Wednesday, June 27, 2012

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.

Tuesday, June 26, 2012


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"

Monday, June 25, 2012

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.