Change Project Management Skill Sets - The View of Practitioners

Following my presentation of Change Project Management - The Next Step to audiences consisting of members of the Project Management Institute, a survey of participants was conducted. The survey asked participants to rank the seven change project management skill sets discussed in the presentation, based on their interpretation of the level of relative importance of each skill in successful change project management. Additionally, participants were asked to rank their individual strengths relating to each skill set. This article analyzes their responses and the implications for increasing the level of knowledge of these skill sets for change project leaders. The purpose of this exercise is to explore the need for further education among change project leaders. Training for these professionals is difficult due to the very nature of their jobs. Constant attention to a variety of factors that effect a change project usually take up more than the allotted workweek. Scheduling training is difficult at best. After project management training is on the schedule, a crisis many times preempts the training. Our attempt here is to assist in identifying the highest priority for training beyond entry-level skills for the profession of change project management. Note: This is an interactive article in that there are email links in each section that allow you to provide your insights. Ideas generated in this manner will be available on this site in the future. The premise of the concept of Change Project Management is that there is a difference between change projects and what we traditionally think of as projects. Change projects are differentiated by the tendency to impact human lives. Activities such as reorganizing a company, implementing new technology that changes job functions, or a merging of cultures deeply impacts human beings. This type of project, a change project, requires all of the skills of traditional project management plus certain unique skills inherent to change projects. The change project management skill sets explored are:

Communication Coalition Building Planning Concepts "Project Time" Management Decision Making Active Listening Meeting Management

For additional information regarding change project management, see the related article Change Change Project Management - The Next Step. Excerpts from this article briefly describing each skill set are included here in italics. Participants Members of the Project Management Institute participating in sessions in both Columbus, Ohio, and Long Beach, California, completed the survey. Eighty respondents participated in the survey. Demographics Years of experience ranged from one to 36 years with an average just over 10 years. For analysis purposes, years of experience were categorized in the following groups:

1 - 3 years 4 - 9 years 10 - 15 years 16 - 20 years 20+ years

Industries represented include Technology, Government, Financial, Health Care, Insurance, Consulting, and Education. Project duration ranged from two months to five years. For analysis purposes, project durations were categorized in the following groups:

Less than 3 months 3 - 6 months 6 - 12 months Greater than 1 year

Project budgets ranged from $20,000 to $50,000,000 and project team sizes ranged from two to 250. For analysis purposes project budgets were categorized in the following groups:

Less than $100,000 $100,000 - $1,000,000 Greater than $1,000,000

Company size in number of employees ranged from one to 110,000 employees. For analysis purposes companies were grouped into categories of:

Small (1-99) Medium (100-999)

Large (1,000 and more)

Seventy-nine percent of respondents indicated their primary projects are change projects as defined in the presentation. The remainder of the respondents indicated their primary projects are not change projects as defined in the presentation. The responses of the project managers were not significantly different from the change project managers. Project Communication A communication plan is critical for the success of the change project. This plan starts with building the foundation for change, sustains enthusiasm and momentum throughout the project, and praises all involved as success is realized. Communication has to be honest. Trusting the constituents to handle this honesty builds credibility. Communication is required often, even if all of the facts aren't available. Perception is important. Any communication should be simple and straightforward, presented in terms of the business reasons for the change. Communication is one of the skills that applies to all aspects of change project management. Communication is directly tied to the following skills: coalition building, decision making, project time management, active listening, and meeting management. Communication takes many forms from the very informal (conversations as meetings are gathering for example) to the very formal (presentations to executive boards or written strategies for the change). The incorporation of both informal and formal communication techniques into a comprehensive communication campaign is required for successful change. Overall those surveyed felt communication was the number one skill set needed for successful change project management. Also, interestingly enough, communication also ranked as the number one skill possessed by the change leader. This is interesting because in my experience analyzing projects in jeopardy or those that have already failed, the overwhelming reasons given for the lack of success is a lack of communication. We think we are better than we are. In his book, Selling The Invisible, Harry Beckwith refers to this phenomena as psychologists have come to describe it as the Lake Wobegon Effect. This is taken from Garrison Keillor's famous radio show sign-off from his fictional hometown, Lake Wobegon, "where the women are strong, the men are good-looking, and all of the children are above average." Perhaps we feel we personally communicate well, the failings I have observed occur in not institutionalizing the communication within the fabric of change projects. Change leaders from the Government and Education industries ranked the possession of communication as a skill as four and three respectively. Also,

