Chapter_9Action_Planning_and_ImplementationChapter_OverviewChange

Chapter 9:

Action Planning and Implementation

Chapter Overview

Change leaders have a “do it” attitude. Without action, nothing happens

Action planning involves planning the work and working the plan. “Right” decisions = approximately right, as you gain feedback and learn as you go

Action planning sorts out who does what, when, and how and tracks progress to promote learning and adaptation

Tools to help you manage the process are discussed

Successful change agents effectively engage others in the journey, develop detailed communication plans and the transition

The Change Path Model

Implementation planning that engages and empowers others

Action planning tools

Communications planning

Managing the transition and after-action review

Awakening

Chapter 4

Acceleration

Chapter 9

Institutionalization

Chapter 10

Mobilization

Chapters 5 through 8

3 Approaches to Decision Making and Action Taking

Thinking First

when the issue is clear and the context structured

Seeing First

when many elements have to be combined into creative solutions, commitment is key and communication across boundaries is essential. People need to see the whole before becoming committed.

Doing First

when situation is novel and confusing, complicated specifications would get in the way and a few simple rules can help people move forward

3 Generic Change Strategies

Change Type	Characteristic	Implementation	Pitfalls
Programmatic Change	Missions, plans, objectives	Training, timelines, steering committees	Lack of focus on behavior, one solution for all, inflexible solutions
Discontinuous Change	Initiated from top, clear break, reorientation	Decrees, structural change, concurrent implementation	Political coalitions derail change, weak controls, stress from the loss of people
Emergent Change	Ambiguous, incremental and challenging	Use of metaphors, experimentation, and risk taking	Confusion over direction, uncertainty, and possible slow results

Working Your Plan

Mobilize commitment to change through joint diagnosis of business problems

Develop a shared vision of how to organize and manage for competitiveness

Foster consensus for the new vision, competence to enact it, and cohesion to move it along

Spread revitalization to all departments without pushing it from the top

Institutionalize revitalization through formal policies, systems, and structures

Monitor and adjust strategies in response to problems in the revitalization process

Working Your Plan

Think of a change situation you are familiar with. Return to Table 9.1 and consider whether it is a:

Programmatic change

Discontinuous change

Emergent change

How well was it handled? Was the appropriate approach or should it have been handled differently?

Steps to Effective Change—Beer et al.’s Six Steps

Mobilize commitment through joint diagnosis

Develop a shared vision

Foster consensus for the new vision, competence to enact it, and cohesion to move it along

Spread revitalization to all departments without pushing it from the top

Institutionalize revitalization through formal policies, systems, and structures

Monitor and adjust strategies as you go

Jick’s Ten Commandments

Analyze the organization and its need for change

Create a vision and a common direction

Separate from the past

Create a sense of urgency

Support a strong leader role

Line up political sponsorship

Craft an implementation plan

Develop enabling structures

Communicate, involve people, and be honest

Reinforce and institutionalize change

Kotter’s Eight-Stage Process

Establish a sense of urgency

Create a guiding coalition

Develop a vision and strategy

Empower broad-based action

Communicate the change vision

Generate short-term wins

Consolidate gains and produce more change

Anchor new approaches in the culture

Lueck’s Seven Steps for Change

Identify the leadership

Focus on results, not activities

Start change at the periphery, then let it spread to other units, pushing it from the top

Institutionalize success through formal policies, systems, and structures

Monitor and adjust strategies in response to problems in the change process

“No Plan Survives First Contact”

While it is critical to plan and anticipate, planning is a means not an end.

Don’t ignore vital emerging information just because it does not fit with carefully conceived plans.

Contingencies and alternative ways of approaching change are important contributors to enhanced adaptive capacity.

Action Planning Tools

To Do Lists—A checklist of things to do

Responsibility Charting—Who will do what, when, where, why, and how

Contingency Planning—Consideration of what should be done when things do not work as planned on critical issues. Tools to aid with this include decision tree analyses and scenario analyses

Flow Charting

Action Planning Tools (cont.)

Design Thinking

Surveys and Survey Feedback

Project Planning and Critical Path Methods for Scheduling

Tools that assess outcomes and stakeholders (discussed in Ch. 6), including:

Commitment Charts

The Adoption Continuum (AIDA)

Cultural Mapping

Action Planning Tools (cont.)

Leverage Analysis

Training and Development Tools

Diverse Change Approaches

Responsibility Charting

Decisions or Actions to be Taken	Responsibilities
	Susan	Ted	Sonja	Relevant Dates
Action 1	R	A	I	For meeting on Jan 14
Action 2		R	I	May 24
Action 3	S	A	A	Draft Plan by Feb 17 Action by July 22
Etc...
Coding: R = Responsibility (not necessarily authority) A = Approval (right to veto) S = Support (put resources toward) I = Inform (to be consulted before action)

Project Planning

Organizing task to allow for parallel processes to occur has been shown to save time.

Level of Commitment to Action

Opposed to the Change

Neutral to the Change

Let It Happen (weak support)

Help It Happen

Make It Happen

LOW

HIGH

Stage of Adoption

Awareness

Becoming altered to the existence of something new, such as a product, service, or procedure

Interest

A growing inquisitiveness about the nature and benefits of the new idea

Desire/Appraisal

Studying strengths and weaknesses of new idea and its application to their area, followed by small-scale testing

Action/Adoption

Incorporating the new idea as part of the resources the adopter brings to their job

Crossing the Adoption Chasm

Innovators

Early Adopters

Early Majority

Late Majority

Laggards

The Chasm or Tipping Point of Support That Needs to be Crossed

Commitment Chart

Key Players	Level of Commitment					Level of Understanding (high, med, low)
	Opposed Strongly to Weakly	Neutral	Let It Happen	Help It Happen	Make It Happen
Person1		X	O			Med
Person 2				X	O	High
Person 3		X		O		Low
Etc...

