Manager’s
Change
The
Harley Lovegrove
Handbook
40+
project-ready templates and tools to download
A step-by-step guide to sustainable change Linchpin Books
Cartoons: Manuel Bollue Photograps: www.fotolia.com Book and cover layout: Jurgen Leemans ISBN 978-0-9566157-7-0 (Paperback) ISBN 978-0-9566157-6-3 (Hardback) Š The Bayard Holding BVBA & Publishing house Linchpin Books Ltd, 2015 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning or otherwise, except as permitted by law, without either the prior written permission of the author and the publisher. Published by Linchpin Books Ltd 26 High Street Rochester Kent ME1 1PT UK www.linchpinbooks.co.uk
Table of contents
Table of contents
Foreword.................................................................. 9
Roles and responsibilities in Change Management. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
How to make the most of this book and its accompanying media............................................. 13
The skills and characteristics required of the ‘perfect’ Change Manager. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 66
ADKAR, ITIL, PROSCI & The Change Manager's Handbook............................................. 17 ADKAR & The Change Manager’s Handbook. . . 19 ITIL and The Change Manager’s Handbook. . . . . 20 PROSCI and The Change Manager’s Handbook. 21 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 21
Change Management Essentials................. 23 What is Change Management?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25 Why do we need Change Management?. . . . . . . . 28 Why do people resist? (Part 1). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32 Story Time: Going to Barbados . . . . . . . . . . . . . 34 Why do people resist? (Part 2) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 The Science behind resistance. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 What’s the difference between a Project Manager and a Change Manager?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47 Can a Project Manager also be a Change Manager?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49 The Scope of Change Management – and the role of the Change Manager . . . . . . . . . . . 50 The key areas of scope for Change Management . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 51 Special note on Mergers, Acquisitions (Carve out’s and Carve in’s). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
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How do you become a Change Manager?. . . . . . . 67 Organisational Readiness – ‘OR’. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68 The Benefits of ‘Organisational Readiness’ – Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
The Twenty Steps to Sustainable Change.. 75 Step One Ask ‘Why’?. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81 Forming a High level Vision. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
Step Two Anticipate Resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 87 Dealing with road blocks and building a disaster map. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Step Three Build Leadership Engagement and Alignment. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93 Roadshows. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Step Four Build a ‘Mood Matrix’ and Find the Hidden Agendas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103 Step Five Build a Change Management Strategy. . . . . 109
Monitoring, Feedback & Surveys. . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Case study. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 116
Tools, tricks & tips. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 173
Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
Step Six Build a High-Level Change Management Plan . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Step Seven Build a Team. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 127 The Kick-off Event. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 131 Evaluation forms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 136 Team Rules . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Team Rules Workshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
Step Eight Identify the Full Stakeholder Community. . . 141
Step Eleven Build Campaign-Specific Communication Plans . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177 Step Twelve Build a Change Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 183 How to recruit Key Users, Change Agents and other useful change management resources.185 Recruiting Key Users. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186 Recruiting Change Agents. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 186
Step Thirteen Define the Organisational Readiness (‘OR’) Structure & Criteria . . . . . . . . . . . . 189
Step Nine
Step 1. Create a draft ‘Organisational Readiness’ structure. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Build a Detailed Change Management Plan. 147
Step 2. Set up an ‘OR’ meeting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 191
Planning and Trade Unions & Workers Councils. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153 The Phases. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 159
Step Ten Build a Communication Strategy. . . . . . . . . 161 Communication Objectives & Principles . . . . . . 167 Use Powerful Images! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169 Key Messaging by Phase. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 170
Step 3. Build the criteria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Step 4. Discuss the criteria. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 194 Step 5. Have the ‘OR’ criteria approved. . . . . . . . 194 Step 6. Agree a date and time for the official ‘OR’ meeting. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195 Summary. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 195
Step Fourteen Set up a Change Management Reporting Structure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 197
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Table of contents
Notes on brands. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
Change Management Essentials
What is Change Management? Change is like a poppy seed. It only flowers when the right conditions are created for it to happen. A poppy seed can lie in the ground for hundreds of thousands of years waiting for the exact right moment. In practice, this mostly occurs when the ground is disturbed and the right conditions are created for the seed to germinate. Then (and only then) will it transform itself into the wonderful flower we all love to see growing at the roadside or in the meadow.
