Final 6360

Deszca4e_PPT_Ch09.pdf

Chapter 9: Action Planning and Implementation

Chapter Overview

• Change leaders have a “do it” attitude. Without action, nothing happens

• Action planning involves planning the work and working the plan. “Right” decisions = approximately right, as you gain feedback and learn as you go

• Action planning sorts out who does what, when, and how and tracks progress to promote learning and adaptation

• Tools to help you manage the process are discussed

• Successful change agents effectively engage others in the journey, develop detailed communication plans and the transition

The Change Path Model

Awakening Chapter 4

Mobilization Chapters 5 through 8

Acceleration Chapter 9

Institutionalization Chapter 10

• Implementation planning that engages and empowers others

• Action planning tools • Communications planning • Managing the transition

and after-action review

3 Approaches to Decision Making and Action Taking

• Thinking First • when the issue is clear and the context structured

• Seeing First • when many elements have to be combined into

creative solutions, commitment is key and communication across boundaries is essential. People need to see the whole before becoming committed.

• Doing First • when situation is novel and confusing, complicated

specifications would get in the way and a few simple rules can help people move forward

3 Generic Change Strategies

Change Type Characteristic Implementation Pitfalls

Programmatic Change

Missions, plans, objectives

Training, timelines, steering

committees

Lack of focus on behavior, one solution for all,

inflexible solutions

Discontinuous Change

Initiated from top, clear break, reorientation

Decrees, structural change,

concurrent implementation

Political coalitions derail change, weak controls, stress from the loss of

people

Emergent Change

Ambiguous, incremental and

challenging

Use of metaphors,

experimentation, and risk taking

Confusion over direction,

uncertainty, and possible slow

results

Working Your Plan

• Mobilize commitment to change through joint diagnosis of business problems

• Develop a shared vision of how to organize and manage for competitiveness

• Foster consensus for the new vision, competence to enact it, and cohesion to move it along

• Spread revitalization to all departments without pushing it from the top

• Institutionalize revitalization through formal policies, systems, and structures

• Monitor and adjust strategies in response to problems in the revitalization process

Working Your Plan

1. Think of a change situation you are familiar with. Return to Table 9.1 and consider whether it is a: a) Programmatic change b) Discontinuous change c) Emergent change

2. How well was it handled? Was the appropriate approach or should it have been handled differently?

Steps to Effective Change—Beer et al.’s Six Steps

1. Mobilize commitment through joint diagnosis

2. Develop a shared vision

3. Foster consensus for the new vision, competence to enact it, and cohesion to move it along

4. Spread revitalization to all departments without pushing it from the top

5. Institutionalize revitalization through formal policies, systems, and structures

6. Monitor and adjust strategies as you go

Jick’s Ten Commandments

1. Analyze the organization and its need for change 2. Create a vision and a common direction 3. Separate from the past 4. Create a sense of urgency 5. Support a strong leader role 6. Line up political sponsorship 7. Craft an implementation plan 8. Develop enabling structures 9. Communicate, involve people, and be honest 10.Reinforce and institutionalize change

Kotter’s Eight-Stage Process

1. Establish a sense of urgency

2. Create a guiding coalition

3. Develop a vision and strategy

4. Empower broad-based action

5. Communicate the change vision

6. Generate short-term wins

7. Consolidate gains and produce more change

8. Anchor new approaches in the culture

Lueck’s Seven Steps for Change

• Identify the leadership

• Focus on results, not activities

• Start change at the periphery, then let it spread to other units, pushing it from the top

• Institutionalize success through formal policies, systems, and structures

• Monitor and adjust strategies in response to problems in the change process

“No Plan Survives First Contact”

• While it is critical to plan and anticipate, planning is a means not an end.

• Don’t ignore vital emerging information just because it does not fit with carefully conceived plans.

• Contingencies and alternative ways of approaching change are important contributors to enhanced adaptive capacity.

Action Planning Tools

1. To Do Lists—A checklist of things to do

2. Responsibility Charting—Who will do what, when, where, why, and how

3. Contingency Planning—Consideration of what should be done when things do not work as planned on critical issues. Tools to aid with this include decision tree analyses and scenario analyses

4. Flow Charting

Action Planning Tools (cont.)

5. Design Thinking

6. Surveys and Survey Feedback

7. Project Planning and Critical Path Methods for Scheduling

8. Tools that assess outcomes and stakeholders (discussed in Ch. 6), including: a)Commitment Charts b)The Adoption Continuum (AIDA) c)Cultural Mapping

Action Planning Tools (cont.)

9. Leverage Analysis

10. Training and Development Tools

11. Diverse Change Approaches

Responsibility Charting Decisions or Actions

to be Taken Responsibilities

Susan Ted Sonja Relevant Dates Action 1 R A I For meeting on Jan 14 Action 2 R I May 24 Action 3 S A A Draft Plan by Feb 17

Action by July 22 Etc... Coding: R = Responsibility (not necessarily authority) A = Approval (right to veto) S = Support (put resources toward) I = Inform (to be consulted before action)

Project Planning

Schilling & Hill, 1998

Cycle Time

Opportunity Identification

Concept Development

Product Design

Process Design

Commercial Production

Example 1

Example 2

Organizing task to allow for parallel

processes to occur has been shown to save

time.

Level of Commitment to Action

• Opposed to the Change

• Neutral to the Change

• Let It Happen (weak support)

• Help It Happen

• Make It Happen

LOW

HIGH

Stage of Adoption

• Awareness • Becoming altered to the existence of something new,

such as a product, service, or procedure

• Interest • A growing inquisitiveness about the nature and benefits

of the new idea

• Desire/Appraisal • Studying strengths and weaknesses of new idea and its

application to their area, followed by small-scale testing

• Action/Adoption • Incorporating the new idea as part of the resources the

adopter brings to their job

Crossing the Adoption Chasm

Innovators Early Adopters

Early Majority Late

Majority

Laggards

The Chasm or Tipping Point of Support That Needs to be Crossed

Commitment Chart

Key Players

Level of Commitment Level of

Understanding (high, med, low)

Opposed Strongly

to Weakly Neutral Let It

Happen Help It

Happen Make It Happen

Person1 X àO Med

Person 2 X àO High

Person 3 X à àO Low

Etc...

