Avoiding the Traffic Jam

Using the DICE model in Predicting the Success or Failure of a Change Initiative
 
 
 
 

In my way to office every morning, there is always this little thinking exercise that I have to go through – which route I must take to avoid Jakarta’s horrible traffic jam.

I have my favorite route surely, but it has not always been a great choice on several occasions.  I need to change and drive away from my favorite route and taking another route sometimes when the traffic has become too unbearable.  But taking another route is not an easy option to choose, as I might just end up driving to a route with an even heavier traffic.

The traffic ahead doesn't look good this morning,  should I change my route and make a right turn in the intersection ahead ?

The route change in the avoiding-traffic-jam case might be similar in a bigger perspective, to the change in a journey that project team or organization goes through. From all the wisdom of the guru in the project/organization management, it has been said that change is almost always inevitable for any organization and successfully managing change is a part of the day-to-day effort in managing a successful project and/or organization. 

But in heading towards a change initiative, how can we ensure that a change initiative can be implemented successfully or at least how can we predict that certain change initiative can be implemented successfully while other can not - is there a way to measure this?

DICE – Predicting the Successful Change Project

In the article by Harold L. Sirkin, Perry Keenan, and Alan Jackson, The Hard Side of Change Management, they stated that while looking at the soft aspect of a change initiative is important, it is not sufficient.  Aspects such as culture, leadership and motivation are true indeed an important part of the change process.  But, while looking after the soft aspects, we need to be also looking after the hard aspect of change.  Such hard aspect are characterized by, first they are measurable, second their importance can be communicated easily, and third they can be influenced quickly.

These characters can be identified into four hard aspects: Duration, performance Integrity, Commitment, and additional Effort required.  To describe these four factors further:

D. The duration of time until the change is completed. If it is a long change program, then the duration between each of the milestones can be monitored.

I. The project team’s performance integrity, the ability to complete the change, that depends on the members skills and traits related to the change requirement.

C. Commitment, from top management and also from employee.

E. the additional effort, beyond the usual work, that is required by the change initiative.

The DICE factor of a certain change initiative can then be scored, depending on the result it can be then categorized into a win zone, worry zone or woe zone.

If the change initiatives are within the worry zone or woe zone, we can then examined the critical factors and take the required steps to steer the change initiative into a win zone.

So after all this, coming back the traffic ahead, should I then make a right turn?

D - It will only take me 5-10 minutes longer than my normal route ….

I - I have my GPS and familiar with the route, so no chance in getting lost and circling around ….

C - My wife sitting next to me in the car said that she is OK with it ….

E - As I say, it only took 5-10 minutes more driving effort than my usual route, fine by me ….

All seems good with our DICE in avoiding the traffic jam ahead, we are definitely in a win zone, let’s make a right turn then!

Reference:

• The Hard Side of Change Management, Harvard Business Review, http://www.il-inc.com/pdf/HBR%20The%20Hard%20Side%20of%20Change%20Management.PDF
• Photos taken from http://indonesia-cars.com 

LIE TO ME

Communication through Facial Expression

Have you ever watched the TV Series LIE TO ME?

LIE TO ME is a TV series inspired by the scientific discoveries of a real-life psychologist who can read clues embedded in the human face, body and voice to expose the truth and lies in criminal investigations.

DR. Cal Lightman (Tim Roth) is the world's leading deception expert. By analyzing facial expressions and involuntary body language, he can read feelings ranging from hidden resentment to sexual attraction to jealousy.

I was really intrigued by the idea of – if I as a Project Manager could only have some parts of  Dr. Lightman skill, it would really be helping my team to move forward.

PMBOK includes communication as one of the Project Management Knowledge area – Project Communications Management. And under Project Communication Management tools and techniques state that the art of communication is including ‘Presentation techniques.  Body Language and design of visual aids.

Now that I have found my excuse to bring up a more psychological stuff in what was supposed to be my project management site (thanks to PMBOK :D), shall we go further?


Body Language – Facial Expression

Facial coding is not an exact science, and is only now starting to find business applications. It dates back to the 1960s when San Francisco psychologist Paul Ekman found that expressions are learned early and are the same in Japan and Argentina as they are in the USA.