The best Change Managers know that for sustainable change to happen, they need to spend a great deal of effort creating the right conditions before announcing it to the world.
“Change Management is the process of managing a series of structured actions and processes by which we transform from our present situation into a new desired one. The objective being, to reach the new situation in the most effective way possible�. Another, simpler way to define change management is by describing it as
25
Change Management Essentials
‘The process by which we manage the transition from our present situation into a desired future one’.
value of our lives’ if we cannot make an impact on the environment in which we find ourselves? To consider the question ‘What is Change Management’? Perhaps it is best to consider the fundamentally different types of change confronting us and thus avoid, over simplification or misunderstanding.
The use of the word ‘desired’ states that the transition is not a random process of trial and error but a clearly defined set of actions with an anticipated outcome.
Situation A
The business today
Firstly, there is the type of change that we instigate of our own choosing (such as tidying up the kitchen). We start off with a problem to solve and an impres-
Change Delta
Situation B
?
The business on project end date
Since Sir Isaac Newton wrote his laws of physics, and Einstein realized that the universe is constantly expanding, we have learned to realise that the world is in a constant state of change and that nothing stays the same. However, within this ever changing universe there are some changes that we, ourselves can instigate and have influence on. After all what is the 26
sion (or vision) of what the outcome of our change actions will be: clear and clean work surfaces, a hygienic environment to prepare food and a happy and appreciative family. Then there is type of change that we do not necessarily choose for but impact us and we are encouraged
Lastly, there is the kind of change that is thrust upon us; such as at work, like a company merger or serious restructuring. Change we have little to say about. In both our professional and private lives we are often confronted with continuing situations which would be better, if they were different. And when we desire to (or are given the chance to) we can (with the help of others) do something about them. It is to this category that we can clearly identify a set of processes that can make a change more likely to occur and be sustainable. The usual way our organisations attempt to change is by creating projects to solve the problems they are facing. The outcome of these projects is often successful, at least for a little while. But all too often, things tend to slip back to how they were before the project began. The simple truth is that we humans are creatures of habit, we naturally resist change, the majority of us like to keep things the way they are, even if it is not that satisfactory and we know, in theory, that it could be better. After all, there is safety in what we know. At this point some people say, ‘yes but surely many change projects change things for the worse?’ This may be true from one angle but there is also a deep inner truth that none of us as individuals, ever voluntarily do anything that we do not want to do. For example when I was at school I didn’t like doing my mathematics homework but I chose to do it ‘volun-
tarily’ because the consequences of not doing it were measurably worse than the displeasure of doing it. The worst thing that can happen to anyone is to have something done to them against their will. The Change Manager needs to build into his, or her, strategy the fact that whatever they may want to change, the first most basic reaction of those that hear of the change is very likely to be a negative one. Whether we like it or not, all humans resist change to a greater or lesser extent. It is the Change Manager’s job is to devise a strategy or plan (and to manage it) to bring about the change in the most efficient and effective way possible under the circumstances they are given. My law of change is:
“Just as matter cannot be created or destroyed, and because change is the transformation from one state into another, there is nothing in the new state that did not come out of the old one”. What I mean here is that although the Change Manager might identify and manage the processes that bring about a change, it is the people, the environment, the culture and material resources that combine, move and/or are adapted into the new state. A new situation can never be plucked out of thin air. 27
to adapt to: such as the way smart phones are changing the way we communicate and behave individually and in groups.
Change Management Essentials
Why do we need Change Management? In well run companies, improvement projects tend to be built around two main questions:
1. “What’s the problem we are trying to solve?”
