The Art of Managing

Change

Reflections on Change Management for Technology Projects

“If you want to make enemies, try
to change something” – Woodrow Wilson

The Art of Managing Change

 Agenda
• What is change management ?

• Change management basics.

• Case study.

The Art of Managing Change

What is Change Management?
• Change management is the process
of developing a planned approach to
change in an organization.

• Objectives:
– Maximize collective efforts of stakeholders
– Minimize risk of failure

The Art of Managing Change

 Icebergs

The Art of Managing Change

The IT Project Iceberg

Technology

Process

People / Organization

The Art of Managing Change

 The IT Project Iceberg
Easy
10%
Technology

Process
90% - need
to address
People / Organization these first

Hard

The Art of Managing Change

 The IT Project Iceberg
Failure to recognize that technology is just the tip of
the iceberg will doom your project to an early grave !

The Art of Managing Change

Don’t Just “Wire it Together”

The Art of Managing Change

 How to Manage Change
• Find a great sponsor.
• Have a clear sense of mission or
purpose – develop a shared vision.
• Build a team. Pick people with
relevant skills and high energy levels.
Ask for volunteers.
• Identify and manage stakeholders.
• Communicate early and often.
• Train early and often.

The Art of Managing Change

Project Sponsor is Critical
All IT projects must have a
business sponsor or “owner”:
• Establish vision and business case for change.
• Provide overall project direction.
• Report status / significant issues to stakeholders.
• Ensure that system meets needs of users and
managers.
• Ensure that resultant changes in business process
are implemented consistently.
• Ensure that project benefits are realized.

The Art of Managing Change

 Make a Case for Change

Develop a business case that…

• Addresses a problem or opportunity

• Recommends a solution

• Defines the boundaries

• Creates a compelling case for change

The Art of Managing Change

 Make a Case for Change
Everyone sings off the same sheet of music…

The Art of Managing Change

Manage Stakeholders

The Art of Managing Change

Identify and Map Stakeholders
People / Organizations Stake Expected Proposed Role
Disposition
Internal:
 Process owner
 Affected business units
 System users
Describe how you would
 IT organization
engage each individual or
 Support organizations Define each
group in the project. Some
(HR, Finance, Admin) individual’s and
Support, individuals and groups play
group’s interest in
External: Neutral or direct roles (approver,
the project and
 External customers / Oppose decider, builder, user,
describe how it
users operator, etc.). Others have
impacts them
 Public indirect roles requiring you
 OFT to keep them informed.
 Control agencies
 Media

The Art of Managing Change

Understand Stakeholders

• Supporters

• Neutrals

• Opposers

The Art of Managing Change

 Understand Stakeholders
Stakeholder management -
The “Wild West” approach:
– Pioneers
– Settlers
– Outlaws

The Art of Managing Change

 Leverage the Pioneers
• Pioneers
– Unbridled enthusiasm for the project -- they
can see the promised land.
– Good source of project “champion” or
sponsor.
– Early adopters to demonstrate initial success.
– Project spokesperson -- keep the settlers
informed and get them on board for
implementation.

The Art of Managing Change

 Bring Along the Settlers
• Settlers
– They’ll follow, if you have
a good leader (pioneer).

– Important to communicate the “message of opportunity”

early and often:
• What’s in it for them ?
• What will things “look like” after the project ?
• How will their job change ?
• What new opportunities will the project create ?
• How can they participate ?

The Art of Managing Change

 Listen to the Outlaws
• Outlaws
– Equally important to identify.
– Change resistant -- lurking in the cubicles to
ambush your project.
– Expend some energy to convert as many as
possible.
– Listen to their concerns – encourages due
diligence to ensure your change strategy is
sound.

The Art of Managing Change

 Total Support is Impossible
“If your horse is dead, dismount !”
• Alternatives to dismounting:
– Buy a stronger whip.
– Change riders.
– Declare: "This is the way we have always ridden this
horse."
– Appoint a committee to study the horse.
– Arrange to visit other sites to see how they ride dead horses.
– Create a training session to improve employees' riding skills.

– Change the requirements and declare the horse undead.

– Outsource contractors to ride the dead horse.
– Harness several dead horses together for increased speed.
– Provide additional funding to increase the horse's performance.
– Promote the horse to a supervisory position.

