Cast of Characters

Senior Sponsors: Top executives who authorize the transformation project and create the Charge for Change (a document that paints a vision for the future of the organization and sets boundaries for the transformation).

Changers: Members of Change Teams.

Change Team: A self-managed team of 4-7 people who volunteer to work together to implement a Change Initiative prepared by a Change Agent. Teams select people to serve as Champions and Coaches for support.

Change Agent: A person who generates a Change Initiative by researching, planning, finding a Champion and carefully selecting volunteers to be part of a Change Team.
Champion: A person who assists the team by getting support for its initiative, neutralizing opposition and arranging resources (funding, people, time, things, etc.) to implement change.

Team Coach: A specially-trained person who helps a Change Team work together effectively, continue personal development and keep focused on the initiative.

© 1997 ChangeCraft™

Written by Heidi Jeanne Hess

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In Short: How does this work?

This major change started in your organization long before you were directly involved. The company's top executives set a new direction -- or strategy -- for the business and came to realize that the operation would not be able to implement that strategy. Some of them -- acting as Senior Sponsors -- authorized a wide-reaching project to transform the way the company works so that the strategy could be pursued.

These Senior Sponsors wrote a short document called the Charge for Change that paints a vision for the future and sets the boundaries for transformation.

Then, a group of two or three dozen people from all levels throughout the organization met to create a Charter for Change. The Charter they wrote describes how people get involved in the project and how change is actually implemented.

The people who wrote the Charter formed a small Operational Leadership Team to arrange for the special training of people who volunteer to work on the transformation project. These people serve on Change Teams and as Change Agents, Champions and Team Coaches.

A Change Agent takes responsibility for an idea about a possible change, organizes it into a Change Initiative and finds someone to be a Champion. The Champion finds supporters for the Change Initiative, helps get resources and neutralizes opposition to the initiative. The Change Agent recruits people to join the team and gets the Change Team started working together. Then, the Change Agent's work is finished for a while. (After the team completes its initiative, the Change Agent comes back to write a report about what happened.)

The Change Team studies the plan the Change Agent put together for change. The team asks, "How does the way this work is done keep us from becoming the organization we've decided to be?" and "How will we go about changing it?"

The Change Team figures out, with a lot of input and participation from the people who will be directly affected by their changes, how to reinvent the work process.

While the team is implementing change, it uses a Team Coach to help its members work together effectively, keep growing and stay focused on their mission.

Once the Change Team has implemented its change and reinforced it so that it can't change back, the team disbands. Its work is done.

Now only if it were that simple - right?

© 1997 ChangeCraft™

Written by: Heidi Jeanne Hess
(Doug Wesley contributed)

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People Volunteer
To Transform the Organization

All participants must volunteer to join a transformation process. Each person taking an active role must express the desire to participate and act on that desire. Each role is filled by individuals who freely accept the responsibilities and are committed to the transformation.

Why is this necessary? Organizations transform themselves because new strategies (their commitments regarding relationships with the outside world) cannot succeed with the current culture and business processes. Processes can be changed through a management edict. But, an organization's culture (its values and beliefs) only change when the people of the company choose new ways of working and interacting. Changing processes is mechanical; changing a culture is a human activity.

Change Agents are volunteers who choose to generate Change Initiatives for the transformation. They accept the responsibility for creating, researching and forming initiatives.

Champions volunteer to contribute their skills, their contacts and their "political capital" to advance Change Initiatives they choose to support.

Change Team members are also volunteers. They are committed to making a specific change and committed to the teams they join.

Team Coaches volunteer and dedicate themselves to the health and well-being of specific Change Teams.

Working on an initiative may take a lot of time and energy. Don't kid yourself about how much time you have available; having to withdraw from an initiative when it most needs you can undermine the work of the entire team. Discuss with change colleagues the probable time requirements of this Change Initiative. Some initiatives require more time than others. Because the Change Team has ultimate control over the direction of the initiative, it may be impossible to accurately estimate the time needed. Be open about your limitations.

Desire to work on a particular initiative is also important. You should have a personal interest in the success of any Change Initiative you choose to join.

Having the time, interest and desire to work on a Change Initiative are paramount to the success of the initiative. It's okay to turn down an opportunity to work on a Change Initiative. There will be others down the road that you may be able to work on more effectively. You may do the initiative more harm than good if you join when you are not able to offer full support.

A Story

At one company attempting a transformation, certain people were ordered to participate on Change Teams, either as members or in support roles. People were no longer volunteers ... they were volunteered by their bosses. The result was devastating to a number of Change Initiatives.

