The saying goes – the only constant is change… More so now than ever, because the technological cycle has shortened by leaps and bounds. For the technologically challenged, we have to adapt or be overtaken.

Change is not easy and to make matters worse, change is often painful and the uncertainties almost always means failure. When you are too comfortable, you resist change. But when you don’t change to (at least) catch up with the times, you will lose out in the long run. So, either you change when the time is right or you perish.

History has shown many valid examples of not adapting to the industry – just look at the ubiquitous mobile phone. Nokia, Ericsson and Sony were once industry leaders but overtaken now by Apple, Samsung and Huawei etc. Similarly, Kodak was industry leader but were slow to adapt to the digital photography trend.

But then again, it is easy to say you want to change. The change must be clearly thought out, planned and executed. How do we ensure that change leads to positive outcome. My simplified view looks at two factors – measurable and intangible factors. This is not an exhaustive list but one that would set the base for change.

Measurable Factors

Clearly identify the outcome in terms of achievements (process changes)

• What do you want to achieve (KPI)?
• How much improvement are you looking at?
• What does success look like to you?

Explore the technological support you that will require

• What technological change is required?
• How much will it cost you?
• Has a cost/benefit analysis been done?

Put a timeline on how long the project duration should be

• How long should the project go for?
• How often do we do reviews?

You cannot improve what you cannot measure… If it is not measurable, how would you know if the change was positive? Therefore, it is critical to have an AS-IS and the TO-BE model that tells us what it is that we want the change to impact. Be it productivity or cost reduction, the project should have clearly defined measurables.

In today’s environment, change often, if not always, involves technology. How will the technology help in the change? What does it cost versus what benefits can be derived? All these have to be assessed, discussed and agreed.

Most projects fail as they take too long to materialize. Any project must not only have a defined timeline, what is equally important is the regular milestone reviews to assess the state of the project. Highlight the milestones reached. Senior management needs to regularly step in to assess if things are moving in the right direction and also ensure the team moving is not veering away from the outcome.

While the measurable factors are important, the intangibles are also critical to the success of any change process. We call it the bigger picture considerations.

Some factors to consider…

• Who will lead the effort?
• Who has ownership?
• What are each team members roles and responsibilities?
• Who is accountable to ensure the project is on track?
• Which departments will be impacted by this change?
• Who is impacted in this change?
• What options do you have for those impacted?
• How do we communicate it to all stakeholders?

Senior management buy-in and leadership is a non-negotiable. Not only does leadership provide the support and impetus, the right managers leading the project is also critical. As long as the team is convinced of the need to change, the project will have a chance of success.

Therefore, the right team members and leadership is critical. Early on in the project, management needs to communicate clearly to the team and for the team to communicate downwards to everyone involved. The core implementation team must have ownership of the project. The team should be multi-discipline and include members’ whose departments are impacted by the change.

Go for small wins, don’t be overly ambitious. Identify appropriate milestones and what an easy win is and build on that. Team members will feel more confident when they constantly hit milestones and make progress and the success stories will also convince others that the change is working.

When the project hits an impasse, management needs to step in to give guidance and provide the support. Nothing is more important than management support and accountability. Give credit when credit is due but dare to steer the team back towards the right direction when the team starts to deviate from scope. Project outcome and scope has to be clearly defined and the team has to be on the straight and narrow. As we have said in the beginning, this is not an exhaustive list but one that should kickstart that impetus for change. In subsequent posts, we shall be exploring the change process and some ideas of how to go about making change. Go on, take the first step towards change!