Further reading
Implement a New IT Organizational Structure
Prioritize quick wins and critical services during IT org changes.
This blueprint is part 3/3 in Info-Tech’s organizational design program and focuses on implementing a new structure
| Part 1: Design |
Part 2: Structure |
Part 3: Implement |
| IT Organizational Architecture |
Organizational Sketch |
Organizational Structure |
Organizational Chart |
Transition Strategy |
Implement Structure |
- Define the organizational design objectives.
- Develop strategically-aligned capability map.
- Create the organizational design framework.
- Define the future state work units.
- Create future state work unit mandates.
|
- Assign work to work units (accountabilities and responsibilities).
- Develop organizational model options (organizational sketches).
- Assess options and select go-forward model.
|
- Define roles by work unit.
- Create role mandates.
- Turn roles into jobs.
- Define reporting relationships between jobs.
- Define competency requirements.
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- Determine number of positions per job.
- Conduct competency assessment.
- Assign staff to jobs.
|
- Form OD implementation team.
- Develop change vision.
- Build communication presentation.
- Identify and plan change projects.
- Develop organizational transition plan.
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- Train managers to lead through change.
- Define and implement stakeholder engagement plan.
- Develop individual transition plans.
- Implement transition plans.
|
| Risk Management: Create, implement, and monitor risk management plan. |
| HR Management: Develop job descriptions, conduct job evaluation, and develop compensation packages. |
Monitor and Sustain Stakeholder Engagement
→
The sections highlighted in green are in scope for this blueprint. Click here for more information on designing or on structuring a new organization.
Our understanding of the problem
This Research is Designed For:
This Research Will Help You:
- Effectively implement a new organizational structure.
- Develop effective communications to minimize turnover and lost productivity during transition.
- Identify a detailed transition strategy to move to your new structure with minimal interruptions to service quality.
- Train managers to lead through change and measure ongoing employee engagement.
This Research Will Also Assist:
This Research Will Help Them:
- Effectively lead through the organizational change.
- Manage difficult conversations with staff and mitigate staff concerns and turnover.
- Build clear transition plans for their teams.
Executive summary
Situation
- Organizational Design (OD) projects are typically undertaken in order to enable organizational priorities, improve IT performance, or to reduce IT costs. However, due to the highly disruptive nature of the change, only 25% of changes achieve their objectives over the long term. (2013 Towers Watson Change and Communication ROI Survey)
Complication
- OD implementations can be highly disruptive for IT staff and business partners. Without a structured approach, IT leaders may experience high turnover, decreased productivity, and resistance to the change.
- CIOs walk a tightrope as they manage the operational and emotional turbulence while aiming to improve business satisfaction within IT. Failure to achieve balance could result in irreparable failure.
Resolution
- Leverage Info-Tech’s organizational design implementation process and deliverables to build and implement a detailed transition strategy and to prepare managers to lead through change. Follow Info-Tech’s 5-step process to:
- Effect change and sustain productivity through real-time employee engagement monitoring.
- Kick off the organizational design implementation with effective communication.
- Build an integrated departmental transition strategy.
- Train managers to effectively lead through change.
- Develop personalized transition plans.
Info-Tech Insight
- Mismanagement will hurt you. The majority of IT organizations do not manage OD implementations effectively, resulting in decreased satisfaction, productivity loss, and increased IT costs.
- Preventing mismanagement is within your control. 72% of change management issues can be directly improved by managers. (Abilla, 2009) IT leaders have a tendency to focus their efforts on operational changes rather than on people. This is a recipe for failure.
Organizational Design Implementation
Managing organizational design (OD) changes effectively is critical to maintaining IT service levels and retaining top talent throughout a restructure. Nevertheless, many organizations fail to invest appropriate consideration and resources into effective OD change planning and execution.
THREE REASONS WHY CIOS NEED TO EFFECTIVELY MANAGE CHANGE:
- Failure is the norm; not the exception. According to a study by Towers Watson, only 55% of organizations experience the initial value of a change. Even fewer organizations, a mere 25%, are actually able to sustain change over time to experience the full expected benefits. (2013 Towers Watson Change and Communication ROI Survey)
- People are the biggest cause of failure. Organizational design changes are one of the most difficult types of changes to manage as staff are often highly resistant. This leads to decreased productivity and poor results. The most significant people challenge is the loss of momentum through the change process which needs to be actively managed.
- Failure costs money. Poor IT OD implementations can result in increased turnover, lost productivity, and decreased satisfaction from the business. Managing the implementation has a clear ROI as the cost of voluntary turnover is estimated to be 150% of an employee’s annual salary. (Inc)
86% of IT leaders believe organization and leadership processes are critical, yet the majority struggle to be effective
PERCENTAGE OF IT LEADERS WHO BELIEVE THEIR ORGANIZATION AND LEADERSHIP PROCESSES ARE HIGHLY IMPORTANT AND HIGHLY EFFECTIVE
GAP BETWEEN IMPORTANCE AND EFFECTIVENESS
Human Resources Management - 61%
Leadership, Culture, Values - 48%
Organizational Change Management - 55%
Organizational Design - 45%
Note: Importance and effectiveness were determined by identifying the percentage of individuals who responded with 8-10/10 to the questions…
- “How important is this process to the organization’s ability to achieve business and IT goals?” and…
- “How effective is this process at helping the organization to achieve business and IT goals?”
Source: Info-Tech Research Group, Management and Governance Diagnostic. N=22,800 IT Professionals
Follow a structured approach to your OD implementation to improve stakeholder satisfaction with IT and minimize risk
- IT reorganizations are typically undertaken to enable strategic goals, improve efficiency and performance, or because of significant changes to the IT budget. Without a structured approach to manage the organizational change, IT might get the implementation done, but fail to achieve the intended benefits, i.e. the operation succeeds, but the patient has died on the table.
- When implementing your new organizational design, it’s critical to follow a structured approach to ensure that you can maintain IT service levels and performance and achieve the intended benefits.
- The impact of organizational structure changes can be emotional and stressful for staff. As such, in order to limit voluntary turnover, and to maintain productivity and performance, IT leaders need to be strategic about how they communicate and respond to resistance to change.
TOP 3 BENEFITS OF FOLLOWING A STRUCTURED APPROACH TO IMPLEMENTING ORGANIZATIONAL DESIGN
- Improved stakeholder satisfaction with IT. A detailed change strategy will allow you to successfully transition staff into new roles with limited service interruptions and with improved stakeholder satisfaction.
- Experience minimal voluntary turnover throughout the change. Know how to actively engage and minimize resistance of stakeholders throughout the change.
- Execute implementation on time and on budget. Effectively managed implementations are 65–80% more likely to meet initial objectives than those with poor organizational change management. (Boxley Group, LLC)
Optimize your organizational design implementation results by actively preparing managers to lead through change
IT leaders have a tendency to make change even more difficult by focusing on operations rather than on people. This is a recipe for failure. People pose the greatest risk to effective implementation and as such, IT managers need to be prepared and trained on how to lead their staff through the change. This includes knowing how to identify and manage resistance, communicating the change, and maintaining positive momentum with staff.
Staff resistance and momentum are the most challenging part of leading through change (McLean & Company, N=196)
Reasons why change fails: 72% of failures can be directly improved by the manager (shmula)
Leverage organizational change management (OCM) best practices for increased OD implementation success
Effective change management correlates with project success
Source: Prosci. From Prosci’s 2012 Best Practices in Change Management benchmarking report.
95% of projects with excellent change management met or EXCEEDED OBJECTIVES, vs. 15% of those with poor OCM. (Prosci)
143% ROI on projects with excellent OCM. In other words, for every dollar spent on the project, the company GAINS 43 CENTS. This is in contrast to 35% ROI on projects with poor OCM. (McKinsey)
Info-Tech’s approach to OD implementation is a practical and tactical adaptation of several successful OCM models
BUSINESS STRATEGY-ORIENTED OCM MODELS. John Kotter’s 8-Step model, for instance, provides a strong framework for transformational change but doesn’t specifically take into account the unique needs of an IT transformation.
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 organizational design implementation-specific initiatives.
COBIT MANAGEMENT PRACTICE BAI05: MANAGE ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE ENABLEMENT follows a structured process for implementing enterprise change quickly. This framework can be adapted to OD implementation; however, it is most effective when augmented with the people and management training elements present in other frameworks.
