ServiceExperts™ is a series of contributing articles from recognized industry professionals offering their thoughts, viewpoints and opinions on the latest trends impacting the service industry. Jim Bohn, PhD is an author and researcher-practitioner focused on improving organizational performance one person at a time. Dr. Bohn has decades of on-the-job experience in addition to a strong foundation of academic research. Dr. Bohn has organizational expertise and insight stemming from decades of successfully leading leaders. His business insight derives from observing the organizational behavior of multiple Fortune 500 organizations, ranging from hospitals and healthcare to retail and finance, service, manufacturing and telecoms.
He served in a variety of roles in the corporate world beginning in 1973, personally leading the transformation of multiple underperforming teams to achieve award-winning levels of success. Retiring after 33 years with Johnson Controls, Dr. Bohn launched his own Change Management and Organizational Transformation Practice, PRO/AXIOS LLC. Dr. Bohn has a unique blend of hands-on, in-the-trenches experience in addition to a rich pedigree of research from his Ph.D. studies. In addition to lecturing at local universities, he is the author of several books. His latest book, “Architects of Change: Practical Tools for Executives to Build, Lead and Sustain Organizational Initiatives,” is now available on Amazon.com.
Having led scores of large changes and having worked with multiple teams and organizations, I have distilled ten questions to ask and resolve before beginning a change. They are as follows:
- Why do you want to change?
- What is the change?
- Who is involved?
- Who leads the change?
- Who needs to know about the change?
- Where are the true organizational influencers?
- Who will support those affected by the change?
- What is the organizational impact?
- Where are the risks?
- Who is in charge of the details?
1. Why do you want to change?
Most executives tend to overlook this step or simply say, “Just do it.” But there are several reasons to take a significant amount of time to assess the rationale for your change. Plan on discussing this for a couple of hours, and word it for people on the front lines. Make it plain.
- The biggest reason: Having one consistent story to be told top to bottom of the organization. By having a consistent message, you’ll avoid the naysayers who don’t believe this change is a good idea.
- Second reason: A constant reminder of why you launched the change.
- Third reason: To assess whether you’re accomplishing what you set out to do.
- Fourth reason: To recognize the change team when they achieve success.
Keep the corporate speak out of your rationale! Remember, most people do NOT care about market share or ROI. They’re interested in how the change benefits the corporation. Make it clear. Make it simple. Make it compelling. This work is hard, but very necessary.
2. What is the Change?
Scoping out a change is critical for several reasons. You want to know the boundaries of the change before you start. Because if you have clear boundaries, you’ll be able to detect people who want to add more levels of complexity (generally to make it so complex people say “it can’t be done”.). Make the language clear. What are we doing? And more importantly, what are we NOT doing?
3. Who is Involved?
Bohn’s law is this: more people = more complexity. The people who are involved with the change are people directly affected by its outcome. Get a whiteboard and list all the teams and departments who will be involved in bringing the change to life. Exclude unnecessary people – it only makes things worse. Get the right people on the team. Reward them. Make sure you drop other stuff off their plates. Support them.
4. Who leads the change?
There should be one person whose feet will be held to the fire for the change outcome. Ideally it should be a senior leader who is involved in the day-to-day outcomes and meetings. People turn to this person to break down barriers and to get necessary resources. This is the person whose feet get held to the fire to get the job done – no questions asked.
5. Who needs to know about the change?
This list is different from “who is involved?” though there will be some overlap. Who needs to know often includes customers, legal, HR, suppliers, and other organizational support groups who will be affected by the change, but are not conducting the change. Get a flipchart and document this list. And make sure you have a communications specialist on the team to manage information.
6. Where are the true organizational influencers?
This may be the most important question other than the rationale for the change. Here’s why: In every organization there are people who do not have significant placement on an organizational chart, but who have immense influence. They’re typically people who have been around for decades, have a great track record and often have done amazing feats.
These team members have immense influence. If you don’t include them in the discussions around change, you’re selling yourself short. You can do all your due diligence and cross every ‘t’ and dot every ‘i’, but if you don’t talk with these team members, they can bring your change to a halt simply by saying, “That will never work”.
Where do you find them? Ask around. People with big reputations are not hard to find and over the long haul, taking the time to meet with them and discuss the change ahead of time will pay off in dramatic ways. Get their insights. Get them to support you. They are a big factor in change success. Don’t miss this step.
7. Who will support those affected by the change?
It’s one thing to launch a change, it’s a whole different matter to support it once things are moving. If you’re adding a new system, who answers questions when it doesn’t work? Who solves problems with a new policy? You must have good answers to these (and other) questions if you want your change to “stick”.
8. What is the organizational impact?
Take the time to look at all the projects going on in your organization before you launch the change. You’ll be surprised to find out scores of projects, large and small, that are affecting all your employees. Do you have the capacity to introduce this change right now? Are you sure??
9. Where are the risks?
Once you’ve established the rationale and boundaries of the project, get a small team together and grab a flipchart. Put the word “Risks” at the top. Then brainstorm them out. The value? You can make adjustments or course corrections prior to launching the change.
10. Who is in charge of the details?
Inevitably some executive will want to know: How much is this costing us? How far along are we? A great project manager is your answer. Hire the best project manager you can find who knows every penny, farthing and deutschmark, every hour of time and where that time is spent, the cost of the new system and all the related parts.
The goal of these ten questions is to properly prepare for a change. Most importantly, you’ll get your leadership team on the same page to ensure you have a consistent message and method.
