Change Management and Leadership

"People change what they do less because they are given analysis that shifts their thinking than because they are shown a truth that influences their feelings."

This paper will examine the critical relationship that change management plays in the successful execution of projects. Change management addresses the fundamental importance of humans in the success of a project. Projects are implemented for a number of reasons, but one thing they all have in common is that each one will be a catalyst for change. At the heart of every project are humans and given that all project are accompanied by some measure of change it' peculiar that many projects do not include a plan to manage the human resources that will have to make the adjustment. It's not unusual to think that people resist change, but this paper will argue that it's not the change that people will challenge, but rather the stigma of uncertainty that change brings along with it. Business leaders are now realizing that change management plays a critical role in the success or failure of a project. Considering that over half of the customer relationship management (CRM) projects fail with the top two reasons being related to employee resistance it's critical that change management plans are prioritized early in the initiation stages of a project.

As the opening quote implies, people can change they simply need to understand why they need to change. Interestingly and contrary to popular belief, people can rarely be changed through incentives or because they are told to. It is often thought that the greater the reward or the sharper the stick, the faster people will change; in fact reality is just the opposite. Research show that the real key to incent people to adopt change is to show them that the project matters, and that their role is important.

As one might expect, communication is a key factor when trying to implement a successful project. However, the research showed that the communication must be symbiotic. If a project is to be successful, the management must communicate the ideas from the top levels down, but must seek feedback and suggestions from the bottom up.

An interesting point surfaced while researching this paper, it was the concept of "Autonomy, Mastery and Purpose" . If an organization wants to be able to change, it must first have employees that can adapt to change. In order to do so, they must feel like they have the obligation to make decisions, to continuously improve their understanding of their roles and they must truly believe that they are an important part of the solution.

When asking an employee (or group of employees) to change from a known state to one an unknown one it is important to give them the information they need to understand the motivation behind the change. Moreover, it's critical that the employees trust that the reasoning that they've being given was thoroughly vetted, analysed and researched. In order for the people to accept the change they need to trust that management has done their homework prior to making the decision to change.

A central part of any venture is determining who to include on the project team. It's not difficult to deduce that having the highest levels of support greatly improves a project's chance of success. That stated it's equally important to have employees represented from every level of an organization. Not only will they ensure that in the every angle has been analyzed, but by including them in the creative process, management will also to gain greater acceptance of the change by the various departments as the individuals within those branches will feel like they're in-part accountable for the solution and that they have some input in the steering of the ship. If the plan affects people not included on the project team choosing the right team members is even more important. Choosing a team wisely by including people with political clout can not only get the job done, but can also lead to greater approval of the project by the entire organization.

A unique point of view in the literature reviewed was the need to create a culture that embraces change. The article referenced Nordstrom's culture of focussing solely on the customer rather than on a specific set of procedures. Nordstrom's has embedded in their culture the importance of each individual in the organization and their responsibility to the customer. Since the employees are not focussed on a set of rules and regulations and are taught to first focus on the customer no matter how the company must adjust to an evolving market, the employees will adapt as their culture will not let them lose focus of the ultimate goal of serving the customer.

Another element than that's important but not widely mentioned is how project timing affects change. Just because a project's important doesn't mean that it must be done immediately. For example let's assume it's April and a university wants to upgrade the cafeteria's point of sale computer system because the computers are nearing their end of life. This constitutes an important change that must be done before the hardware fails. However, it's likely that this upgrade can wait a few months until the summer break and the campus' student population is minimal. The timing of this change will greatly decrease the number of people affected by the change and consequently reduces the staff's fear of working with a new system.

Change management is no doubt a vital part of any project that introduces change to an organization. The complicated part of change management is how to design the plan and when to implement it. There are many frameworks available to help organizations with managing this issue, one of which is the named DICE. The premise is built on the fact that change often fails because change management plans are often built solely on "soft issues" rather than on measurable hard techniques. As the adage goes, "you can't save what you can't measure." The strength of this model is built on three premises: results are measurable, they are easily communicated and they are quickly actionable. With this, a project manager can easily sample how a project is evolving, measure how well the change is being accepted, easily inform the company about the progress and have actionable next steps to ensure that the project stays on track or is brought back on course.

The DICE framework suggests that there are four areas that need to be focussed on over the course of a project: duration, integrity, commitment and effort. Duration refers not only to the length of the change program but also how much time spans between milestones. Without analytically reviewing the success of a project, it's easy for a project