Winchester BODGIT (Andy Wilson)

Change and IT Projects
Dr Andy Wilson
Director of Capability Enhancement
Loughborough University

Purposes
To share some thoughts on change...
...and on change wrt IT projects
To invite your reactions
To identify some recommendations.

Comment
I am currently Project Manager of Loughborough’s move from 3 faculties and 20 departments to 10 schools
I’ll offer some comments on this experience!

Change concepts
The “burning platform”
Dilbert and Senge on change
Change and loss
PESTLE and MORTAR
The DICE model
What managers can do to help.

The “burning platform”

The “burning platform” 2
Sometimes proposed as a way of encouraging change
Refers to Piper Alpha disaster 1988
Gas platform in the North Sea
167 people died
The 59 survivors jumped 200 feet into the water
This is not how you encourage change.

Dilbert on change
Change is good.
You go first.

Senge on change
People don’t resist change.
They resist being changed.
Peter Senge

Change and loss
Elisabeth Kübler-Ross, On Death and Dying (1969)
Often applied to change, sometimes in a rather simplistic way, but…
People don’t neatly followthe model
The downs and ups arenot straightforward
But loss is often a part of even “good” change.

The stages ~ DABDA(M)
Denial ~ They can’t do that!
Anger ~ They can’t do that to me!
Bargaining ~ Well, if they’re going to do that then I want…
Depression ~ It’s awful and I feel miserable
Acceptance ~ OK, it’s going to happen
Moving on ~ Well it’s not so bad, I can deal with this.

On Death and Dying

PESTLE …and MORTAR

The ABCD of Drivers
Altruism ~ lip service, maybe
Business case ~ benefits to...?
Compliance ~ they do it – reluctantly
Desperation ~ they do something…

The Hard Side…
…of Change Management
“Companies must pay as much attention to the hard side of change management as they do to the soft aspects. By rigorously focusing on four critical elements, they can stack the odds in favor of success.”
by Harold L. Sirkin, Perry Keenan, and Alan Jackson
Harvard Business Review Online, 2005.

DICE Model of Change
Duration
Integrity
Commitment
Effort
Get these right, and change is much more likely to be successful.

DICE 2
Duration = the amount of time between reviews (or the duration of change programme)
Integrity = the ability of the team to deliver what is required
CommitmentC1=commitment to change of top managementC2=commitment to change of employees affected by change
Effort = the perceived effort over and above normal workload that the change initiative demands.

DICE Score
1 - 4 (low is good), fractions OK
D + 2I + 2C1 + C2 + E
<15 Win
15 – 17 Worry
>17 Woe
Double weighting for:
Integrity = the ability of the team to deliver what is required
Commitment C1=commitment to change of top management.

Loughborough and DICE

What managers can do
With all that as a starting point…
If you were going through a significant change, what would you want from your manager?

We’d want them to...
Give us time
Listen
Acknowledge our feelings
Encourage the expression of feelings
Describe reality
Explain the drivers
Explore options
Nudge us forwards
Discuss the consequences
Ask difficult questions
Help us to imagine how it could be
Analyse risks
Rehearse behaviours
Feed back on our mood
Celebrate successes.

IT aspects of change
WIIFM?
The impact of IT change
Group think
The computer says, “No”.

WIIFM?
What’s in it for me?
Institutional-level benefits may not look like benefits from the individual’s perspective
With IT change some of the institutional benefits may seem fairly obscure…
…and some of the personal impacts may seem substantial.

The impact of IT change
Consider the “worlds” of different staff groups
The academic world...?
The support staff world...?
And the degree of control people have over their worlds
Then think about the impactof IT change.

Group think
The tendency for members of a cohesive group to reach decisions without weighing all the facts, especially those contradicting the majority opinion.
allpsych.com/dictionary/dictionary2.html
Technical expertise – or the lack of it – can reinforce boundaries.

Remember Senge
IT change may seem less negotiable.

Stakeholder analysis
I’m seeing stakeholders as those people who have an interest in – or can have an impact on – your change project
If you don’t understand who your stakeholders are – and how they feel – then successful implementation will be very hard
This tool helps you with this
Please agree a project from within your group that you’re going to work on.

Stakeholder straplines

Stakeholder straplines 2
In the top part of the circle write the name of the stakeholder or stakeholder group
Then, for each stakeholder, try to identify a pithy phrase or strapline that captures their view of the project
Here are some examples from the Loughborough project...

Depart-mental admin staff
Academic staff
Senior managers
It’s the second envelope!
Will I be made redundant?
This must happen

Your straplines?
Do they tell you anything about what you need to do to make your project work?

People and Technology...
...your recommendations
It’s not rocket science
People do tend to get forgotten
Especially teams
What recommendations would you offer concerning IT-related change?

Stakeholder straplines?
Academic staff
IT staff
Senior managers
So what am I not going to do?
You should have asked us about it beforehand
So now it will just happen

Traffic lights

Fundamentals
Establish the case for change
Visualise how the new world will be better
Establish a set of shared values
Resource the change initiative appropriately
Lead by example
Assess capability and capacity
Engage the team in the change process
Communicate the change in a timely and sensitive way
Ensure senior management commitment is visible.

Dealing with negativity

Another project and DICE

Winchester BODGIT (Andy Wilson)

by Bex Lewis

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