References and Further Reading
Tailoring a comprehensive, general-purpose OCM framework to an OD implementation requires familiarity and experience. Info-Tech’s OD implementation model adapts the best practices from a wide range of proven OCM models and distills it into a step-by-step process that can be applied to an organizational design transformation.
The following OD implementation symptoms can be avoided through structured planning
IN PREVIOUS ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGES, I’VE EXPERIENCED…
“Difficultly motivating my staff to change.”
“Higher than average voluntary turnover during and following the implementation.”
“An overall sense of staff frustration or decreased employee engagement.”
“Decreased staff productivity and an inability to meet SLAs.”
“Increased overtime caused by being asked to do two jobs at once.”
“Confusion about the reporting structure during the change.”
“Difficulty keeping up with the rate of change and change fatigue from staff.”
“Business partner dissatisfaction about the change and complaints about the lack of effort or care put in by IT employees.”
“Business partners not wanting to adjust to the change and continuing to follow outdated processes.”
“Decrease in stakeholder satisfaction with IT.”
“Increased prevalence of shadow IT during or following the change.”
“Staff members vocally complaining about the IT organization and leadership team.”
Follow this blueprint to develop and execute on your OD implementation
IT leaders often lack the experience and time to effectively execute on organizational changes. Info-Tech’s organizational design implementation program will provide you with the needed tools, templates, and deliverables. Use these insights to drive action plans and initiatives for improvement.
How we can help
- Measure the ongoing engagement of your employees using Info-Tech’s MLI diagnostic. The diagnostic comes complete with easily customizable reports to track and act on employee engagement throughout the life of the change.
- Use Info-Tech’s customizable project management tools to identify all of the critical changes, their impact on stakeholders, and mitigate potential implementation risks.
- Develop an in-depth action plan and transition plans for individual stakeholders to ensure that productivity remains high and that service levels and project expectations are met.
- Align communication with real-time staff engagement data to keep stakeholders motivated and focused throughout the change.
- Use Info-Tech’s detailed facilitation guide to train managers on how to effectively communicate the change, manage difficult stakeholders, and help ensure a smooth transition.
Leverage Info-Tech’s customizable deliverables to execute your organizational design implementation
CUSTOMIZABLE PROJECT DELIVERABLES
1. BUILD A CHANGE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
- McLean Leadership Index: Real-Time Employee Engagement Dashboard
- Organizational Design
- Implementation Kick-Off Presentation
- Organizational Design Implementation FAQ
2. BUILD THE ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSITION PLAN
- Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool
3.1 TRAIN MANAGERS TO LEAD THROUGH CHANGE
3.2 TRANSITION STAFF TO NEW ROLES
- Organizational Design Implementation Manager Training Guide
- Organizational Design Implementation Transition Plan Template
Leverage Info-Tech’s tools and templates to overcome key engagement program implementation challenges
KEY SECTION INSIGHTS:
BUILD A CHANGE COMMUNICATION STRATEGY
Effective organizational design implementations mitigate the risk of turnover and lost productivity through ongoing monitoring and managing of employee engagement levels. Take a data-driven approach to managing engagement with Info-Tech’s real-time MLI engagement dashboard and adjust your communication and implementation strategy before engagement risks become issues.
BUILD THE ORGANIZATIONAL TRANSITION PLAN
Your organizational design implementation is made up of a series of projects and needs to be integrated into your larger project schedule. Too often, organizations attempt to fit the organizational design implementation into their existing schedules which results in poor resource planning, long delays in implementation, and overall poor results.
LEAD STAFF THROUGH THE REORGANIZATION
The majority of IT managers were promoted because they excelled at the technical aspect of their job rather than in people management. Not providing training is setting your organization up for failure. Train managers to effectively lead through change to see a 72% decrease in change management issues. (Abilla, 2009)
METRICS:
- Voluntary turnover: Conduct an exit interview with all staff members during and after transition. Identify any staff members who cite the change as a reason for departure. For those who do leave, multiply their salary by 1.5% (the cost of a new hire) and track this over time.
-
Business satisfaction trends: Conduct CIO Business Vision one year prior to the change vs. one year after change kick-off. Prior to the reorganization, set metrics for each category for six months after the reorganization, and one year following.
- Saved development costs: Number of hours to develop internal methodology, tools, templates, and process multiplied by the salary of the individual.
Use this blueprint to save 1–3 months in implementing your new organizational structure
| |
Time and Effort Using Blueprint |
Without Blueprint |
| Assess Current and Ongoing Engagement |
1 person |
½ day – 4 weeks |
1–2 hours for diagnostic set up (allow extra 4 weeks to launch and review initial results). |
High Value |
4–8 weeks |
| Set Up the Departmental Change Workbooks |
1–5 people |
1 day |
4–5 hours (varies based on the scope of the change). |
Medium Value |
1–2 weeks |
| Design Transition Strategy |
1–2 people |
1 day |
2–10 hours of implementation team’s time. |
Medium Value |
0–2 weeks |
| Train Managers to Lead Through Change |
1–5 people |
1–2 weeks |
1–2 hours to prepare training (allow for 3–4 hours per management team to execute). |
High Value |
3–5 weeks |
These estimates are based on reviews with Info-Tech clients and our experience creating the blueprint.
Totals:
Workshop: 1 week
GI/DIY: 2-6 weeks
Time and Effort Saved: 8-17 weeks
CIO uses holistic organizational change management strategies to overcome previous reorganization failures
CASE STUDY
Industry: Manufacturing
Source: Client interview
Problem
When the CIO of a large manufacturing company decided to undertake a major reorganization project, he was confronted with the stigma of a previous CIO’s attempt. Senior management at the company were wary of the reorganization since the previous attempt had failed and cost a lot of money. There was major turnover since staff were not happy with their new roles costing $250,000 for new hires. The IT department saw a decline in their satisfaction scores and a 10% increase in help desk tickets. The reorganization also cost the department $400,000 in project rework.
Solution
The new CIO used organizational change management strategies in order to thoroughly plan the implementation of the new organizational structure. The changes were communicated to staff in order to improve adoption, every element of the change was mapped out, and the managers were trained to lead their staff through the change.
Results
The reorganization was successful and eagerly adopted by the staff. There was no turnover after the new organizational structure was implemented and the engagement levels of the staff remained the same.
$250,000 - Cost of new hires and salary changes
10% - Increase in help desk tickets
$400,000 - Cost of project delays due to the poorly effective implementation of changes
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
Implement a New Organizational Structure
| |
|
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3. Lead Staff Through the Reorganization |
| |
1. Build a Change Communication Strategy |
2. Build the Organizational Transition Plan |
3.1 Train Managers to Lead Through Change |
3.2 Transition Staff to New Roles |
| Best-Practice Toolkit |
1.1 Launch the McLean Leadership Index to set a baseline.
1.2 Establish your implementation team.
1.3 Build your change communication strategy and change vision. |
2.1 Build a holistic list of change projects.
2.2 Monitor and track the progress of your change projects. |
3.1.1 Conduct a workshop with managers to prepare them to lead through the change.
3.1.2 Build stakeholder engagement plans and conduct conflict style self-assessments. |
3.2.1 Build transition plans for each of your staff members.
3.2.2 Transition your staff to their new roles. |
| Guided Implementations |
- Set up your MLI Survey.
- Determine the members and roles of your implementation team.
- Review the components of a change communication strategy.
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- Review the change dimensions and how they are used to plan change projects.
- Review the list of change projects.
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- Review the materials and practice conducting the workshop.
- Debrief after conducting the workshop.
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- Review the individual transition plan and the process for completing it.
- Final consultation before transitioning staff to their new roles.
|
| Onsite Workshop |
Module 1: Effectively communicate the reorganization to your staff. |
Module 2: Build the organizational transition plan. |
Module 3.1: Train your managers to lead through change. |
Module 3.2: Complete your transition plans |
| |
Phase 1 Results:
- Plans for effectively communicating with your staff.