A Change Team set out to implement "one phone call service" for customers calling in. Rather than multiple phone numbers for customers to call depending on the service they required, this team planned to establish one phone number; the person who answered the phone would either assist the customer directly or take personal responsibility for the customer getting the service elsewhere in the organization. A great idea that met all the requirements for a Change Initiative at that company.

Unfortunately, there were a number of people -- both on the team and working with the team -- who did not volunteer to be a part of the team (nor did they support the goals of the initiative). They were assigned to this duty. As a result, the team never formed a common vision, never shared a common goal and had numerous problems moving the initiative forward. After nine months of trying to work as an active Change Team, they ended up PROPOSING a change to the senior executives of the organization (not implementing anything) and the team finally disbanded.

No changes were made, resources and time were wasted and, worse, the people who did initially volunteer for the Change Team were so disappointed with the way project progressed, they decided to never again to participate in a Change Initiative.

© 1997 ChangeCraft™

Written by Heidi Jeanne Hess and Doug Wesley
(Veronica Boaz contributed)

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Is This Initiative Legitimate Or Not?

Because our approach to transforming a company gives Change Agents and Change Teams great freedom to take action, there must be some limits and checks to keep the change process in bounds and focused on legitimate results. Each Change Team creates its own "license" that shows how the initiative is legitimate. Anyone in the company has a right to check a Change Team's license and even to challenge the license. The teams have an obligation to take these challenges seriously and to respond appropriately to anyone who challenges.

Test the legitimacy of an initiative you have in mind by checking it against the criteria required for a Change Initiative in your organization.

The Change Agent is responsible for making sure the initiative s/he releases to the Change Team meets the criteria of the organization. And the team must keep the initiative in bounds during implementation. Everyone associated with an initiative should be able to honestly defend its legitimacy

Volunteers in all roles of transformation must be aware of -- and understand -- the criteria for legitimacy. The Champion has an opportunity to stop a Change Agent before s/he recruits the team by challenging the legitimacy of the initiative. Champions and Team Coaches only continue their involvement with teams working on legitimate Change Initiatives. If the team's Champion or Team Coach ever believe the team's initiative no longer meets the criteria for legitimacy, they have an ethical obligation to challenge the team. If the team does not agree and if it does not alter its course, the Champion or Team Coach must immediately resign from the team.

Since teams can only work if they have BOTH a Champion and a Team Coach, people in these roles serve as a balance for the transformation. Champions and Team Coaches who have resigned because the initiative has strayed out of bounds are likely to inform their colleagues about the resignation. Other Champions and Team Coaches will likely not work with the team unless the team brings the initiative back in bounds.

© 1997 ChangeCraft ™

Written by Heidi Jeanne Hess and Veronica Boaz
(Doug Wesley contributed)

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Change Team Support

Small, self-managed Change Teams are vulnerable and their initiatives are easily killed or sidetracked. The work of transformation disrupts people's lives and makes people (including the Changers) feel insecure. This work challenges those who ruled the old processes.

Effective Change Teams spend almost all their energy implementing change. Change Teams can be easily derailed by external or internal forces. For these reasons, the Change Team will rely on two essential support roles played by people who are not team members. The Champion assists with external forces and the Team Coach assists with internal forces.

The Champion serves three purposes for Change Teams:

1. 1. To assist the Change Team in getting the resources (including funding, things, people, time, etc.) it needs to complete the initiative.
2. To win important friends for the efforts of the Change Team throughout the organization
3. To neutralize powerful opposition to the initiative.

If Change Teams get drawn into battles with opponents, the initiative usually fails. Even if the team wins the battle, it has little energy left to do change work. Also, powerful opponents can easily dry up the resources needed by a Change Team -- they can starve the team's initiative to death. That's where the Champion comes in.

The Champion is not a member of the team. S/he has no control over decisions the Change Team makes, nor is s/he the leader of the Change Team. It is important, though, to treat the Champion as a partner in the effort. Stay in close communication help each other avoid unwanted surprises. Seriously consider the ideas offered by the Champion, since s/he adds another dimension to the team's information.

If the Champion strongly disagrees with the team's direction, s/he may decide to quit. On the other hand, the team may decide it wants a different Champion. Teams have the right to change Champions whenever they choose. However, replacing a Champion is a serious decision and should not be taken lightly. The problem is: no real work can be done until a new Champion is found, recruited and contracted. Teams that have fired one Champion, may find it difficult to get another to join in.

Teams between Champions are vulnerable and in serious danger from external forces. If you lose your Champion, finding a new one must be the team's primary consideration.

