Why Projects Succeed: Organizational Change Management

February 20, 2013 by 6 Comments

Slalom Consulting Roger Kastner

Roger Kastner

Is change management or project management more critical to project success?

Before you answer, let me tell you about two examples that might impact your response.

Like many of you, I’ve been on a few projects where I was able to appropriately set and deliver on expectations on scope, schedule, and budget (“on time, on budget, high five!”), only to have the end product of the project be a big fat zero in the marketplace. Read more of this post

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Change Is Good: J Is for Justification

January 9, 2013 by 7 Comments

Slalom Consulting Roger Kastner

A Consultant Manager with Slalom Consulting, Roger works with clients and other consultants in the delivery of Organizational Effectiveness and Project Leadership services and helps practitioners achieve greater success than previously possible.

Recently, a coworker asked me, “How do you explain the value of change management to senior leadership? You know, explain why change management is important?” As if it were a game of Name that Tune I responded, “I can justify change management in three letters: R-O-I.”

The response was similar to when I talk to a Labrador Retriever: the head cocks to one side, the ears perk up, and the eyes light up with anticipation.

So I provided a little more explanation. “Project management is all about setting, managing, and delivering on expectations of scope, schedule, and budget, and all that work constitutes the investment, or ‘I,’ in the Return on Investment calculation. The return, however, is based on the adoption of the solution created by the project. Therefore, change management is all about optimizing the ‘R’ in the ROI calculation.”

The Labrador expression turned into one of comprehension, and my colleague responded with, “Got it. That’s perfect, thanks!” She then created a PowerPoint slide with just the three letters “R-O-I” as the basis for her upcoming formal request for funding a change management effort.

Just like any investment an organization makes, the justification for the change should be rooted in quantifiable, measurable benefits to the organization. Read more of this post

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Change Is Good: I Is for Integrity

November 9, 2012 by 1 Comment

Slalom Consulting Roger Kastner

A Consultant Manager with Slalom Consulting, Roger works with clients and other consultants in the delivery of Organizational Effectiveness and Project Leadership services and helps practitioners achieve greater success than previously possible.

Several years ago I worked for a large, matrixed company that was going through some restructuring, which included the centralization of a couple program management offices (meaning that my boss had a new boss). The new boss’s boss came out to our campus to hold her first all-hands where she was attempting to build enthusiasm for her new organization.

In her presentation, she used a drawing of an iceberg to illustrate that she was aware that 3/4s of what a project manager does is not visible to all stakeholders, thus potentially creating a lack of appreciation for the work we do. But she was different—she appreciated the full course of work we did and it was her number-one priority to help the larger organization have a better appreciation for project management.

Unfortunately, her message was lost at sea. You see, behind the iceberg, there was a ship labeled with the company’s name. While she was attempting to articulate an appreciation for her new team, the message received was that project management was going to do to the company what an iceberg did to the Titanic. Read more of this post

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Change Is Good: H Is for Habit

October 18, 2012 by 2 Comments

Slalom Consulting Roger Kastner

A Consultant Manager with Slalom Consulting, Roger works with clients and other consultants in the delivery of Organizational Effectiveness and Project Leadership services and helps practitioners achieve greater success than previously possible.

I love witnessing personal transformations.

This is why I enjoy watching the Ironman competition and “The Biggest Loser.” Ultimately, it’s the moment when one realizes that
what was once perceived as impossible is now achievable. It’s breaking the habit of doubt, and creating a new habit of possibility.

For me, this moment came when I ran my first marathon, something that I once believed was ridiculous and impossible. After I completed my first 26.2 mile race, it still seemed ridiculous, but it was now my new reality. My new habit is that now when something is said to be impossible, the voice in my head says, “Oh really? Let’s see about that.”

Occasionally I’ll come across advice from other change practitioners that one should “not attempt to change culture.” While I understand that the undertaking of changing culture is not easy, I don’t think it’s as impossible as some might think. In fact, we witness cultural changes all the time, so I do not accept the guidance to “not try to change culture,” but instead I take the advice as a warning and acknowledgement that just like a marathon, it’s not easy but it is doable. Read more of this post

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Change Is Good: G Is for the Golden Rule

September 25, 2012 by 7 Comments

Slalom Consulting Roger Kastner

A Consultant Manager with Slalom Consulting, Roger works with clients and other consultants in the delivery of Organizational Effectiveness and Project Leadership services and helps practitioners achieve greater success than previously possible.

A colleague told me about a technique he learned at a workshop that calls out the inherent unfairness of not engaging individuals prior to rolling out a change which has a significant impact on them. The technique is brilliant:

  1. Ask participants to pull out their wallet and pass it to the person on their right.
  2. Participant #2 will then go through the wallet and determine what Participant #1 truly needs and does not need in their wallet.
  3. Then Participant #2 hands the wallet back to Participant #1 for future use.

The point of this technique is to demonstrate how change feels to most people who are not engaged in the development of the change or how it is implemented, and if you are like most people who I’ve shared this with, you are probably feeling a little uncomfortable at the thought of being a participant in this exercise. Read more of this post

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Why Projects Succeed: The Right Resources

September 17, 2012 by Leave a comment

Slalom Consulting Roger Kastner

A Consultant Manager with Slalom Consulting, Roger works with clients and other consultants in the delivery of Organizational Effectiveness and Project Leadership services and helps practitioners achieve greater success than previously possible.

