2010 Prosci Global Conference Brochure

2010 Prosci Global Conference Brochure

A new PDF is available for download from the ACMP regarding the up coming Global Conference on Change Management. Check it out.

Seven Revolutions | Center for Strategic and International Studies

Seven Revolutions | Center for Strategic and International Studies

Thanks to my alma mater, Saint Joseph’s University(SJU) in Philadelphia, PA for the link above. SJU will be hosting Erik Peterson and a presentation of the Seven Revolutions on campus this spring. I look forward to this “big thinking” event and translating these concepts into the everyday challenges change leaders face.

Please visit SJU at http://bit.ly/apoMTU for details and to register.

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Changing the Leadership and Culture

So, you are working your way through a change or transformation effort, and you are 25%, 50%, maybe even 75% of the way through and the efforts or more importantly, the results are fading. There is probably a bit of change fatigue, and there is probably also a bit of lack of leadership. Can you tell the difference? How do you react?

Rarely does anyone argue against the importance of leadership. Leadership is like “motherhood and apple pie”, as an American, it’s hard to argue against. However, how do you position leadership as a critical element in your change efforts. The fact that leadership is “motherhood and apple pie” almost undermines the need to emphasize it within a transformation effort. However, an article from the Center for Change Leadership takes an interesting perspective on this topic.

http://www.forbes.com/2009/05/27/change-management-innovation-leadership-managing-ccl.html

I propose that, if you find extremely unique competitive differentiators within your business, you can probably leverage them for a profit for a period of time until it becomes commoditized or the rules of your industry change so much that they marginalize your competitive differentiation. Alternatively, if all things are equal (and I have seen dozens of global companies who claim to have unique operational process, but they are not), your teamwork and leadership NEEDS TO BE a competitive advantage. Is it today? If it isn’t today, what are you doing about it? If you are involved in a change or transformation effort, you need to find a way to work into your daily routine an ability to address leadership and teamwork. The Forbes article above outlines some of the considerations for leadership in a transformation. For additional perspective, research the intersection of leadership and change. Ask yourself if you are inspired by your leadership. And if you are a leader, make sure you are inspiring and compelling your enterprise in the most positive manner to change across the obvious (business capabilities and technical enablers) as well as the not so obvious (strategy, culture, skills, and structure). For more on the obvious and not so obvious domains of change, reference my earlier post here http://wp.me/py1Ni-9.

2010 Prosci Global Conference on Best Practices in Change Management

I will be speaking at the 2010 Prosci Global Conference on Best Practices in Change Management in Las Vegas, NV on the topic of Integrating Project Management and Change Management. I look forward to a lively exchange of ideas and to hearing more thought leadership on the topic.

So, what is your experience with the intersection of project management and change management? I shared some perspectives on this topic in a previous blog post here ->http://wp.me/py1Ni-2I . These perspectives were sourced through a lively discussion via a few of LinkedIn’s group discussions. I am very interested in your thoughts and comments in my guestbook for inclusion at the conference.

For more information, please check out http://www.acmp.info/conference/integrating.htm

Executive Courage

“The key to change… is to let go of fear.” – Rosanne Cash

I recently came across an article on executive courage at http://bit.ly/7gWhjY and was reminded of the impact that fear has within organizations today.

Fear is a limiting factor to you and the teams you lead. It negatively impacts culture, team work, and productivity. Fear materializes in many ways through a transformation including but not limited to:

• Fear of the unknown – “I have no idea what our future business model looks like.”
• Fear of the known – “Every time I talk with that person they bite my head off, so I gave up talking with them.”
• Fear of Maslow’s hierachy of needs – “If I share my ideas they may be contrary to my boss and my job may be jeopardized.”

Fear can paralyze organizations at all levels. However, when confronted with courage, companies can overcome their fears and make a difference. I propose that people and organizations achieve their greatest accomplishments when they overcome their fears, or those things that hold them back.

Now is the time for courage. When the competition is fearful of the known, unknown, and/or hierarchy of needs, be courageous and thrive.

Leadership Beyond Bounds – Forbes.com

Leadership Beyond Bounds – Forbes.com.

Another quick link to an article with a good perspective regarding leading across organizational boundaries.

Tense. Worry. Choke. – Center for Creative Leadership Group News | LinkedIn

Center for Creative Leadership Group News | LinkedIn.

Quick update on a great perspective on dealing with complex challenges, culture, and performance obstacles that everyone faces as a leader.

