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A pinch hitter is brought in to change the nature of the game, to grab/shift momentum, to hit the big home run. Is this an analogy for an external change management consultant?
Someone found my blog with the Bing search, “pinch hit external consultants when needed for organizational change”. That got me thinking…
It depends on what you feel the pinch hitter is responsible for and so it depends on what you think change management is and does.
If you think of CM as something that layers over your projects and gets them to move a little better then your pinch hitting consultant (who is just as likely internal as external) goes for the bunt. Move the runners, change the momentum, catch the other team off guard.
If you think of CM as a broad, horizontal, likely organization wide, umbrella that helps to move everything forward (sometimes fast sometimes slow) your pinch hitting consultant is (or at least should be) external and your best case scenario is for them to hit a home run.
Keep in mind, you get to, in baseball (and also in contracting for a consultant) keep them in the game. (They are, at least in baseball, replacing someone, which can have its advantages). Call the home run, or the bunt that does not actually win the game but pushes it in a better direction, the “quick win”.
The way that player operates throughout the rest of the game might just dictate the outcome. They certainly have a chance to have an impact on the players. If they have managed this save, game changing, tweak to momentum before, and the players know it, energy and motivation can turn on a dime. Tied to CM for our analogy that equates to calling out the role of the CM, making them visible and giving them the flexibility and access to be available to make things that do not seem to be happening now happen.
An external consultant as a pinch hitter for change is the one who comes in early to influence the nature of the environment and stays to effect motivation, participation and, eventually the final score.
The pinch hitter analogy for change management is a good one if you are not thinking that the external consultant is there to bunt and get out of the game. It works if you do not think that the CM comes in and hits a home run to finish the whole thing off. Change management has a long timeline from idea to post adoption. It pays to keep that in mind. Don’t wait until the game is almost lost to use your external pinch hitter.
Technorati Tags: change management, External Consultant, organizational change, pinch hitter, project management, quick wins
Four ways to engage change management is a post I did about introducing change to your organization. I picked on project focus a little yesterday so I will be fair and illustrate a way to make layered change at the project level work (maybe). The simplest version of change management is to layer it over a project. For this to work (the maybe was about working not whether I would show you) the definition of “project” must be clear. In my CM semantics world a project is the simplest version of the people to business goals equation. Or the same simplicity for business goals to be accomplished.
If this effort moves horizontal (cross functionally), too far vertically (say involving a large internal vertical) or must spin itself out externally it is no longer a project, likely a program (a sum of projects). When substantial behavior changes need to happen, when the undertaking is transformational (whether in a huge vertical or enterprise wide) then we have lost the pure simplistic project. And therein lies the maybe.
No simple model in CM can ever stand up to the complexity of business and people so let’s pretend with our perfect project.
- The End State Back
- The Spot
- The Acknowledgement
The End State Back
As a project manager (which would be THE simplest [take the use of simple here with a grain of salt] version of CM, no extra resource) you need to find a way to describe the end state for your stakeholders. While you may be measured on completing the tasks to the end of the timeline, success when CM is involved is about adoption, socialization and culturization of this change. If you are working to have one small group “change a few keystrokes”, my choice for simple, think about what that means.
If you use an end state back approach you will make a list of the things they need to succeed at that end state. Remember it is their end state so you have to think about what they will need from their perspective as much as you think about what you feel is important. Think emotion (willing to do something in this case) and think fact (ability to do something here). The missing pieces are what you need to include in your project timeline as tasks. Take off your PM hat though because it may be a list of tasks that is more like a process to be laid over your version of a timeline.
Figure out a way with your own work process to connect with them EARLY. Even if they will not see you in months for their part glue your ties to them from the start. Let them help you define what this new thing might look like. At the simplest level make sure you gather the things that cause them to be emotional when you explain the change. That is not resistance; call it discernment.
The Spot
Having created descriptions of the end state and filled in your own project management version of a timeline you must now integrate in activities that illustrate to stakeholders “spots”. Spots are frozen places in time and space in your process. People stand in those spots. For them to participate and for your task list to play out cleanly those individual people (who sometimes represent a shared group) must know what came before their participation what comes after and how that ties into the overall success of this change.
Overall success is a measure from the individuals perspective and, usually, an achievement for the organization as a whole. Stakeholders like to hear both. Without CM the first is rarely covered effectively and the second is like a cheerleader drowning out the real action.
