How to start and draft a change management approach

[BrittneyMaxfield]

Original blog post here: http://www.theinfluencerblog.com/

I often meet with managers who struggle to get started with their influence projects. Their problems don’t always fit comfortably into the change model: results, vital behaviors, and influence strategies.

In this post, I’ll use the example of Sarah, a front-line manager over a team of five software test specialists, to demonstrate the process for getting started in an Influencer approach.

1) Create and choose a problem statement. Sarah’s team cannot do its job without working with a network of international developers. In order to improve her team’s results, she’d like to use the Influencer process to improve cross-functional cooperation.

2) Break down the problem to find measurable results. Often, when people try to find results, they start with a laundry list of grievances. Here are some of Sarah’s:
• “Developers always miss their deadlines without warning us.”
• “Developers are rude and disrespectful.”
• “We support 10 development teams that are spread out all over the world. It’s hard to track them down.”
• “My team is paid less than industry average.”

Some of these complaints are behaviors. Some are not. And not all the behaviors are worthy of an Influencer approach. Because Influencer approaches are costly in time and effort, they should be reserved for behaviors that produce the most desired results.

To find results, examine problems with two purposes in mind.
1. Detail it. Get examples, stories, and incidents that describe the problem in more detail.
2. Prioritize it. Measure the consequences or costs of the problem in order to decide how much time and effort to invest in solving it.

So, Sarah narrows down her grievances to a few detailed and measurable results that matter most:
• “We don’t get the time promised to us for adequate testing.”
• “We still have to meet deadlines, so we let inadequately tested software leave my department.”
• “My people have low morale because they feel under-valued and disrespected.”

3) Work backwards to identify vital behaviors. Use your priorities, experience, and research to guide your selection of the vital behaviors. Pick behaviors that when changed, lead to changes in other behaviors that eventually drive the results you care about.

While there are many behaviors Sarah might want to change, the two she focuses on are:
1. Developers meet the deadlines established in the original plans.
2. Developers give us advanced warning as soon as they run into problems that could cause them to miss deadlines.

4) Identify the six source barriers. The final step to mapping out an Influencer approach is to look for barriers in each of the six sources. Here are a few ideas for Sarah to consider as she selects change strategies in each source:

Source 1 – Personal Motivation: Do developers realize their apathy to deadlines is forcing the firm to ship shoddy software? Do some developers enjoy inflicting stress and pain on testers? Are some developers just lazy? Do some developers hate delivering bad news?

Source 2 – Personal Ability: Are developers able to create realistic development plans? When a developer is behind, do they know how to deliver bad news without losing face?

Source 3 – Social Motivation: Do the managers in the development areas hold their people accountable for deadlines? Is there social pressure within the development teams to meet deadlines?

Source 4 – Social Ability: Do developers help each other when deadlines are at risk? Do other teams pile on to help a project that is in the red zone?

Source 5 – Structural Motivation: Are there rewards and punishments for missed deadlines? For not warning about missed deadlines?

Source 6 – Structural Ability: Does the project management system make it easy to warn about deadlines that are at risk? Are there cues to remind developers who to warn?

[BrittneyMaxfield]

Kevin,

Kevin,

We've had quite a bit of success changing culture. Here is one strong example from a hospital in Maine. MaineGeneral completely transformed their corporate culture from one where dialogue was stifled to a point that was negatively affecting morale and patient safety, to one where were people felt enabled to hold crucial conversations with their colleagues and superiors. You can read the study here: http://www.vitalsmarts.com/userfiles/pdfs/successstories/Patrice%20Putman.pdf

[Kevin Dixon]

Great approach Brittney,
Quick question have you ever had success in helping companies with changing their culture and more specifically in the area of Workplace Wellness.
[e-mail]

[BrittneyMaxfield]

Agreed. I hope to be able to add some value here as I work with the authors. Thanks!

[David Zinger]

Brittney,

I am so pleased you posted this. On a personal level it was helpful as I am taking the Influencer training and being certified in a couple of weeks. On a much wider scale I think the Influencer can prove to be one of our key tools in working with employee engagement. We are so swamped...if we can find the vital behaviors and work with all 6 sources of influence I think we can make a big difference.

David