Change Management Frameworks for Achieving Excellence
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In my previous article, I explained the formula for Excellence is Excellence = Quality X Acceptance (E = Q X A). This is a very useful and important framework that comes from Six Sigma.
Excellence = Quality X Acceptance
It is a multiplication equation so even if you have the best idea (Q = 10), more than half the people involved need to be on-board for the initiative or project to succeed. Excellence is difficult to achieve.
The statistics on failed projects or initiatives are staggering and the larger the project the higher the risk of failure. The 2015 WRIKE Complete Collection of Project Management Statistics found that:
· Organizations lose $109 million for every $1 billion invested in projects and programs.
· 75% of IT project leaders believe their projects are “doomed from the start.
· Large projects are twice as likely to be late, over budget, and missing critical features than small projects. A large project is more than 10 times more likely to fail outright, meaning it will be cancelled or will not be used because it outlived its usefulness prior to implementation.
· 17% of large IT projects (budgets $15M+) go so badly they threaten the existence of the company.
· Only 64% of projects meet their goals.
So how can we increase acceptance?
There are several ways this can be done. The three most critical steps are:
1. Identify all your key stakeholders to understand their needs before the project begins.
2. Build in time at key milestones for feedback loops to gain acceptance from end users and team members.
3. Incorporate change management frameworks – this is what we will focus on in this article.
Items 1 & 2 have already been briefly explained in the previous article. I would like to elaborate on the importance of identifying all the key stakeholder needs before the project begins.
What is a stakeholder? The Project Management Institute defines a stakeholder as ““individuals and organizations who are actively involved in the project, or whose interests may be positively or negatively affected as a result of project execution or successful project completion.” Stakeholders include the project sponsor(s), project team members, internal functional groups and resources outside of the immediate project team that are needed to support the project, as well as the end user or customer. It is not possible for the project team to communicate directly with all stakeholders. That is why it is important to identify who the key stakeholders are because they will hold influence over other stakeholders.
What often happens, is midway through the project or initiative, significant issues come up that were not anticipated at the beginning. This cannot always be avoided but in many cases, the reason the issues that derail the project were not identified is that there were key stakeholders that were not properly consulted before the project began. There is a reason stakeholder analysis is part of the project initiation phase. Even if you are running an agile project, it is important to conduct a stakeholder analysis and understand what your key stakeholders want at the beginning of your project and check-in with them at key milestones. It does not take very long and will save a lot of money, time, and resources.
There are many different change management frameworks out there. I have selected three that I have found to be the most useful. There are many other articles and websites that explain these three change management frameworks in more detail. The purpose of this article is to explain how each of these frameworks can be applied to help increase acceptance and achieve excellence in your initiative or project. It will also explain the similarities between the three models to reinforce understanding of the important principles in these frameworks.
1. The ADKAR® framework by Prosci®
2. The Influencer framework by Crucial Learning
3. The Switch framework by Chip and Dan Heath
ADKAR Framework by Prosci
Prosci has developed one of the most well-known change management frameworks. Their ADKAR framework provides a way to think through the steps an individual must go through for change to occur.
A - Awareness of the need of change
D - Desire to participate and support the change
K - Knowledge on how to change
A - Ability to implement desired skills and behaviors
R - Reinforcement to sustain the change
As leaders, we need to consider how to address these five areas. Here are some examples:
A - Awareness of the need of change – this is where the communication plan comes in.
Most teams do have this in mind. For internal projects, the earlier in the project people become aware of the change the better. They do not need all the details at that point, but it is helpful for them to know something is coming because some people do not like change and do not react well to surprises.
D - Desire to participate and support the change – how can the initiative be aligned with what the user/customer values?
Apply the WIIFM concept – What’s In It For Me? This applies to team members as well as end users. For team members, do you know what they value? What motivates them? In what ways can you connect that to the project or initiative? For end users, what are the reasons they will want to adopt the change?