The Inter-relation of Project Management and Change Management

In my previous post here, regarding skills necessary for next generation project managers, I referred to an article on CIO.com. I also posted a question to multiple groups within LinkedIn (including but not limited to CIO magazine, Change Consulting, Leaders & Thinkers, Philadelphia Technology Group, Business Improvement, Change Management, and Turnaround, etc.) and the response has been overwhelming.

Many of you have agreed that there is a close link between project and change management. I decided to pull some of the better excerpts here.

• I do believe that if you want to make important changes in an organization, a complete turn-around or a transformation, then it easily gets diluted if you do not run it as a project. Considering people’s adversity to change they will find every opportunity to avoid changes or go back to their former way of working. A project creates a solid framework, with measureable milestones, progress reports, focus on areas where change does not happen according to the objective, and subsequent corrective measures.
• A project by definition is a special endeavour that is different from routine work. Anything which is new and people are not used to, will require change management for its effective implementation or delivery of its intended results. However, the scope of the project and its impact will determine the change management required. On the other hand Change Management is again by definition is something special and hence can be considered a project and needs to be run like a project even though some of the outcomes of a change management initiative are qualitative and difficult to quantify. More visionary leadership is required for a change management initiative.
• Any change program of a certain magnitude must be managed as a project.
• I totally agree that to change the mindset of the people really need people who have influence or leadership qualities ,who can drive the ideologies in such a way that people start accepting those ideas.The success of any Project lies on the shoulder of leader as to how influential or diplomatic he or she is to drive people for change without much resistance I agree that individuals need to have willingness to change but my experience is that Strong leaders first create strong team then show the positive aspect of the desired changes to people,influence people to accept changed environment,motivate people in such a way that they are willing to accept any change and then establish informal communication channel with grass root level people and then simply put across the formal roadmap of any Project.
• Both Project Management and Change Management are disciplines. Both are managing a transformation from current reality to a desired future state. Any initiative that is responsible for the development and/or delivery of something significant will require a Project Manager to drive planning and execution. The question that most people struggle with is “when is a change management track required along with a dedicated Change Manager?” The answer lies with “behavior”. The more that the project’s deliverables require a change in human behavior, the greater the need for Change Management. (Ex. The delivery of new spreadsheet software to people who use spreadsheets, simply requires some user training. However, an initiative that changes business process and the roles, responsibilities and procedures expected of people is expecting new behaviors and requires more than training classes.)
• Most projects are initiated to change something and therefore, change management should an integral part of what is done to ensure success.
  
• The ultimate value of any project rests with how well the change is absorbed in the organization. All successful projects I have seen tend to have incorporated some level of awareness that the transition from the ‘as is’ state to the ‘to be’ state will involve change and have – to some degree – proactively planned for the need to understand and manage that change throughout the project.They should be joined by the hip. I can’t recall any project that I have run where the organisation I was delivering the project for wasn’t prepared for the implementation in terms of communication, training etc.
• …it is hard to imagine any kind of significant change that would not benefit from being managed as a project.
• Change is constant, project is the boundary we draw to manage it in a phased approach.
• Project management is a discipline that is about delivering change. Organisational change management is a closely related discipline that is also about delivering change.
• They are related inasmuch as you have many Project Managers who have been involved in “change” initiatives and many Change Managers who have been required to “project manage”. That said my view is that they should not be related but complimentary. Why? A Project Manager is the owner of a plan that is milestone driven whilst a Change Manager has the unenviable task of winning hearts and minds and changing culture which cannot be milestone driven. Ideally the PM and CM should compliment each other in the context of a project. First and foremost I am a Change Manager and my Project Management skills are secondary to what I do.
• Change management is also studying the impact of any change. It is also about continuous re-inventing.
• Formal plans and statements contribute to this process. But these consistently fail to address crucial aspects of real-world organisations that managers experience every day. Other, ever-present features of organisational life – such as the impact of power and politics, the importance of informal processes, and the implications of paradox – tend to be dealt with superficially or ignored altogether.

And, I am only through about half of the feedback! This is clearly a topic of interest across a broad group of individuals.

I believe the two modes of thinking are related, and probably best described as “co-dependent”. While some comments focused on technical change management, most folks articulated the concept of project management providing a “blocking and tackling” approach to driving incremental organizational movement in a direction that is different from where an entity is today.

I prefer to think of project management as one important technique to enable change. In itself, it is not sufficient. Project Management is effective as breaking up a large problem into smaller digestable pieces. My team and I have a saying to refer to this phenomenon “How do you eat an elephant? One bite at a time.” Some methodologies I have been exposed to encourage “a series of small successes.” These are all project thinking models that help us digest large scale changes.