The Team Coach takes a special interest in the relationships inside the team.

Team Coaches, like Champions, are not members of Change Teams, nor are they Change Team leaders. They offer vital support for the team and its work though they maintain a somewhat detached relationship.

The Team Coach challenges the Change Team to push boundaries and to work more effectively together within the team. The Team Coach is not responsible for the success or failure of the team's Change Initiative -- only with how the team develops and works together.

The Team Coach works for the entire Change Team, not for individual members of the team. Her/his responsibility to your Change Team is the overall health and well-being of the team, itself.

Like the Champion, a Team Coach can choose to quit working with a Change Team just as a Change Team can choose to fire its Team Coach. Again though, Change Teams without Team Coaches are vulnerable -- to inside forces. And, if your Team Coach has quit, it is typically because your team refuses to take care of itself. Unresolved team conflicts or a lack of team growth can destroy a Change Team sometimes faster than any opponent could ever hope to.

Replacing the Team's Supports: If a Change Team has to replace either its Champion or Team Coach, that must be its primary focus. Change Teams require the different kinds of support both roles offer.

The team can begin this process by answering a few questions in very specific terms:

• What caused the Champion/Team Coach to quit or be fired?
• What does the team require from a Champion/Team Coach?
• What does the team refuse to accept from a Champion/Team Coach?

Finding a new Champion or Team Coach requires a high level of energy from the team, energy that can't be used to work on the Change Initiative. So finding the right replacement the first time is crucial. Your Change Team doesn't have the time or energy to replace these people constantly. Choose replacements carefully.

© 1997 ChangeCraft™

Written by Heidi Jeanne Hess
(Doug Wesley contributed)

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Your Team's License To Make Changes

Change Teams can't use the normal chain of command to make change. If they did, nothing would get accomplished because the Change Team's work threatens the stability of the normal chain of command. So, there must be some mechanism to give them the authority to make the changes they intend, by-passing company bureaucracy.

Change Teams must have great freedom to develop their own initiatives for transformation. But, the team's initiative must also be aligned with the vision the outlined in the Charge for Change. The Change Initiative must adhere to other rules and criteria the organization has adopted to set boundaries and direction for the transformation effort.

To address these challenges, each Change Team must work under a "License to Change" which provides the authority to work only on legitimate initiatives.

A Change Team creates (in writing) its own License to Change. The Change Team's license defines its relationship to the company. In its license, the Change Team declares its Change Initiative legitimate: within the boundaries, rules and criteria set by the organization's leaders. It also identifies where in the company it will focus and who will likely be affected by the team's work.

So, can the Change Team do anything it wants as long as it writes out a License to Change? Not for long. Both Champions and Team Coaches are trained to carefully check a team's license before agreeing to work with the Change Team. They must decline if they believe the initiative is out of bounds. No Champion? No Coach? Then there is no legitimate Change Team. Most faulty licenses will be caught by one or both of these people.

Anyone in the organization has a right to see -- and challenge -- a License to Change (expect strong opponents to do this early on). When someone challenges the team's license, the Change Team should advise its Champion and Team Coach as soon as possible. Then the Change Team must carefully consider the merits of the challenge. If the team decides that it is, indeed, in bounds, it must notify the challenger, and then it can continue with its change work. If the team realizes the challenger is right, it must revise its license to get in-bounds and then get back to the work of change.

Senior Sponsors can always step in and revoke a license they judge to be out of bounds. After all, the authority to transform the company came from them in the first place.

What about Change Initiatives that are in-bounds, but just stupid? Or impossible? Or too expensive? Or way too disruptive? In that case, you can bet a Change Team will find it nearly impossible to get the resources needed to proceed. And, if the Change Team does get the resources, we bet the resistors and the opponents to the initiative will bog it down and stop all progress.

The License to Change works to keep all on-going initiatives headed in the same direction and also helps the Change Team focus its initiative. Typically, a License to Change answers such questions as:

1. What process is to be changed?
2. What are the Success and Failure Indicators?
3. How does the change serve the stockholders?
4. How does the change benefit our customers?
5. How does the initiative advance the mission set forth in the Charge for Change?
6. Who are the Change Team members and what makes the team diverse?
7. How does the initiative stay within the boundaries set by the Senior Sponsors?

Change Teams functioning without a valid license rarely last long. There are just too many people out there who would like to see the team go away.

