Improving Productivity – Suggestions from PMI

December 9, 2011 — Bruce McGraw

If you have not wandered through the Project Management Institute’s (PMI) knowledge center, you have missed an excellent source of best-practice thinking on a variety of issues relevant to project and corporate management. Recently I reviewed an article by Pradeep Patra, PMP and Sunitha Bartaki, PMP of Tata Consultancy Services Limited that I thought was interesting. The article titled, “Productivity Improvement Using Ten Process Commandments” can be found in its entirety here.

At the beginning of their article, they note that productivity improvement is never ending, as discussed in writings on Kaizen and the philosophy of continuous improvement. Productivity improvement initiatives can also be costly. Therefore, their first recommendation is to develop and use a cost of quality (CoQ) to evaluate the impact of changes designed to improve productivity.

Their productivity commandments are:

  1. Leadership commitment
  2. Manage change — Absolutely, I agree. Productivity improvement requires change and to succeed at managing change requires the active support of visionary leaders. (see previous posts on change management: Change Management Strategies, Role of Project Managers in Change Management, and Planning Your Organizational Change.
  3. Organize and plan — can I say, “duh.” However, they continue the “organize and plan” discussion by recommending that the organization create a prioritization of changes — just like ranking software change requests — and that individuals create and monitor early warning signs of problems as part of risk management. OK, that is a very good thing for all organizations to do.
  4. Reward people for contributing to the productivity improvement process.  You have to incentivize people if you want them to change and try new things.
  5. Train the leadership team, participants, customers and clients. The better stakeholders understand the productivity improvement process, the more valuable will be their support and contribution.
  6. Create a process improvement framework for project managers, engineers, process managers and support personnel. If the cultural change required is significant or the suggested improvement costly, complete pilot studies or small implementations before spreading across the entire organization.
  7. Measure key variables -  this goes without saying for any initiative you try to implement.
  8. Assess and evaluate — “evaluate what you want because what gets measured gets produced.”
  9. Improve communication – I have written several posts on the importance of communication.
  10. Focus on benefits — measure cost savings following these do’s and don’t’s:
    1. Do: assign representatives from finance to validate the initiative and remember to include soft benefits that indirectly affect profit, like customer and employee satisfaction.
    2. Don’t: make productivity improvement another name for cutting costs, nor set unrealistic targets that doom the initiative to failure.

Although the recommendations seem simplistic — and you have heard it all before — the suggestions for a successful productivity improvement initiative are valid.

Posted in Best Practice, Change Management, Project Management. Tags: , , , . 1 Comment »

Finding a Content Management System Solution – Part 2

November 17, 2011 — Bruce McGraw

Last week in part 1, I talked about selecting a content management system (CMS) (which has many names like records management or knowledge management) from a technical perspective. However, just as with any productivity-enhancing tool, the process does not end with getting the tool. Rather, the process begins by understanding the value of content management to the organization and ends with training, acceptance and implementation. If your organization truly wants to benefit from content management, there must be changes in “business-as-usual”.

Your organization will need to have all of the stakeholders participate in any project to implement a CMS so you should be prepared to involve business units, legal, finance, contracts, marketing, operations, human resources, PMO and any other groups who have a stake in the information flow of your organization.  You will also need a plan for the implementation project so that you can achieve outcomes that are beneficial to the organization.  To quote Lewis Carroll, “If you do not know where you are going, any road will get you there.”

In 2006, Dr. Karen McGraw, CEO of Cognitive Technologies, suggested 10 questions decision makers should answer before committing resources to content management system solutions (Dr. McGraw’s complete white paper):

  1. What content do we need to manage better or use more effectively?
  2. What types of content management initiatives are we involved with already?
  3. Where is the greatest impact for content management efforts?
  4. Where are the best opportunities to achieve business value and ROI?
  5. Where are we in terms of content management maturity?
  6. What kind of technical infrastructure is required to support content management?
  7. Are we prepared to implement and manage the cultural changes that may be required for content management to be successful?
  8. What are the characteristics and competencies our employees will need to succeed with content management?
  9. Does our content management initiative support our strategic business objectives?
  10. Am I providing the required leadership and support to ensure the success of content management initiatives in my organization?

Dr. McGraw emphasizes the point that implementing a content management system should not be undertaken lightly or perfunctorily if benefits are to be achieved. In my experience, the key to success is user acceptance. If staff members see value — or potential value — in content management, they will expend the time and effort required. If users do not anticipate gaining any direct benefit, they may perform only the minimal tasks needed to comply with the process. Worse, they may sabotage the system through inattention to detail, refusing to use the system or discouraging others.