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Phase 2 Results:
- A holistic view of the portfolio of projects required for a successful reorg
|
Phase 3.1 Results:
- A management team that is capable of leading their staff through the reorganization
|
Phase 3.2 Results:
- Completed transition plans for your entire staff.
|
Workshop overview
Contact your account representative or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.
| |
Workshop Day 1 |
Workshop Day 2 |
Workshop Day 3 |
Workshop Day 4 |
Workshop Day 5 |
| Activities |
Build Your Change Project Plan
1.1 Review the new organizational structure.
1.2 Determine the scope of your organizational changes.
1.3 Review your MLI results.
1.4 Brainstorm a list of projects to enable the change. |
Finalize Change Project Plan
2.1 Brainstorm the tasks that are contained within the change projects.
2.2 Determine the resource allocation for the projects.
2.3 Understand the dependencies of the projects.
2.4 Create a progress monitoring schedule |
Enlist Your Implementation Team
3.1 Determine the members that are best suited for the team.
3.2 Build a RACI to define their roles.
3.3 Create a change vision.
3.4 Create your change communication strategy. |
Train Your Managers to Lead Through Change
4.1 Conduct the manager training workshop with managers.
4.2 Review the stakeholder engagement plans.
4.3 Review individual transition plan template with managers |
Build Your Transition Plans
5.1 Bring managers back in to complete transition plans.
5.2 Revisit new organizational design as a source for information.
5.3 Complete aspects of the template that do not require feedback.
5.4 Discuss strategies for transitioning. |
| Deliverables |
- McLean Leadership Index Dashboard
- Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool
|
- Completed Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool
|
- Communication Strategy
|
- Stakeholder Engagement Plans
- Conflict Style Self-Assessments
- Organizational Design Implementation Transition Plan Template
|
- Organizational Design Implementation Transition Plan Template
|
Phase 1
Build a Change Communication Strategy
Build a change communication strategy
Outcomes of this Section:
- Launch the McLean Leadership Index
- Define your change team
- Build your reorganization kick-off presentation and FAQ for staff and business stakeholders
This section involves the following participants:
- CIO
- IT leadership team
- IT staff
Key Section Insight:
Effective organizational design implementations mitigate the risk of turnover and lost productivity through ongoing monitoring of employee engagement levels. Take a data-driven approach to managing engagement with Info-Tech’s real-time MLI engagement dashboard and adjust your communication and implementation strategy in real-time before engagement risks become issues.
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: Build a Change Communication Strategy
Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 1-6 weeks
Step 1.1: Launch Your McLean Leadership Index Survey
Start with an analyst kick off call:
- Discuss the benefits and uses of the MLI.
- Go over the required information (demographics, permissions, etc.).
- Set up a live demo of the survey.
Then complete these activities…
- Launch the survey with your staff.
- Have a results call with a member of the Info-Tech staff.
With these tools & templates:
McLean Leadership Index
Step 1.2: Establish Your Implementation Team
Review findings with analyst:
- Review what members of your department should participate.
- Build a RACI to determine the roles of your team members.
Then complete these activities…
- Hold a kick-off meeting with your new implementation team.
- Build the RACI for your new team members and their roles.
Step 1.3: Build Your Change Communication Strategy
Finalize phase deliverable:
- Customize your reorganization kick-off presentation.
- Create your change vision. Review the communication strategy.
Then complete these activities…
- Hold your kick-off presentation with staff members.
- Launch the reorganization communications.
With these tools & templates:
- Organizational Design Implementation Kick-Off Presentation
- Organizational Design Implementation FAQ
Set the stage for the organizational design implementation by effectively introducing and communicating the change to staff
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 and communication aspects around the change are amongst the toughest work there is, and require a comfort and competency with uncertainty, ambiguity, and conflict.
| Design |
Engagement |
Transition |
| Communication |
Communication and engagement are the chains linking your design to transition. If the organizational design initiative is going to be successful it is critical that you manage this effectively. The earlier you begin planning the better. The more open and honest you are about the change the easier it will be to maintain engagement levels, business satisfaction, and overall IT productivity.
Kick-Off Presentation Inputs
- LAUNCH THE MCLEAN LEADERSHIP INDEX
- IDENTIFY YOUR CHANGE TEAM
- DETERMINE CHANGE TEAM RESPONSIBILITIES
- DEVELOP THE CHANGE VISION
- DEFINE KEY MESSAGES AND GOALS
- IDENTIFY MAJOR CHANGES
- IDENTIFY KEY MILESTONES
- BUILD AND MAINTAIN A CHANGE FAQ
Use the MLI engagement dashboard to measure your current state and the impact of the change in real-time
The McLean Leadership Index diagnostic is a low-effort, high-impact program that provides real-time metrics on staff engagement levels. Use these insights to understand your employees’ engagement levels throughout the organizational design implementation to measure the impact of the change and to manage turnover and productivity levels throughout the implementation.
WHY CARE ABOUT ENGAGEMENT DURING THE CHANGE? ENGAGED EMPLOYEES REPORT:
39% Higher intention to stay at the organization.
29% Higher performance and increased likelihood to work harder and longer hours. (Source: McLean and Company N=1,308 IT Employees)
Why the McLean Leadership Index?
Based on the Net Promoter Score (NPS), the McLean Leadership Index is one question asked monthly to assess engagement at various points in time.
Individuals responding to the MLI question with a 9 or 10 are your Promoters and are most positive and passionate. Those who answer 7 or 8 are Passives while those who answer 0 to 6 are Detractors.
Track your engagement distribution using our online dashboard to view MLI data at any time and view results based on teams, locations, manager, tenure, age, and gender. Assess the reactions to events and changes in real-time, analyze trends over time, and course-correct.
Dashboard reports: Know your staff’s overall engagement and top priorities
McLean Leadership Index
OVERALL ENGAGEMENT RESULTS
You get:
- A clear breakdown of your detractors, passives, and promotors.
- To view results by team, location, and individual manager.
- To dig deeper into results by reviewing results by age, gender, and tenure at the organization to effectively identify areas where engagement is weak.
TIME SERIES TRENDS
You get:
- View of changes in engagement levels for each team, location, and manager.
- Breakdown of trends weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly.
- To encourage leaders to monitor results to analyze root causes for changes and generate improvement initiatives.
QUALITATIVE COMMENTS
You get:
- To view qualitative comments provided by staff on what is impacting their engagement.
- To reply directly to comments without impacting the anonymity of the individuals making the comments.
- To leverage trends in the comments to make changes to communication approaches.
Launch the McLean Leadership Index in under three weeks
Info-Tech’s dedicated team of program managers will facilitate this diagnostic program remotely, providing you with a convenient, low-effort, high-impact experience.
We will guide you through the process with your goals in mind to deliver deep insight into your successes and areas to improve.
What You Need To Do:
- Contact Info-Tech to launch the program and test the functionality in a live demo.
- Identify demographics and set access permissions.
- Complete manager training with assistance from Info-Tech Advisors.
- Participate in a results call with an Info-Tech Advisor to review results and develop an action plan.
Info-Tech’s Program Manager Will:
- Collect necessary inputs and generate your custom dashboard.
- Launch, maintain, and support the online system in the field.
- Send out a survey to 25% of the staff each week.
- Provide ongoing support over the phone, and the needed tools and templates to communicate and train staff as well as take action on results.
Explore your initial results in a one-hour call with an Executive Advisor to fully understand the results and draw insights from the data so you can start your action plan.
Start Your Diagnostic Now
We'll help you get set up as soon as you're ready.
Start Now
Communication has a direct impact on employee engagement; measure communication quality using your MLI results
(McLean & Company, 2015 N=17,921)
A clear relationship exists between how effective a manager’s communication is perceived to be and an employee’s level of engagement. If engagement drops, circle back with employees to understand the root causes.
Establish an effective implementation team to drive the organizational change
The implementation team is responsible for developing and disseminating information around the change, developing the transition strategy, and for the ongoing management of the changes.
The members of the implementation team should include:
- CIO
- Current IT leadership team
- Project manager
- Business relationship managers
- Human resources advisor
Don’t be naïve – building and executing the implementation plan will require a significant time commitment from team members. Too often, organizations attempt to “fit it in” to their existing schedules resulting in poor planning, long delays, and overall poor results. Schedule this work like you would a project.
TOP 3 TIPS FOR DEFINING YOUR IMPLEMENTATION TEAM
- Select a Project Manager. Info-Tech strongly recommends having one individual accountable for key project management activities. They will be responsible for keeping the project on time and maintaining a holistic view of the implementation.
- Communication with Business Partners is Critical. If you have Business Relationship Managers (BRMs), involve them in the communication planning or assign someone to play this role. You need your business partners to be informed and bought in to the implementation to maintain satisfaction.
- Enlist Your “Volunteer Army.” (Kotter’s 8 Principles) If you have an open culture, Info-Tech encourages you to have an extended implementation team made up of volunteers interested in supporting the change. Their role will be to support the core group, assist in planning, and communicate progress with peers.