leaders of short projects (3-6 months) ranked the possession of the communication skill set at five, while they felt the need for this skill was ranked at the top of the list. Those considering their organization as 'Very Good' at leveraging change (effectively managing multiple change projects throughout the organization, see details below) ranked their possession of the communication skill at three. Click here to contribute your comments on the skill - Communications Coalition Building It is unlikely that too much time can be budgeted for the important act of coalition building and representing the views of all constituents on the change project management team. The change leader can expect to spend at least half their time on this task. Coalition building is done at breakfast meetings, in the hallways, and as meeting attendees are gathering their papers. Cooperation of constituents representing many different viewpoints is necessary for successful change implementation. The job of the change leader is to anticipate the actions and reactions of important constituents, possibly influencing these actions and reactions. As with the general population it is dangerous to stereotype change constituents. Individuals change their viewpoints as new information is obtained and evaluated. Keeping ahead of this curve is the challenge. Change project leaders however do have control of the information communicated concerning the change project to these constituents. Clear, concise, communication in terms that are relative to the audience serves as the best way to build effective coalitions that can pay large dividends at critical points in the project. The survey results indicate that the coalition building skill set requires the most work. The overall ranking of need for coalition building was three, while the ranking for possession of this skill was five. Those change leaders with only 1-3 years of experience ranked the need for coalition building lower than average with a ranking of four. Those change leaders with 20+ years of experience ranked the need for coalition building at two while feeling their ranking of possession of this skill was only five of seven. It seems the more experienced the change leader, the more they value this important skill. The longer the project the greater the need for this skill (ranked at two) while shorter projects (3-6 months) ranked the need for coalition building at five. The larger the company the higher the need for coalition building. Large companies ranked the need for this skill at three, while small companies ranked the need at five. Click here to contribute your comments on the skill - Coalition Building

Planning Concepts Project planning is both an art and a science. Without reiterating all of the published techniques for good project planning, there is one concept that may be unique to change projects. The nature of change projects is that human beings are impacted, sometimes deeply. By definition change project participants can become very emotional. The stakes are higher. Approaches that are only glints of an idea can quickly become marching orders. Control can be lost quickly. The change project team leader does not have the luxury of taking a great deal of time to analyze the implications of proposed changes to the plan. For example, in large system implementation projects I have been involved in, it was always preferable to convert to the new system on a three-day weekend as large volumes of invested client assets could be at risk if there were delays in the process. It was also preferable to convert the data at the end of a reporting period. This posed a planning problem due to the lack of three-day weekends that fell at the end of a month. As the projects entered their final phases and the inherent panic concerning completion set in, high level executives would usually suggest a switch to a year-end conversion. Their argument was that it was less risky, and client confusion would be reduced since there would be a clean break at year-end. Additionally, the project team would receive added time to complete the final implementation tasks. Invariably this was not a good idea because of the volume of year-end work that large financial institutions must perform. This work involves the computers as well as the people, many of which were on the project team. There were other technical arguments against this approach as well. If the change project manager was not prepared with these arguments, this approach (suggested by a top-level executive) at an emotionally charged time could put the change project in jeopardy. The change project leader must have a vision of the project plan and all of its complexities available for recall at any time. Similar to the heads-up display of a fighter pilot, the change project leader must be able to instantly see the implications of proposals or compromises and be able to argue the validity of the proposed actions relative to the scope and goals of the change project. It is also important to anticipate these "brainstorms." This is possible if the change leader knows their constituencies and what their underlying goals and motivations are at any point in the project. Overall those surveyed felt planning concepts were the number two skill set needed for successful change project management. Planning also ranked as the number two skill possessed by the change leader. Although the need for planning ranked high overall in importance, the survey respondents with over twenty years of experience ranked the value of planning

skills as fourth out of seven. Respondents with 1-3 years of experience ranked the need for the planning skill as second of seven. Again a difference is noted in ranking based on experience level of the change leader. Government change leaders ranked their possession of this skill at six of seven. Consultants ranked planning as the number one skill needed for successful change project management. Perhaps the explanation of this result is that the plan is the most visible piece of this puzzle and easiest to evaluate, which is important for change consultants in justifying their contribution. It is interesting that both small and large company change leaders rank the need for planning high (two and one respectively). Small company change managers rank their possession of this skill at number one, while large company change managers rank their strength of planning concepts at four. Click here to contribute your comments on the skill - Planning Concepts "Project Time" Management "Project time" is different from regular work time. In our regular jobs, the goal is to have enough work left over on Friday evening so there is a reason to come back to work on Monday! The concept of not getting everything done is built into the process. Project time requires that we get everything done as soon as possible because there is a defined completion date. Also, given the nature of change projects, unanticipated tasks will come up that must be completed without revising the deadline. Communicating this fact of life is a top priority for change project leaders, especially with an inexperienced, temporary project team. As today's business climate moves to a more project oriented culture, potential change project team members are more familiar with the concept of project time. This is of course not the case in all situations. Overall those surveyed felt project time was the number six skill set needed for successful change project management. Project time ranked as the number seven skill possessed by the change leader. Change leaders in the financial industry and change leaders for short projects (3-6 months) indicated a greater need for this skill set, ranking it four out of seven. Click here to contribute your comments on the skill - Project Time Management Decision Making

The best decision-makers are the most experienced decision-makers. Many change project teams are staffed with up and coming, though relatively inexperienced employees. The change leader should study decision making theory in order to assist the project team in making decisions that usually have a much greater impact than any they have been forced to make in their assigned jobs. It's difficult for these employees to have a cross-boundary view of the organization and therefore may miss important implications of their decisions. Some keys for the change leader from Harvey Kaye's Decision Power, 1992:

Place the decision in context. Organize the important information. Formulate the decision as a problem. Structure the problem to cut it down to size. Transform the problem into a goal.

