework for managing the introduction of new business processes and technologies to ensure stakeholder adoption.

OCM involves tools, templates, and processes that are intended to help project leaders analyze the impacts of a change during the planning phase, engage stakeholders throughout the project lifecycle, as well as train and transition users towards the new technologies and processes being implemented.

OCM is a separate body of knowledge, but as a practice it is inseparable from both project management or business analysis.

WHEN IS OCM NEEDED?

Anytime you are starting a project or program that will depend on users and stakeholders to give up their old way of doing things, change will force people to become novices again, leading to lost productivity and added stress.

CM can help improve project outcomes on any project where you need people to adopt new tools and procedures, comply with new policies, learn new skills and behaviors, or understand and support new processes.

"What is the goal of change management? Getting people to adopt a new way of doing business." – BA, Natural Resources Company

The benefits of OCM range from more effective project execution to improved benefits attainment

82% of CEOs identify organizational change management as a priority. (D&B Consulting) But Only 18% of organizations characterize themselves as “Highly Effective” at OCM. (PMI)

On average, 95% percent of projects with excellent OCM meet or exceed their objectives. (Prosci) VS For projects with poor OCM, the number of projects that meet objectives drops to 15%. (Prosci)

82% of projects with excellent OCM practices are completed on budget. (Prosci) VS For projects with poor OCM, the number of projects that stay on budget drops to 51%. (Prosci)

71% of projects with excellent OCM practices stay on schedule. (Prosci) VS For projects with poor OCM practices, only 16% stay on schedule. (Prosci)

While critical to project success, OCM remains one of IT’s biggest weaknesses and process improvement gaps

IT Processes Ranked by Effectiveness:

27. Risk Management
28. Knowledge Management
29. Release Management
30. Innovation
31. IT Governance
32. Enterprise Architecture
33. Quality Management
34. Data Architecture
35. Application Development Quality
36. Data Quality
37. Portfolio Management
38. Configuration Management
39. Application Portfolio Management
40. Business Process Controls Internal Audit
41. Organizational Change Management
42. Application Development Throughput
43. Business Intelligence Reporting
44. Performance Measurement
45. Manage Service Catalog

IT Processes Ranked by Importance:

27. Enterprise Application Selection & Implementation
28. Organizational Change Management
29. Data Architecture
30. Quality Management
31. Enterprise Architecture
32. Business Intelligence Reporting
33. Release Management
34. Portfolio Management
35. Application Maintenance
36. Asset Management
37. Vendor Management
38. Application Portfolio Management
39. Innovation
40. Business Process Controls Internal Audit
41. Configuration Management
42. Performance Measurement
43. Application Development Quality
44. Application Development Throughput
45. Manage Service Catalog

Based on 3,884 responses to Info-Tech’s Management and Governance Diagnostic, June 2016

There’s no getting around it: change is hard

While the importance of change management is widely recognized across organizations, the statistics around change remain dismal.

Indeed, it’s an understatement to say that change is difficult.

People are generally – in the near-term at least – resistant to change, especially large, transformational changes that will impact the day-to-day way of doing things, or that involve changing personal values, social norms, and other deep-seated assumptions.

"There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things." – Niccolo Machiavelli

70% - Change failure rates are extremely high. It is estimated that up to seventy percent of all change initiatives fail – a figure that has held steady since the 1990s. (McKinsey & Company)

25% - In a recent survey of 276 large and midsize organizations, only twenty-five percent of respondents felt that the gains from projects were sustained over time. (Towers Watson)

22% - While eighty-seven percent of survey respondents trained their managers to “manage change,” only 22% felt the training was truly effective. (Towers Watson)

While change is inherently difficult, the biggest obstacle to OCM success is a lack of accountability

Who is accountable for change success? …anyone?...

To its peril, OCM commonly falls into a grey area, somewhere in between project management and portfolio management, and somewhere in between being a concern of IT and a concern of the business.

While OCM is a separate discipline from project management, it is commonly thought that OCM is something that project managers and project teams do. While in some cases this might be true, it is far from a universal truth.

The end result: without a centralized approach, accountabilities for key OCM tasks are opaque at best – and the ball for these tasks is, more often than not, dropped altogether.

29% - Twenty-nine percent of change initiatives are launched without any formal OCM plan whatsoever.