Determine the roles of your implementation team members
1.1 30 Minutes
Input
- Implementation team members
Output
- RACI for key transition elements
Materials
Participants
- Core implementation committee
- Each member should be actively engaged in all elements of the organizational design implementation. However, it’s important to have one individual who is accountable for key activities and ensures they are done effectively and measured.
- Review the chart below and as a group, brainstorm any additional key change components.
- For each component listed below, identify who is Accountable, Responsible, Consulted, and Informed for each (suggested responsibility below).
| |
CIO |
IT Leaders |
PM |
BRM |
HR |
| Communication Plan |
A |
R |
R |
R |
C |
| Employee Engagement |
A |
R |
R |
R |
C |
Departmental Transition Plan |
R |
A |
R |
I |
R |
| Organizational Transition Plan |
R |
R |
A |
I |
C |
| Manager Training |
A |
R |
R |
I |
C |
Individual Transition Plans |
R |
A |
R |
I |
I |
| Technology and Logistical Changes |
R |
R |
A |
I |
I |
| Hiring |
A |
R |
I |
I |
R |
| Learning and Development |
R |
A |
R |
R |
R |
| Union Negotiations |
R |
I |
I |
I |
A |
| Process Development |
R |
R |
A |
R |
I |
Fast-track your communication planning with Info-Tech’s Organizational Design Implementation Kick-Off Presentation
Organizational Design Implementation Kick-Off Presentation
Communicate what’s important to your staff in a simple, digestible way. The communication message should reflect what is important to your stakeholders and what they want to know at the time.
- Why is this change happening?
- What are the goals of the reorganization?
- What specifically is changing?
- How will this impact me?
- When is this changing?
- How and where can I get more information?
It’s important that the tone of the meeting suits the circumstances.
- If the reorganization is going to involve lay-offs: The meeting should maintain a positive feel, but your key messages should stress the services that will be available to staff, when and how people will be communicated with about the change, and who staff can go to with concerns.
- If the reorganization is to enable growth: Focus on celebrating where the organization is going, previous successes, and stress that the staff are critical in enabling team success.
Modify the Organizational Design ImplementationKick-Off Presentation with your key messages and goals
1.2 1 hour
Input
- New organizational structure
Output
- Organizational design goal statements
Materials
- Whiteboard & marker
- ODI Kick-off Presentation
Participants
- Within your change implementation team, hold a meeting to identify and document the change goals and key messages.
- As a group, discuss what the key drivers were for the organizational redesign by asking yourselves what problem you were trying to solve.
- Select 3–5 key problem statements and document them on a whiteboard.
- For each problem statement, identify how the new organizational design will allow you to solve those problems.
- Document these in your Organizational Design Implementation Kick-Off Presentation.
Modify the presentation with your unique change vision to serve as the center piece of your communication strategy
1.3 1 hour
Input
Output
Materials
- Sticky notes
- Pens
- Voting dots
Participants
- Hold a meeting with the change implementation team to define your change vision. The change vision should provide a picture of what the organization will look like after the organizational design is implemented. It should represent the aspirational goal, and be something that staff can all rally behind.
- Hand out sticky notes and ask each member to write down on one note what they believe is the #1 desired outcome from the organizational change and one thing that they are hoping to avoid (you may wish to use your goal statements to drive this).
- As a group, review each of the sticky notes and group similar statements in categories. Provide each individual with 3 voting dots and ask them to select their three favorite statements.
- Select your winning statements in teams of 2–3. Review each statement and as a team work to strengthen the language to ensure that the statement provides a call to action, that it is short and to the point, and motivational.
- Present the statements back to the group and select the best option through a consensus vote.
- Document the change vision in your Organizational Design Implementation Kick-Off Presentation.
Customize the presentation identifying key changes that will be occurring
1.4 2 hours
Input
- Old and new organizational sketch
Output
- Identified key changes that are occurring
Materials
- Whiteboard
- Sticky notes & Pens
- Camera
Participants
- On a whiteboard, draw a high-level picture of your previous organizational sketch and your new organizational sketch.
- Using sticky notes, ask individuals to highlight key high-level challenges that exist in the current model (consider people, process, and technology).
- Consider each sticky note, and highlight and document how and where your new sketch will overcome those challenges and the key differences between the old structure and the new.
- Take a photo of the two sketches and comments, and document these in your Organizational Design Implementation Kick-Off Presentation.
Modify the presentation by identifying and documenting key milestones
1.5 1 hour
Input
- OD implementation team calendars
Output
- OD implementation team timeline
Materials
- OD Implementation Kick-Off Presentation
Participants
- Review the timeline in the Organizational Design Implementation Kick-Off Presentation. As a group, discuss the key milestones identified in the presentation:
- Kick-off presentation
- Departmental transition strategy built
- Organizational transition strategy built
- Manager training
- One-on-one meetings with staff to discuss changes to roles
- Individual transition strategy development begins
- Review the timeline, and keeping your other commitments in mind, estimate when each of these tasks will be completed and update the timeline.
Build an OD implementation FAQ to proactively address key questions and concerns about the change
Organizational Design Implementation FAQ
Leverage this template as a starting place for building an organizational design implementation FAQ.
This template is prepopulated with example questions and answers which are likely to arise.
Info-Tech encourages you to use the list of questions as a basis for your FAQ and to add additional questions based on the changes occurring at your organization.
It may also be a good idea to store the FAQ on a company intranet portal so that staff has access at all times and to provide users with a unique email address to forward questions to when they have them.
Build your unique organizational design implementation FAQ to keep staff informed throughout the change
1.6 1 hour + ongoing
Input
- OD implementation team calendars
Output
- OD implementation team timeline
Materials
- OD Implementation Kick-Off Presentation
Participants
- Download a copy of the Organizational Design Implementation FAQ and as a group, review each of the key questions.
- Delete any questions that are not relevant and add any additional questions you either believe you will receive or which you have already been asked.
- Divide the questions among team members and have each member provide a response to these questions.
- The CIO and the project manager should review the responses for accuracy and ensure they are ready to be shared with staff.
- Publish the responses on an IT intranet site and make the location known to your IT staff.
Dispelling rumors by using a large implementation team
CASE STUDY
Industry: Manufacturing
Source: CIO
Challenge
When rumors of the impending reorganization reached staff, there was a lot of confusion and some of the more vocal detractors in the department enforced these rumors.
Staff were worried about changes to their jobs, demotions, and worst of all, losing their jobs. There was no communication from senior management to dispel the gossip and the line managers were also in the dark so they weren’t able to offer support.
Staff did not feel comfortable reaching out to senior management about the rumors and they didn’t know who the change manager was.
Solution
The CIO and change manager put together a large implementation team that included many of the managers in the department. This allowed the managers to handle the gossip through informal conversations with their staff.
The change manager also built a communication strategy to communicate the stages of the reorganization and used FAQs to address the more common questions.
Results
The reorganization was adopted very quickly since there was little confusion surrounding the changes with all staff members. Many of the personnel risks were mitigated by the communication strategy because it dispelled rumors and took some of the power away from the vocal detractors in the department.
An engagement survey was conducted 3 months after the reorganization and the results showed that the engagement of staff had not changed after the reorganization.
If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop
Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:
- To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
- Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
- Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.
The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:
1a: Launch the MLI Dashboard (Pre-Work)
Prior to the workshop, Info-Tech’s advisors will work with you to launch the MLI diagnostic to understand the overall engagement levels of your organization.
1b: Review Your MLI Results
The analysts will facilitate several exercises to help you and your team identify your current engagement levels, and the variance across demographics and over time.
If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop
Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:
1.1: Define Your Change Team Responsibilities
Review the key responsibilities of the organizational design implementation team and define the RACI for each individual member.
1.3: Define Your Change Vision and Goals
Identify the change vision statement which will serve as the center piece for your change communications as well as the key message you want to deliver to your staff about the change. These messages should be clear, emotionally impactful, and inspirational.
1.4: Identify Key Changes Which Will Impact Staff
Collectively brainstorm all of the key changes that are happening as a result of the change, and prioritize the list based on the impact they will have on staff. Document the top 10 biggest changes – and the opportunities the change creates or problems it solves.
If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop
Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:
1.5: Define the High-Level Change Timeline
Identify and document the key milestones within the change as a group, and determine key dates and change owners for each of the key items. Determine the best way to discuss these timelines with staff, and whether there are any which you feel will have higher levels of resistance.
