Another Fine Program
Understanding the Life Cycle of
Change Management

Why submit to change?
 A full 2/3 of all change initiatives fail
according to a study completed by McKinsey
& Co studying hundreds of Total Quality
Management programs.
Same study showed 70% of reengineering
efforts failed as well.
Harley Davidson management coined the term
“Another Fine Program” – making light of skepticism when
they roll out a new initiative.

Richard Beckhard, Organizational Change pioneer has identified that
Organizations are a human community –
a living organism
Change is not a one time occurrence
Even with buy-in and “true believers – these initiatives rarely succeed

Change Leadership
Change Managers include any staff member
able to implement change including:
• Executives, Managers, Supervisors
• Project leaders
• Key staff members
• Employees with direct control on resources

Role of Leaders through changeKey Manager Responsibilities:
• Communicating the organization’s business strategy
• Addressing broad-based employee concerns to increase visibility into the rationale behind change
• Demonstrating the importance of the change
• Identifying key employees to engage and customizing engagement solutions for these individuals
Communication and Retention Activity Checklist:
Build a commitment to change via consistent, timely, honest, accurate communication
Clarify the vision, plans, and progress of the change initiative
Capture and address all questions and issues
Maximize participation in the change process
Frequently reinforce common themes and messages
Communicate proactively
Enable two-way discussion and dialogue
Be responsive and adapt to resolve issues
Evaluate and modify communication and approach to helping employees manage change as needed
Identify a group of top employees that it is critical to retain by considering the risk and impact of low engagement or departure of
each of these individuals
Engage identified individuals in one-on-one conversations to communicate that the organization values them
Discuss what the organization can do to ensure that these individuals are retained and engaged, and create customized
engagement plans
Hold managers accountable for delivering on these plans
Tips When Acting on the Above Activities:
Do not get defensive when answering questions; it is common for people to react negatively when first presented with change
Always answer questions honestly with the facts; it is acceptable to say, “I don’t know, but I will find out for you.”
Channel employee concerns that you yourself cannot address through a pre-appointed individual who can share these concerns
with senior leaders driving the change
Encourage employees to ask whatever is on their mind; however, it is helpful to first anticipate and solicit difficult questions

Study of Change Management
Includes:
Communication Skills
Conflict Management
Leadership Development
Organizational Identity
Managing Workforce Diversity
Teambuilding
Strategic Planning

Imagine

Not Enough Time
“We Don’t
have time for
this stuff”
No Help
(Coaching & Support)
“We don’t
know what
we’re doing”
“We have no
help!”
True Believers &
Non-Believers
Diffusion
Assessment & Measurement
Fear and Anxiety
Walking the Talk
Not Relevant
Governance
Strategy and Purpose
“We Don’t
have time for
this stuff”
Growth Processes
of Profound
Change
“They
aren’t
going to
follow
through”
“Am I safe?
Can I trust others?
Can I trust
myself?”
“This stuff isn’t
working?”
“I have no idea
what these
people are
doing?”
“Who’s in
charge of this
stuff?”
“We keep
reinventing
the wheel”
“Where are we
going?”
“What are we here
for?”
“They’re
acting like a
cult”
“They
don’t
understa
nd us!”
“We
have the
right
way!”
“They won’t
give up the
power”

10 Limits to Growth
• Time Management
• No Help (coaching or support)
• Not Relevant
• Walking the Talk
• Fear and Anxiety
• Assessment and Measurement
• True Believers and Non-Believers
• Governance
• Diffusion
• Strategy and Purpose

• No help – coaching
– Ask the question, “What don’t we know how to
do?”
– Get in front of training and support needs
– Partner leaders with a knowledgeable, “safe”
source to discuss leaders own doubts/frustrations
going through process
– Build coaching techniques into responsibility of all
team members (allowing feedback to happen
openly)
– Identify committed open members to work with
to develop key feedback tracks

Task: Purpose
Write on a slip of paper how/why I am willing to
participate in this initiative
Review individual rationales and then build
on team reasoning with further discussion to
support this change

Building Relevance
• Communicate clear understanding among line leaders of
necessity of change
• Communicate impact of change for:
– Organization
– Team/division
– Individuals
• Tie training efforts to gaining business results
• Revisit progress and relevance periodically
– Schedule routine time – or begin meetings with check-ins from
each team member
Intellectual understanding – emotional engagement –
sustained action

Building Trust
Facilitators and Leaders must demonstrate:
• Belief in the success of change
• Being open to challenges/questions
• Ability to rally with revisions, setbacks
• Consistency in communication

Sustaining Change
• Avoid coercion when implementing change
• Use setbacks as opportunity to learn
• Maintain open communication
• See diversity as an asset
• Create safe environment to have “unknowns”

Assessment and Measurement
• Understand growth can take time – results
may not be apparent immediately
• Recognize each obstacle cleared
• Assign team member(s) with duty of assessing
progress – learning techniques to measure
• Be sure to learn from these measurements –
not just report them
• Measure soft skills as well as hard results

Growing Outward
• As the specific group achieves success they
must avoid becoming a segregated group
causing distrust and division in organization
• Invite input from outside sources – both up
and downstream
• A clear message and success can lay the
foundation for agreement among other teams

Formalizing Change
There are 2 perspectives on governing progress:
• Pilot team – establishing independence,
freedom, autonomy
• Balance of organization – requiring adherence
to newly developed process, policy, etc.
• Build accountability into all teams
• Provide training, space where necessary

Redesigning An Airplane Mid-Flight
• Give leaders on impacted teams authority to
innovate, discover, adjust to unforeseen
impacts
• Build cross-communication for teams

Acceptance
• Work to create a learning environment that
can be nimble and capable of hearing and
learning new ways of thinking
• Allow for transparency in developing change –
will support legitimacy when implementing
change
• Allow line leaders to conduct research to stay
abreast of new techniques

Definition
• Establish opportunities to explore scenario
thinking – identifying any blind spots
• What does it mean to be “The best mid-size
media organization”

• Analyze a change process -

HR FOCUS
Due to the incredibly broad and far reaching
areas of study and importance under Change
Management HR has the ability to impact this
life cycle in any number of ways from:
• Training Opportunities (specifics for staff and
coaching & communication skills for leaders)
• Organizational Strategic discussion
• Resource allocation
• Assisting the bridging of change among
teams/divisions/etc.

Organizational growth requires change.
Change is unchartered territory – clearing
obstacles – controlling the controllables will
create a culture that is inclusive and capable
of providing appropriate response to new
circumstances.

Resources
• Peter Senge. “The Dance of Change”,
• http://www.ddiworld.com/pdf/ddi_employeeengagement_mg.pdf -
Whitepapers on:
• Richard Wellins, Paul Bernthal, Mark Phelps, Development
Dimensions International. “Employee Engagement: The Key to
Realizing Competitive Advantage”
• Natalie Petouhoff, PhD, Tamra Chandler and Beth Montag-Schmaltz.
“The Business Impact of Change Management”
• Robert Rogers and B. Jean Ferketish, PhD. “Creating a High-
Involvement Culture Through A Value-Driven Change Process”
Individual Change Management Skill Development
• DowJones.net – Management Essentials
• Prosci ADKAR Model, Jeffrey Hiatt