© 1997 ChangeCraft™

Written by Veronica Boaz, Heidi Jeanne Hess
and Doug Wesley

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Finding Resources

Champions know people throughout the organization and find it relatively easy to "call in favors" to make resources available to a Change Team. Champions know how to make things happen. They know when, how and who to contact to achieve the impossible.

Chances are that you have already played the role of Champion. You have favors owed to you all over the organization. You have been comfortable doing favors and calling them in when the time is right. The Change Initiative you take on should be one that can use many of the contacts you have already created. As a Change Team's Champion, you know lots of other champion types in your organization. You probably have bargained with many of them for resources in the past. You know how to get what you need. Now all you have to do is get what the team needs to do its work.

Sometimes, finding resources will mean getting a Change Team member to talk to the right person. You will be setting up contacts and selecting the best team member to make the connection. Get to know the Change Team members and understand their strengths (as well as their weaknesses). Have an idea how you can use them to benefit the team. Knowing what resources to use and when to use them is a big part of what you do.

Sometimes your route to the resources the Change Team needs will be indirect. You may have find the "guy who knows the guy" who knows where to get the team the "stuff" it needs.

Be sure you understand the Change Agent's map of the process as it now exists. Start setting up your contacts as soon as you accept the initiative. Get to know the people who control the resources and find out what they need so you can make trades if that becomes necessary.

Finding resources for the Change Team is the result of good scouting of the terrain in front of them. You start that scouting before the team is even formed. Your most valuable strength is your contacts. Make more of them than you really need, because chances are good that you'll use them up as you go. Look for new ways to help get the team where it needs to go.

Another part of connecting the Change Team to necessary resources is doing public relations for the initiative before the team comes into view. Get people interested in what's going on. Work to make them understand the importance of their contribution to the initiative. People are the connectors to resources. It's your business to find the people who know where the resources are.

© 1997 ChangeCraft ™

Written by Heidi Jeanne Hess
(Veronica Boaz and Doug Wesley contributed)

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Protecting the Change Team

Some people in the organization will oppose the Change Team's initiative. A few of them will do anything within their means to stop the initiative, even if that means destroying the Change Team. On occasion, you will encounter a person who will even risk losing his or her job to oppose a particular change. It is up to the Champion to protect the team from these forces of opposition.

As the Champion, you have the advantage of being outside the Change Team AND of being a well-respected, well-connected person in the organization. The Champion should learn of any attempt to attack or destroy or neutralize a Change Team before the team hears about it. Often, you will be able to protect the team without having to involve the team in your effort. Other times, you will have to warn the team about opposition and ask it to take defensive action.

In all cases, it is the responsibility of the Champion to keep the team informed of potential traps, roadblocks and attempts to stop the team from its work. More importantly, it is the responsibility of the Champion to do whatever you can to make it as easy as possible for the team to complete its work: including smoothing over rough spots, removing roadblocks and stopping or averting attempts to keep the Change Team from succeeding with its initiative.

Neutralizing opposition can take different forms. If an opponent is annoying but not damaging, do nothing (beyond informing the team). It's pointless to fight unnecessary battles when there will be plenty of fights you HAVE to fight.

Sometimes, the best way to neutralize opposition is to blend. This means that you understand the opponent's goals well enough to combine them into your team's initiative (without compromising the team's goals). You may be surprised how often this is possible, but it must only be used when the solution allows the essential mission of the team to be pursued.

Another way to deal with an opponent is to distract. Find something else for the opponent to do that will take up a great deal of time and energy. Something that is so important and time-consuming that the Change Team can be in and out before they get back to active opposition.

You can also defend the team's position, meeting each attack with an effective counter-move while avoiding counter-attack. You allow your opposition to simply wear himself or herself out. This is a time-consuming and exhausting way to fight, but you tend to make no additional enemies in the process. The exhausted opponent simply gives up. You win because you outlasted them. To use this tactic though, you must have more skill and stamina than the opponent.

As a last resort, you can attack your opponent. There is a high level of risk in this action, so be sure you can win early and won't wear yourself out. Your attack must neutralize the opponent completely and permanently. A wounded opponent will only strike at the initiative again and, probably, with more force.

Know your opponent well enough to choose the appropriate technique.

The Change Team may have taken a course that leads to a fight you know you will not be able to win. Tell the Change Team that if it continues down this road, you won't be able to help because you can't win the battle. Tell the team why you can't win the battle and offer alternative solutions. If the team decides to ignore you and continue on its current path, you may choose to resign from your responsibilities with the team. Remember, its better to resign than to be destroyed by an opponent in an unwinnable battle. If you are destroyed, you will be of no use to the current Change Team, and you may be of little use to future Change Teams. Accept the possibility that there could be another Champion available to the team who IS able to neutralize this opposition.