Getting User Buy-in
The value of implementing a content management system may not be intuitively obvious to all employees when considered in light of their current job tasks. In addition, seasoned veterans of other management initiatives may sigh with foreknowledge that they will have to do something more and different. Therefore, it is up to management to sell a vision of the content management systems benefits to the organization and to individual workers.

Here are seven tips that will stimulate employee buy-in:

  1. Get a representative group of users to participate in setting up the CMS — identifying the source documents and agreeing on the tags and taxonomy — classification scheme — that they would find helpful when searching for information
  2. When rolling out the CMS initiative, use stories and examples of time saving and quality improvements that tie directly to the work being done by individuals in the audience
  3. Offer incentives for early adoption
  4. Ensure that managers and leaders serve as role models in using the CMS
  5. Provide training
  6. Make sure the tools provided by the CMS offer easy-to-use mechanisms for the employees to add and describe content
  7. Plan and implement a process to keep content updated and well organized (read that as tools, responsibilities and information). Nothing turns off users like outdated materials or hard to get to information.

Managing Change
Implementing a content management system across the board yields many benefits to the organization in capturing and accessing knowledge. However, a CMS based system requires changes in business-as-usual. Your organization can learn from other successful change management strategies to successfully transition to effectively using your new CMS.

In the past I have talked about change management and you will find some helpful hints and practices here: Role of Project Managers in Change Management, Project Management PMBOK – Monitoring and Change Control, and Planning Your Organizational Change. Best practice suggestions for change management include:

  • Have a plan
  • Involve key stakeholders and keep them informed
  • Use small projects or departments to test the CMS and polish any rough points before rolling it out over the entire organization
  • Expect resistance — because some people just fight change of any kind. Understand the source of their concerns and address them:
    • The known is comfortable
    • Change requires thought; many current work behaviors have become automatic and require no conscious effort
    • Some people resist change in principle
    • Change is scary—you don’t know what you will win or lose
    • You may fail in the new world order
  • Develop outcome measures to evaluate the CMS
  • Seek assistance from change management experts either in your own HR department or ask for outside training or coaching
  • Offer training
  • Reward effort

If you and your organization have implemented a CMS, please share your experiences and suggestions to facilitate success.

Next, in part 3 of this discussion, I will address one of the most important aspects of a content management system – what do you do after the implementation to maintain the effectiveness and use of the CMS?

Posted in General Project Management, Best Practice, Change Management, Project Management, Planning, Content Management, Knowledge Management. Tags: , , , , , . 1 Comment »

Planning Your Organizational Change

June 16, 2011 — Bruce McGraw

Last week, I talked about the inevitability of change and why project and senior managers face challenges in successful change execution. (Don’t Take Organizational Change for Granted – Manage it) I know that you cannot overcome all problems associated with change. However, planning and communication minimize the discomfort.

The first planning step is deciding where you want the organization to be when the change is complete. This creates both the vision and evaluation criteria. On rare occasions, the resulting change vision rests solely with a leader, more often though the vision comes from discussions with people representing several parts of the organization. After the initial discussions, the successful change requires a project leader, a champion and a small group of committed individuals.

The core team tasked with implementing the change needs to spent time creating a “talking points presentation” about what, why, and how. Talking points are sound bites (Yes, just like the politicians use!). They are not paragraphs of text or pages of process – those come later. In creating the key points you want to communicate, address the reasons people resist change – fear, no perceived need, moving people out of their comfort zone – cover those concerns specifically in the talking points. Remember, just as in politics, change is local.

Consider implementing a rolling change rather than a company-wide alteration of process and tools simultaneously. Although the core actions of the change have the same goals for each part of the organization, the impact and implementation details will vary across departments. If you have the luxury of time and resources, consider beginning the change with test cases or single departments and learn how to improve the implementation process as you go along. I have a theory in change management – “Less is more.”  Don’t try to get everyone to make big changes all at once, rather go for small wins and changes in perception and behavior.

During the initial planning, create an implementation schedule and make sure that employees know that their feedback and suggestions will be integrated, as the change becomes inclusive of the entire company. Add training into the schedule. Include a time for evaluation at each increment or stage and factor in some time for reflection.

DO NOT FORGET TO SHARE WITH CUSTOMERS AND CLIENTS

Customers and clients do not like surprises, even positive ones. Share the talking points and plans with key customers and stakeholders. Tell them how they will experience the change – sell it. Ask for their input and feedback. Keep the communication personal. Schedule face-to-face meetings; include a presentation at a shareholder’s meeting or in the annual report. Have marketing or business development personnel, customer service staff or business analysts talk with key clients as the organization prepares for change.  I just worked with a small health care company and the CEO was excellent at incorporating the clients and stakeholders into the changes he was making internally.  The result for his company was increased respect and business.