As change projects are layered one upon the other in many organizations, complexity is increased. In these uncharted waters, decision making is critical. Due to the complexity of the environment, decision making simply can't be centralized. We don't have time. This skill set, distributed throughout the organization, is necessary to change rapidly. Overall those surveyed felt decision making was the number five skill set needed for successful change project management. Decision making ranked as the number four skill possessed by the change leader. Those change project managers who indicated their companies were 'Very Good' at leveraging change while corresponding to the average response regarding need, ranked their possession of the decision making skill as number one out of seven. Click here to contribute your comments on the skill - Decision Making Active Listening Change projects are by nature emotional undertakings. Change project leaders are very busy people. The skill of active listening, which is important for any leader, is hypercritical in a change project. Many times the change project leader is temporarily responsible for the careers of members of the project team. With little background information, in a volatile situation, the project manager must effectively deal with the matrix management environment. Listening is key. Listening for the subtle nuances of the corporate political process can save a great deal of time and effort and possibly the project. The unsuccessful change

leader, while having many of the expected project interactions, misses the important information due to a lack of listening skills. Overall those surveyed felt active listening was the number four skill set needed for successful change project management. Active listening ranked as the number three skill possessed by the change leader. Interestingly the industries that would most likely be characterized as teachers (Education and Consulting) ranked themselves lowest in possession of the active listening skill set with a ranking of six out of seven. Click here to contribute your comments on the skill - Active Listening Meeting Management The change leader will be faced with numerous meetings. Meetings will range from informal to very formal. A change project leader's calendar can contain meetings with the lowest grade employees and the highest level corporate executives within the same day. Meeting leadership skills can sell ideas, build coalitions, obtain additional resources, facilitate decision-making, obtain objective status reports, communicate the project status, and resolve project issues. In other words, meeting leadership skills facilitate the tasks of change project management. Overall those surveyed felt meeting management was the number seven skill set needed for successful change project management. Meeting management ranked as the number six skill possessed by the change leader. The only demographic of the survey that varied from this average were change leaders of projects with a duration of three to six months who ranked meeting management as the top skill they possessed. Meeting management is a vehicle for communication and coalition building. Although ranked low as a standalone skill set, poor meeting management will adversely impact both communication and coalition building. Since these skill sets were ranked very high in importance, poor meeting management skills logically have an adverse effect on the success of a change project. Click here to contribute your comments on the skill - Meeting Management Leveraging Change It is very easy for the change project leader to be extremely focused on their project. The outside influences of other change initiatives within the organization must also be considered. The change project manager must be aware of all change projects within the organization and how their project blends with the other initiatives. It is the responsibility of the change project

leader to be informed and up to date on all initiatives that can have an impact on their project. Change by definition is a variable process in which we don't know all of the facts. There is a proverb that states "You can't leap a twenty-foot chasm in two ten-foot jumps." This proverb may be interpreted as recommending a big bang approach to change - the idea that we really can't start a change effort until we know all of the facts. A better interpretation is that we should not embark on a change project unless we can make a case for the change that paints a vivid picture of the process for those being impacted. In fact, we can cross a twenty-foot chasm with multiple leaps if we can clearly see the stepping stones to the other side. Some keys for the executive suite in leveraging multiple change efforts within the organization:

Believe change is possible and necessary. Find the balance between stretching the organization and asking the impossible. Ensure organizational performance measurement techniques support change. Reward innovation. Benchmark for best practices/inside and outside your industry. Communicate.

Forty-four percent of all respondents felt their organizations were 'poor' at leveraging change, 38% rated their organizations as 'good' at leveraging change, and 18% rated their organizations as 'very good' at leveraging change. The Government industry category had the lowest score with 67% poor, 22% good, and 11% very good. The Consulting industry category had the highest score with 20% poor, 40% good, and 40% very good. *** Conclusion Project management training is prevalent. Change project management training is not. Education in this area occurs primarily on the job. Unfortunately, the impact of mistakes while learning change project management is very costly both in dollars and impact on human resources. In an interview with a first time change leader, she explained how she learned the skills - "Trial and error of course. Unfortunately, some of the things I now know I learned the hard way. It was pretty painful for me personally and quite frankly, for the people that worked for me." After living through a successful two-year change project, when asked if she would do it again, she said, "I think I'd hesitate because I

didn't learn enough. And I can think of all of those things that I never really got my arms around. I know I don't have the skills to handle it for the next one." This individual was successful. She learned a great deal during the leadership of her change effort. But in this case the hidden investment in training this resource was lost to the organization because she will not use the acquired skills to lead another large change effort. These skill sets are more difficult to capture in a training program. Training development in this area is difficult but the rewards are high.