© 1997 ChangeCraft™

Written by Veronica Boaz and Heidi Jeanne Hess
(Doug Wesley contributed)

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Talking to the Right People

People resist and resent changes that force their lives to be different. You can weaken this natural resistance by including -- as early as possible -- those affected by the planned change. When we have input into the changes that affect us, we usually feel less threatened and more cooperative. Including people in the planning process is a powerful way to generate support for the initiative.

Talking to the People Who Do the Work

Consider the opinions and insights of lots of people. Start researching the Change Initiative by engaging those who work in the current process. They already know what the problems are and probably already have ideas about changes. They are a useful source of information about how the process works. Later they have important information about the quality of the Change Team's work as it progresses.

Talk openly with the people who work in -- and with -- the changing process. The Change Agent should not make any promises about what kind of changes will be made, because once the Change Team begins its work, there are no guarantees. However, the more positive interest the Change Agent can generate for the initiative, the easier it will be for the team to go into that area and implement changes. People who do the work are also a great source for recruits for the Change Team. Several of the people who use the current process must become members of the Change Team.

The people working in and with the process can offer the Change Team needed insights and suggestions that the team may never have considered. Change Agents must build a good foundation here.

Talking to the People Who Manage the Work

Typically the people who manage the work of a particular process have a high stake in stabilizing that process, NOT in changing it. After all, the manager's job is to assure results that were predicted while assuming the process would stay the same. What's more, changing a process -- even to radically improve its performance -- disrupts productivity in the short term. Change Agents and Change Teams can run into tough resistance and hard opposition from the people who manage these processes. The Change Agent can discover sources of opposition and resistance, then describe and understand the reasons for it. This discovery may lead to new ways of thinking about the Change Initiative… ways to get the job done with minimal opposition.

People who manage a process are generally intimately aware of those who depend on the process. They often understand why the process works as it currently does; in many cases, this information has never been passed on to those who do the work. All of this information is critical to effecting a change. Respecting that the person or people who manage the process have a lot to offer will go a long way towards gaining their support.

A manager willing to help a Change Agent will probably be more inclined to help the Change Team when the time comes for the team to do its work. That manager may even volunteer to join the team making changes.

Talking with Insiders Involved in the Process

Any change of a work process will have an effect on other processes in the organization. Processes are connected to other processes. This connection may be something as simple as sharing common space or something as intricate as the way the process and its products are used by other processes.

In researching an initiative, a Change Agent must talk to people within the organization who are connected to the process to be changed. In addition to being a rich source of information, those people will begin understanding how they may have to change to meet the new conditions the initiative will create.

This is where small, high-leverage changes can have a lot of impact. As a result of one Change Initiative, many other processes may have to adapt to accommodate a change that's just been made. That kind of cascading change will transform the organization. One Change Initiative can increase the leverage (or success potential) of changes in other processes, making them prime targets for a new initiative.

Talking to Outsiders Involved in the Process

Customers, outside vendors and others who are not part of the organization, but touch the process, may have valuable input. Utilize them as a resource for information and ideas as well as to assess THEIR needs. It's possible to recruit team members here, too.

This transformation is taking place, in part, because the organization can no longer appropriately adapt to demands made by outside forces. To produce a viable and worthwhile change, know what those outside forces demand of the process you plan to change.

The more customers and other interested outsiders are included, the more support (and power) they will offer in implementing change plans later. By including them early on, they will be more understanding and patient during the awkward period of moving from the old process to the new one.

Gathering this information may be the most critical step in creating a successful Change Initiative. This is not the place to cut corners.

One final reminder…

Remember, through all of this talking, it is not the job of the Change Agent to make or keep friends for the Change Team. Let the Champion worry about how to get what the Change Team needs, about mediating conflicts, negotiating resources and neutralizing opposition. That's the Champion's role and s/he was trained for it. But every little bit helps, and the fewer enemies the Change Agent makes, the higher the possibility of success for the Change Team.

© 1997 ChangeCraft™

Written by Heidi Jeanne Hess
(Veronica Boaz and Doug Wesley contributed)

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Focusing on Processes

Change Teams reinvent work processes to help the organization move toward its vision. A process is a set of activities that produces a specific output which directly benefits a customer. Each process has a beginning, middle and end. A process starts with some raw material and transforms it into a different end product. Processes take time, incur costs and provide something of benefit that customers will buy.

