Managing Change and Tackling the "It's Not My Job" Syndrome
The CEO of a large building services firm pulled up Joe in the
corridor. "You were supposed to bring back in-house asbestos
removal services so that our guys can do this work. Sally now
tells me we're still receiving invoices for external contractors
doing these jobs. What the heck are you doing?" Joe yelled back,
"I did what you asked. I designed the new system. It's not my
job to make sure that your supervisors pass on the work to our
guys!"
Do these tensions surface in your change program? Many change
initiatives implode spectacularly or die a slow death because
roles and accountabilities are left unclear or ambiguous. For
your program to succeed, you will need to identify and
communicate the various role responsibilities of all the people
required to see your program through.
The Key Change Roles
The roles you will actually need will depend on a number of
variables. However, generally speaking, a change role may be one
of four types:
Change Driver: -the principle cause and motivator of
change
Change Implementer: -manages and performs tasks to bring
about change
Change Enabler: -sets up environments so that change can
happen
Change Recipient: -expected to behave differently in the
changed organization
Who are the people that fill each of these role types? Let's
look at each one in turn. The key driver roles for
organizational change are:
Change Leader
The change leader should be sufficiently senior in the
organization to be able to command resources and the attention
of the executive team. The change leader has a strong personal
commitment to the success of the program and is the principal
trouble-shooter.
Program Sponsor
The program sponsor is the executive's representative for
ensuring that the appropriate resources are committed, problems
are solved and the program succeeds.
Steering Committee
Steering Committee members share overall responsibility for the
success of the program with the Program Sponsor. The committee
typically represents the key stakeholders and reviews regularly
the progress of the project.
The key implementer roles include:
Project Manager
The project manager has overall responsibility for detailed
planning and implementation of one or more components of the
change program.
Project Team Members
Project team members are responsible for completing various
project activities.
The key enabler roles include:
Middle Managers
Middle managers are responsible for supporting and communicating
change initiatives and allocating the resources required within
their area of control.
Supervisors
Frontline supervisors and team leaders are the face of the
organization to employees and serve a critical role in
supporting, consoling and coaching employees throughout the
change process.
The change recipients roles will include people at various
levels within the organization, from frontline workers expected
to use the new accounting system to managers required to report
regularly on its outputs.
Tips for Working With Roles and Responsibilities
Now that you have a structure to work with, how can you use this
to make sure that your change initiative stays on track? Here
are some useful tips that you can use in your current program.
* Write up project and operations plans that define clearly who
will fill each role and their specific accountabilities.
* Make up a task schedule that spells out who will perform each
task and the expected completion date.
* Sit down with each person and engage them in a two-way
conversation to ensure mutual understanding of their role,
responsibilities and tasks.
* In selecting for the key driver roles, select people that are
genuinely supportive of the proposed changes. These roles should
always be filled voluntarily.
* In selecting for team membership roles, such as on project
teams and working groups, include opinion leaders in the
organization and skeptics that you need to win over. Sometimes,
giving objectors a say in how things are done can lead to these
resisters becoming your greatest allies.
* Check that you have covered adequately the two areas of
accountability; change management/project implementation
activities and new operational activities. The former activities
deal with moving from where you are now to the new way of
working. The latter involves activities within the new way of
working. Many organizations spend considerable effort getting to
where they want to be, but leave employees, customers and
suppliers wondering to where it is they have arrived.
* Perform a skills gap analysis on each role in your change
program. Each role requires its own set of skills. Performing a
gap analysis will ensure that occupiers of each role have the
required skills for their allocated tasks. A skills gap analysis
works by identifying which skills are required, which skills the
person currently possesses and the gap between the two that
requires filling.
2006