By Eileen Strider
You want to introduce a change into your project’s culture? How do you do this in a way that gives you some hope of success? Well, no two organizations’ cultures are exactly alike. No two projects are exactly the same. Because each culture change is unique, we can’t give you an out-of-the-box recipe. So we’ll give you two examples, followed by some general principles you can use. These principles can help you introduce a change in a way your organization can accept, is able to try and won’t kill with resistance.
This blog was written at the request of listeners to our podcast “Five Aspects of Culture That Can Impact Your Project”. Listen now on Blog Talk Radio
Let’s start with an example of how NOT to introduce a change. Then we’ll follow up with a successful example. And last but not least, give you some general principals for how to go about it.
A Bad Fit Example
A client asked us to help him interview candidates for a senior project management position in his organization. After each interview we gave him our feedback. One of the candidates looked great on paper. He had a track record as a successful project manager in the manufacturing industry. He had his PMP certification and Six Sigma Black Belt certification. When we interviewed him, he described how he would approach the job of improving the staff’s project management and quality by introducing project methodology, discipline and metrics to the organization. We had worked with this organization and knew that their culture did not value project management, measured very little and valued individual freedom over discipline. So, our interview feedback to the client was a recommendation not to hire him because although he was an experienced and skilled professional, his style and approach would not be a good fit for their organization. The client said “Well, we need to get more disciplined and skilled about projects here, so I’m going to hire him.” Well, he lasted 6 weeks on the job. The way he introduced change rubbed people the wrong way and they resisted. He found it hard to believe that his approach, which worked so well in manufacturing, didn’t work well in this organization. Notice that the person who hired him to change the organization did not have to change himself! The people who worked on projects did.
A Design to Fit Example
Here’s a successful example of introducing a culture change. We were doing some work with an IT organization in higher education. The CIO asked us if we could help them understand how a project had failed to deliver the expected results, which they still needed. We recommended doing a project retrospective. We knew they did not have a project management culture and this would be their first retrospective. We also knew that they had difficulty working across functional departments and that there had been some blaming on this project. So, we met individually and privately with each person involved, asking them about their role on the project, explaining the retrospective process we would use, that no blaming would be involved and invited them to attend. This wasn’t just a courtesy. It was to allow us to hear about their experience on this project , what they hoped could happen in the retrospective and to increase their feeling of safety with us coming into the retrospective. We shortened and simplified our retrospective process to make this change a little easier for them to swallow. During the retrospective, we helped them discover that their project had been missing some key elements that would have helped them succeed such as defined deliverables, a project plan, clear roles & responsibilities, progress tracking, quality testing and go-live criteria. They came to understand that no one was intentionally sabotaging the project and everyone had been frustrated. They realized they did not know how to add the missing elements and asked us to mentor the project manager through a project restart. We knew they could not handle a full-bodied project management methodology at this point in time. The project also didn’t really require a full-featured project management tool. So, working with the project manager, we helped him learn how to make a task list, order the tasks and identify dependencies. He created a plan using an excel spreadsheet. He defined skills, role and responsibilities, asked people to fill these roles and sought their willingness to be accountable for their responsibilities, developed a test plan, held simple status meetings weekly, executed a quality test plan and used go-live criteria. They completed the project successfully. The project manager developed a new skill set and team members learned that it was possible for them to work together and manage their way through a project without blaming and finger-pointing. Their bosses were ecstatic.
Now this does not mean that their entire organization was now interested in project management! It does mean that they took a first step and proved to themselves that it was possible to manage their project without being overwhelmed with methodology and tools.
General Principles
So, what did you notice that really contributed to their success? What things can you do to help your change succeed?
Ready & Willing to Change
First and most importantly, they were ready and willing to learn something new and change their behavior. Their project failure and the retrospective helped them become ready and willing. Without this, no change will succeed. We always assess the readiness and willingness of people to change themselves. If you don’t have this, ask yourself what, if anything you might do to help people become ready and willing. If this isn’t possible, decide if your change can really succeed or if you should wait until they are more ready for it.
Culture Sleuthing
Learn what you can about how your current culture operates with regard to the following areas. Listen to our podcast mentioned above for examples in these areas.
- Power
- Work Style
- Planning & Priorities
- Problem Handling
- Communication
Design Your Change Strategy
Using all that you learn about your culture, be creative in designing your plan to introduce a change. Don’t be dogmatic about it. Some change is often better than none. Baby steps in the right direction are progress. Don’t ask them to jump the Grand Canyon before they learn how to cross the street safely.
Monitor Progress
Watch and listen to see how your strategy is working. Don’t be afraid to change your strategy if what you thought would work isn’t working. This just means you learned something important.
Support the People and the Change
- Make it safe for people to try new behavior, knowing they won’t do it perfectly the first few times.
- Notice the baby steps people are taking and express appreciation for their willingness to try.
- Encourage people to try again if they don’t succeed the first time. That’s how we learn.
- Offer support when someone is struggling with the change; don’t inflict your help on them. If you totally eliminate their struggle, they won’t learn anything.
- Reward both effort and results.
Each Change is Unique
It bears repeating: No two organizations’ cultures are exactly alike. No two projects are exactly alike. No two changes can be implemented in exactly the same way. No one recipe fits every situation.
But you can succeed in implementing a culture change with careful observation, thoughtful design, adapting as you go and supporting people as they learn.