An organization's divisions and departments may include one or more processes, or only contribute to part of a process. Jobs contribute to, but are not, in themselves, processes. Processes are bigger than most jobs. Organizations may define processes differently, but here are some examples:

Manufacturing the Product. This may - or may not - include purchasing raw materials and moving the product to the customer.

Customer Service. Filling the order, answering the customer's questions and solving customer problems.

Servicing the Product After It's Sold. Some organizations include this with selling.

Since Change Teams focus on reinventing processes -- the ways the organization does its work -- they are not directly concerned with changing individual behavior and attitudes or policies or rules. When processes change significantly, jobs change, and the people in those jobs must learn how to work differently. This can generate resistance to change. Change Teams must engage that resistance in a productive way.

The work of Change Teams may result in reshaping departments or divisions. This means Change Teams cannot honor old boundary lines and the old way of organizing the work. Having Change Team members from different departments and divisions helps the team deal with the nervousness of bosses.

Making lasting change means the team has to take the time to create good will towards the new way of doing work. If the team does not do this, the changes the team implemented will break and the old system will be back in business. The result? A failed Change Initiative.

© 1997 ChangeCraft ™

Written by: Heidi Jeanne Hess and Doug Wesley
(Veronica Boaz contributed)

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Transforming a Process

A Change Team looks at each step in the process its initiative has spotlighted. Each step should add some measurable value to the material flowing through the process. The team looks for new, easier and more sensible ways to work. New ways that remove the barriers to achieving the company's vision. Ways to work that virtually guarantee error-free results customers value. Ways that give more control to the individuals doing the day-to-day work.

Process improvement streamlines the steps of a process. Improvements must contribute to a measurable increase in efficiency or productivity (for instance, reducing cycle time by 15 percent). This is not the work of Change Teams, but rather the work of Quality Teams.

Process transformation significantly changes the structure of a process and the way it operates (for instance, combining three cycles into one).

After transformation, people should spend less time checking for -- and correcting -- errors. People who do the work should have a closer connection to the end product. Reinventing processes can radically change the costs, time to produce and quality of the end product thereby creating leaps in both customer satisfaction and shareholder value.

Change Teams reinvent processes (or parts of processes). Quality Teams leave processes as they are and make them better.

In the planning stage, a smart Change Team includes the opinions and insights of lots of people as it looks at the possibilities. Start planning by determining what people need: customers, employees and stockholders. Are there others who have a stake in this process?

The more the people who do the work actively participate in the change, the less they will resist the change later. They are a critical source of information about the process now and about the effectiveness of the Change Team's work as it progresses.

The more the customers who benefit from the process are included, the more support (and power) they will offer you in implementing change plans. By including customers early on, they will be more understanding during the awkward period of moving from the old process to the new one.

Be sure to gather information about the stockholders' needs and interests from the managers involved in the work you are reinventing.

Only announce the final plan after everyone who has to work in the new process has had a chance to give input AND after you've worked to include their suggestions. To maintain support, you must talk openly, honestly and frequently with the people who work in the changing process. These people can and will offer the Change Team insights and suggestions that it may never have considered. Actively soliciting their participation in the Change Initiative and blending their suggestions into the final plan significantly reduces their opposition to the new process.

With the plan done, the resources you will need and obstacles you will face become clearer. The Champion helps the Change Team find the needed resources and develop the right strategy to remove or avoid the obstacles.

To get resources, you will typically have to produce a new design for the process (accounting for the savings, costs and benefits it will generate) and a fairly detailed implementation plan. Here are some items you should include in your implementation plan:

1. Developing (or acquiring) the new skills needed

2. A schedule for moving from the old to the new

3. Impact on people, equipment and organizations

Coming up with an idea or a recommendation doesn't create change. Even implementing the change in process may not be enough. Be sure the people who are responsible for working the new process support it. They must have all the skills they need to do good work. And they must have the time to create some early successes with the new process. Change Teams are responsible for all of this. If the Change Team fails in this follow-through, people who are doing the work after you leave may well slip back into old habits, discarding the changes you made.

© 1997 ChangeCraft™

Written by: Heidi Jeanne Hess and Doug Wesley
(Veronica Boaz contributed)

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Make Small, High-leverage Changes

Change Agents should not look for huge changes to make in order to create a huge impact. Small, high-leverage changes move the organization towards critical mass in transformation at a quicker pace with greater leaps.

Small changes can create a ripple effect through the organization. Create enough ripples, and pretty soon the organization finds itself in a wave of transformation. Change Agents search out and develop the small ideas that create those ripples.