"That’s 29 percent of leaders with blind faith in the power of prayer to Saint Jude, the patron saint of desperate cases and lost causes." – Torben Rick

Bring accountability to org-change by facilitating the winds of change through the PMO

Lasting organizational change requires a leader. Make it the PMO.

#1 Organizational resistance to change is cited as the #1 challenge to project success that PMOs face. (Source: PM Solutions)

90% Companies with mature PMOs that effectively manage change meet expectations 90% of the time. (Source: Jacobs-Long)

Why the PMO?

A centralized approach to OCM is most effective, and the PMO is already a centralized project office and is already accountable for project outcomes.

What’s more, in organizations where accountabilities for OCM are not explicitly defined, the PMO will likely already be assumed to be the default change leader by the wider organization.

It makes sense for the PMO to accept this accountability – in the short term at least – and claim the benefits that will come from coordinating and consistently driving successful project outcomes.

In the long term, OCM leadership will help the PMO to become a strategic partner with the executive layer and the business side.

Short-term gains made by the PMO can be used to spark dialogues with those who authorize project spending and have the implicit fiduciary obligation to drive project benefits.

Ultimately, it’s their job to explicitly transfer that obligation, along with the commensurate resourcing and authority for OCM activities.

More than a value-added service, OCM competencies will soon determine the success of the PMO itself

Given the increasingly dynamic nature of market conditions, the need for PMOs to provide change leadership on projects large and small is becoming a necessity.

"With organizations demanding increasing value, PMOs will need to focus more and more on strategy, innovation, agility, and stakeholder engagement. And, in particular, developing expertise in organizational change management will be essential to their success." – PM Solutions, 2014

28% PMOs that are highly agile and able to respond quickly to changing conditions are 28% more likely to successfully complete strategic initiatives (69% vs. 41%). (PMI)

In other words, without heightened competencies around org-change, the PMO of tomorrow will surely sink like a stone in the face of increasingly unstable external factors and accelerated project demands.

Use Info-Tech’s road-tested OCM toolkit to transform your PMO into a hub of change management leadership

With the advice and tools in Info-Tech’s Drive Organizational Change from the PMO blueprint, the PMO can provide the right OCM expertise at each phase of a project.

Info-Tech’s approach to OCM is a practical/tactical adaptation of several successful models

Business strategy-oriented OCM models such as John Kotter’s 8-Step model assume the change agent is in a position of senior leadership, able to shape corporate vision, culture, and values.

• PMO leaders can work with business leaders, but ultimately can’t decide where to take the organization.
• Work with business leaders to ensure IT-enabled change helps reinforce the organization’s target vision and culture.

General-purpose OCM frameworks such as ACMP’s Standard for Change Management, CMI’s CMBoK, and Prosci’s ADKAR model are very comprehensive and need to be configured to PMO-specific initiatives.

• Tailoring a comprehensive, general-purpose framework to PMO-enabled change requires familiarity and experience.

References and Further Reading

• COBIT
• ADKAR (Prosci)
• Standard for Change Management (ACMP)
• CMBoK (CMI)
• Kotter’s 8 Principles
• Managing Transitions
• Kubler-Ross Curve
• The Classic Change Curve
• Switch and The Rider Elephant War

Info-Tech’s organizational change management model adapts the best practices from a wide range of proven models and distills it into a step-by-step process that can be applied to any IT-enabled project.

Info-Tech’s OCM research is COBIT aligned and a cornerstone in our IT Management & Governance Framework

COBIT 5 is the leading framework for the governance and management of enterprise IT.

Screenshot of Info-Tech’s IT Management & Governance Framework.

Consider Info-Tech’s additional key observations

Human behavior is largely a blind spot during the planning phase.

In IT especially, project planning tends to fixate on technology and underestimate the behavioral and cultural factors that inhibit user adoption. Whether change is project-specific or continuous, it’s more important to instill the desire to change than to apply specific tools and techniques. Accountability for instilling this desire should start with the project sponsor, with direct support from the PMO.

Don’t mistake change management for a “soft” skill.