and
2. “How will we know when it is solved?” The second question is usually answered with either a set of project goals or objectives that are measured by a set of acceptance criteria. Evidence shows us that even in the best run projects, in the best run companies a project management alone approach often fails to deliver the originally expected results; especially where behavioural change is an important part of the project. So the sad reality is that most companies find it extremely difficult to achieve real, sustainable change because their structures have been designed for continuity, predictability and efficient day to day management. Most businesses create for themselves processes and systems to avoid risk. In doing so (especially with the reduction in the number of line managers in recent years), they inadvertently created environments that, by their very nature, become resistant to change. In addition, their IT systems and data structures are often complex and managed by small teams of engineers that are generally rewarded by meeting uptime
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performance KPI’s that deter risky modifications and upgrades. If you think this is crazy, try this: Imagine you owned a number of supermarkets spread across several towns and even countries. In this situation it would be impossible for you to be everywhere all of the time. So what would you do when it comes to managing them? It is very likely that sooner or later you would set up a structure to ensure that each shop is managed in exactly the same way. You would also want every shelf, in every shop stacked neatly and with the same products. You may also want to be sure that all your personnel are paid in a consistent way and that they arrive and leave at the same time. I imagine that you would also want all of your customers to be served politely. So therefore you might even want to make sure that each employee communicates the same key messages to your customers in exactly the same way. If this is the case you will have to invest much time, money and energy in training your staff to behave in a way that is, initially, foreign to them and once they have learned to obey and conform to your wishes (by a system of complex rewards and deterrents), you will have unwittingly built a system that is functional but extremely difficult to change. Your management team and personnel will have learned to put away their ‘own way’ of doing things and become used to the way you expect them to behave. Therefore any change, unless it is instigated by them, will be
Imagine applying the two project questions in paragraph one “What is the problem we are trying to solve?” and “How will we know when it is solved?” to a company that has a grossly inefficient logistics chain. It might be relatively easy to analyse the problems in the order intake process chain, or even to detect possible over staffing in the packaging department. Solutions may be easy to find and new ways of working designed. However, once your efficiency improvement project gets underway, workers, departmental managers, trade unions and all other impacted parties will, almost certainly, try and block various aspects of your initiative. In the worst case, compromises would need to be struck. And even when you finally introduce the new way of working, it is quite likely that the users of your new integrated logistics software will try and keep using their old systems, or revert to Excel spreadsheets because they trust them and are more familiar with how they work. There is therefore a real risk that the overall cost and disruption of the project will never be paid back by the expected long-term improvements. It is for these reasons that professional Change Management is needed. However, change management should not be allowed to become an additional
layer of complex wizardry, it should be open and transparent and understandable by everyone.
extremely unwelcome. But because you will also want to keep things consistent and predictable, it is also very likely that you will be resistant to ideas for change from your personnel, because whatever you decide to implement in one store, you will need to implement in all the others too. And so it goes until we come to the conclusion that change is risky and to be avoided unless absolutely necessary!
The methodology I have developed asks two very similar questions to the two project based questions: “What is the problem we are trying to solve?” and “How will we know when it is solved?” but this time from a different angle. It asks: 1. “Why are we doing the project (why do we need to change)?’ and 2. “How will we know when our organisation is ready to implement the changes the solution will bring?” The first question confronts us to describe what is not good about the situation today. The second question asks us to imagine what our changed organisation will look and behave like, at the point of being ready to implement the change we require. The questions combined, force us to admit there is a problem but in fact there is also a solution and the solution is possible to achieve. It is possible because we can imagine it, we can even visualize it and think up ways of how to measure it. These two very simple questions form the foundations of all change management activities. At this stage, whose idea it is to change something, be it from the management or the shop floor or a customer or supplier, is irrelevant. If the reason ‘why’, for the company with its logistics problem, is that their competitors can deliver much cheaper and quicker than they can, then the real ‘why’ is, “if we don’t find a way of doing it better than our competitors then it is only a matter of time before our competitors will push us out of business”. 29
Step One Ask ‘Why’?
T
he very first thing you need to do when setting out on any change management assignment is to ask: “Why is the change needed?” “What’s the problem it is trying to solve?” When any change is announced, you can bet the last bank note in your wallet without any danger, that the first question you will hear from anyone (after the initial outburst of “I don’t believe it!”) is “Why?” “Why do we need to do this?” You may also hear many other typical expressions like, “Oh! No, not again!” and “Who came up with this crazy idea?” and “Haven’t they got anything better to do?” and “why now?” You may think that these reactions are narrow minded and unique to your company but let me reassure you; they are as normal and natural as human nature is predictable. We will tackle the reason why these questions are so common and why leaders are faced with these kind of negative reactions later on in Step Two but for now, let’s get back to our original “Why?” “Why are we making this change, what’s the problem it’s trying to solve?” As you will learn in this handbook, the “Why” question appears everywhere, it is the very basis of every-
thing the Change Manager needs to know in order to do his, or her job. But who do you need to ask the “Why” question to? Firstly you need to ask it to the person that is briefing you about the project. The problem is the answer you will be given is likely to be confusing and vague, so you will need to ask it several times and to several people before you get a satisfactory answer. Once you have it, you will have the basis for moving forward. Let me give you an imaginary example where the Change Manager’s client works for a road haulage (transportation) company: The Client to you: “The change project we are thinking of asking you to join is the ‘Delivery Planning Process Upgrade Project’.” You to the client: “Forgive me for asking such a basic question, but why exactly do you want to upgrade the delivery planning process?” Client: “Because it is out of date.” You: “But why is that a problem?”
