L.O.V.E. It to Change It

Several years ago, there was a scholarly article published by the Harvard Business Review, The Hard Side of Change Management. As the title implies, much discussion on change management is on soft issues such as culture, leadership, and motivation. While these are unquestionably essential factors, they are not stand-alone tools to implement large transformation projects. The HBR paper used a simple four-point framework that provides a methodology to measure change management. The four key points that contribute to the formula are Duration, Integrity, Commitment, and Effort (DICE). Each element is tied to a sophisticated point scale that has proven successful in adding simplicity to an apparent need by executives to have more trust in the more complicated methods. Cost savings using this method are often in the millions of dollars, so this remains one of the best to use for large scale projects, but what about yours and mine?

Here is my four-point LOVE methodology to assist human resources planners and project managers successfully implement change.

• Legitimize – Before determining that change is necessary, there must be an overall satisfaction that it is based on facts and not whims. The critical question is to determine if it is required to fix something that is broken, supplement something that is lacking or improving something that could be better. Many trips through dreamlike-running-through-quicksand begin with the boss reading a new management book that is trending. If it is based on executive whim, it may have to happen anyway, but somebody should be able to compile data on how it affects the current system. People are already busy doing their everyday jobs, so committing their time to manage change should begin with knowing that it is worth the resources expended.
• Observe – Planning the steps toward completion requires analysis of timing and expenditure of resources. A quick Gantt chart can be sketched out in Excel or with inexpensive project planning tools to show all employees the tasks and schedules involved. This needs to be a dynamic tool with observation built-in at critical points to give feedback on any change in direction that is necessary. The problem with most projects that are inadequately planned is that they become a whirlwind of activity with no particular direction. There needs to be accountability for reporting progress promptly to a project leader with authority to alter the course.
• Validate – The most innovative changes will have the most unknowns associated with implementation. It is more difficult to measure a path that has never been traveled before. Just as observation is a continuous process, validation happens at each stage of task completion, not only after implementing the change. Key decision points can reassess the assumptions made about the project. It is better to scrap a bad idea than to complete it. If it failed at any point, it is essential to know if the failure was in planning, execution, or a little of both. At the project end, there needs to be a confirmation that the change succeeded and a determination if the change went far enough toward the objective.
• Educate – The final step in any change is to advertise publically the results of the action and ensure that all stakeholders are aware of any procedural difference affecting their sphere of interest. Before beginning any sweeping change to a process, polling and obtaining buy-in from key stakeholders is deemed to be a critical part of the process, but thinking that everyone has kept up on the progress and aware of a satisfactory conclusion is often a wrong assumption. Anyone with a new role needs to be trained in detail until they understand their role and responsibility. This is doubly true if there is any change in the urgency of actions seen to be routine.

 

Determining the need for change and guiding the organization through the process requires both hard and soft skills. Regardless of the method used, the outcomes are significant parts of the art of managing.

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