Persuading people to change requires a “soft,” empathetic approach to keep them motivated and engaged. But don’t mistake “soft” for easy. Managing the people part of change is amongst the toughest work there is, and it requires a comfort and competency with uncertainty, ambiguity, and conflict. If a change initiative is going to be successful (especially a large, transformational change), this tough work needs to be done – and the more impactful the change, the earlier it is done, the better.

In “continuous change” environments, change still needs to be managed.

Transformation and change are increasingly becoming the new normal. While this normality may help make people more open to change in general, specific changes still need to be planned, communicated, and managed. Agility and continuous improvement are good, but can degenerate into volatility if change isn’t managed properly. People will perceive change to be volatile and undesirable if their expectations aren’t managed through communications and engagement planning.

Info-Tech’s centralized approach to OCM is cost effective, with a palpable impact on project ROI

Info-Tech’s Drive Organizational Change from the PMO blueprint can be implemented quickly and can usually be done with the PMO’s own authority, without the need for additional or dedicated change resources.

Implementation Timeline

• Info-Tech’s easy-to-navigate OCM tools can be employed right away, when your project is already in progress.
• A full-scale implementation of a PMO-driven OCM program can be accomplished in 3–4 weeks.

Implementation Personnel

• Primary: the PMO director (should budget 10%–15% of her/his project capacity for OCM activities).
• Secondary: other PMO staff (e.g. project managers, business analysts, etc.).

OCM Implementation Costs

15% - The average costs for effective OCM are 10%–15% of the overall project budget. (AMR Research)

Average OCM Return-on-Investment

200% - Small projects with excellent OCM practices report a 200% return-on-investment. (Change First)

650% - Large projects with excellent OCM practices report a 650% return-on-investment. (Change First)

Company saves 2–4 weeks of time and $10,000 in ERP implementation through responsible OCM

CASE STUDY

Industry Manufacturing

Source Info-Tech Client

Situation

A medium-sized manufacturing company with offices all over the world was going through a consolidation of processes and data by implementing a corporate-wide ERP system to replace the fragmented systems that were previously in place. The goal was to have consistency in process, expectations, and quality, as well as improve efficiency in interdepartmental processes.

Up to this point, every subsidiary was using their own system to track data and sharing information was complicated and slow. It was causing key business opportunities to be compromised or even lost.

Complication

The organization was not very good in closing out projects. Initiatives went on for too long, and the original business benefits were usually not realized.

The primary culprit was recognized as mismanaged organizational change. People weren’t aware early enough, and were often left out of the feedback process.

Employees often felt like changes were being dictated to them, and they didn’t understand the wider benefits of the changes. This led to an unnecessary number of resistors, adding to the complexity of successfully completing a project.

Resolution

Implementing an ERP worldwide was something that the company couldn’t gamble on, so proper organizational change management was a focus.

A thorough stakeholder analysis was done, and champions were identified for each stakeholder group throughout the organization.

Involving these champions early gave them the time to work within their groups and to manage expectations. The result was savings of 2–4 weeks of implementation time and $10,000.

Follow Info-Tech’s blueprint to transform your PMO into a hub for organizational change management

Prepare the PMO for Change Leadership

• Assess the organization’s readiness for change.
  • Perform an OCM capabilities assessment.
  • Chart an OCM roadmap for the PMO.
  • Undergo a change management SWOT analysis.
  • Define success criteria.
  • Org. Change Capabilities Assessment
• Define the structure and scope of the PMO’s pilot OCM initiative.
  • Determine pilot OCM project.
  • Estimate OCM effort.
  • Document high-level project details.
  • Establish a timeline for org-change activities.
  • Assess available resources to support the PMO’s OCM initiative.
  • Project Level Assessment

Plant the Seeds for Change During Project Planning and Initiation

• Foster OCM considerations during the ideation phase.
  • 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
  • Transition Team Communications Template
• Perform an organizational change impact assessment.
  • Perform change impact survey.
  • Assess the depth of impact for the stakeholder group.
  • Determine overall adoptability of the OCM effort.
  • Review risks and opportunities.
  • Org. Change Management Impact Analysis Tool

