Recently, I was involved in a successful new system implementation project launch. The project had an impact on an entire department. Countless men and women toiled their days and nights leading up to the launch. Naturally the post-launch excitement across the organization was quite palpable. In layman’s terms, the launch happened exactly as we planned – seamless!
Amidst all the euphoria, someone asked me how we managed to pull this off, what type of internal resistance we faced and how did we overcome it – all very fitting questions given that our launch schedule was very aggressive and set to have global impact. Even folks who were part of the project team were initially hesitant when the timelines for launch were first introduced. So when this question was posed, it did not surprise me.
Small or large project it is imperative a project’s success depends on how well your customers receive it. How well they receive it hinges on one fundamental aspect: Change Management. Be it the adoption of a system or infusing a new culture, Change Management becomes one of the few critical tenets within Project Management.
Recent studies have shown that project failure rates have consistently been going up. As I reflect on the project management strategies that have worked best in my career, here are 5 key elements of successful change management that will aid you in successful project delivery.
1. Begin with “Why”
One often overlooked aspect on any big project is selling your project to your team. In business parlance, the ‘business objective’ or ‘goal’ answers the most essential question of your project – Why is this project important? Most projects stop emphasizing the why after kickoff or after sponsors are sold off.
Whether it’s your project team, your sponsor, a stakeholder or an end user, be sure that everyone involved has a full understanding of why. This alleviates any room for misconceptions and it will be much easier to rally your organization if you share the purpose. The objective could be anything from cost reduction, improving efficiency or returning to profitability. At the end of the day, everyone involved should feel personally invested.
Majority of your battle is won when end users understand the why. Why are we implementing a new system when we barely had one couple of years ago? Why is this important to the company? Why is it important for my group? How does this relate to company goals? Make your project, their project. Once everyone understands the why and correlate how it will impact their lives positively, they are likely to go that extra mile to make your project successful.
2. Communicate! Communicate! Communicate!
There is no such thing as over communication, especially when it comes to projects that are large in scale and have global impact.
For the majority of large scale projects, change management only equates to communication. Although there is no harm in communicating through monthly newsletters or having posters in the hallway, nothing beats live updates with your end users in the room (either in-person or virtual). Talk to them early and often. Frequent updates build trust and helps overcome their reticence.
Even when the news is bad or if you are faced with a roadblock, don’t be afraid to be transparent! Keep them abreast of what’s going on with the project. Who knows… they may even lend a hand to help you overcome the roadblock.
3. Identify a Champion(s)
Within an organization, change is effective when it percolates bottoms up than top down.
On one of the larger initiatives I worked on a few years ago, we identified a handful of superstar performers within the end user community and got them involved in the design and testing activities. As they were helping us with the project, they got involved more deeply than we planned. They gave us different ideas on how to simplify the user interface which ultimately resulted in a better architecture. But the best part was, they started socializing the overall solution to fellow users as their solution. The rollout ended up being a huge success, thanks to their championing efforts.
Lessons learned:
- Early involvement of users breaks the “us vs. them” barriers.
- They will champion your cause more passionately as it is now their product.
4. Tackle the biggest problem area first
“Eat the frogs first” is a phrase used for prioritizing your tasks for the day. It goes something like “if you were to eat a live frog first thing in the morning, you wouldn’t let it sit there and look at it all day”. In other words, complete your difficult task first.
Same applies to change management. To make change easier on everyone, implement the complex change first. It could be launching a new product to the largest market or rolling out to the most vocal set of users. Deal with the most difficult users first.
5. Create forcing functions
Okay, you’ve sold your idea, told stakeholders what you’re doing, involved everyone as much as you could and you’ve rolled out the project. It’s time to celebrate, right? Not quite yet. Now comes the difficult part – Benefits realization. You have to show you delivered. Benefits realization is a constant process of setting expectations, implementing, benchmarking results and adjusting as you go to maximize your business results.
Let’s say your project is supposed to deliver a certain percentage of productivity improvement. You bake in the benefits realization well ahead then back your project to meet that goal. There is nothing like creating forcing functions in your project and working your tail off to make it work. When you have these hard deadlines and expectations, it helps to define what success looks like to everyone involved!
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What are some of your change management success stories? I’d love to hear your perspective. Please share your thoughts in the comments below.
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(Original LinkedIn Post is here)
(Image: canstockphoto.com)
