Over the past months, Modus has introduced several concepts to help organizations demystify and successfully execute organizational change. From categorizing change and defining key terms to the role of leadership and the use of technology, we have covered the spectrum of people, processes and tools. In doing so, we have provided some insights for how each of these critical elements can be optimized to help deliver the benefits of effective change.
The underlying theme throughout has been a clear emphasis that organizational changes are projects - each with a unique scope, business objective, and target schedule and budget to achieve the end goal. Instead of changing the day-to-day operations of your facility or physical assets, you are changing the day-to-day operations of your most valuable, challenging and unpredictable assets – your human workforce.
At the root of change management is the goal of making your business more dynamic, more efficient, more effective and more profitable by doing things differently or by introducing innovation. Follow the logic:
Just as you manage and monitor the performance of your Capital Projects Portfolio, you must manage your Organizational Change Portfolio (OCP). The similarities of each portfolio’s objectives are clear and as such the same principles, tools and decision-making practices you apply to the capital projects portfolio apply to the management of your OCP as well.
Have a look; below are just a few of the characteristics and challenges that the management of these efforts share:
So, you need a portfolio view to effectively manage change across your enterprise. You need to monitor progress. You need an OCP Dashboard. (Want to see an example? Send me an email.) You need the appropriate objective metrics and project indicators that your OCP is performing and meeting your target business objectives. If it is not, you need to know it is not and pivot or re-prioritize resources accordingly.
Before the disciplines of project controls and enterprise portfolio management took root, project management was very much a “get ’er done” effort. Project progress was based on opinion or experience, and metrics were entrenched in much more qualitative measures. Sometimes, if the project schedules were well defined and bounded and the appropriate amount of direct oversight or management was applied at the executive level, the project would come in on time and on budget. Often, it did not. Destiny projects would garner all the attention and create an organizational vacuum, resulting in impacts to other “less important” projects in the portfolio, leaving them to languish.
Enterprise project controls have brought to the table the objective visibility and data-driven reporting needed to enhance capital project delivery. We couldn’t do without it today – or, if you are doing without, you and your business are likely admittedly suffering. Notably, the implementation of an Enterprise Project Management Office (EPMO) is one of most popular organizational changes being implemented today.
I think that OCPs are an innovative idea that are one step behind Capital Projects philosophy, where the “get ’er done” mentality still prevails. The problem with this is clear: change will languish, and your team will linger in change and suffer change fatigue, not really knowing how far they are from the end goal or if they will ever get there at all. Money and time will be wasted, opportunities missed. Many business divisions may get frustrated and start implementing change locally, working cross purposes against corporate initiatives or unaware of a collaboration opportunity that can save time and money. If any of this sounds familiar, you are not alone.
If you recognize the similarities and benefits and apply the principles of project controls principles to your OCP, you can optimize organizational change and supercharge team agility and ability to adapt to changing business conditions.