In the April 2019 edition, we conversed with Janice Linden-Reed to understand her experience on challenges of implementing change and approaches to change management.

She explained how organisations consider change initiatives as more work and how lack of trust turns out to be a big challenge. Let’s read her insights;

Q1. As per your experience what are the difficulties to implement any change?

Janice: There are different types of change. There are small, gradual changes, such as the evolutionary change you get with the Kanban Method, and there are broader, systemic change initiatives. They each have their challenges, but the difficulty isn’t only about the size of the change.  It also involves the culture, maturity, and available capacity of the affected business unit.

The bottom line is that organizations are already so busy, and a change initiative feels like more work – and it is more work. It adds to the demand on the workers and takes capacity away from work items. Even worse, there is often a lack of trust that the change will ultimately be worth the effort.

Q2. Can change be co-created? Please share your thoughts?

Janice: Co-creation means getting all the relevant stakeholders together to discuss the proposed change and set desired outcomes. That is ideal, if you can accomplish it, because it gets everyone engaged. I often work with low maturity organizations and they are unlikely to carve out the time for this approach. In that case, you need a strong sponsor, such as an executive, who can frequently remind everyone that the change initiative is important and deserves their attention.

Q3. What are some effective approaches for Change Management?

Janice: For much of my career, I never thought of change management as something separate from project management.  Now I follow the ProSci ADKAR system which calls out change management initiatives specifically. It involves an assessment and plan up front to give the change initiative the best chance of succeeding.

Also, if you are working with individuals from various parts of the world, or with globally distributed offices, they may respond to change initiatives in ways you don’t expect due to cultural differences.  I am working with Erin Meyer’s Culture Mapping tools to consider several factors including differences in communication, trust and decision styles.

Q4. How do you define a Chronic Work Disorder? What are the ways to identify it?

Janice: A “Chronic Work Disorder” is what I call any frustrating issue that keeps happening such as shifting requirements or late delivery. It is like a disease that isn’t going away. The way to identify the issue – and resolve it – is to formally recognize that your work is a system with patterns and policies. Using the Kanban Method, you can create a model of that system, reveal the problem areas, and make small changes to improve it.

This is also a good way to improve business agility. By adjusting the model (the Kanban system), you can adjust the way you work to keep up with current market conditions.

Q5. Creating a culture of improvement is not an easy nut to crack. Please share your suggestions to achieve the same.

Janice: A culture of improvement is a culture of change. It requires an ongoing focus on learning and a willingness to devote time and energy (capacity) to try out frequent changes that address pain points. This is easier in an evolutionary change system because the changes are small, but it still requires that we specifically allocate a percentage of total capacity to experiment with improvements. It is an ongoing commitment.

Q6. Please highlight how awareness and implementation of change go hand-in-hand?

Janice: Awareness is essential, or you risk that the change initiative is abandoned, ignored, or implemented incorrectly.  Have an explicit plan for the implementation. Have a sponsor to communicate executive support. These are important but so is awareness of the core system.  It is amazing how often organizations launch into change without truly understanding the system they already have. Part of that system is the balance of demand and capacity.  Know if you have spare cycles before you take on a change initiative. Anything else is wishful thinking.

Janice Linden-Reed is principal and Senior Consultant at Ready Option (readyoption.com), an organization dedicated to improving the delivery of critical work in fields such as social impact, disaster management, and public policy. She is a former executive with Lean Kanban Inc. and has over 10 years’ experience using Kanban for knowledge work and service work, as well as building programs and the global community for trainers, coaches, and enthusiasts for the Kanban Method. She is based in Seattle, Washington and appears around the world doing public speaking and consulting. Janice is program chair for the Lean Kanban North America 2019 conference, part of the Lean Kanban Global Summit.