Mapping People on the Adoption Curve

Key Players
	Aware	Interested	Desire for Action	Moving to Action or Adopting the Change
Person1		X	O
Person 2				X
Person 3		X		O
Etc...

Action Planning Checklist

Is the action plan consistent with the analysis, vision, and objectives?

Is your action plan realistic, given your influence, and the resources likely to be available to you?

Are you and your team committed, and do have the competence and credibility to implement the action steps? If not, how will you address this?

Is the plan time-sequenced in logical order?

Is it clear who will do what, when, where, and how?

What are the milestones and the probability of success at each step? Have you anticipated secondary consequences of your actions?

Action Planning Checklist (cont.)

Have you anticipated possible secondary consequences and lagging impacts your plans may have?

Have you developed contingencies for risk areas and for how to proceed if things go better or differently than anticipated?

Who does your plan rely on? Are they “on-side”? If not, what will it take to bring them “on-side”?

Does your action plan take into account the concerns of stakeholders and possible coalitions they might form?

Who (and what) could seriously obstruct the change? How will you manage them?

Communication Needs for Different Phases in the Change Process

Pre-Approval Phase	Developing the Need for Change Phase	Mid Stream Change Phase	Confirming the Change Phase
Communication plans to sell top management	Communication plans to explain the need for change, provide a rationale, reassure employees, and clarify the steps in the change process.	Communication plans to inform people of progress and to obtain feedback on attitudes and issues, to challenge any misconceptions, and to clarify new organizational roles, structures, and systems.	Communication plans to inform employees of the success, to celebrate the change, and to prepare the organization for the next change.

Communicating for Change

Message and media redundancy are key for message retention. Carefully consider the impact and use of social media and how others affected may use it

Face-to-face communication is most effective

Line authority is effective in communications

The immediate supervisor is key

Opinion leaders need to be identified and used

Employees pick up and retain personally relevant information more easily than other types of information

Influence Strategies for Change

Education and communication

Participation and involvement

Facilitation and support

Negotiation and agreement

Manipulation and co-option

Explicit and implicit coercion

Systemic adjustment

Toolkit Exercise 9.2—Action Plans for Influencing Reactions to Change

Which of the following strategies have you seen used to overcome resistance to action plans?

Education and communication?

Participation and involvement?

Facilitation and support?

Negotiation and agreement?

Manipulation and co-optation?

Explicit and implicit coercion?

Systemic adjustments?

What were the consequences of the methods?

Which of these methods are you most comfortable with using? Which do you have the skills to use?

Toolkit Exercise 9.3 (cont.) Additional Lenses on Influence Tactics

Inspirational appeals

Consultation: seeking the participation of others

Relying on the informal system: existing norms and relationships

Personal appeals: friendship, loyalty

Ingratiation: praise, flattery, friendliness

Rational persuasion: using data

Exchange or reciprocity

Coalition building

Using rules or legitimating tactics

Appeals to higher authorities

- Which of the above have you used? How successful were they?

- How comfortable are you with each method?

Push and Pull Tactics

Push Tactics

Use of facts, logic, and/or pressure (e.g., use of guilt and fear) to push people toward the change

Pull Tactics

Inspirational appeals and other influence tactics designed to attract and pull people toward the change

Implementation Tactics and Success

Tactic	Percentage Use	Initial Adoption Rate	Ultimate Adoption Rate	Time to Adopt (months)
Intervention	16%	100%	82%	11.2
Participation	20	81	71	19.0
Persuasion	35	65	49	20.0
Edict	29	51	35	21.5

A Checklist for Change: Transition Management

Transition Management: managing the implementation of the change project

How will the organization continue to operate as it shifts from one state to the next?

Who will answer questions about the proposed change? What decision power will they have?

Do the people in charge of the transition have the appropriate authority to make decisions necessary to ease the change?

Have we developed ways to reduce the anxiety created by the change and increase the positive excitement over it?

A Checklist for Change: Transition Management (cont.)

Have we worked on developing a problem-solving climate around the change process?

Have we thought through the need to communicate the change? Who needs to be seen individually? Which groups need to be seen together? What formal announcement should be made?

Have the people handling the transition thought about how they will capture the learning from the change process and share it?

Have we thought about how we will measure and celebrate progress and how we will bring about closure to the project and capture the learning so it is not lost (after-action review)?

What Makes for a Good Action Plan?

It can be done!

Organized as a timed sequence of conditional moves

Responsibility charts: who does what, when, why, how?

Measures and Outcomes are specified

The plan is consistent with analysis and objectives

What Makes for a Good Action Plan? (cont.)

Resources are available: money and people

Real “buy in” is there—involvement and public commitment, coalitions are considered

Early positives exist to help build momentum

Most importantly, you have the Vision and Goals needed to guide you in the right direction

Summary

“Doing it” demands a good plan and a committed team who will work that plan

Several strategies for approaching change and planning the work are discussed. Change agents, like good coaches, adjust as they go

Action planning tools are discussed

Effective action planning and implementation requires careful attention to communication and transition management

Schilling & Hill, 1998

Cycle

Time

Opportunity

Identification

Opportunity

Identification

Concept

Development

Concept

Development

Product Design

Process Design

Commercial

Production

Commercial

Production

Example 1

Example 2

Cycle Time

Opportunity

Identification

Opportunity

Identification

Concept

Development

Concept

Development

Product Design

Process Design

Commercial Production

Example 1

Example 2

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