Laying The Groundwork for a Successful Change.
It turns out that you have been deploying the right reliability tools and maintenance practices, but the organization’s culture was preventing or hampering the results. This is a common scene played out in many organizations, but there is hope. The culture change will be a long road, as cultures are not changed overnight.
In the previous article we covered the warning signs of a culture that may be impeding your reliability efforts. If you have determined that your culture is impeding your effort, there are some things you can do to improve it. But before embarking on a change program, you need to start laying the groundwork for the change. This will improve you chance of success as 70% of change programs fail (Ken Blanchard).
- Stakeholders – Before you can begin any change process, you will need to determine who will be affected by the change, and who may have an interested in the change. These are your stakeholders. Begin by conducting a stakeholder analysis and determine what each stakeholder would support and what they would push back on. Armed with this list, determined what you need to do to move stakeholders from the oppose to the support side.
- Link Reliability to Costs – You will need to prepare a business case for the culture change you are about to undertake. Determine the financial and non-financial impacts that the culture change will have on the organization and present it to senior management. You need to gain the full support of the senior managers as you will need them to be active in the change process.
- ADKAR – Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement. Use the ADKAR methodology in all your change activities. Using this systematic approach, you can ensure your communication, training and rewarding efforts are coordinated and will bring about lastly change in the organization. The book on ADKAR is a short read, but packed full of great information.
- Communicate – Ensure you have a compelling reason for the change and communicate the reason with everyone. Change concerns people because they are not sure what will happen. Communicate the reason why, the what and the how. This will reduce potential rumors. And if you aren’t sure, be honest about it. Communication can be done a variety of ways, so be sure to develop a communication plan to coordinate the messages and mediums.
- Assurance – Assurance or Governance will be needed at all points of the change, so develop an assurance or governance plan upfront. Engage your stakeholders in this plan, as they will be involved one way or another.
- Leadership – Secure Senior leadership buy-in and be clear with them on what you need. Leaders should be active in the change process, asking questions, participating, and be actively involved. Permission is not the same as leadership and all staff will see the difference immediately. The Dale Carnegie Principles are excellent for driving leadership.
Change management is a complex problem with a vast amount of resources available. These points only scratch the surface, but by preparing for the change upfront, your change program will be more likely to succeed. What do you do to ensure a change is successful? What prep work is completed before announcing the change?
In the next post I will cover how to Get the Right People on the Bus and In the Right Seats (from Good to Great)
Remember, to find success, you must first solve the problem, then achieve the implementation of the solution, and finally sustain winning results.
I’m James Kovacevic
Eruditio, LLC
Where Education Meets Application
Follow @EruditioLLC
References & Related Materials:
Red Alert: Your Culture Is Hurting Your Reliability Efforts
ADKAR: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement
Good to Great
70% of Change Fails
Be A Leader Using the Dale Carneige Principles[/fusion_builder_column][/fusion_builder_row][/fusion_builder_container]