The Acknowledgement
This ties into the individuals level of success in that people love a pat on the back. And good for them for that because it is important. Make it important in the way you layer change. As you go along address individual effort and group wins. Keep tying that back to the end state path and the spots. The effectiveness of change layering comes when people know what they are responsible for, have the tools and are aware that they will get something for it on completion- something being a pat on the back, rewards, compensation etc.
An acknowledgement of the things that were layered on the time line to accomplish all this is important to call out CM for the next project.
To keep this simple the layered CM pieces are communication, interaction and perspective that get the end state to happen, illustrate to stakeholders what the process is, reinforce participation when it happens and at the end wrap that together in a package to transfer to the next change event.
Technorati Tags: business objectives, change management, Communications, Context, End State, engagement, project management, stakeholders
Change Management communication has four phases.
Idea communication
Awareness
Project Communications
Gauging success
idea communication-
This is the time that the original idea goes through the process of matching to corporate strategy and connecting to the experience, perspective and knowledge of stakeholders. Obviously not everything can be communicated. A sensible level of transparency during this stage will be rewarded in later phases with increased participation and productivity.
awareness-
The second phase of communicating for change management is the process of illustrating and delivering the end state description. It is the foundation for the project and task orientation. It is a translation of the idea into action and an illustration of what that looks like on the broadest scale. If done well the next phase begins, as it should, with participation, understanding and anticipation (and not the dreaded kind).
project communications-
I make it a point to educate both my high level clients and change participants that the project work is a piece separate but distinctly connected to the change piece. Change approached at the high level with a project focus has inevitable failures. Project work burdened with the lack of the first two phases also produces a level of failure. The instant a timeline becomes visible that has actual dates a different kind of process has begun than existed in the first two phases. The train has left the station and that has profound effects on people and work.
success gauge-
To have a repeatable change process, especially for transformation, a communication loop must be created to tie into the first stage of the next initiative. Also the effort, sweat (and maybe tears) of the current change deserves to be acknowledged. If Human capital development was included this is a phase for rewards. It is always a phase for rewards in general. Added celebration gives time for contemplation, confirmed acceptance of the change and a foundation for the next strategic venture.
These are not the typical phases. What usually happens is that the idea is thrown into our purple Project track with the expectation it will be converted to success and profit through the smiling faces and busy hands of the employees. Our purple phase then extends off the page with no resolution and the absence of the original change. There is however lots of change in general… just Not the kind you want as a leader.
Technorati Tags: CCM, change awareness, Change Design, change management strategy, Communication, Communications, End State, Garrett Gitchell, Insights, project management, vision to work
Successful change management communication informs stakeholders of the time and place for their work.
Time-
is the relationship of stakeholder work and participation to the total amount of time for the initiative, the time frame of the phase(s) they are included in and the period they will need to accomplish their tasks.
Place-
is the relationship of that work to participation and tasks that occur before and after their own (and possibly a connection of importance to the bigger picture).
Well of course this is simple time and project management right? If we communicate what is happening then we are doing a good job.
Sorry, but no.
This is one of those subtle areas of change management that no one seems to notice. Most communication for project management and change management is a snapshot of the responsibilities of the guiding team. Add to that the delivery of “how things are going” and you have communication that simply satisfies the need of the team to check off tasks and verify “forward” movement. It does not address the stakeholders needs (and those fulfilled needs are the seeds for motivation).
What you want is the core end state description, clear phases and tasks that fall within those areas. With that you can create a rough timeline (with the pieces and relationships, but not necessarily exact timeframes) to use as the initial communication. That delivers a big picture. The phases themselves can have their own timelines and the tasks can be linked to each of the frozen “places” on the path. With that core visual built on solid up front planning you have an anchor to address changes within the process.
As you move through the timeframe of the initiative you can change the visual relationships on the timeline to re-jigger the frozen places for stakeholders.
Below is a simple timeline for the contents of a white paper I am writing. The paper moves through a knowledge buildup for the reader to get to a new understanding. With an initiative there is a layering of the right skills at the right time to get to the end state. Both can have those frozen places that rely on something previous and prepare for something to come.
As a stakeholder/reader I can see I am at the 5 W’s which I have arrived at after a summary, background and languaging. As I move forward I will begin to understand High Level Change and make the connection to action. The dark grey signifies completion, the green the frozen place, the numbers phases or parts and the titles description tags. The bright green dot, pick your favorite color, is the end state.
So often practitioners blame the lack of awareness on the deletion of messages.
Shouldn’t that be a signal that something might be wrong?
Technorati Tags: Change, change communications, change management, change management strategy, Change Strategy, Communications, End State, Examples, Garrett Gitchell, Insights, project management, stakeholders, vision to work
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