1.5: Build the FAQ and Prepare for Objection Handling
As a group, brainstorm the key questions you believe you will receive about the change and develop a common FAQ to provide to staff members. The advisor will assist you in preparing to manage objections to limit resistance.
Phase 2
Build The Organizational Transition Plan
Build the organizational transition plan
Outcomes of this section:
- A holistic list of projects that will enable the implementation of the organizational structure.
- A schedule to monitor the progress of your change projects.
This section involves the following participants:
- CIO
- Reorganization Implementation Team
Key Section Insight:
Be careful to understand the impacts of the change on all groups and departments. For best results, you will need representation from all departments to limit conflict and ensure a smooth transition. For large IT organizations, you will need to have a plan for each department/work unit and create a larger integration project.
Phase 2 outline
Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.
Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.
Guided Implementation 2: Build the Organizational Transition Plan
Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 2-4 weeks
Step 2.1: Review the Change Dimensions and How They Are Used to Plan Change Projects
Start with an analyst kick off call:
- Review the purpose of the kick-off meeting.
- Review the change project dimensions.
- Review the Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool.
Then complete these activities…
- Conduct your kick-off meeting.
- Brainstorm a list of reorganization projects and their related tasks.
With these tools & templates:
- Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool
Step 2.2: Review the List of Change Projects
Review findings with analyst:
- Revisit the list of projects and tasks developed in the brainstorming session.
- Assess the list and determine resourcing and dependencies for the projects.
- Review the monitoring process.
Then complete these activities…
- Complete the Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool.
- Map out your project dependencies and resourcing.
- Develop a schedule for monitoring projects.
With these tools & templates:
- Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool
Use Info-Tech’s Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool to plan and track your reorganization
- Use Info-Tech’s Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool to document and track all of the changes that are occurring during your reorganization.
- Automatically build Gantt charts for all of the projects that are being undertaken, track problems in the issue log, and monitor the progress of projects in the reporting tab.
- Each department/work group will maintain its own version of this tool throughout the reorganization effort and the project manager will maintain a master copy with all of the projects listed.
- The chart comes pre-populated with example data gathered through the research and interview process to help generate ideas for your own reorganization.
- Review the instructions at the top of each work sheet for entering and modifying the data within each chart.
Have a short kick-off meeting to introduce the project planning process to your implementation team
2.1 30 minutes
Output
- Departmental ownership of planning tool
Materials
- OD Implementation Project Planning Tool
Participants
- Change Project Manager
- Implementation Team
- Senior Management (optional)
- The purpose of this kick-off meeting is to assign ownership of the project planning process to members of the implementation team and to begin thinking about the portfolio of projects required to successfully complete the reorganization.
- Use the email template included on this slide to invite your team members to the meeting.
- The topics that need to be covered in the meeting are:
- Introducing the materials/templates that will be used throughout the process.
- Assigning ownership of the Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool to members of your team.
- Ownership will be at the departmental level where each department or working group will manage their own change projects.
- Prepare your implementation team for the next meeting where they will be brainstorming the list of projects that will need to be completed throughout the reorganization.
- Distribute/email the tools and templates to the team so that they may familiarize themselves with the materials before the next meeting.
Hello [participant],
We will be holding our kickoff meeting for our reorganization on [date]. We will be discussing the reorganization process at a high level with special attention being payed to the tools and templates that we will be using throughout the process. By the end of the meeting, we will have assigned ownership of the Project Planning Tool to department representatives and we will have scheduled the next meeting where we’ll brainstorm our list of projects for the reorganization.
Consider Info-Tech’s four organizational change dimensions when identifying change projects
CHANGE DIMENSIONS
- TECHNOLOGY AND LOGISTICS
- COMMUNICATION
- STAFFING
- PROCESS
Technology and Logistics
- These are all the projects that will impact the technology used and physical logistics of your workspace.
- These include new devices, access/permissions, new desks, etc.
Communication
- All of the required changes after the reorganization to ongoing communications within IT and to the rest of the organization.
- Also includes communication projects that are occurring during the reorganization.
Staffing
- These projects address the changes to your staff’s roles.
- Includes role changes, job description building, consulting with HR, etc.
Process
- Projects that address changes to IT processes that will occur after the reorganization.
Use these trigger questions to help identify all aspects of your coming changes
STAFFING
- Do you need to hire short or long-term staff to fill vacancies?
- How long does it typically take to hire a new employee?
- Will there be staff who are new to management positions?
- Is HR on board with the reorganization?
- Have they been consulted?
- Have transition plans been built for all staff members who are transitioning roles/duties?
- Will gaps in the structure need to be addressed with new hires?
COMMUNICATION
- When will the change be communicated to various members of the staff?
- Will there be disruption to services during the reorganization?
- Who, outside of IT, needs to know about the reorganization?
- Do external communications need to be adjusted because of the reorganization? Moving/centralizing service desk, BRMs, etc.?
- Are there plans/is there a desire to change the way IT communicates with the rest of the organization?
- Will the reorganization affect the culture of the department? Is the new structure compatible with the current culture?
Use these trigger questions to help identify all aspects of your coming changes (continued)
TECHNOLOGY AND LOGISTICS
- Will employees require new devices in their new roles?
- Will employees be required to move their workspace?
- What changes to the workspace are required to facilitate the new organization?
- Does new furniture have to be purchased to accommodate new spaces/staff?
- Is the workspace adequate/up to date technologically (telephone network, Wi-Fi coverage, etc.)?
- Will employees require new permissions/access for their changing roles?
- Will permissions/access need to be removed?
- What is your budget for the reorganization?
- If a large geographical move is occurring, have problems regarding geography, language barriers, and cultural sensitivities been addressed?
PROCESS
- What processes need to be developed?
- What training for processes is required?
- Is the daily functioning of the IT department predicted to change?
- Are new processes being implemented during the reorganization?
- How will the project portfolio be affected by the reorganization?
- Is new documentation required to accompany new/changing processes?
Brainstorm the change projects to be carried out during the reorganization for your team/department
2.2 3 hours
Input
- Constructive group discussion
Output
- Thorough list of all reorganization projects
Materials
- Whiteboard, sticky notes
- OD Implementation Project Planning Tool
Participants
- Implementation Team
- CIO
- Senior Management
- Before the meeting, distribute the list of trigger questions presented on the two previous slides to prepare your implementation team for the brainstorming session.
- Begin the meeting by dividing up your implementation team into the departments/work groups that they represent (and have ownership of the tool over).
- Distribute a different color of sticky notes to each team and have them write out each project they can think of for each of the change planning dimensions (Staffing, Communication, Process and Technology/Logistics) using the trigger questions.
- After one hour, ask the groups to place the projects that they brainstormed onto the whiteboard divided into the four change dimensions.
- Discuss the complete list of projects on the board.
- Remove projects that are listed more than once since some projects will be universal to some/all departments.
- Adjust the wording of projects for the sake of clarity.
- Identify projects that are specific to certain departments.
- Document the list of high-level projects on tab 2 “Project Lists” within the OD Implementation Project Planning Tool after the activity is complete.
Prioritize projects to assist with project planning modeling
Prioritization is the process of ranking each project based on its importance to implementation success. Hold a meeting for the implementation team and extended team to prioritize the project list. At the conclusion of the meeting, each requirement should be assigned a priority level. The implementation teams will use these priority levels to ensure efforts are targeted towards the proper projects. A simple way to do this for your implementation is to use the MoSCoW Model of Prioritization to effectively order requirements.
The MoSCoW Model of Prioritization
MUST HAVE - Projects must be implemented for the organizational design to be considered successful.
SHOULD HAVE - Projects are high priority that should be included in the implementation if possible.
COULD HAVE - Projects are desirable but not necessary and could be included if resources are available.
WON'T HAVE - Projects won’t be in the next release, but will be considered for the future releases.
The MoSCoW model was introduced by Dai Clegg of Oracle UK in 1994.