Facilitate Change Adoption Throughout the Organization

• Ensure stakeholders are engaged and ready for change.
  • Involve the right people in change and define roles.
  • Define methods for obtaining stakeholder input.
  • Perform a stakeholder analysis.
  • Stakeholder Engagement Workbook
• Develop and execute the transition plan.
  • Establish a communications strategy for stakeholder groups.
  • Define the feedback and evaluation process.
  • Assess the full range of support and resistance to change.
  • Develop an objections handling process.
  • Transition Plan Template
• Establish HR and training plans.
  • Assess training needs. Develop training plan.
  • Training Plan

Establish a Post-Project Benefits Attainment Process

• Determine accountabilities for benefits attainment.
  • Conduct a post-implementation review of the 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.
  • Project Benefits Tracking Tool

Solidify the PMO’s Role as Change Leader

• Institute an OCM playbook.
  • Review lessons learned to improve OCM as a core discipline of the PMO.
  • Monitor organizational capacity for change.
  • Define roles and responsibilities for OCM oversight.
  • Formalize the Organizational Change Management Playbook.
  • Assess the value and success of your practices relative to OCM effort and project outcomes.
  • Organizational Change Management Playbook

Info-Tech offers various levels of support to best suit your needs

DIY Toolkit

“Our team has already made this critical project a priority, and we have the time and capability, but some guidance along the way would be helpful.”

Guided Implementation

“Our team knows that we need to fix a process, but we need assistance to determine where to focus. Some check-ins along the way would help keep us on track.”

Workshop

“We need to hit the ground running and get this project kicked off immediately. Our team has the ability to take this over once we get a framework and strategy in place.”

Consulting

“Our team does not have the time or the knowledge to take this project on. We need assistance through the entirety of this project.”

Diagnostics and consistent frameworks used throughout all four options

Drive Organizational Change from the PMO

Workshop overview

Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.

Phase 1

Prepare the PMO for Change Leadership

Phase 1 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 1: Prepare the PMO for Change Leadership

Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 1 week

Step 1.1: Assess the organization’s readiness for change

Start with an analyst kick off call:

• Scoping call to discuss organizational change challenges and the PMO’s role in managing change.

Then complete these activities…

• Perform an assessment survey to define capability levels and chart an OCM roadmap.

With these tools & templates:

• Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment

Step 1.2: Define the structure and scope of the PMO’s pilot OCM initiative

Work with an analyst to:

• Determine the appropriate OCM initiative to pilot over this series of Guided Implementations from the PMO’s project list.

Then complete these activities…

• Rightsize your OCM planning efforts based on project size, timeline, and resource availability.

With these tools & templates:

• Project Level Assessment Tool

Step 1.1: Assess the organization’s readiness for change

Phase 1 - 1.1

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Perform an OCM capabilities assessment.
• Chart an OCM roadmap for the PMO.
• Undergo a change management SWOT analysis.
• Define success criteria.

This step involves the following participants:

• Required: PMO Director
• Recommended: PMO staff, project management staff, and other project stakeholders

Outcomes of this step

• An OCM roadmap for the PMO with specific recommendations.
• An assessment of strengths, weakness, challenges, and threats in terms of the PMO’s role as organizational change leader.
• Success metrics for the PMO’s OCM implementation.

Project leaders who successfully facilitate change are strategic assets in a world of increasing agility and uncertainty

As transformation and change become the new normal, it’s up to PMOs to provide stability and direction during times of transition and turbulence.

Continuous change and transition are increasingly common in organizations in 2016.

A state of constant change can make managing change more difficult in some ways, but easier in others.

• 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).
• People might be more open to change in general, but specific changes still need to be properly planned, communicated, and managed.

By managing organizational change more effectively, the PMO can build credibility to manage both business and IT projects.

"The greatest danger in times of turbulence is not the turbulence; it is to act with yesterday’s logic." – Peter Drucker

In this phase, we will gauge your PMO’s abilities to effectively facilitate change based upon your change management capability levels and your wider organization’s responsiveness to change.

Evaluate your current capabilities for managing organizational change

Start off by ensuring that the PMO is sensitive to the particularities of the organization and that it manages change accordingly.

There are many moving parts involved in successfully realizing an organizational change.

For instance, even with an effective change toolkit and strong leadership support, you may still fail to achieve project benefits due to such factors as a staff environment resistant to change or poor process discipline.

Use Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment to assess your readiness for change across 7 categories:

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

Download Info-Tech’s Organizational Change Management Capabilities Assessment.

