“It’s all in the way we listen”. It’s the PSC motto and especially relevant when it comes to helping clients migrate platforms. With our knowledge and experience we’ve seen that technology is often not the problem in our projects, it is people. Humans are masters at making systems serve our needs, but in general people don’t change quite so easily.

In this light hearted presentation with a serious message, one of our most experienced consultants, John Bigenwald (@john_bigenwald), talked about how he approaches change management when helping client migrate platforms. While this is not “Technology Talk”, it is something we do every day at PSC and relevant to every technology project we do.

Tech is easy – People are hard

Not to minimize how hard developers have it, but code can be refactored and changed without having to hurt it’s feelings or years long emotional attachment to the application.

Why do project fail?

Based on research done by a French company, of their own internal projects:

• 11% of large projects fail because of quality
• 39% of projects fail due to a lack of planning resources and activities
• 57% of projects fail due to “breakdown in communications”

The problems are with “soft skills” and not “hard skills”. Staying in contact with the program mangers as we are going through a project is critical and essential to its success. Communicating with the users not only buys us good will, but gives us better insight into how they work. During this time we also uncover many issues which, left unaddressed, could cause the failure of the project.

Lewin’s Change Management Model

No one starts a project intending to fail. There are three stages to Lewin’s Change Management Model:

• Unfreeze
• Change
• Freeze

In a survey 75% of the project managers expected that there would be some form of failure in their IT projects. It is the expectation from the outset based on history and experience telling them not to expect success. Even 15 years ago, The Harvard Business Review stated in an article that:

“Managers expect to be able to plan for all
variables in advance, but they can’t.
Nobody is that smart or has a crystal ball that clear….”

Unfreeze is the key to the change

How you prepare the organization for change will be the driving force behind the whole process. You have to create a sense of urgency, build coalitions and create a vision for change.

• Preparing the organization to accept the necessity and/or desirability of a change. It involves breaking down the existing status quo before you can build up a new way of operating. You need to develop a compelling message showing why the existing way of doing things cannot continue.

John then went on to draw an analogy between “change management experts” on tv and real life.

In the “Property Brothers” on HTGV they work with people buying a new house and renovate it. As they walk through the show there are issues uncovered and they all need to be handled within budget. The news is not always good and pleasant to have to deal with, but the home owner has to determine what is most important for them to have implemented to call the project a success. They never know what’s going to be behind a wall at the start of a project.

In “The Walking Dead” tv show people are living in a post-apocalyptic world where they have to survive by using their experience and wits to avoid becoming one of the hordes.

There is a point to this….I assure you 🙂

Creating Urgency

The status quo is unfrozen only by creating a sense of urgency. Stalling and slowing the process is not only a high risk, but gives people who want to be obstacles, leverage to not change.

In the Walking Dead a zombie horde in the camp really creates a sense of urgency. But that urgency is driven by fear, which often leads to bad decisions. A poorly thought through decision causes someone to do something unexpected which puts the whole group at risk.

In the Property Brothers they create urgency by painting a vision of the future. This provides the impetus for change. Besides designing and building a new home, an integral part of the brother’s job is to paint of vision of the future. This allows the client to better handle the unplanned nightmare behind the wall. The overall goal is the overall goal and that which is in front of us right now is only an obstacle on the way to the goal.

So how do we create urgency? Hire some zombies to crash the office?? No…..

Urgency is created by a desire to achieve a vision. The greater the vision, the better the promised future, the greater the urgency to reach that future. Losing a ton of money in a certain area, does not necessarily sway the budget lines for the overall plan. This is only one example but the thought process is the same. Without a sense of why this needs to be done now, why is it important enough to move to the front of the queue? Without a sense of why a change will improve the program, your job, your life, there is no urgency to make the change – inertia will win.

Building coalitions

As projects evolve your change agents can switch and they aren’t always the people you think they will be. In the Walking Dead the group’s leader was a former deputy. Others in leadership are a housewife and a survivalist loner. You would not have chosen them as a team to start with but they need to work together for survival. Over time people are lost from the group and new members join as needs change. In the same manner, hidden structure, long term friendships and who is impacted by the change can drive the dynamics of the coalition.

Create a vision for change

Going to the Walking Dead again……they are always talking about a better life, it drives them forward. They don’t talk about how one direction has fewer zombies over there, they talk about the better life when they get there.

In Property Brothers they do not talk about the size of the house, they talk about entertaining, having dinner with the kids and how that will give you a better life.

Unless you have a clearly defined vision for where we are going, and some people to help you get there, and a sense of urgency to do it….. your chances of failure are higher.

Big thinking precedes great achievement

– Wilfred Peterson

Conclusion

Understand what is driving the change. Use that knowledge to paint a vision of the future. Logic drives technology; Emotion drives people.