Why does a CIO need Organisational Change Management?

In general, Information Technology departments in companies worldwide tend to severely underestimate change management because of overwhelming preoccupation with technology.

This, very often, leads to avoidable costs resulting from poorer-than-expected adoption amongst users. Their passive and active resistance to the change (s) introduced by the IT department leads to lower realization of ROI, and to a vicious cycle of poor reputation of (a) the change and (b) thus the IT team, thus costing the firm heavily. These costs might be hidden but they are huge avoidable costs nevertheless for the business. In the past, this was not pursued by businesses, but organizations are waking up to these costs now.

Change Management can eliminate this waste through a systematic and scientific program that

(a)   engages the stakeholders

(b)   ensures organization readiness

(c)    addresses legitimate user resistance

(d)   ensures timely system support

(e)   prevents rollback, thus eliminating wasteful costs

Chief Information Officers (CIO) usher in process change, systems change and technology change to enable speed and efficiency for their business.

When the CIO ushers in change...with new technology, new applications, new infrastructure, and changes to existing applications & infrastructure, (s)he is answerable to the shareholders and management on how the user group or people in the organization react to and adopt the change.

Acceptance of the change, its full adoption, successful management of resistance and full promotion of the change from all quarters are a dream-come-true situation for a CIO.

Organizational Change Management (OCM) can play a major role in making this situation a reality for the CIO.

The secret of success of OCM is its extreme focus on the human angle, that is traditionally often ignored during technology changes. i.e., to manage changes successfully, we need to deeply understand the human impact of the change. To get the desired result, we should ensure that the manner of change is in alignment with the employees and their behavior, and indeed with the company’s culture and values. The change has to be envisioned at the level of an individual employee.

Organizations that realize that "a change that fails or succeeds depends truly on how the human impact is managed", consider OCM as critical as the change itself.

If you are a CXO, has an organization of more than 250 employees and is growing on a 35% growth annually, plans to expand across geographies, is looking for an ERP or SAP application to be introduced into your organization or has a volatile process and policy department, OCM is a MUST HAVE in this era of speed for adoption and reduction of effort, financial wastage due to resistance. :-)

On the sets: The climax shot of Annun Innum Ennum and it was touching!

This blog is again on  Annum Innum Ennum movie about which I wrote a few days back has a path breaking story line.

Rajesh Nair and Usha Rajesh have put their soul into the movie being released under the banner of Vaya Films. The story is about a couple who got married 20 years back and another couple who got married very recently. The story revolves around how husbands lose interest in their wives, look for greener pastures and..... Ah! Well, I am not supposed to give away the story. It is for you to go to the theatres in August and watch the movie :)

On the sets I happened to meet Rekha, the Malayalam actor who did blockbusters like "Aye Auto" (1990), "Dasharatham" with Mohanlal a few years back. Rekha is playing the role of the wife to actor, producer and television anchor Siddique (whose movie career started in late 10980's). She has a bold shade to her character with who many wives will identify with. She takes off the facade of her husband and brings out the cheater in him! I did see the shot taken for the climax of the movie and the entire unit applauded actor Rekha's extremely emotional and bold delivery of her dialogues. Very touching! :)

In the movie, Jishnu Raghavan, B.Tech from NIT Calicut, son of veteran actor Raghavan and got himself launched with the super hit Malayalam film "Nammal" (2002). He comes with a very new and different look (all hairs J) is married to actor Radhika, who shot to fame with her character Razia in movie "Classmates" 2006. Jishnu's character is a writer who shot to fame with his first novel but fails to take off after his initial fame.

His wife works in a private firm and runs the household on her own. She admires and sees a perfect man in her boss played by Nishaan, who made his debut in Malayalam movie "Ritu". In fact, Nishaan character has a gray shade too which comes out in the later part of the movie. Jishu's character too gets drawn away from his wife to their new neighbor played by the glamorous Tashu Kaushik, joining Malayalam films through Annum Innum Ennum after making a mark in Tollywood and a stint in Bollywood.

In short, Annum Innum Ennum talks about man-woman chemistry, wife-husband trust (or betrayal), how what is seen is not the obvious and all is not always well in your neighbor’s house (or with his wife) ;).

