Successful Management Of Change Programmes Business Engagement (April 2007)

Successful Management of Programmes
Business Engagement

Business Engagement
This presentation is designed to provide a set of principles and guidelines for handling business engagement within large, complex programmes
Topics covered:

Why do we need to engage the business at all?
Business Engagement – the key principles
Structured communication – guidelines and examples
Creating ownership – guidelines and examples
Managing stakeholders – guidelines and examples

Why do we need to engage the business at all?
Change can only be successful and benefits achieved if the combined individual efforts of people within the organisation work towards the business goals
It is the mobilisation of people within the organisation from the individual, to teams, to everyone that will really make the difference
It is people, not technology that run the business – it is their goodwill that will make or break a change
The programme therefore needs to interest, encourage and support people during the change to foster new ways of working and thinking to achieve the desired benefits from the change
Large scale mobilisation of people in large, complex programmes is one of the biggest challenges in change management

Principles for Business Engagement
Stakeholder Analysis
Know who will be affected by the change, what it will mean for them and whether they support or oppose the change.
Don’t focus all your attention on senior management. They are very important to support the project and the change, but the affected staff have to actually put the change into operation – they need to know what they should do, why, when and how.
Develop a plan for communication – have clear objectives for every group of stakeholders – put yourself in their shoes – what would you need/like to know and when.
Involve layers of people. To reach and engage a large audience is a huge task. Develop a network of champions across the organisation (opinion leaders) who can assist.
Enable the business to ‘own’ the solution. Get key business people involved in working out the solution and test it for robustness with a wider audience.
Keep going. Business engagement is on-going throughout the programme. It can be tough and requires energy, commitment and resources to make it happen.
Structured Communication
Managing Stakeholders: Business Champion and Local Transition Team network
Creating ownership: Participative Design

Communications & Business Engagement across the Project Lifecycle
1 Business Problem Definition
2 Solution Options
3 Design Principles & Contracting Strategy
4 Detailed Design
7 Project Close Out
6 Implementation
5 Build & Test

Senior Management presentations & workshops
Business case & programme rationale – senior management presentations
Identify and set-up programme board and steering groups
Programme awareness presentations/ roadshows for functional management
Set-up champions network
Core design team/review team briefing documents
Identify and set-up core design team
Supplier presentations
Participative Design workshops
Informal design walkthroughs
Set up design review teams
Conference Room Pilots
Design review workshops
Function forum briefing document
Set up & run Functional forums
Set up Local User Representative network
Solution flyers
Solution/working practices walk throughs/Road shows
UAT schedules
Identification of super users and floorwalkers
Training of super users and floorwalkers
Training schedules
Training
Implementation schedules
Day 1 packs
Reference guides
Coaching and floor walking
Communication of issues & how they’re being dealt with

Communications and engagement should be appropriate for the stage in the programme lifecycle

Stakeholder Analysis: Guidelines

Use a brainstorming approach with the programme team to identify as many of the key stakeholders as possible
Use your stakeholder analysis as a key input for your communication and engagement planning.
Develop a simple spreadsheet to hold key stakeholder information.
Keep a record of stakeholder contact – encourage the programme team to update the stakeholder information – build a knowledge base of your stakeholders.

The grid illustrated classifies stakeholders according to their power and interest in the project. This helps to focus attention on key groups of stakeholders and the most appropriate treatment. Additionally the level of support for the change can be indicated on a scale of -5 to +5, providing useful input for particular strategies to be adopted for any pockets of resistance.

Structured communication: Guidelines
Use Stakeholder Analysis as a basis and use the communication planning template.
Think carefully about what you want to achieve with each contact and what communication method you should use.
Provide clear and unambigous messages.
Use a mixture of media – make it interesting for the audience.
The higher the emotional impact of the communication, the lower the amount of technology you use. Use high-tech. for low emotional content (e.g. General updates via e-mail or a mass presentation for high level approach) and high-touch for high emotional content (e.g. Personal walkthroughs for new working practices using information on the walls that people can study and discuss in small groups).
Don’t over-communicate. Keep communications relevant and let people know when they’ll receive the next update.
Senior management should be seen to drive the communications. Get your sponsor to deliver key messages.
Ensure the programme team all understand the key programme messages and communications – don’t let them misinform the stakeholders by mistake.
Constantly review your communications for effectiveness. Don’t be afraid to review and change your plan
The communications plan should evolve throughout the life of the programme