K - Knowledge on how to change – this can be done through training, but training alone is not enough!
More than 90% of training is wasted.
A - Ability to implement desired skills and behaviors – equipping is needed to translate the knowledge gained from the training to ability. Some ways to do this are by providing access to superusers or support groups post launch.
R - Reinforcement to sustain the change – do the product features and benefits make it easier for people to do their job or harder? Are there on-going incentives for adopting the change or do people think it will go away or become obsolete in a few years when the next new and shiny thing comes along?
For more information on the ADKAR change management framework, visit Prosci’s website or read ADKAR: A Model for Change in Business, Government and our Community by Jeffrey M. Hiatt.
Influencer Framework by Crucial Learning
Crucial learning is the same organization behind Crucial Conversations. Their Influencer framework is based on three steps:
1. Focus and measure the desired end result.
2. Find vital behaviors that are critical to making the change.
3. Once these have been discovered, then the vital behaviors are put through the following framework to think about ways to influence the change.
Imagine we are someone’s spouse with young children and want them to adopt a healthier lifestyle.
Let’s use this example to illustrate the Influencer framework.
Step 1: Focus and measure the desired result.
Lose 15 pounds and decrease blood pressure to normal range.
Step 2: Identify Vital behaviors:
Exercise regularly (4-5 times per week) and reduce junk food.
Step 3:
Some important things to remember:
1. A clear end result and the vital behaviors must be defined BEFORE using the Influencer framework.
2. Oftentimes, we can be overly focused on the personal aspect of whether someone is willing or able to change and forget to consider the other social and structural factors at play. The social factors can significantly outweigh the personal factors. If the company culture for example is strongly against the change, this social factor alone can cause a project or initiative to fail. This is why training alone is not sufficient. The larger the initiative, the more important the social and structural factors become. This is why so many large projects and initiatives fail.
3. Personal ability and motivation are sometimes linked. When someone is not good at something, they tend not to be very motivated to do it. When we help increase personal ability, motivation may follow.
For more information on the Influencer framework, visit Crucial Learning’s website or read Influencer: The New Science of Leading Change.
Switch Framework by Chip & Dan Heath
This framework comes from Chip and Dan Heath’s book titled Switch: How to Change Things when Change is Hard.” In it they outline a three-part framework to change:
Chip & Dan identified three actions that can be taken for each of the three steps:
For more information on the Switch framework, visit https://heathbrothers.com/books/switch/ or read Switch: How to Change Things When Change is Hard.
Summary - Change Management Integration
There are three pre-requisites for change to occur:
(1) People must be discontent with the present situation.
(2) People must see a better alternative solution.
(3) People must feel like they are able to get from the current situation to the future solution.
If any of these three things are not in place, the change will fail. Change management frameworks are useful ways to address these pre-requisites.
If we come back around to ADKAR and incorporate the other frameworks, here is a summary of what change management looks like:
The basic premise throughout all this is that people need to be involved in the change process to own or want to change. There is a story I would like to leave you with. Perhaps you have heard of the controversy around boxed cake mix and whether or not eggs were needed when boxed cake mix was launched. When boxed cake mix sales started to plateau, some say the recipe was changed so that a fresh egg had to be added because they discovered people wanted convenience but not so much convenience that they didn’t feel like they were doing enough. So, they changed the recipe and made it so that an egg had to be added and sales started taking off! Others say it was because the cake tasted better with fresh eggs. Either way, when you are planning a major initiative, especially when it is an internal initiative – think about ways to engage others so that they feel like they can contribute to the process and “add an egg” instead of being told to “just add water” to the recipe. This will increase acceptance and remember that excellence is only possible when acceptance is high.
If you missed the first article on the Excellence = Quality x Acceptance framework, you can read it here.
Contact Claritas Consulting & Coaching to discuss your project needs or follow us on LinkedIn for more useful leadership and project management resources and frameworks. If you found this useful, please share this article with others.