The Art of Managing Change

 Stakeholder Management
Capability Maturity
Most Organizations at Level 1 (or 0/-1), Striving to Achieve Level 2

5. Optimized Process Lessons learned drive continuous

improvement of stakeholder
management process.

4. Managed Process Sponsors fully engaged. Stakeholder commitment

and communications strategies routinely reviewed
and adjusted as required. Performance measured.

3. Standardized Approach Stakeholder management processes fully defined and

documented with full buy-in throughout the organization.

2. Basic Capability Basic stakeholder management procedures are identified for some projects.
Sponsors informally committed to the project.

1. Ad-hoc Few processes in place. Projects succeed by happenstance and heroics. Key stakeholders
known but not formally identified. No stakeholder communication actions identified.

The Art of Managing Change

Communicate, Communicate
• Project Business Case
– Plain English description (business purpose,
resource requirements, expected
outcomes).
– Sends clear message of agency
commitment to project.

• Weekly Team Meetings

– Keeps project team on point.
– Surfaces issues for resolution.

The Art of Managing Change

Communicate, Communicate
• Project Steering Committee Meetings
– Maintain agency focus on project.
– Keep project “owners” engaged.
– Decide major issues -- scope, budget,
resources.
– Opportunity to update key stakeholders.

The Art of Managing Change

Communicate, Communicate
• Project Status Reports
– Weekly reports on Intranet.
– Pilot surveys.

• “Strut Your Stuff”

– Agency newsletter.
– Press articles.
– Agency’s external web site.

• Town hall meetings with stakeholders

The Art of Managing Change
 Key Skills

• People
• Political
• Analytical
• Business
• Systems

The Art of Managing Change

 Training is Critical
• Change agent skills:
– Leadership
– Visioning
– Listening and inquiry
– Coaching and facilitation
– Dealing with complexity
– Analyzing systems and processes

The Art of Managing Change

 Training is Critical
• Business training:
– New organizations and relationships
– Changed staff roles and responsibilities
– Changed business operations
– New policies, procedures

The Art of Managing Change

 Training is Critical
• Technology and tools training:
– New forms and documentation
– New information systems

The Art of Managing Change

 Case Study

The Art of Managing Change

 The Problem
• Law enforcement workers need quick
and easy access to crime fighting data
from state, local and federal sources:
– Criminals don’t heed jurisdictional
boundaries.
– Heightened need for intelligence sharing
post 9/11.

The Art of Managing Change

 The Problem
• Traditional agency-centric (e.g., “stove
pipe”) approach to technology gets in
the way:
– Individual agency resources strained supporting
redundant systems and databases.
– Limited resources available to build new capability.
– Users forced to deal with multiple entities to get
the data they need.
– Multiple PCs and devices in the field.

The Art of Managing Change

The Vision for Change

What is ?
• is a new strategy for
coordinating current information systems
and future technology projects among the
State’s criminal justice agencies to make the
most effective use of technology resources
and to give the criminal justice community
a single point of access to all computerized
criminal justice systems.

The Art of Managing Change

Coordinated delivery
of criminal justice
information

g l e Po i n t
Si n cess
Of A c

Easy to use
Graphical Interface
The Art of Managing Change
 The Strategy
• Individual criminal justice agencies keep their
data and applications.
• Give users access via a single web portal.
• Build new / upgrade old applications to
provide improved capability.
• Consolidate agency infrastructure (networks,
mainframes, servers, etc.) for improved
efficiency and lower cost.

The Art of Managing Change

 Managing Change
• Leadership communicated the vision.
• Project sponsor and change leader identified.
• Key participants trained in consensus building.
• Agencies established a governance board:
– Coordinate budgets
– Prioritize and oversee common projects
– Manage consolidated technology services
• Incremental change initiated:
– Mainframe migration to OFT
– Single network organization created
– Common architecture and portal environment designed

The Art of Managing Change

 Parting Thoughts…
Building and managing relationships
is critical to success. Figure out
what’s required to inspire individual
stakeholders to work together
toward a common project goal.

The Art of Managing Change

 Parting Thoughts…

“Things do not change - we do.”

– Henry David Thoreau

The Art of Managing Change

 Thank you !!!

The Art of Managing Change