Change Management (in the cultural / transformation sense) becomes necessary based on the magnitude of the change the project is driving. Sizing the amount of change, can be a challenge. I use the framework from this blog entry to contextually appreciate the change at the enterprise and project level. When more of the domains are involved, more change management is required.

In closing, I would like to share a final word on management vs enablement. In our transformation approach, we have implemented and built out a project management system (processes and tools) to manage the business and IT related projects. We are driving large scale change into a company using project management as one technique. We also realize that project management, while important, is not sufficient in isolation to drive a business transformation. A broader framework is required. We view Change Management as a broad all-encompassing concept with multiple capabilities required to conduct a successful transformation. Along side of program & project management, we are building out a “change enablement” capability as well. I am not convinced that one can manage change like one manages projects. In textbooks and theory, we can definitely defend an approach to managing change like managing a project. However, in reality, its not that “black and white”.

We are breaking down our business transformation into a series of measure outcomes using project / program management techniques and dealing with the softer aspects of change via change enablement. When the size of the change impacts are broader than the business capability and technical enabler domains, (ref. this model) a much more entrepreneurial model is being applied to address the strategy, cultural, competencies, and structural domains. Our enablement serves as the “grease on the corporate gears” and facilitates the highest level transformational direction which can then be programatically broken down into a series of small successes so that we are able to eat the entire elephant!

10 Key Capabilities of Next-Generation Change (Project) Managers

The 10 Key Capabilities of Next-Generation Project Managers – CIO.com – Business Technology Leadership.

Project management and change management are closely related. In fact, I view it more as project “thinking” and  change “thinking” that all people involved with business transformation need to embrace.

The behavioral attributes of project management, or “project thinking” transfer well into the arena of business transformation. With increased complexity comes the need for increased discipline. This has been a motto that I have shared for many years with my troubled project engagements. Business transformations mean increased complexity in the form of “more, better, faster, cheaper”. In this type of environment, project thinking becomes a rising star. The ability and (more importantly) willingness to pay attention to all the details and facilitating progress by segmenting (or what I like to refer to as “bucket-izing”) issues, actions, risks, dependencies, and decisions are but two of the key technical skills.

I like this article from CIO.com because it goes beyond the technical skills and provides a good list of leadership skills for the next generation or transformational project manager. Project managers need to have the basic technical skills, and then need to bring the skills outlined in this article to make a difference. If you find yourself operating as a PM within a fairly predictable environment (I am not 100% sure if these exist anymore) then these capabilities might not be so critical. However, if you are in a transformation or chaotic environment, I suggest that this is a very good list of capabilities, and one that we should leverage. Rate yourself on a scale of 1-10 for each of these capabilities, then define which ones you want to grow. We all have “flat spots”. Knowing them is half the battle.

How important are relationships as a Change Leader?

Simply stated, relationships matter, they make a competitive difference.

Project Management: How IT and Business Relationships Shape Success – CIO.com – Business Technology Leadership

If you are facing a transformational change, pay attention to relationships. Relationships are the silver lining of everything you do as a change leader. Without authentic and effective relationships including a genuine leadership style, your ability to affect change will be challenged.

As a change leader you will rarely have line authority over all the resources you need to marshal within the organization. So, how do you influence in the matrix? Be genuine. An old colleague of mine used to joke that “if you can fake sincerity, you have it made.” I always liked the sarcasm in this comment. If you are reading this and you believe it, you might want to check  your internal compass. If you chuckle at this comment, YOU GET IT. The comment makes the point, that change leaders need to be genuine. They do this by putting the needs of the business ahead of their own needs, ahead of their political agendas, and ahead of any personal agendas.

Strong relationships bring trust. Trust breaks down walls and brings collaboration forward faster so you can move through issues. Its not easy to stand in front of a stakeholder and say “we made a mistake” whether you are on the business or IT side of the house. However, it has been my experience that when you do this, and the stakeholder responds positively, you have a chance to work it out. If the stakeholder takes your comment and proceeds to use it as a stick to beat you and/or your team down, you are in trouble. In the later case, you do not have the relationship strength you need, and you need to identify the root cause of the gap, then address it genuinely.

Relationships matter. If you find yourself in a plane where they don’t, take a look around and determine if you have the elements you need to be successful. As the article above references, relationships contribute to many project failures. What makes you or your environment so unique that relationships DON’T matter?