• The survey can be completed quickly in 5 to 10 minutes; or, if being done as a group activity, it can take up to 60 minutes or more.
• Based upon your answers, you will get a report of your current change capabilities to help you prioritize your next steps.
• The tool also provides a customized list of Info-Tech recommendations across the seven categories.

Perform Info-Tech’s OCM capabilities questionnaire

1.1.1 Anywhere from 10 to 60 minutes (depending on number of participants)

• The questionnaire on Tab 2 of the Assessment consists of 21 questions across 7 categories.
• The survey can be completed individually, by the PMO director or manager, or – even more ideally – by a group of project and business stakeholders.
• While the questionnaire only takes a few minutes to complete, you may wish to survey a wider swath of business units, especially on such categories as “Cultural Readiness” and “Leadership Support.”

Use the drop downs to indicate the degree to which you agree or disagree with each of the statements in the survey.

Info-Tech Insight

Every organization has some change management capability.

Even if you find yourself in a fledgling or nascent PMO, with no formal change management tools or processes, you can still leverage other categories of change management effectiveness.

If you can, build upon people-related assets like “Organizational Knowledge” and “Cultural Readiness” as you start to hone your OCM toolkit and process.

Review your capability levels and chart an OCM roadmap for your PMO

Tab 3 of the Assessment tool shows your capabilities graph.

• The chart visualizes your capability levels across the seven categories of organization change covered in the questionnaire in order to show the areas that your organization is already strong in and the areas where you need to focus your efforts.

Focus on improving the first capability dimension (from left/front to right/back) that rates below 10.

Tab 4 of the Assessment tool reveals Info-Tech’s recommendations based upon your survey responses.

• Use these recommendations to structure your roadmap and bring concrete definitions to your next steps.

Use the red/yellow/green boxes to focus your efforts.

The content in the recommendations boxes is based around these categories and the advice therein is designed to help you to, in the near term, bring your capabilities up to the next level.

Use the steps in this blueprint to help build your capabilities

Each of Info-Tech’s seven OCM capabilities match up with different steps and phases in this blueprint.

We recommend that you consume this blueprint in a linear fashion, as each phase matches up to a different set of OCM activities to be executed at each phase of a project. However, you can use the legend below to locate how and where this blueprint will address each capability.

Info-Tech Insight

Organizational change must be planned in advance and managed through all phases of a project.

Organizational change management must be embedded as a key aspect throughout the project, not merely a set of tactics added to execution phases.

Perform a change management SWOT exercise

1.1.2 30 to 60 minutes

Now that you have a sense of your change management strengths and weaknesses, you can begin to formalize the organizational specifics of these.

Gather PMO and IT staff, as well as other key project and business stakeholders, and perform a SWOT analysis based on your Capabilities Assessment.

Follow these steps to complete the SWOT analysis:

1. Have participants discuss and identify Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats.
2. Spend roughly 60 minutes on this. Use a whiteboard, flip chart, or PowerPoint slide to document results of the discussion as points are made.
3. Make sure results are recorded and saved either using the template provided on the next slide or by taking a picture of the whiteboard or flip chart.

Use the SWOT Analysis Template on the next slide to document results.

Use the examples provided in the SWOT analysis to kick-start the discussion.

The purpose of the SWOT is to begin to define the goals of this implementation by assessing your change management capabilities and cultivating executive level, business unit, PMO, and IT alignment around the most critical opportunities and challenges.

Sample SWOT Analysis

Define the “how” and the “what” of change management success for your PMO

1.1.3 30 to 60 minutes

Before you move on to develop and implement your OCM processes, spend some time documenting how change management success will be defined for your organization and what conditions will be necessary for success to be achieved.

With the same group of individuals who participated in the SWOT exercise, discuss the below criteria. You can make this a sticky note or a whiteboard activity to help document discussion points.

OCM Measured Value Metrics Include:

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

Document additional items that could impact an OCM implementation for your PMO

1.1.4 15 to 45 minutes

Use the table below to document any additional factors or uncertainties that could impact implementation success.

These could be external factors that may impact the PMO, or they could be logistical considerations pertaining to staffing or infrastructure that may be required to support additional change management processes and procedures.