Keep the following criteria in mind as you determine your priorities
Effective Prioritization Criteria
| Criteria |
Description |
| Regulatory & Legal Compliance |
These requirements will be considered mandatory. |
| Policy or Contract Compliance |
Unless an internal policy or contract can be altered or an exception can be made, these projects will be considered mandatory. |
| Business Value Significance |
Give a higher priority to high-value projects. |
| Business Risk |
Any project with the potential to jeopardize the entire project should be given a high priority and implemented early. |
| Implementation Complexity |
Give a higher priority to quick wins. |
| Alignment with Strategy |
Give a higher priority to requirements that enable the corporate strategy and IT strategy. |
| Urgency |
Prioritize projects based on time sensitivity. |
| Dependencies |
A project on its own may be low priority, but if it supports a high-priority requirement, then its priority must match it. |
| Funding Availability |
Do we have the funding required to make this change? |
Prioritize the change projects within your team/department to be executed during the reorganization
2.3 3 hours
Input
- Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool
Output
- Prioritized list of projects
Materials
- Whiteboard, sticky notes
- OD Implementation Project Planning Tool
Participants
- Implementation Team
- Extended Implementation Team
- Divide the group into their department teams. Draw 4 columns on a whiteboard, including the following:
- Must have
- Should have
- Could have
- Won’t have
- As a group, review each project and collaboratively identify which projects fall within each category. You should have a strong balance between each of the categories.
- Beginning with the “must have” projects, determine if each has any dependencies. If any of the projects are dependent on another, add the dependency project to the “must have” category. Group and circle the dependent projects.
- Continue the same exercise with the “should have” and “could have” options.
- Record the results on tab “2. Project List” of the Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool using the drop down option.
Determine resource availability for completing your change projects
2.4 2 hours
Input
- Constructive group discussion
Output
- Thorough list of all reorganization projects
Materials
- Whiteboard, sticky notes
- OD Implementation Project Planning Tool
Participants
- Implementation Team
- CIO
- Senior Management
- Divide the group into their department teams to plan the execution of the high-level list of projects developed in activity 2.2.
- Review the list of high-level projects and starting with the “must do” projects, consider each in turn and brainstorm all of the tasks required to complete these projects. Write down each task on a sticky note and place it under the high-level project.
- On the same sticky note as the task, estimate how much time would be required to complete each task. Be realistic about time frames since these projects will be on top of all of the regular day-to-day work.
- Along with the time frame, document the resources that will be required and who will be responsible for the tasks. If you have a documented Project Portfolio, use this to determine resourcing.
- After mapping out the tasks, bring the group back together to present their list of projects, tasks, and required resources.
- Go through the project task lists to make sure that nothing is missed.
- Review the timelines to make sure they are feasible.
- Review the resources to ensure that they are available and realistic based on constraints (time, current workload, etc.).
- Repeat the process for the Should do and Could do projects.
- Document the tasks and resources in tab “3. Task Monitoring” in the OD Implementation Project Planning Tool after the activity is complete.
Map out the change project dependencies at the departmental level
2.5 2 hours
Input
- Constructive group discussion
Output
- Thorough list of all reorganization projects
Materials
- Whiteboard, sticky notes
- OD Implementation Project Planning Tool
Participants
- Implementation Team
- CIO
- Senior Management
- Divide the group into their department teams to map the dependencies of their tasks created in activity 2.3.
- Take the project task sticky notes created in the previous activity and lay them out along a timeline from start to finish.
- Determine the dependencies of the tasks internal to the department. Map out the types of dependencies.
- Finish to Start: Preceding task must be completed before the next can start.
- Start to Start: Preceding task must start before the next task can start.
- Finish to Finish: Predecessor must finish before successor can finish.
- Start to Finish: Predecessor must start before successor can finish.
- Bring the group back together and review each group’s timeline and dependencies to make sure that nothing has been missed.
- As a group, determine whether there are dependencies that span the departmental lists of projects.
- Document all of the dependencies within the department and between departmental lists of projects and tasks in the OD Implementation Project Planning Tool.
Amalgamate all of the departmental change planning tools into a master copy
2.6 3 hours
Input
- Department-specific copies of the OD Implementation Project Planning Tool
Output
- Universal list of all of the change projects
Materials
- Whiteboard and sticky notes
Participants
- Implementation Project Manager
- Members of the implementation team for support (optional)
- Before starting the activity, gather all of the OD Implementation Project Planning Tools completed at the departmental level.
- Review each completed tool and write all of the individual projects with their timelines on sticky notes and place them on the whiteboard.
- Build timelines using the documented dependencies for each department. Verify that the resources (time, people, physical) are adequate and feasible.
- Combine all of the departmental project planning tools into one master tool to be used to monitor the overall status of the reorganization. Separate the projects based on the departments they are specific to.
- Finalize the timeline based on resource approval and using the dependencies mapped out in the previous exercise.
- Approve the planning tools and store them in a shared drive so they can be accessed by the implementation team members.
Create a progress monitoring schedule
2.7 1 hour weekly
Input
- OD Implementation Project Planning Tools (departmental & organizational)
Output
- Actions to be taken before the next pulse meeting
Participants
- Implementation Project Manager
- Members of the implementation team for support
- Senior Management
- Hold weekly pulse meetings to keep track of project progress.
- The agenda of each meeting should include:
- Resolutions to problems/complications raised at the previous week’s meeting.
- Updates on each department’s progress.
- Raising any issues/complications that have appeared that week.
- A discussion of potential solutions to the issues/complications.
- Validating the work that will be completed before the next meeting.
- Raising any general questions or concerns that have been voiced by staff about the reorganization.
- Upload notes from the meeting about resolutions and changes to the schedules to the shared drive containing the tools.
- Increase the frequency of the meetings towards the end of the project if necessary.
Building a holistic change plan enables adoption of the new organizational structure
CASE STUDY
Industry: Manufacturing
Source: CIO
Challenge
The CIO was worried about the impending reorganization due to problems that they had run into during the last reorganization they had conducted. The change management projects were not planned well and they led to a lot of uncertainty before and after the implementation.
No one on the staff was ready for the reorganization. Change projects were completed four months after implementation since many of them had not been predicted and cataloged. This caused major disruptions to their user services leading to drops in user satisfaction.
Solution
Using their large and diverse implementation team, they spent a great deal of time during the early stages of planning devoted to brainstorming and documenting all of the potential change projects.
Through regular meetings, the implementation team was able to iteratively adjust the portfolio of change projects to fit changing needs.
Results
Despite having to undergo a major reorganization that involved centralizing their service desk in a different state, there were no disruptions to their user services.
Since all of the change projects were documented and completed, they were able to move their service desk staff over a weekend to a workspace that was already set up. There were no changes to the user satisfaction scores over the period of their reorganization.
If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop
Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:
- To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
- Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
- Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.
The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:
2.2 Brainstorm Your List of Change Projects
Review your reorganization plans and facilitate a brainstorming session to identify a complete list of all of the projects needed to implement your new organizational design.
2.5 Map Out the Dependencies and Resources for Your Change Projects
Examine your complete list of change projects and determine the dependencies between all of your change projects. Align your project portfolio and resource levels to the projects in order to resource them adequately.
Phase 3
Lead Staff Through the Reorganization
Train managers to lead through change
Outcomes of this Section:
- Completed the workshop: Lead Staff Through Organizational Change
- Managers possess stakeholder engagement plans for each employee
- Managers are prepared to fulfil their roles in implementing the organizational change
This section involves the following participants:
- CIO
- IT leadership team
- IT staff
Key Section Insight:
The majority of IT managers were promoted because they excelled at the technical aspect of their job rather than in people management. Not providing training is setting your organization up for failure. Train managers to effectively lead through change to see a 72% decrease in change management issues. (Source: Abilla, 2009)
Phase 3 outline
Call 1-888-670-8889 or email GuidedImplementations@InfoTech.com for more information.
Complete these steps on your own, or call us to complete a guided implementation. A guided implementation is a series of 2-3 advisory calls that help you execute each phase of a project. They are included in most advisory memberships.
Guided Implementation 3: Train Managers to Lead Through Change
Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 1-2 weeks
Step 3.1: Train Your Managers to Lead Through the Change
Start with an analyst kick off call:
- Go over the manager training workshop section of this deck.
- Review the deliverables generated from the workshop (stakeholder engagement plan and conflict style self-assessment).
Then complete these activities…
- Conduct the workshop with your managers.
With these tools & templates:
- Organizational Design Implementation Manager Training Guide
- Organizational Design Implementation Stakeholder Engagement Plan Template
Step 3.2: Debrief After the Workshop
Review findings with analyst:
- Discuss the outcomes of the manager training.
- Mention any feedback.
- High-level overview of the workshop deliverables.
Then complete these activities…
- Encourage participants to review and revise their stakeholder engagement plans.
- Review the Organizational Design Implementation Transition Plan Template and next steps.
Get managers involved to address the majority of obstacles to successful change
Managers all well-positioned to translate how the organizational change will directly impact individuals on their teams.