Project success is dependent on having the right resources, doing the right work at the right time. Presuming that the successful Project Manager will have shepherded the process to identify the appropriate scope and aligned the critical path and schedule dependencies, let’s talk about having the right people assigned and performing the work.

The right resources will have three characteristics: capability, experience, and motivation. In other words, they can do the work, they’ve done similar work before, and they’re inspired to succeed.

Capability
When identifying scope and associated tasks and deliverables, the successful Project Manager will also ensure that appropriate resource capabilities are identified. By identifying the correct resource requirements, the successful Project Manager will be able to request the correct resources. Read more of this post

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Change Is Good: F Is for Focus

September 12, 2012 by Leave a comment

Change Is Good is a blog series in which Roger Kastner highlights the simplicity in the art of Organizational Change Management and strives to encourage readers to maximize Pareto’s Law when navigating through the complexity of human behavior.

Slalom Consulting Roger Kastner

A Consultant Manager with Slalom Consulting, Roger works with clients and other consultants in the delivery of Organizational Effectiveness and Project Leadership services and helps practitioners achieve greater success than previously possible.

A few years ago, some friends and I took a golfing trip to Palm Springs to take lessons in the morning and then play 18 holes in the afternoon (where we seemingly forgot almost everything our golf pro taught us). The golf pro was a good friend of a good friend, so it was not completely out of the blue on the second day when I received a text message from our mutual friend reading “Ask Bobbi about playing with a heavy bottom.” Of course, with such a provocative prompt, I obliged.

Bobbi, a salt of the earth, lovely South Carolinian gal, cracked a smile and without skipping a beat, expanded the lesson.

Bobbi asked us if we’ve ever heard of the golf advice to “keep your head down” during the swing. The reason for this (for those of you non-golfers out there) is because most amateur players focus on the impact between ball and club face, and by focusing on the impact, they automatically stiffen their bodies, often causing the body to pull away from the ball and resulting in a poor shot. Not to mention 5-10 minutes of looking for the ball afterwards. Read more of this post

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Change Is Good: E Is for Engagement

August 27, 2012 by 1 Comment

Change Is Good is a blog series in which Roger Kastner highlights the simplicity in the art of Organizational Change Management and strives to encourage readers to maximize Pareto’s Law when navigating through the complexity of human behavior.

Slalom Consulting Roger Kastner

A Consultant Manager with Slalom Consulting, Roger works with clients and other consultants in the delivery of Organizational Effectiveness and Project Leadership services and helps practitioners achieve greater success than previously possible.

A client recently asked me if I have anything in my bag of tricks that included criteria and guiding principles for determining which decision-making approach a leader should adopt, from autocratic (one person decides, no input) to consensus (everyone has a vote).

Although I had initial thoughts, I told my client that I would reach out to my network of Slalom consultants to see if something like this already existed, or if I could gather the right information to create something valuable for my client.

What ensued was a handful of stimulating conversations, interesting reads, and a healthy amount of dialogue, which produced a very useful set of criteria and decision tree. Although not all sources and conversations were in agreement, one thing that remained consistent was the belief that the more people you involve in the decision making, the corresponding increase in both the quality and the adoption of the decision. Read more of this post

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Change Is Good: D Is for Decision

August 15, 2012 by Leave a comment

Change Is Good is a blog series in which Roger Kastner highlights the simplicity in the art of Organizational Change Management and strives to encourage readers to maximize Pareto’s Law when navigating through the complexity of human behavior.

Slalom Consulting Roger Kastner

A Consultant Manager with Slalom Consulting, Roger works with clients and other consultants in the delivery of Organizational Effectiveness and Project Leadership services and helps practitioners achieve greater success than previously possible.

Organizational change has several similarities with individual change. Both forms of change are usually for the better, usually difficult to accomplish, and are dependent on a singular thing—successful change is dependent on an individual’s decision to accept the change.

Regardless of whether we are implementing a new software system or quitting smoking, if someone decides to not accept the change, all the vision statements from leaders, slogans on posters, mentoring during one-on-one sessions, and pronouncements from First Ladies to “just say no” are not going to make a difference. It really boils down to an individual making the decision to accept the change.

It’s just that simple.

Now, being able to tell if an individual has truly accepted the willingness to change, well, that’s not so simple. Studies show that around 15-20% of any organization will resist any change, so if you ask 5 people and all 5 say they are in favor, at least one of them might be leaving a false impression. Read more of this post

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Change Is Good: C Is for Context

July 23, 2012 by 4 Comments

Change Is Good is a blog series in which Roger Kastner highlights the simplicity in the art of Organizational Change Management and strives to encourage readers to maximize Pareto’s Law when navigating through the complexity of human behavior.

Slalom Consulting Roger Kastner

A Consultant Manager with Slalom Consulting, Roger works with clients and other consultants in the delivery of Organizational Effectiveness and Project Leadership services and helps practitioners achieve greater success than previously possible.

Originally, I originally thought about naming this blog “C is for Cookies” and I could make a case of it. By making cookies for someone, you’ve made them feel special because you took the time to recognize and value them. And there’s a strong correlation between treating people fairly and successful change management. Our natural tendency to resist change can be mitigated if we feel our needs and viewpoints are respected and we are treated fairly.

And being given cookies along the way couldn’t hurt.

However, C is not for cookies, and not out of fear of the Sesame Street lawyers. Instead, C is for Context, as in the context for change and specifically what the change means for the individual.

Successful organizational change is the manifestation of accumulative personal decisions to accept the change. And the context for organizational change needs to be made at two levels: why is change good for the organization, and why it is good for the individual. Read more of this post

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