Share successes and challenges with all stakeholders. Celebrate success!

Posted in Change Management, Communication, General Project Management, Leadership, Risk Management. Tags: , , , , . 3 Comments »

Don’t Take Organizational Change for Granted – Manage it

June 9, 2011 — Bruce McGraw

Have you been in an organization that has been “treading water” for the last few years?  Now that we see the economy starting to pick up many organizations will need to change parts of the business or processes that they have neglected.  This will result in new projects or new programs and the need to manage the organizational change inherent in these efforts.

Here are a few absolute truths about organizational change:

  • Change is inevitable
  • Managed change is better than chaotic change
  • Change is about people
  • There is no magic bullet

Organizations choose to change for many reasons. However, the reasons usually boil down to money. More customers, better products, great efficiency, improving employee retention or empowerment are all laudable goals that in the final analysis are about securing organizational success – which in turn is about money. As a program manager, project leader or employee, if you want your organization to succeed, you must be willing to adapt and support organizational change.

Common Organizational Change Triggers
Organizational change is required when there is a significant shift in the economic environment in which a company exists such as a major recession, a new player in your market sandbox or the emergence of a disruptive technology.  New senior managers may choose to redirect departments, begin new projects or cancel existing ones. The culture evolves away from the status quo.

Not as dramatic as the above instances, another organizational change that needs effective management involves change in the organization’s technical infrastructure. With some frequency, companies seek to establish new ways to collect and organize project and program data, integrate new communication techniques and knowledge management strategies or create a Project Management Office to manage resources and quality across the organization.

Why People Resist Change
As I mentioned at the beginning, organizational change is about people. No matter how valid the reasons for change may be, only a small percentage of those affected will sign on and support the change just because management says to do so. According to Michael Hammer, author of Reengineering the Corporation, 60 to 75 percent of all restructuring fails because of the human dimension.

People resist chance. Why? Peter Barron Stark Companies offers 10 reasons people resist change. I have selected some key ones that resonate with my experience as a change agent:

  1. People are creatures of habit. Asking people to change moves them out of their comfort zone.
  2. Fear of failure
  3. No obvious need. If employees do not see the big picture, the need for change – which is inconvenient and requires extra effort – may not be believed. “My job is going okay now, why change?”
  4. Fear that the new way may not be better
  5. Fear of the unknown

Strategies for Successfully Managing Organizational Change
Organizational change management is a structured approach to shifting/transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. Done well, it helps empower employees to accept and embrace changes in their current business environment. There are at least seven reasons why you should apply change management to ensure that the change resulting from the implementation of a new system is managed proactively and with care. As I said, managed changed beats chaotic change, every time!

  • Do your homework. Think about or brainstorm about the impact the change may have on your customers, internal business processes, and current systems for employee rewards, assignments and recognition as well as any required changes in structure, facilities to support services.
  • Clearly define the vision of change and the scope. What will change; how the change will positively affect the organization and what are the success criteria. What is the schedule of activities?
  • Build a strong change management team with diverse skills and excellent abilities to communicate, motivate and lead. Create a set of talking points and prep the change management team, so everyone is singing the same song.
  • (I am taking this one straight out of a Cognitive Technologies’ paper on EASE™ Change Management Toolkit) “Understand the Impact on the Organization — Unless your new system scope is quite small, it probably will impact multiple parts and/or levels of the organization. The broader the impact is, the higher the risk for failure. Most implementation failures are attributed to organizational issues that trigger “antibodies” that attack and kill the project. Organizational aspects you should consider as you determine the potential system impact include:  job roles and responsibilities, organizational structure, policies and procedures, HR, cultural acceptance to change (i.e., ongoing learning), and the success or failure of previous change initiatives.
  • Prepare for resistance by understanding why people resist change and counter with information and support.
  • Start small, but maintain momentum with information updates and gradual extension of the changes into the organization.
  • Communication early and often. Keep the change in the forefront of messages, presentations and conversations.

Here are a couple more resources that are useful:

The Biggest Mistakes in Managing Change
by Carol Kinsey Goman, Ph.D.

Business Balls: Change Management

“Teaching the Elephant to Dance”
by James A. Belasco, Ph.D.

Posted in Change Management, General Project Management, management, Project Management. Tags: , , , . 3 Comments »
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