Reasons Why Change Fails
EMPLOYEE RESISTANCE TO CHANGE - 39%
MANAGEMENT BEHAVIOR NOT SUPPORTIVE OF CHANGE - 33%
INADEQUATE RESOURCE OR BUDGET - 14%
OTHER OBSTACLES - 14%
72% of change management issues can be directly improved by management.
(Source: shmula)
Why are managers crucial to organizational change?
- Managers are extremely well-connected.
- They have extensive horizontal and vertical networks spanning the organization.
- Managers understand the informal networks of the organization.
- Managers are valuable communicators.
- Managers have established strong relationships with employees.
- Managers influence the way staff perceive messaging.
Conduct a workshop with managers to help them lead their teams through change
Organizational Design Implementation Manager Training Guide
Give managers the tools and skills to support their employees and carry out difficult conversations.
Understand the role of management in communicating the change
Understand reactions to change
Resolve conflict
Respond to FAQs
Monitor and measure employee engagement
Prepare managers to effectively execute their role in the organizational change by running a 2-hour training workshop.
Complete the activities on the following slides to:
- Plan and prepare for the workshop.
- Execute the group exercises.
- Help managers develop stakeholder engagement plans for each of their employees.
- Initiate the McLean Leadership Index™ survey to measure employee engagement.
Plan and prepare for the workshop
3.1 Plan and prepare for the workshop.
Output
- Workshop participants
- Completed workshop prep
Materials
- Organizational Design Implementation Manager Training Guide
Instructions
- Create a list of all managers that will be responsible for leading their teams through the change.
- Select a date for the workshop.
- The training session will run approximately 2 hours and should be scheduled within a week of when the implementation plan is communicated organization-wide.
- Review the material outlined in the presentation and prepare the Organizational Design Implementation Manager Training Guide for the workshop:
- Copy and print the “Pre-workshop Facilitator Instructions” and “Facilitator Notes” located in the notes section below each slide.
- Revise frequently asked questions (FAQs) and responses.
- Delete instruction slides.
Invite managers to the workshop
Workshop Invitation Email Template
Make necessary modifications to the Workshop Invitation Email Template and send invitations to managers.
Hi ________,
As you are aware, we are starting to roll out some of the initiatives associated with our organizational change mandate. A key component of our implementation plan is to ensure that managers are well-prepared to lead their teams through the transition.
To help you proactively address the questions and concerns of your staff, and to ensure that the changes are implemented effectively, we will be conducting a workshop for managers on .
While the change team is tasked with most of the duties around planning, implementing, and communicating the change organization-wide, you and other managers are responsible for ensuring that your employees understand how the change will impact them specifically. The workshop will prepare you for your role in implementing the organizational changes in the coming weeks, and help you refine the skills and techniques necessary to engage in challenging conversations, resolve conflicts, and reduce uncertainty.
Please confirm your attendance for the workshop. We look forward to your participation.
Kind regards,
Change team
Prepare managers for the change by helping them build useful deliverables
ODI Stakeholder Engagement Plan Template & Conflict Style Self-Assessment
Help managers create useful deliverables that continue to provide value after the workshop is completed.
Workshop Deliverables
Organizational Design Implementation Stakeholder Engagement Plan Template
- Document the areas of change resistance, detachment, uncertainty, and support for each employee.
- Document strategies to overcome resistance, increase engagement, reduce uncertainty, and leverage their support.
- Create action items to execute after the workshop.
Conflict Style Self-Assessment
- Determine how you approach conflicts.
- Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of this approach.
- Identify ways to adopt different conflict styles depending on the situation.
Book a follow-up meeting with managers and determine which strategies to Start, Stop, or Continue
3.2 1 hour
Output
- Stakeholder engagement templates
Materials
- Sticky notes
- Pen and paper
Participants
- Implementation Team
- Managers
- Schedule a follow-up meeting 2–3 weeks after the workshop.
- Facilitate an open conversation on approaches and strategies that have been used or could be used to:
- Overcome resistance
- Increase engagement
- Reduce uncertainty
- Leverage support
- During the discussion, document ideas on the whiteboard.
- Have participants vote on whether the approaches and strategies should be started, stopped, or continued.
- Start: actions that the team would like to begin.
- Stop: actions that the team would like to stop.
- Continue: actions that work for the team and should proceed.
- Encourage participants to review and revise their stakeholder engagement plans.
If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop
Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:
- To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
- Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
- Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.
The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:
3.1 The Change Maze
Break the ice with an activity that illustrates the discomfort of unexpected change, and the value of timely and instructive communication.
3.2 Perform a Change Management Retrospective
Leverage the collective experience of the group. Share challenges and successes from previous organizational changes and apply those lessons to the current transition.
3.3 Create a Stakeholder Engagement Plan
Have managers identify areas of resistance, detachment, uncertainty, and support for each employee and share strategies for overcoming resistance and leveraging support to craft an action plan for each of their employees.
3.4 Conduct a Conflict Style Self-Assessment
Give participants an opportunity to better understand how they approach conflicts. Administer the Conflict Style Self-Assessment to identify conflict styles and jumpstart a conversation about how to effectively resolve conflicts.
Transition your staff to their new roles
Outcomes of this Section:
- Identified key responsibilities to transition
- Identified key relationships to be built
- Built staff individual transition plans and timing
This section involves the following participants:
Key Section Insight
In order to ensure a smooth transition, you need to identify the transition scheduled for each employee. Knowing when they will retire and assume responsibilities and aligning this with the organizational transition will be crucial.
Phase 3b 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 3b: Transition Staff to New Roles
Proposed Time to Completion (in weeks): 2-4
Step 4.1: Build Your Transition Plans
Start with an analyst kick off call:
- Review the Organizational Design Implementation Transition Plan Template and its contents.
- Return to the new org structure and project planning tool for information to fill in the template.
Then complete these activities…
- Present the template to your managers.
- Have them fill in the template with their staff.
- Approve the completed templates.
With these tools & templates:
- Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool
- Organizational Design Implementation Transition Plan Template
Step 4.2: Finalize Your Transition Plans
Review findings with analyst:
- Discuss strategies for timing the transition of your employees.
- Determine the readiness of your departments for transitioning.
Then complete these activities…
- Build a transition readiness timeline of your departments.
- Move your employees to their new roles.
With these tools & templates:
- Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool
- Organizational Design Implementation Transition Plan Template
Use Info-Tech’s transition plan template to map out all of the changes your employees will face during reorganization
Organizational Design Implementation Transition Plan Template
- Use Info-Tech’s Organizational Design Implementation Transition Plan Template to document (in consultation with your employees) all of the changes individual staff members need to go through in order to transition into their new roles.
- It provides a holistic view of all of the changes aligned to the change planning dimensions, including:
- Current and new job responsibilities
- Outstanding projects
- Documenting where the employee may be moving
- Technology changes
- Required training
- New relationships that need to be made
- Risk mitigation
- The template is designed to be completed by managers for their direct reports.
Customize the transition plan template for all affected staff members
4.1 30 minutes per employee
Output
- Completed transition plans
Materials
- Individual transition plan templates (for each employee)
Participants
- Implementation Team
- Managers
- Implementation team members should hold one-on-one meetings with the managers from the departments they represent to go through the transition plan template.
- Some elements of the transition plan can be completed at the initial meeting with knowledge from the implementation team and documentation from the new organizational structure:
- Employee information (except for the planned transition date)
- New job responsibilities
- Logistics and technology changes
- Relationships (recommendations can be made about beneficial relationships to form if the employee is transitioning to a new role)
- After the meeting, managers can continue filling in information based on their own knowledge of their employees:
- Current job responsibilities
- Outstanding projects
- Training (identify gaps in the employee’s knowledge if their role is changing)
- Risks (potential concerns or problems for the employee during the reorganization)
Verify and complete the individual transition plans by holding one-on-one meetings with the staff
4.2 30 minutes per employee
Output
- Completed transition plans
Materials
- Individual transition plan templates (for each employee)
Participants
- Managers
- Staff (Managers’ Direct Reports)
- After the managers complete everything they can in the transition plan templates, they should schedule one-on-one meetings with their staff to review the completed document to ensure the information is correct.