The art of finding the right small change lies in seeking something called the "tipping point" (New Yorker Magazine, June 3, 1996). The tipping point is the instant at which a series of small actions create an unstoppable change in a larger system. At that point, the whole system begins changing and keeps on until it cannot change anymore.

Here's a simple experiment to learn about the tipping point. Place a water glass on a flat surface where it won't slide. Put your finger one-third of the way down the outside of the glass and add some pressure. You'll see the edge of the bottom lift off the surface, but, if you remove your finger, the glass will rock back into its upright position. (You could see this as a change that didn't stick.) Now, with just one finger, place enough pressure on the glass so that it balances on a small part of its bottom edge; then add a tiny bit more pressure. The glass falls over. You have found the tipping point.

The glass in this example represents your organization's complex web of systems and beliefs and processes that keep it from adapting to real world pressures: like customer demands, competitors' advantages, stockholder requirements, or employee needs.

If you want to see the glass as your company's culture, fill it with artifacts from the past: a service pin with an outdated logo, old business cards, mementos of former leaders, ancient photos of company functions. What else would you add? Recently, we walked into the executive offices of a high-technology company and were surprised to see a fifteen year-old typewriter near a secretary's state-of-the art computer. When asked about the typewriter, the secretary said, "We have to use it to fill out these forms." The forms she held, were emblazoned with the logo of the company's former owner. These are artifacts of the past.

The problem is that the "glass" that is your organization's culture might as well weigh as much as a mountain. A single Change Agent - or Change Team ó will never move this mountain. You must look for small parts of the old system that CAN be moved by a team in a matter of weeks. Which ones? The ones that are already so imbalanced and unstable that a little push dumps them over. When the team accomplishes that, it quickly implements the rebuilding plan created by the Change Agent. When scores of Change Teams are doing the same thing, the old order in your company soon reaches its own tipping point.

How do you find small, unstable processes? Look for a way of doing work that nobody likes. Find a small process that consistently fails to satisfy customers and that employees hate performing and that wastes the stockholders' resources and that managers see as a pain in the neck. When you do this, you have found a process with little support, a process that may be near its tipping point. This is the easiest process to change.

If you have done a good job choosing the process to tip over, no one would think of refilling the glass with old, useless stuff.

To get an idea of the resistance or opposition a proposed change will encounter, look for the elements of support enjoyed by the current way of working. If everyone but the customers hate the process, the customers will oppose your change (and they will probably quickly find allies). If everyone but the managers hate the process (or its by-products or its results), then the managers involved will oppose you (and will use their authority to battle you).

You may see resistance as someone else's finger (or several people's fingers) responding to your pressure on the glass. If the opposing finger is high on the glass (high leverage), you may find yourself in a stalemate, making no progress toward change. If your opposition's pressure is placed low on the glass, it could even help speed the change you intend.

Change Agents select processes to change that are near their tipping points and have little support. Champions help Change Agents and Change Teams determine the leverage of opponents. Champions and Change Teams react to surprises and changes in the power of resistance as the change is implemented.

© 1997 ChangeCraft™

Written by: Heidi Jeanne Hess and Doug Wesley
(Veronica Boaz contributed)

Check Point

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Change Teams.

They're Just Like Any Other Team, Right?

Wrong!

Change Teams are probably very different from any other kind of team you have worked with before.

Change Teams are not permanent. The purpose of the Change Team is to reinvent work processes: how work is done within the organization. Because Change Teams create a new process that can be self-sustaining, the Change Team dissolves after it completes its reinvention work.

Change Teams are self-managed. They make decisions by consensus. Each member of a Change Team (a Changer) has equal say in the team's work. On a Change Team there is no boss, no supervisor, no team leader. There can be no imposition of power over the team. Members listen to each other, learn, adapt and find positions they can all accept. Then, and only then, are decisions made. By gaining consensus, the Change Team hears and uses minority opinions. Since everyone's opinion is heard and considered, consensus tends to keep Change Teams aligned on their task, in agreement about process and working together at a high level of commitment.

Change Teams are employee volunteers. Therefore, the people who implement changes understand the real problems created by the ways the organization operates. Many of these employees will also be around after the transformation to make sure what they've invented lives on. Members of a Change Team must volunteer for the responsibility. This helps assure they are committed to the task at hand and to the team. Change Team members are not appointed by anyone, nor are they coerced into volunteering for a Change Team.

