User talk:Lakshman63

Communication is central to Change Management Almost every project these days has a communications strategy and plan – they are on every PRINCE 2 Qualified Project Manager’s checklist. But, what is being communicated and by whom varies enormously.

The substance of communication has to be a credible answer to the question on every user’s lips. ‘How is this in my interest?’ And that message has to be supported by the day to day management process of the organization. The next link to the chain of change management is the approach timing and channels of communication.

Changes to information management systems are among the most difficult to engineer. Document records and content management involve a set of basic operations which can be strung together in many different ways to facilitate undefined processes with variable data inputs and outputs and whose users employ a shifting subset of capabilities.

To achieve the joined up working that is a basic goal of such changes means that staff must not only use the same facilities, but use them in predominantly similar ways. Otherwise, the project may provide a single repository but the repository will have as many silos within it as there are ways of working. The benefits will only be experienced and the risks avoided by changing the ways of working and not just the location of the filing.

The Approach :

Let us start with 2 clichés:

‘Communication is a two way process’ and ‘actions speak louder than words’. Both of these are true and obvious. But, amazingly they are often ignored.

Giving no opportunity to speak to the other person in a conversation communicates a very particular message: the silent party’s views are not valued. An effective sales person on the other hand knows that the most important information communicated is provided by the other party, and abides by the motto ‘two ears and one mouth’. Most projects, however are set to ‘broadcast’ only and never ‘receive’.

Communication starts with market research: identifying the different groups within the audience, their concerns and the channels of communication that will work for them.

In an electronic document and records management (EDRM) or Enterprise content management (ECM) project, some of these are often easily identified – Senior and Middle Management, Staff, Customers, other external stakeholders. Whether or not these are the right groupings will be shown by the homogeneity of their concerns. For Example, ‘non-managerial staff’ may need to be broken down further, between those on different sites. If the project team does not have the information required to identify these groups and their concerns, it needs to go and find out about them.

Ordinary Staff :

Communicating with ordinary staff in the early stages of a project can be counter-productive, building hopes or fears that cannot be managed. This information required to understand and segment stakeholders therefore needs to be sought from those already involved with the project. If these people do not have the information, then those who do usually in management need to be involved.

Starting from a narrow base of people involved, the project should in stages expand that base through ever-wider communication, down the organizational structure. At each stage it should be driven by the need to get information from or about those to whom the project is trying to communicate.

Combined with the substantial answers to the ‘what’s in it for me?’ question, this 2 way approach to communication is the lever that should provide management buy-in to the objectives of the project and management support during the change. The design of the project and the strategy for realizing its benefits are dependent on understanding how the business works and how it needs to change. Dialogue with those responsible is the only way to achieve this, so that the nature and value of the changes required like new roles and changes in responsibilities can be identified and understood and agreed.

Defining the detail of change the next link the chain of change management is impossible without 2 way communication. When a message arrives it is as important as what is in the message. Telling staff about a change that will happen months or even years ahead might seem pointless, but that is no justification for not doing it. At every stage, there is useful communication to be done especially communication into the project. The prohibition on releasing certain information should be based on whether the hopes and fears that the information raises can be managed. Not on how far the release is in advance of the change.

Effective communication is a strategic activity: every action has its consequences, which is a strategic activity; every action has its consequences, which a strategic approach plans for. Benefits realization maps the link between what is done in a project and the change it enables via a series of inter dependent advantages and changed ways of working. The strategy should thread these together so that they make a convincing case to each of the groups facing change. In EDRM and ECM projects there are often several phases of change not just pilot and go-live. These include phases for simulation and configuration in a model office; house keeping; transition and migration; establishing the basics (Capture, publication and retrieval); and further exploitation (workflow or Automated categorization).

In each phase there are different messages to get across, to build the understanding of the users and their readiness for the next.

Channels :

Communication experts say that you need to deliver a message at least 3 times, preferably by atleast 2 different channels for it to hit home. For EDRM and ECM projects this means that merely providing training and some pages on the intranet are almost certainly insufficient, even if the intranet pages do encourage 2 way Communication. Different stake holder groups will respond better to different channels. For Example, the intranet may be frequently used by off site staff with remote accesses but never by Senior Management.

Ultimately, every new user of the EDRM and ECM system will need personal contact. Even the technically accomplished will benefit from a discussion of the new system’s paradigms. This opportunity, however, should not be wasted on merely technical tuition. Training will constitute the greatest proportion of time that most end users spend preparing for the changes that they need to make. It there fore needs to focus on those changes – roles, responsibilities and procedures and not just the software and its configuration.

Again, communication is vitally important: have staff understood what is needed and will they actually do what is needed? Persuading staff that the easiest part of their jobs are to disappear, to be replaced by more challenging activities is the norm with EDRM and ECM projects.

It should not be the norm, however, for this to be the news to staff during their training sessions. Training and other forms of support like Floor Walking, is exactly that, support. It supports managers who are hopefully leading their staff on the adoptive process of new ways of working. Channels of communication are valued according to the authority of the information they convey. The most authoritative channel of communication for any staff is the boss.

Coordinating all the channels (managerial, printed matter, intranet, e-mail, workshops, training and even the Monday morning Quarter backing conversation) so that the mutual understanding of the project and every other group within the ambit of change matures through each phase is truly strategic.

Now the question I hope readers will be asking is whether their own projects have a comprehensive communications strategy or merely some things they want to just broadcast.