Structuring the approach for communication

Summary of tools for structured communication

Creating Ownership – Guidelines for participative design
Build a core design team that is representative of the users – this could be cross-functional. Keep the core team small – no more than 10.
Choose staff who are well respected and able to make decisions i.e. not too senior and not too junior
Have a clear charter for the team - clarity of purpose, scope, objectives, responsibilities & on-going process. Spend time building the team and being clear about what will happen.
Have a facilitator to run the team, provide the on-going process and get the best from the team.
Empower the team to be able to make the right decisions. This is particularly important with technology change. The facilitator should be able to ‘translate’ the technology options into business options to enable the team to make good decisions.
Run high impact workshops - enabling resources to be part-time & remain connected to their roles. Also develops a common picture and builds buy-in.
Focus on benefits and objectives at all time to review all propositions put forward – this will provide an in-built sense check for the design.
Iterate the design – don’t expect to get it right the first time. 2 -3 loops should be sufficient to crystallise most ideas.
Use prototyping and Conference Room Pilots to visualise the design. Give the team time to ‘digest’ what they’ve seen.
Designing the solution with the business, validating the design and sharing the concepts across the organisation are key to creating ownership of the solution

Participative Design approach
To embed the change and deliver the benefits, the solution must be owned by the business.
Appropriate and key staff members must have input to the decision – creates buy-in and also ensure the solution is fit for purpose and useable in practice.
Take up Strategic new role post ‘
Go-Live’
Design
Processes
& Work Instructions
Be part of
‘Go-Live’
Support
Refine Technology Solution
Solution
Design
Problem identification
Undertake
UAT
Become
Super Users
Solution Identification
Core Design Team with full and part time staff from the business units affected
Facilitated design workshops
Informed input into solutions and transition plans
Review team – key staff selected across business units affected
Facilitated review workshops
Validate robustness of solutions and transition plans
All staff affected by the change
Facilitated solution walkthroughs
Understand what is happening and how it will affect them

To ensure the new system fits the requirements of stakeholders across the business
To ensure the ‘buy-in’ of the business to the new system and process
To ensure a smooth as transition as possible

All Stakeholders
Validated design communicated to all stakeholders and prototype available for viewing and discussion.
To aid awareness, promote understanding and to facilitate discussion.
Review and validation team
Team for each Region/HQ/Major Project that covers a cross-section of roles and management: Regional Supply Manager, Senior Programme Manager, Investment Project Controls Manager, Regional Management Accountant. Regional Director, Investment Manager and Financial Controller to oversee this process.
To review and validate the design to ensure robustness and that the regional viewpoint is considered.
Workshops in each region for the following:

review and validate the design
review and validate the transition plan
review and validate the new working practices

Core design team
Knowledgeable and respected representatives drawn from business functions across the project lifecycle: Senior Buyer, Project Manager, Project Control Manager, Project Commercial Manager, Project Accountant
+ Oracle Application Architect + IM.
To design new processes & system, develop new working practices & develop a transition plan.
Core design team Part-time during design - full time during implementation
The core team ensures a representative view across the process, yet is small enough to make effective decisions about the future. Wider consultation with a carefully chosen team in each region/HQ/Major Project to reviews and validate the design ensures integrity and robustness of the design. This also widens the numbers involved in the definition of the future, without losing control. Once a robust design is achieved, this can be communicated to all for awareness and understanding.

Managing Stakeholders: Guidelines for Business Champion and Local Transition networks
Identify opinion leaders across the affected functions – try to recruit them as Business Champions. These people will be respected by their peers, knowledgeable about the business and know how the organisation works.
Secure enough of their time with senior management to enable them to particpate in the programme. During design this will be 2-3 days a month. Towards implementation this will be 2-3 days a week.
Encourage more senior Business Champions to run a Local Transition Team.
Set up Local Transition Teams (LTTs). Include a representative from each job role affected. Aim for the best staff who know their job well and are also prepared to ‘speak up’.
Make the Business Champions and LTT’s an extension of the programme team – give them more information and more detail than other staff.
Encourage a two-way flow of information. Use their contacts to find out the reaction to the change at grass roots level.
Encourage, motivate and enthuse them about the programme – make it easy for them to be positive about the programme.
Be honest with them. They will be dealing with issues first hand – equip them to deal with the challenges
Large scale mobilisation requires both a top down and bottom up approach

Contact
TIPS Consulting Ltd
Hamilton House
Mabledon Place
Bloomsbury
London
WC1H 9BB
Tel - +44 (0) 207 554 8637
Fax - +44 (0) 207 554 8501
Web – www.tipsconsulting.co.uk