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TheTwenty Steps to Sustainable Change
Client: “Because our software is no longer supported by the application vendor.” You: “Is there another reason?” Client: “Yes, the process is also rather inefficient.” You: “Why, in what way is it inefficient?” Client: “Because it takes too long to plan our deliveries.” You: “Why does it take too long?” Client: “Because there are too many people involved and the process is too complex and confusing.” You: “Why is that a problem?” Client: “Because our competitors can get their parcels planned and delivered more efficiently and quicker than we can.” You: “and why is that such a big problem?” Client: “Because they always have an efficiency advantage over us and if we are to have, even a chance to make a profit, we need to charge more than our competitors to deliver the same parcel to the same destination. What’s more, our competitors will still get their parcels to their destination before us. We are always in second place. It will kill us in the long run if we don’t do something about it. Our delivery planning process is our weakest link.” Now this conversation might seem childish but what it has achieved is moving the mind-set of the client away from the ‘what’ situation (an application upgrade project) to the ‘why’ situation (‘if we 84
do not speed up our deliveries and plan more efficiently than our competitors – we will not survive as a business’). The outcome of the dialog is the birth of a thought process that, when complete, can deliver a nice set of statements that will explain the all-important ‘why’ we are doing the project. Our competitors get their parcels to their customers quicker and more efficiently than we do. Our competitors are able to go in at lower prices and still make more profit than us. Our clients are often unhappy because of the errors and delays that our inefficient processes create. We have too many people working on a single delivery. We need to change if we are to have any chance of beating the competition. We need to find new ways of doing what we do to show others that we can and will be number one again. We need to change so that we can handle more business, with the same number of people with far less stress and unhappiness. We need to secure our long-term future.
With these statements we can build a powerful set of project goals with an overarching vision and objec-
From now on, every conversation, in every meeting can be focused around the question: “How can this help us to Simplify, Improve or Implement our new way of working.”
In this way we align the ‘why’ (the project’s objective) to a set of Goals: (Goals, the ‘what’ we are going to do)
In Step One, you need to check that the Project Charter (if there is one) is in line with the new goals – assuming you are joining the project, after it has started (which is usually the case in change management)! Note: If no Project Charter can be found, write one yourself and get your colleagues to sign off on it. Ensure that everyone knows why the project exists and what their role in it is.
To get our parcels to our customers quicker and more efficiently than our competitors. To have a low cost advantage so we can decide where to set our prices , knowing we can do it cheaper, safer and better than the competition. To ensure our personnel work efficiently together on value added activities. To reduce the total cost of ownership of the software and IT systems. To ensure sustainability by running the latest software on reliable, modern machines. To create a working atmosphere based upon respect and fun. To secure our long-term future. The next thing to do is to try and come up with three words that will summarize and focus the effort to achieve each of the project’s goals, perhaps something like:
Simplify, Improve, Implement
Download – Project Charter Templates # 02 #03
Forming a High level Vision Vision is such a small yet big word. As we saw in our ‘Why’ statements we end up with a kind of vision of the future – a positive vision and a negative vision. For example the person giving the brief at one point says “…. It will kill us if we don’t, our delivery planning process is our weakest link”. This is a powerful negative vision and everyone impacted by the change will, in due course, need to be made aware of it. It emphasizes that this project is not just any other project, it is in fact strategically important; it will play a vital part in ensuring the long-term sustainability of the Business. On the other hand our client also said: “We need to change so that we can handle more business, with the same number of people with far less stress and unhappiness”. If we take these two 85
Step One
tive. Once we have this we can be sure to obtain project budget approval, leadership engagement and the possibility to tackle a host of other important change concerns.