- Begin the meeting by verifying the elements that require the most information from the employee:
- Current job responsibilities
- Outstanding projects
- Risks (ask about any problems or concerns they may have about the reorganization)
- Discuss the following elements of the transition plan to get feedback:
- Training (ask if there is any training they feel they may need to be successful at the organization)
- Relationships (determine if there are any relationships that the employee would like to develop that you may have missed)
- Since this may be the first opportunity that the staff member has had to discuss their new role (if they are moving to one), review their new job title and new job responsibilities with them. If employees are prepared for their new role, they may feel more accountable for quickly adopting the reorganization.
- Document any questions that they may have so that they can be answered in future communications from the implementation team.
- After completing the template, managers will sign off on the document in the approval section.
Validate plans with organizational change project manager and build the transition timeline
4.3 3 hours
Input
- Individual transition plans
- Organizational Design Implementation Project Planning Tool
Output
- Timeline outlining departmental transition readiness
Materials
Participants
- Implementation Project Manager
- Implementation Team
- Managers
- After receiving all of the completed individual transition plan templates from managers, members of the implementation team need to approve the contents of the templates (for the departments that they represent).
- Review the logistics and technology requirements for transition in each of the templates and align them with the completion dates of the related projects in the Project Planning Tool. These dates will serve as the earliest possible time to transition the employee. Use the latest date from the list to serve as the date that the whole department will be ready to transition.
- Hand the approved transition plan templates and the dates at which the departments will be ready for transitioning to the Implementation Project Manager.
- The Project Manager needs to verify the contents of the transition plans and approve them.
- On a calendar or whiteboard, list the dates that each department will be ready for transitioning.
- Review the master copy of the Project Planning Tool. Determine if the outstanding projects limit your ability to transition the departments (when they are ready to transition). Change the ready dates of the departments to align with the completion dates of those projects.
- Use these dates to determine the timeline for when you would like to transition your employees to their new roles.
Overcoming inexperience by training managers to lead through change
CASE STUDY
Industry: Manufacturing
Source: CIO
Challenge
The IT department had not undergone a major reorganization in several years. When they last reorganized, they experienced high turnover and decreased business satisfaction with IT.
Many of the managers were new to their roles and only one of them had been around for the earlier reorganization. They lacked experience in leading their staff through major organizational changes.
One of the major problems they faced was addressing the concerns, fears, and resistance of their staff properly.
Solution
The implementation team ran a workshop for all of the managers in the department to train them on the change and how to communicate the impending changes to their staff. The workshop included information on resistance and conflict resolution.
The workshop was conducted early on in the planning phases of the reorganization so that any rumors or gossip could be addressed properly and quickly.
Results
The reorganization was well accepted by the staff due to the positive reinforcement from their managers. Rumors and gossip about the reorganization were under control and the staff adopted the new organizational structure quickly.
Engagement levels of the staff were maintained and actually improved by 5% immediately after the reorganization.
Voluntary turnover was minimal throughout the change as opposed to the previous reorganization where they lost 10% of their staff. There was an estimated cost savings of $250,000–$300,000.
If you want additional support, have our analysts guide you through this phase as part of an Info-Tech workshop
Book a workshop with our Info-Tech analysts:
- To accelerate this project, engage your IT team in an Info-Tech workshop with an Info-Tech analyst team.
- Info-Tech analysts will join you and your team onsite at your location or welcome you to Info-Tech’s historic Toronto office to participate in an innovative onsite workshop.
- Contact your account manager (www.infotech.com/account), or email Workshops@InfoTech.com for more information.
The following are sample activities that will be conducted by Info-Tech analysts with your team:
3.2.1 Build Your Staff Transition Plan
Review the contends of the staff transition plan, and using the organizational change map as a guide, build the transition schedule for one employee.
3.2.1 Review the Transition Plan With the Transition Team
Review and validate the results for your transition team schedule with other team members. As a group, discuss what makes this exercise difficult and any ideas for how to simplify the exercise.
Works cited
American Productivity and Quality Center. “Motivation Strategies.” Potentials Magazine. Dec. 2004. Web. November 2014.
Bersin, Josh. “Time to Scrap Performance Appraisals?” Forbes Magazine. 5 June 2013. Web. 30 Oct 2013.
Bridges, William. Managing Transitions, 3rd Ed. Philadelphia: Da Capo Press, 2009.
Buckley, Phil. Change with Confidence – Answers to the 50 Biggest Questions that Keep Change Leaders up at Night. Canada: Jossey-Bass, 2013.
“Change and project management.” Change First. 2014. Web. December 2009. <http://www.changefirst.com/uploads/documents/Change_and_project_management.pdf>.
Cheese, Peter, et al. “Creating an Agile Organization.” Accenture. Oct. 2009. Web. Nov. 2013.
Croxon, Bruce et al. “Dinner Series: Performance Management with Bruce Croxon from CBC's 'Dragon's Den.'” HRPA Toronto Chapter. Sheraton Hotel, Toronto, ON. 12 Nov. 2013. Panel discussion.
Culbert, Samuel. “10 Reasons to Get Rid of Performance Reviews.” Huffington Post Business. 18 Dec. 2012. Web. 28 Oct. 2013. <http://www.huffingtonpost.com/samuel-culbert/performance-reviews_b_2325104.html>.
Denning, Steve. “The Case Against Agile: Ten Perennial Management Objections.” Forbes Magazine. 17 Apr. 2012. Web. Nov. 2013.
Works cited cont.
“Establish A Change Management Structure.” Human Technology. Web. December 2014.
Estis, Ryan. “Blowing up the Performance Review: Interview with Adobe’s Donna Morris.” Ryan Estis & Associates. 17 June 2013. Web. Oct. 2013. <http://ryanestis.com/adobe-interview/>.
Ford, Edward L. “Leveraging Recognition: Noncash incentives to Improve Performance.” Workspan Magazine. Nov 2006. Web. Accessed May 12, 2014.
Gallup, Inc. “Gallup Study: Engaged Employees Inspire Company Innovation.” Gallup Management Journal. 12 Oct. 2006. Web. 12 Jan 2012.
Gartside, David, et al. “Trends Reshaping the Future of HR.” Accenture. 2013. Web. 5 Nov. 2013.
Grenville-Cleave, Bridget. “Change and Negative Emotions.” Positive Psychology News Daily. 2009.
Heath, Chip, and Dan Heath. Switch: How to Change Things When Change Is Hard. Portland: Broadway Books. 2010.
HR Commitment AB. Communicating organizational change. 2008.
Keller, Scott, and Carolyn Aiken. “The Inconvenient Truth about Change Management.” McKinsey & Company, 2009. <http://www.mckinsey.com/en.aspx>.
Works cited cont.
Kotter, John. “LeadingChange: Why Transformation Efforts Fail.” Harvard Business Review. March-April 1995. <http://hbr.org>.
Kubler-Ross, Elisabeth and David Kessler. On Grief and Grieving: Finding the Meaning of Grief Through the Five Stages of Loss. New York: Scribner. 2007.
Lowlings, Caroline. “The Dangers of Changing without Change Management.” The Project Manager Magazine. December 2012. Web. December 2014. <http://changestory.co.za/the-dangers-of-changing-without-change-management/>.
“Managing Change.” Innovative Edge, Inc. 2011. Web. January 2015. <http://www.getcoherent.com/managing.html>.
Muchinsky, Paul M. Psychology Applied to Work. Florence: Thomson Wadsworth, 2006.
Nelson, Kate and Stacy Aaron. The Change Management Pocket Guide, First Ed., USA: Change Guides LLC, 2005.
Nguyen Huy, Quy. “In Praise of Middle Managers.” Harvard Business Review. 2001. Web. December 2014. <https://hbr.org/2001/09/in-praise-of-middle-managers/ar/1>
“Only One-Quarter of Employers Are Sustaining Gains From Change Management Initiatives, Towers Watson Survey Finds.” Towers Watson. August 2013. Web. January 2015. <http://www.towerswatson.com/en/Press/2013/08/Only-One-Quarter-of-Employers-Are-Sustaining-Gains-From-Change-Management>.
Shmula. “Why Transformation Efforts Fail.” Shmula.com. September 28, 2009. <http://www.shmula.com/why-transformation-efforts-fail/1510/>
Encourage end users to provide feedback on service quality.
![A diagram that shows [Insert Organization Name]’s Communications Guide](/images/ITMGF/infra-and-operations/end-user-computing/voice-video-management/assess-your-readiness-to-implement-ucaas/030-communications-guide-template.png)
The next slide is a template for the short-form business case, while the slides after that contain instructions on how to fill out each section of the business case.