Change Teams are diverse and small. Ideally, Change Teams have only 4 to 7 members. Using small numbers aids in communication and gaining consensus. Each Change Team must be made up of members who are very different from each other and it must include some members who work in the process the team is changing. Teams are diverse because it takes different kinds of people with different skills and knowledge to understand and create new processes. This creates a mix of different backgrounds to assure diverse points of view. These differences are vital to fuel new ways of thinking. It also gives the Change Team a broader view on the impact of its work.

Personal Growth. Each member of a Change Team must be actively working on his/her own personal development. Others on the team must know, take an interest in and commit to the personal growth of their partners. We have learned that the people who are most effective at radically changing their organizations have experienced personal transformation. Also, when Change Teams working under pressure are committed to the growth of their members (not just to the task at hand) relationships are more challenging and exciting -- they work a whole lot better.

© 1997 ChangeCraft™

Written by Heidi Jeanne Hess
(Veronica Boaz and Doug Wesley contributed)

Check Point

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Where to look for a Champion

You know what Champions are. You know what they do. Now how do you get one?

A Change Agents must find a Champion as s/he prepares the Change Initiative. Change Teams may also need to find a new Champion as they implement the initiative.

There are two ways to find a Champion. One way is to locate someone already trained and certified in this role. You may know her/him or you may find the person on a list of trained Champions. The second way is to locate the right person and ask her/him to get training specifically to serve on your initiative. (This may take some time, though.)

Change Agents often find potential Champions during the research of the Change Initiative. In fact, this is probably the best way. Someone who understands the problem you are investigating and who has already been helpful may commit to champion the initiative. If you think s/he would be a good Champion for the Change Initiative and s/he is willing to volunteer, the next step is to arrange for her/him to get the necessary training

Now you know where to find a Champion, but how do you choose the right person?

Here are some issues to consider when selecting a Champion:

• Ability to connect the team to needed resources.
• Ability to work with the people involved in the process.
• Ability to work with the outsiders involved in the process.
• Commitment to not only the transformation, but also to this Change Initiative.
• Ability to advocate for the initiative.
• Available time to work on the initiative.
• Knowledge of the process being changed.
• Absence of known political enemies within the process being changed (the Champion may make enemies in the course of her/his work; known enemies make it hard for a Champion to do the job well.)

© 1997 ChangeCraft™

Written by Veronica Boaz and Heidi Jeanne Hess
(Doug Wesley contributed)

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Mutual Performance Evaluations

Most work groups get by pretty well with a manager evaluating each employee's performance annually. The rest of the year, people get praised when they do a good job and corrected when they don't. Change Teams, Champions and Team Coaches require a lot more feedback on a much more regular basis. One reason for this is that the people working together on a Change Initiative usually don't know each other that well. Another reason is that these initiatives don't last very long.

Because a Change Team, Champion and Team Coach work without a boss, they must constantly monitor and manage each other's performance. Take time to evaluate what's going on in these relationships frequently.

A team, its Champion and Team Coach must make every effort to learn from surprises, failures and successes throughout the Change Initiative. What can be learned from "lucky breaks?" How can you generate more "luck" like that? What is there to learn from disappointments and breakdowns? How will these serve you as you complete your work?

Talk about team, Champion and Team Coach performance issues at least every two weeks. This is useful to help the team and the Champion (and the team and the Team Coach) determine where they stand with one another. Make notes of these checks so everyone can go back and review where they have been and see more clearly where they are going.

Change Teams, Champions and Team Coaches have a short time to do a lot of work. If performance is not discussed regularly, everyone will likely fall into the habit of tolerating disappointments and ignoring excellence.

The Change Team's performance may be in trouble if four weeks pass without creating visible results in the Change Initiative. If the Team goes beyond six weeks without making an obvious change to the process, it should seriously consider disbanding. If the team does not disband, the Team Coach and/or Champion should seriously consider resigning from the team. If either of them resigns from the team because it is not performing, the team may be out of business. Other Team Coaches and Champions likely won't take the team on, and a team can't continue without them.

As the team forms, agree to a few questions everyone will answer about their own performance on a regular basis (weekly or monthly). Questions like: What percent of my commitments am I making on time? How am I contributing to others' performance? What actions have I taken to improve teammate performance? Your team should select its own performance review questions.

Fair warning: performance reviews by your peers are often tougher and more straightforward than ones you may be used to getting from a manager. Open, honest, direct and frequent communication about performance between the Champion and the team as well as the Team Coach and the team is a necessity. That communication also ensures everyone remains aligned on the initiative and its progress.

© 1997 ChangeCraft ™

Written by Heidi Jeanne Hess
(Veronica Boaz and Doug Wesley contributed)

Check Point

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