TheTwenty Steps to Sustainable Change
things together, a new powerful vision for the future comes, a future where the company becomes best in class with a happy and efficient workforce. To simply reduce the reasoning of the project down to ‘efficiency improvements’ or ‘cost savings’, turns an otherwise visionary project into a low priority, de-motivational, ‘oh no, not more change, what’s the point?’ type project. Now obviously not every project can be super visionary, vital and life changing but every project worth doing, must surely have a defendable purpose and consequently be worth investing time, money and energy in? This is why every project’s vision needs to be focused on the ‘why’, rather than the ‘what’ and ‘how’.
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There is a simple equation: ‘more vision equals more motivation’. However, one must be careful here… just because your change project has loads of vision, it does not mean that you do not need change management. If a project is designed to change the way people behave, no matter how minor – you can be sure that there will be friction and resistance in getting the project started. Even the leadership will most likely argue against it at first, with statements similar to: ‘why now, can’t it wait?’ If your project is to have even a chance of being successful, you really will need leadership support, so let’s take a look at why people resist and what we should do to anticipate this strange and unwanted behaviour.
Step Two Anticipate Resistance
Dealing with road blocks and building a disaster map If the key to professional and effective change management is anticipation, then one consequence of knowing what is likely to happen, is that you will need a strategy for handling whatever comes up. In Step Four you will be building a chart to try and capture what people might be thinking, and what mood they might be in, at any point during the project. This will help you build an effective communication strategy and plan later on. However, for now, before you go and lobby the leadership team about your project and how important it is, you need to try and anticipate what the future holds for you and your project. ‘What could go wrong? What are the risks? Why would people say ‘no’?’ It is very likely that when the leadership team hears about your project, they will immediately try to put up some road blocks to try to put your project on hold. It is therefore essential to be prepared for this eventuality, even if you do not have all the answers yet. Overlook this stage and your exciting project might be stopped before it is even begun. Even pre-
paring yourself to answer a serious objection by saying “good point, we have been considering that and have some people working on it, we’ll get back to you”. Even this can be enough to reassure your resistor that you have it under control and will buy you some time to come back with a convincing answer! Remember – you are the Change Manager and your job is to bring about the change – if a leader blocks your project, then you have failed to bring the change about. It might not technically ‘be your fault’, but none the less it will be unfortunate for you and for the Business. To help avoid this possibility you need to build a ‘Disaster Map’. This exercise is both fun and enlightening at the same time, but it needs to be managed carefully. Here’s how to do it:
1. Together with the project lead, invite some
people from different parts of the project and business (people who have experience in running projects and are knowledgeable business representatives; possibly some older employees and some young ones too. Include some technical IT people. Try and 89
TheTwenty Steps to Sustainable Change
make sure you have a good balance of analytical people and positive people. The selection is important. For a typical business change project I would want to invite:
•• The Project Manager •• A member (or two) from the Steering Group or Sponsor
•• The CIO or deputy (someone with a
good broad knowledge of the possible impacts of the project)
•• One or two business process experts •• A Project Management Officer (i.e. the
person that will make the plans coordinate the reporting) etc. (PMO)
•• A communications specialist •• Finance person •• HR representative •• Others, as seen fit
If you cannot get them all, do not worry. You can always meet them individually and ask the same question, but it is more fun, effective and team building when done together.
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2. This is what you do: Bring them together in one room and ask them to write down in silence a list of everything they can think of that could go wrong in the project. Anything at all! Take a little gift with you (a management book, small bottle of wine or bag of sweets, for example) and suggest that there will be a prize for the person with the longest list (it is amazing what people will do to win a prize). After a maximum of three minutes, or once they have finished writing their lists, ask the person with the most points to read out what they have written down. (If possible, have a fast typist type out what people say onto a PowerPoint slide and project it live so everyone can see it). The rest check their lists, removing doubles as they arise. When the longest list is finished you ask the others to read out any items the first person has not thought of. In this way you will cover every likely thing that could go wrong. During the process people will think of more items. Capture them all. Later on you will need to group them and place them on the project time-line linking the cause and impacted people and log, and create mitigation plans as necessary. This anticipation exercise is very useful both for the project team as well as the change management team but it must be man-
help prepare for leadership buy-in. (Later on the SteerCo can use the same data to reassure the teams that they have everything covered and that they will not allow anything to block or hinder the project.)
