To implement a successful organisational change, you will need effective change management; this will help you anticipate, address, and adapt to any challenges that are thrown your way as well as any unintended changes that may occur.
You will need a plan, a well-defined change programme, and to consider your shareholders, colleagues, and customers, this will make your initiative more likely to succeed and help your business stay on track, or even ahead of schedule.
Creating a plan will require you to ask the right questions that will ensure you will drive effective change and to ensure the programme runs smoothly. Below are a few questions we suggest you ask before implementing change.
1) Does this initiative align with our company’s purpose and practical values?
- Consider shareholders, employees, and current and future customers
- Are you implementing this change for the right reasons?
2) Is this change needed?
- Evaluate whether this change will create more problems than benefits
- Strategize each, clearly defined step within the process and consider what can be done to make the goals achievable
3) How do we start?
- Consider high-level goals and when you want to start achieving them
4) What feedback will help assess the impact of this initiative?
- KPIs & quantitative feedback
- Colleague feedback
- Shareholder feedback
- Customer feedback
5) What will be different in the future than it is today?
- What does the new company look like after this change is implemented?
- How will this change encourage future change and development?
6) Who is going to be impacted?
- How will they be informed?
- Have they been given a chance to share their perspective?
7) Do we have the processes, systems, and resources to execute this initiative?
- This is vital to ensure you will implement the initiative as smoothly and successfully as possible
8) What are the possible unintended consequences of this initiative?
- Evaluate how this will impact everyone and everything across the business and what further changes may need to be made to support them to adapt to the organisational change
9) Why is the change occurring now?
- Is this because of external factors or internal factors?
10) How do we ensure that everyone is well-informed about the change?
- This will help put things in perspective for everyone. It will ensure everyone is aware of the company’s mission and on the same page throughout the whole programme
- Persons will know critical information, how these changes will impact them, how they can adapt, and how they will be supported
10 Questions You Need to Ask Before Implementing a Project/Programme
We have a simple rule at Midmer – PLAN the WORK, WORK the PLAN.
In order to implement a successful project or programme, we thought we’d share some of the questions that we feel you need to ask to make sure you will design, plan, and deliver a successful change and to ensure the project or programme runs smoothly. The PLAN stage is vital, and a clear written scope helps focus the team and all stakeholders.
Below are a few questions that we suggest should be on your tick list before you start implementing a change project or programme.
1. What is the desired output/goal/solution of the project?
This may sound like an obvious one, but you’d be surprised how many people oversee this simple step. A well-defined desired output is vital as it will help define the brief and scope as well as allow all persons involved to understand the end goal therefore avoid any deterioration from the scope or introduction of unnecessary elements (and costs!).
2. What work is included in the scope, what is excluded and what is the budget envelope/limit?
After you have identified and defined your desired output you now need to establish what needs to happen in order to achieve it. As well as highlighting what work needs to be done, you also need to identify what work DOESN’T need to be done; this will help you avoid any unnecessary costs or wasted time. After doing this, you will be able to crunch the numbers and provide an estimate budget for your programme.
3. What team do you need around you in order to design, manage and deliver the project?
The quality of the work delivered will only be as good as the quality of the team executing it; this is why you need to pick the team that you believe share your company’s values, work methods, and understand the desired outcome. At Midmer we believe collaboration is the best approach, that is why we ensure we have the best suited team on board.
4. Which other parts of your business need to be engaged and/or involved in the project?
Although your project/programme might only be implemented in one area of the business, other departments, colleagues, and stakeholders need to be considered no matter how little impact the change may have on them. For example, say you’re installing a new electronic signing in & out system, not only will the employees using the devices need to be trained on how to use them, the IT department will be effected & require training; the finance department will not only have to account for the works, but will also have to be trained in how to use the new systems and how employees’ payments will change.
5. What other existing ongoing or planned projects in the business need to be considered and are there any interdependencies?
Similar to the question above, you need to widen your focus and look at the big picture. You will need to travel in time and look not only at present projects and interdependencies but also look to the future and consider how your desired outcome of this project will affect any future, planned or unplanned changes, and how your company will look in the future with these potential changes implemented.
6. What are the most important levers to achieve the project solution? Time? Cost? Quality?
The Time Cost Quality triangle is the perfect example of the saying “you can’t have everything”; if quality is the main lever for this project, then we may need to extend the time of the project or increase your budget envelope. Likewise, if your project needs to be completed quickly then, again, you may need to increase your budget limit, or compromise on the quality of the final solution.
To identify your most important levers, review and analyse you project/programme and highlight what factors are a priority for your company.
7. What are the critical path project activities to achieve the output/goal?
Critical activities are those that, if not accomplished or in place on time, will cause delays to the completion of tasks, and the whole project. These activities within the critical path outline the longest distance between the start and the end of the project e.g. how long legal work takes to be approved, how long construction will take, how long training will take etc.
It is vital that you define the critical path and the activities within it as this will provide you with a realistic timeline which can then be manipulated and moulded by highlighting items that can be done simultaneously, tasks that require approval, legislation, insurance etc, progressing.
8. What governance (financial and decision-making) needs to be in place to review at the end of each project stage gates and how will any potential change be agreed upon?
This is where the organisational structure needs to be understood; this way you will be able to contact the appropriate person(s) directly to gain feedback with ample time, allowing the project to progress smoothly and swiftly. Is there any information that needs to be shared with other parties? If something changes, will can cause a domino effect therefore the correct governance needs to be in place in order to gain approval from all relevant parties.
9. How will all stakeholders be engaged, communicated to, and kept informed throughout the project?
Even if they are not imperative to the decision-making process, all members need to be updated and on the same page, so how will you do this?
How will the projects progress be recorded and reported? Who needs to know what information? How frequent do the update meetings need to be? These are all sub-questions that you need to have agreed answers to after discussing with the corresponding stakeholders.
10. What are the main risks of this project and how are these mitigated?
Evaluate how this project impacts everyone and everything across the business as well as what further changes may need to be made to support stakeholders adapt to the organisational change. You will need to highlight risks big and small to help become prepared for anything that is thrown your way.
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Now you know how to prepare for implementing a project/programme, you can now get in touch with us here at Midmer for guidance and support on implementing your company’s change project/programme. We offer services from Executive Advisory to PMO support, or simply how to Create Value with your project/programme.
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