To see how Rajesh Nair and team (includes friends like Shivan G Nair, Jolly Johnson who know each other from their Rotaract days) have woven these characters along with roles played by senior actors like Ashokan, Thilakan, Salim Kumar amongst others, you should go and WATCH the movie in theatres in the month of August.

This movie will answer a few questions we ask each other, ourselves about the sanctity of marriage, so called trust between partners and why one should understand we are all married to our partners for a reason... reason could be many and any... yet Then, Now and Forever... Annum, Innum, Ennum... with every generation, it is the same cycle of life... life of lies... life of realization and life moves on!

Today when all of us say "I love you" to our partners… some silently vow "I will lie to you"... Watch Annum Innum Ennum in August! :) :) Rest on the silver screen…

Source of information on all actors and films: WikiPedia

Organizational Change Management is accused of being show stoppers

Organizational Change Management (OCM) is not an "order taking" service for peer service group to haul around as and when and how they like!

The power of the OCM team lies in where the team is housed within an organization. If the OCM team is housed in any of the CXO offices, you have a powerful system to operate from. But if you are housed within a function team, your area of operations is limited to within the group.

Being in a CXO team has its own benefits and challenges.

Benefits are: You have the power to decide and recommend if a proposed change is good for end user and have a roll out go-live or be put "On hold". You are also consulted before a change (like application or services) are bought from vendors. You also enjoy the benefit of credibility if housed in a CXO office. Peers and change takers will go by your word about change preparedness.

Challenges: You are seen to yield more power when there raise a conflict of interest between change proposer and your team. This is the only challenge met by the team when housed within a CXO team.

When do peers see OCM team as show stoppers?

... When a change is pushed back or not rolled out in the interest of end users. Let me cite an example here.

Your organization purchases a Titanic and approaches the OCM team for roll out. Your business wants the passengers (users) to board the ship ASAP and start sailing full steam. All this is in alignment to the business reason and goal of purchasing the ship.

While gathering information to ensure a smooth roll out and adoption by end users, you realize that the Titanic is being pushed into a lake size water body and not the ocean because you don’t have one!

A sensible OCM team will push back the roll out saying, even if the ship is the Titanic; we need an ocean and not a lake so that passengers get to SAIL and not get stuck. Therefore even the boarding of end users need not be initiated and the Titanic cannot be used.

This is going to infuriate the buyers of Titanic and they are sure to call OCM team as show stoppers. Completely missing the point that the USD 500,000was spend on buying something which end users cannot use due to lack of or weak infrastructure.

The work around is to add on to the infrastructure but that’s where the RoI comes and goes into negative due to additional expenditure to roll out the change.

What Team OCM did for the IS team was to ensure they did not roll out a partially working, available product for their end users thus saving grace and endless escalation calls for poor service.

What gets highlighted is that Team OCM stopped change! (Even though it was done in the interest of end users).

I have experienced many such situations where asking right questions in the interest of end users has saved my team from rolling out weak changes. Now i use this experience for predictive change management approach within my organization.

On the sets: “Annum Innum Ennum”… A unit breathes life into a movie

The shot in the movie looks shot in a calm, cool environment where everything seems to be as perfect and in-place… there is no background noise, only the footsteps of the actors are heard or the light swoosh-sound of the ceiling fan or none, if it’s an air-conditioned room! Perfect location! Prim and in place….

From the silver screen, take a peek behind the making of the shot and here is what I experienced as I walked into the sets of a movie ““Annum Innum Ennum” (Then, Today, Forever) being made by a passionate bunch of friends who happen to be life partners in real life.

I walked in thinking that the making will as described in the opening paragraph but got to see real people, film set, actors, huge lights, trolley, camera, set designs and above all .. the making. As I sat there, I did feel like an outsider for the initial 15 minutes. It took me some time to shed off the corporate office hangover and soak in real life people working in making a reel life of a story.

Rajesh and Usha devote their time, thoughts and this part of their life to making of their maiden venture “Annum Innum Ennum”. I had studied film making basics in my communication and journalism post graduate course but never looked beyond the theory taught. What I saw ot the sets of the movie overwrote what I learned a decade back.

It doesn’t matter if the producer or director is your friend. One should respect their role on the sets and stay within limits when conversing. Everybody watches everybody and any wrong move, body language; word can leave a lasting impression. I ensured I maintained decorum and distance from both Usha and Rajesh as they play key roles of a producer and director for rest of the unit members.