"[A]ll bets are off when it comes to change. People scatter in all directions. Your past experiences may help in some way, but what you do today and how you do it are the new measures people will use to evaluate you." – Tres Roeder

Step 1.2: Define the structure and scope of the PMO’s pilot OCM initiative

Phase 1 - 1.2

This step will walk you through the following activities:

• Determine pilot OCM project.
• Estimate OCM effort.
• Document high-level project details.
• Establish a timeline for org change activities.
• Assess available resources to support the PMO’s OCM initiative.

This step involves the following participants:

• Required: PMO Director
• Recommended: PMO staff, project management staff, and other project stakeholders

Outcomes of this step

• Project definition for the PMO’s pilot OCM initiative.
• A timeline that aligns the project schedule for key OCM activities.
• Definition of resource availability to support OCM activities through the PMO.

Organizational change discipline should align with project structure

Change management success is contingent on doing the right things at the right time.

In subsequent phases of this blueprint, we will help the PMO develop an OCM strategy that aligns with your organization’s project timelines.

In this step (1.2), we will do some pre-work for you by determining a change initiative to pilot during this process and defining some of the roles and responsibilities for the OCM activities that we’ll develop in this blueprint.

Get ready to develop and pilot your OCM competencies on a specific project

In keeping with the need to align organizational change management activities with the actual timeline of the project, the next three phases of this blueprint will move from discussing OCM in general to applying OCM considerations to a single project.

As you narrow your focus to the organizational change stemming from a specific initiative, review the below considerations to help inform the decisions that you make during the activities in this step.

Choose a pilot project that:

• Has an identifiable sponsor who will be willing and able to participate in the bulk of the activities during the workshop.
• Has an appropriate level of change associated with it in order to adequately develop a range of OCM capabilities.
• Has a reasonably well-defined scope and timeline – you don’t want the pilot initiative being dragged out unexpectedly.
• Has PMO/IT staff who will be assisting with OCM efforts and will be relatively familiar and comfortable with them in terms of technical requirements.

Select a specific project that involves significant organizational change

1.2.1 5 to 15 minutes

The need for OCM rigor will vary depending on project size and complexity.

While we recommend that every project has some aspect of change management to it, you can adjust OCM requirements accordingly, depending on the type of change being introduced.

Phases 2, 3, and 4 of this blueprint will guide you through the process of managing organizational change around a specific project. Select one now that is currently in your request or planning stages to pilot through the activities in this blueprint. We recommend choosing one that involves a large, transformational change.

Estimate the overall difficulty and effort required to manage organizational change

1.2.2 5 minutes

Use Info-Tech’s project levels to define the complexity of the project that you’ve chosen to pilot.

Defining your project level will help determine how much effort and detail is required to complete steps in this blueprint – and, beyond this, these levels can help you determine how much OCM rigor to apply across each of the projects in your portfolio.

For a more comprehensive assessment of project levels and degrees of risk, see Info-Tech’s Create Project Management Success blueprint – and in particular, our Project Level Assessment Tool.

Record the goals and scope of the pilot OCM initiative

1.2.3 15 to 30 minutes

Description

What is the project changing?

How will it work?

What are the implications of doing nothing?

What are the phases in execution?

Expected Benefits

What is the desired outcome?

What can be measured? How?

When should it be measured?

Goals

List the goals.

Align with business and IT goals.

Expected Costs

List the costs:

Software costs

Hardware costs

Implementation costs

Expected Risks

List the risks:

Business risks

Technology risks

Implementation risks

Know the “what” and “when” of org change activities

The key to change management success is ensuring that the right OCM activities are carried out at the right time. The below graphic serves as a quick view of what OCM activities entail and when they should be done.

Rough out a timeline for the org change activities associated with your pilot project’s timeline

1.2.4 20-30 minutes

With reference to the graphic on the previous slide, map out a high-level timeline for your pilot project’s milestones and the corresponding OCM activities.

• This is essentially a first draft of a timeline and will be refined as we develop your OCM discipline in the next phase of this blueprint.
• The purpose of roughing something out at this time is to help determine the scope of the implementation, the effort involved, and to help with resource planning.

Info-Tech Insight

Proactive change management is easier to execute and infinitely more effective than managing change reactively. A reactive approach to OCM is bound to fail. The better equipped the PMO is to plan OCM activities in advance of projects, the more effective those OCM efforts will be.