Step Two
aged carefully so that it does not have a demotivational effect. Later on, we will use the findings in our strategy to make sure that we have everything covered. But for now, at least you can begin to prepare solutions to the obstacles with your team, in order to
Building a ‘what can go wrong, what are the obstacles?’ Disaster map.
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Endnote: How Best to Allow Change to Happen
I
n this book I have shared how I believe bringing about change within a Business can be achieved. But here in this last chapter I want to talk about change itself, about how I believe that organisations will need to adjust their current structures to allow them to become far more agile. Today’s Businesses need to look for the right political and tax motivation environments to allow for agility. For example while many people talk about China’s rise to power by its willingness to open itself up to utilise its cheap labour force for foreign businesses, I tend to believe that it has more to do with the fact that its government granted western Businesses planning permission for giant new state of art factories. When you look at the reality, the modern factories in China tend to be employing far fewer people than their older counter parts in the US and Europe. I have a story where one of my clients had been waiting for more than twenty years in Germany for permission to build phase two of a factory they were promised would be given when they built their first factory. The building permission never came, so they looked for a geographical and politically stable location and thereby moved their entire production to China and left Germany behind. (Subsequently the
German government came back to them with new offers of support and accelerated planning permission for their new factory. But the ship had already sailed, so as to speak). I am not clever enough to invent a new global political system that will be fair to its citizens and business owners alike, and I know that the ideal system will, most likely, never happen. But I do know what a Business needs to encourage its ability to grow and prosper:
1. An academic environment of learning and education to help encourage new ideas based around one single question: “Why?”
2. A reward system to encourage entrepre-
neurial spirit – where ‘doing business’ and making useful things is not seen as something ‘dirty’ or secondary to art and culture.
I believe that art and culture are linked to business and commerce, just like they 247
Endnote: How Best to Allow Change to Happen
are linked to science and religion, and should be embraced as an integral part of it. (There is no violin concerto without a factory making musical instruments; CD’s, recording equipment, software systems, printers, tickets, caterers, concert hall builders, architects etc. And there is no ‘Sunflowers’ painting’ without a factory using potentially dangerous chemicals to make paint.) 3. The ability to find and recruit well educated people.
4. The ability to build office buildings and factories that can adapt to the changing needs of the time.
5. Planning permission, (without NIMBY’s
– not in my back yard) great architects, financial sponsors, technology and systems, builders and supply of suitable materials.
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6. Networks and infrastructures to allow for
the free passage of people and information.
7. Clear, fair and effective global ‘design rec-
ognition systems’ rather than our current copyright and patent systems based upon, not only the protection of design, but the opportunist exploitation of ideas not truly belonging to the ‘exploiters’.
8. Sustainable global logistics and distribution systems, linked to latest technologies moving stuff as little as possible.
9. The list is almost endless! But most of all, we need to remember that we are humans. And humans resist change. We always have done and always will do. The day we stop is the day we give in and die. It is a vital and valuable process. And that is why there will always be a need for Change Managers and change management, even if it is not always welcome! Thank you for reading this book, I hope it helps you on your journey and that one day, you can add to it, making it better, more suited to the next generation and for the challenges that they will face. Best wishes, Harley
The Change Manager’s Handbook is an easy to read kaleidoscope of a book. Full of practical tips and tricks, it is complimented with a downloadable ‘Toolbox’ of more than forty project ready templates, tools and cartoons that every Change Manager will find useful to bring about sustainable change in their organisation. ‘OR’ (‘Organisational Readiness’) is a beautifully simple way of focusing a change project around a single set of criteria that not only guides the Business in the right direction but also indicates precisely when everything is in place to implement the change.
The Change Manager’s Toolbox contains everything from detailed MS Project Change Management plans to amazingly simple but effective communication templates. The star of the toolbox must be Harley’s ‘Mood Matrix’ which ensures that every Change Manager’s communications are relevant, powerful, fun and engaging. www.thecmtoolbox.com
www.thecmhandbook.com
Harley’s ‘OR’ methodology has saved businesses around the world hundreds of thousands of euros in wasteful inefficiencies and external audit fees. Its utter simplicity is baffling at first, but once you start using it, you’ll change forever the way you assess when you are ready for ‘Go-Live’.
ISBN 978-0-9566157-7-0
www.linchpinbooks.co.uk
9 780956 615770