All working women make sacrifices and I saw Usha spending time on the sets with the actors when her elder daughter was down with viral fever. I could understand her situation when phone calls from home took her mind back home at the same time had to be around to take stock of situation. Tough job!

The Director had no airs around him. He was open to suggestions made by his associates yet agreed only after he got fully convinced of their recommendation. The leadership coaching classes do not prepare the leaders in corporate to ask for suggestions but somehow drum down the need to give suggestions.

I was speechless to see him work quietly with his team (compared to the jing-bang he creates when with friends), his serious yet calm discussions with associates; never making anybody in the sets feel intimidated. A stranger on the sets like me was welcomed to his sets through the microphone much to my surprise!

The associate directors were eye-openers for me. They literally deliver the dialogues to the actor with the same tone and emotion (they can step into any role anytimeJ). They run between the director and the actors relentlessly carrying their note-boards, focusing on the shot and never distracted by anything else going around.

I did not see any unit member raise their voice, laugh loud etc but were much disciplined attending to their area of work. The moment they heard “Silence” from the director’s microphone, entire unit lapsed into total silence! Even the sound of breathing seemed to be heard in the silence.

Actors did not fuss when they rehearsed for 4-5 times before the shot was canned. They rehearsed their lines in advance, reminded me of the last minute revision we do just before the final or board exams! The Board exam result took months to reach us but the result of actors’ revision was seen in the next 3 minutes, when director says “Take OK”!

The set is not cosy place… its humid, warm, wires of all thickness extend over the floor, smell of fresh paint from the sets, dust from the making of the sets, not very comfortable seating in the sets, bright lights enough to peel your make-up off all add up to the making of a film. The effort to stay in good spirits under these circumstances is more than human!

Our tea boy needs a special mention as he went around serving tea to one and all. No looking up from his plate of small steel glasses brimming with hot tea. He did not seem to be in a forgiving mood when one of the set members accidently bumped into him. For the tea boy his job and the need to do it well seemed as important as everybody else in the set.

In midst of all the action on the sets, I saw a senior actor silently sitting away from all. I remember seeing him in movies for more than 20 years and anybody would expect his looks to give away his age. I thought it might embarrass him if I were to go and have a small chat.. just to know what does it take for him to look half his age in a fit body! Looking at the working conditions of a movie set, actors who take care of themselves must be made role models for the “Oh-I-am-too-busy-to-workout” corporate bosses!

One should visit a live movie set to hear, see, and feel the passion behind movie making, efforts put in by everybody on the sets to understand that it takes many people to breathe life into a movie. One should never buy pirated CDs but watch it in a theatre to appreciate the efforts of silver screen makers.

I stay back inside the theatre till the last name in the credits scroll up the screen… as a mark of respect of every technician, actors’ contribution. You too should… it’s a kind gesture!

As I walked back to my car it became apprantent to me that the words "Silence!, Artist ready?, Roll, Cut, Take OK" will keep echoing in every movie sets forever.... "Annum Innum Ennum"

What is Organizational Change Manager’s role in Information Services?

Information Technology (Information Services) industry downplays change management as the awareness for the need to have systematic change management is very low within the expert teams. I have thought thourgh a change management program using a framework called “3P Change Management Framework” to overcome this challenge for my team.

The systematic deployment of 3P Change Management framework has ensured less or no resistance to change after the service or application is rolled out into the organization, to the targeted end user.


3P Change Management programs have three phases: Pre-Piloting – Piloting – Production phases for application and enhancement roll outs and Pre-Downtime – Downtime and Post-Downtime for infrastructure roll outs.

Process owner engagement, end user information, identification of resistance amongst end users, put “On hold” to roll out if resistance management is not closed 48 hours before the roll out/downtime date, constant communication between stakeholders, end-to-end training for support groups and closing a change program with Product Owner score are the highlights in 3P Change Management Framework (3P CM Framework).

Resistance Management: Key focus

Resistance Management ensures an application or service is introduced into the organization with less than 5% target group resisting a change. Our observation of various change programs show the initial resistance from end users is 70-30 for any change being introduced into their day-today transactions.