Mapping People on the Adoption Curve

Key Players Aware Interested Desire for

Action

Moving to Action or

Adopting the Change

Person1 X àO

Person 2 X

Person 3 X à àO

Etc...

Action Planning Checklist

ü Is the action plan consistent with the analysis, vision, and objectives?

ü Is your action plan realistic, given your influence, and the resources likely to be available to you?

ü Are you and your team committed, and do have the competence and credibility to implement the action steps? If not, how will you address this?

ü Is the plan time-sequenced in logical order?

ü Is it clear who will do what, when, where, and how?

ü What are the milestones and the probability of success at each step? Have you anticipated secondary consequences of your actions?

Action Planning Checklist (cont.)

ü Have you anticipated possible secondary consequences and lagging impacts your plans may have?

ü Have you developed contingencies for risk areas and for how to proceed if things go better or differently than anticipated?

ü Who does your plan rely on? Are they “on-side”? If not, what will it take to bring them “on-side”?

ü Does your action plan take into account the concerns of stakeholders and possible coalitions they might form?

ü Who (and what) could seriously obstruct the change? How will you manage them?

Communication Needs for Different Phases in the Change Process

Pre-Approval Phase

Developing the Need for Change

Phase Mid Stream

Change Phase Confirming the Change Phase

Communication plans to sell top management

Communication plans to explain the need for change, provide a rationale, reassure employees, and clarify the steps in the change process.

Communication plans to inform people of progress and to obtain feedback on attitudes and issues, to challenge any misconceptions, and to clarify new organizational roles, structures, and systems.

Communication plans to inform employees of the success, to celebrate the change, and to prepare the organization for the next change.

Communicating for Change

1. Message and media redundancy are key for message retention. Carefully consider the impact and use of social media and how others affected may use it

2. Face-to-face communication is most effective

3. Line authority is effective in communications

4. The immediate supervisor is key

5. Opinion leaders need to be identified and used

6. Employees pick up and retain personally relevant information more easily than other types of information

Influence Strategies for Change

1. Education and communication

2. Participation and involvement

3. Facilitation and support

4. Negotiation and agreement

5. Manipulation and co-option

6. Explicit and implicit coercion

7. Systemic adjustment

Toolkit Exercise 9.2—Action Plans for Influencing Reactions to Change

1. Which of the following strategies have you seen used to overcome resistance to action plans?

a. Education and communication? b. Participation and involvement? c. Facilitation and support? d. Negotiation and agreement? e. Manipulation and co-optation? f. Explicit and implicit coercion? g. Systemic adjustments?

2. What were the consequences of the methods?

3. Which of these methods are you most comfortable with using? Which do you have the skills to use?

Toolkit Exercise 9.3 (cont.) Additional Lenses on Influence Tactics

a. Inspirational appeals b. Consultation: seeking the participation of others c. Relying on the informal system: existing norms and

relationships d. Personal appeals: friendship, loyalty e. Ingratiation: praise, flattery, friendliness f. Rational persuasion: using data g. Exchange or reciprocity h. Coalition building i. Using rules or legitimating tactics j. Appeals to higher authorities

- Which of the above have you used? How successful were they?

Push and Pull Tactics

• Push Tactics • Use of facts, logic, and/or pressure

(e.g., use of guilt and fear) to push people toward the change

• Pull Tactics • Inspirational appeals and other

influence tactics designed to attract and pull people toward the change

Implementation Tactics and Success

Tactic Percentage Use

Initial Adoption

Rate

Ultimate Adoption

Rate

Time to Adopt

(months)

Intervention 16% 100% 82% 11.2

Participation 20 81 71 19.0

Persuasion 35 65 49 20.0

Edict 29 51 35 21.5

A Checklist for Change: Transition Management

Transition Management: managing the implementation of the change project

ü How will the organization continue to operate as it shifts from one state to the next?

ü Who will answer questions about the proposed change? What decision power will they have?

ü Do the people in charge of the transition have the appropriate authority to make decisions necessary to ease the change?

ü Have we developed ways to reduce the anxiety created by the change and increase the positive excitement over it?

A Checklist for Change: Transition Management (cont.)

ü Have we worked on developing a problem-solving climate around the change process?

ü Have we thought through the need to communicate the change? Who needs to be seen individually? Which groups need to be seen together? What formal announcement should be made?

ü Have the people handling the transition thought about how they will capture the learning from the change process and share it?

ü Have we thought about how we will measure and celebrate progress and how we will bring about closure to the project and capture the learning so it is not lost (after-action review)?

What Makes for a Good Action Plan?

1. It can be done!

2. Organized as a timed sequence of conditional moves

3. Responsibility charts: who does what, when, why, how?

4. Measures and Outcomes are specified

5. The plan is consistent with analysis and objectives

What Makes for a Good Action Plan? (cont.)

6. Resources are available: money and people

7. Real “buy in” is there—involvement and public commitment, coalitions are considered

8. Early positives exist to help build momentum

9. Most importantly, you have the Vision and Goals needed to guide you in the right direction

Summary

• “Doing it” demands a good plan and a committed team who will work that plan

• Several strategies for approaching change and planning the work are discussed. Change agents, like good coaches, adjust as they go

• Action planning tools are discussed

• Effective action planning and implementation requires careful attention to communication and transition management