The whole team was under year-long tension. In the end, however, despite considerable resentment and gnashing of teeth, the change project was pushed through and brought to completion. The chief fulfilled his year’s goal, got applause at the Christmas party (the least from his own team), and promotion to dream of. At their last gathering, he thanked the team for their great work, after which he moved to a new location. The moment the door closed behind him, the team quietly and systematically set about dismantling the entire project and taking things back to their original state.
Such projects are sometimes informally called tombstone projects. The project sponsor pushes the change through (builds a monument), but the real benefit is negligible. When the key promoter is gone, the project slowly goes under. This was a concept I learned from Tomáš Gregor, IT Services Manager at the University Hospital Ostrava. We talked about project management in IT and leading the change process. At ALVAO, we have experienced various situations over the years, implementing transformation projects and implementing our own SW solutions, and the issue of change management is close to our hearts. When the opportunity arose to write another series of articles, the topic practically offered itself.
I discussed the material for the series from the outset with my colleague Jirka Janků, who has managed some of our most interesting projects. We went out of the office and out into the more inspiring setting of the Moravia Highland forests.
I need to feel that my work makes sense. It’s not enough to pat myself on the back over a bowl of party treats. When our cooperation continues even after the project, that’s clear evidence that we and the customer hit the nail on the head together. Even several years on you can see the change that we brought in has taken root and is flourishing, living its own life. This is how our main theme was born: Change that will outlive you.
Instead of trying to describe a specific methodology by way of a series of articles, we took the approach to look at the topic of change management from different angles, confront our own experience with best practices and discuss the topic with people with many years of know-how, from among our colleagues, friends in the field and customers. We knew that talking about change management with people who have projects worth hundreds of millions behind them, who have implemented ITIL® processes in multinational corporations as well as small, progressive companies, or who manage IT in an ever-growing holding company would be great fun and very rewarding. And it has been.
To build a monument or to leave a legacy?
Let’s go back to the monument we’ve spoken of. When there is no real need for a project, it may not necessarily fail, as long as it has a forceful sponsor. If such a guarantor wants to build themselves a monument, at any cost, they will simply build it, and if it does not add too much extra work for their people, they’ll fit it in somehow. But as soon as that guarantor leaves, people won’t be inclined to use the new solution and the change will wither away and die, says Tomáš Gregor.
What positive alternative is there to such monument-building? If you manage to implement a change that effectively meets the specific needs of the company, brings real improvements, and helps others to better fulfill their work. You have the chance to leave behind a truly positive legacy that will last even after your departure and will be something for others to build on. The key is having a real need in the company, the reason to embark on the change at all.
While it’s possible to push through downright stupid projects, even truly meaningful changes that you embark on with the best of intentions won’t be easy to bring to a winning conclusion. You are likely to meet a wall of indifference or, in the worse case, downright opposition. The best advice to start with is to approach each project with humility. Rudolf Slaba, ITIL expert, process specialist at O2 Czech Republic, and owner of a pack of wild-board hunting dogs summed it up perfectly:
You always have to find a balance between the effort expended and the project benefits. It’s not so much about the efforts of the project manager, but the people you involve in the project. It’s about keeping real operations in mind. Inexperienced project managers often have blinkers on, and bite down on their project, pushing to make it a priority for people, not seeing the overall context of the company. That’s a schoolboy mistake. People have their routine activities, which have absolute priority from the business point of view because if you, say, don’t take care of the invoices or orders that feed the company, the improvement of a particular IT process is insignificant by comparison.
You’re not Steve Jobs, thankfully enough!
Let’s take a short stroll into your personal life. Has anyone ever tried to help you against your will, perhaps by making a well-intentioned remark about the calorific value of your breakfast or by constantly mentioning the benefits of life insurance? How did that make you feel? Probably underwhelmed. Things are often no better in working life. Initiative after initiative keeps coming at your department, setting out to challenge the status quo because they all know what’s best for you. We live in a culture that honors solitary heroes who can assert themselves against the herd. Unfortunately, such an approach impresses more executives than it ought to.
Don’t get me wrong, we, just like you, love to hear the story of a brave visionary. Like when Columbus set off to reach India, or Bob Dylan picked up an electric guitar at a folk festival to the disapproving boos of the fans when Noah was building an ark in the middle of the plain for years and years while people were tapping their heads. Only until the rains came, and a curious queue of animals began to assemble at the ark. The thing is, not everyone gets to have a divine revelation like Noah, or an extraordinary nose for innovation, like Steve Jobs. For most of us, it’s better to pay good heed to our colleagues and the people the project is meant to bring value. We’ll find it’s then much easier to implement a change that colleagues took part in defining. One has to be able to step aside a little.
After all, you are not making the change for yourself, but for them. Empathy will take you further than a directive approach, says my colleague Jirka Janků.