End user resistance stems from the following reasons

1. Lack of understanding of ‘why and when’ about a change

2. Lack of understanding benefits for end users

3. Change saturation (overwhelmed by the amount of change being rolled out by IS)

4. Lack of involvement by end users in a change (no participation)

5. Comfortable with the current manual process

3P Change Management team involves the following methods to measure resistance from end users

- Feedback recorded during online awareness session in pre-piloting

- Online feedback recorded from pilot users through intranet
- On call feedback recorded by my team

- One-on-One call with Point Of Contacts from business teams

- ‘Huddle calls’ 24 hours before go-live dates (to check for any last minute resistance)

 Methods used to resolve resistance from end users involve
- Direct-engagement between Process Owner and Resistors- Multiple rounds of resistance management calls

- One-On-One meeting between resistors, Process Owners and Non-IS stakeholders

- Escalation till business heads in case of no-response from resistors for resolution calls

- Ensure Process Owner offers multiple options for end users as resolution

- Ensure resistors select one of the options to close resistance before go-live

- Risk Owner Transfer in case of no-show by resistors

I have a passion for change programs and my four years in organisational change management has given me 100% success with systematic approach to change.

Predictive change management is what I am looking at, in my organisation, to help the Product and Process owners prepare for a change with end users, using a similar change program (s) from the past.

90 Days with the Superpower: My Perspective

The flight from Frankfurt to Seattle took me to the Superpower. My maiden trip to United States of America. The land of sun and honey!

I grew up hearing the power of the Dollar and how it changed lives of many. I studied in schools where friends left mid-term to go and complete that term in the USA. I finished my education with classmates having the US-dream in their eyes and talk. But the skill I majored in had less or no aspirants for the US dream.

Where do I fall in? In the "undecided" category :)

Because of which I stepped on the Land on Liberty with an open mind. No agenda (to make money), no misgivings (as I did not listen much to US stories from others) and no determination to stay on (as I believe each nation belongs to its national).

The State of Washington is the evergreen state and is claimed by all even on the number plate of cars! Seattle is where I was housed for 90 days and in a town called Bellevue. Work place was in Issaquah.

(I could be way, way wrong from what you have seen or experienced of USA)

I used the public transport to commute to and from work. I used the 120 minutes of the day to observe USA from a common man’s perspective. What the economists, number crunching-elite business school experts present to world are lifeless numbers but what I witnessed were common US citizens who lived using the numbers seen on the currency notes in their wallet.

(I could be way, way wrong from what you have seen or experienced of USA)

There was a morning, I took a different bus that got filled by Asians and not a single US national. If any US national had got into the bus on that day, he would have either stepped off thinking he woke up in an Asian country or got depressed seeing so many forgiven nationals on way to work in his nation. But it is here USA stands apart and is always respected for: ACCEPTANCE AND TOLERANCE for new ideas, people, concepts, cultures, values took birth in USA and is still relevant everywhere in the US.

What nations across the world, fail to imitate the USA is how well the nationals or taxpaying citizens are taken care by putting back the tax payers money in building excellent roads, drainage systems, public amenities, how self-reliant nationals are, instead of moaning about lack of handymen, everybody takes care of their residential needs on their own, how the public respect government and public property and do not damage them….

What other nations should not imitate is the expensive education system after high school, how expensive and complicated the health care and insurance sectors are, how shopping has been made a daily event with non-stop discounts throughout the year, encouraging use of cards for credit history, not putting enough and visible efforts to encourage savings etc…

(I could be way, way wrong from what you have seen or experienced of USA)

There were reports of unemployment on the rise in the US as I left my homeland. Nowhere did I see any unemployment, with people flashing cards and walking out of JCPennys, Macys, Targets, Costcos etc with shopping bags full of branded goods.

….till that evening in December, when I saw a very young man around 25 years old walking past my friend’s car as I watched him carry the placard saying, “Jobless. Homeless. Hungry.” Why was a 25 year old hungry in the Land of Sun and Honey?

Three blocks down the street in Seattle, I saw a board hung on a shop window: “Now Hiring”…

Both these visuals become a common sight as days went by…

I could be way, way wrong from what you have seen or experienced of USA)

As I travelled from one end to the other, realized our world is a beautiful place to live in… be it India or USA.

I took off from the Land of Liberty, developing a bond of respect with USA and my bond with my homeland got a notch stronger!