Paul Ekman, is also the expert behind all the episodes of LIE TO ME.

According to Ekman, when people deliberately try to conceal their emotions (or unconsciously repress their emotions), a very brief–1/15 to 1/25 of a second– facial expression often occurs, invisible to nearly everyone except surely those that are skillfully trained to look at these micro expressions.

Despite efforts to conceal any sign of emotion that is felt, leakage may occur in very small hard to recognize fragments of expression. These tiny changes also can occur when an emotion is just beginning, often before the person knows they are about to act emotionally.

On his article in USAtoday, It’s Written All over Their Faces, Del Jones a facial coding expert, bring up several of his observation on some well known executives, based on their facial expression.

Quoting on his observation:

• Amazon.com CEO Jeff Bezos was evenly split with 51% positive and 49% negative expressions. He had 20% true smiles with laughter, but they were combined with the lowering and knitting of his eyebrows and the wrinkling of his nose. Net effect: "Enjoyment tinged with disgust and negativity," Hill says

• Microsoft Chairman Gates was 73% positive. He was at ease, affable and low key, but displayed "small, weak social smiles, and touches of contempt.

• Berkshire Hathaway CEO Buffett scored 69% positive and was affable, assured and low-key. He also had many weak social smiles and "a fair amount of smiling while making ironic comments," Hill says.

• Dell CEO Michael Dell was 47% positive and "strikes me as chagrined and a little defiant." He managed some weak smiles, but they came in the vicinity of skepticism.

• Apple CEO Steve Jobs scored 48% positive and topped all CEOs examined for making no attempt to hide his emotions. Apple employees don't have to guess what this CEO is thinking. "Lots of emoting, enjoyment mingled with frustration," Hill says.

• News Corp. CEO Rupert Murdoch scored 83% negative. Lower chin raises show disgust, tightened lips anger. "He knits his eyebrows together very severely, a sign of anger, but also fear and sadness."

• Donald Trump was 84% negative, second to Ellison. Hill says he smiles while making negative comments that show disgust, contempt and skepticism.

If only all Project Managers are required to master these skills, don’t you think it will significantly increase the success rate of projects?

Reference:

• LIE TO ME TV Series Official Site, http://www.fox.com/lietome/
• Paul Ekman Site, http://www.paulekman.com/
• USAtoday, http://www.usatoday.com
• PMBOK, Project Management Institute, www.pmi.org

Learning from Indonesia's National Football Team (Part 3)

New Perspective of Team Motivation

 

 

This will be the last part of my Indonesia’s Timnas note, hopefully a shorter one this time, since I tend to write a bit lengthy on the previous note, sorry for that :D

 

The second part of the final game is really a challenge for the Timnas, I can’t imagine the burden and the pressure rested on the Timnas for them to be able to beat the Malaysia and win the final still.  Hopes and prays from the fans supporting Timnas filling all the news in TV, newspaper, facebook, twitter, and all the possible media channel.

 

Among all that I’ve heard on the news, I noticed that the Timnas has also been mentioned, being promised a significant amount of rewards (I should’ve written money instead) if they are successful on the second game of final.

I could understand that money has always been a great motivator for all of us.  A lot of companies have a scheme for bonuses, rewards, sales incentives program, projects bonuses for their employees, but are there more to this?

 

More Factors to Motivation

 

As truth still there to the statements that money is a great motivator, there are still also another aspect of this.

 

Listening to Daniel Pink on the YouTube video, he argues that as long as the task involved used only mechanical skill, bonuses worked as expected; higher pay = better performance. 

But when it comes to a work requiring more complex cognitive skills, this is not the case; a larger reward might even lead to poorer performance.

There are three factors according to Pink, that lead to better performance and personal satisfaction.

 

Autonomy, the desire to be self directed.  Tradition notions management might not be aligned to this. But if engagement is required, then self directed is an aspect to be considered.

Mastery, is the urge to be better at something. Because it is fun and challenging to be able to be better at something.

Purpose, companies that are flourishing are animated by purpose. We like to be able to work at something that makes us a better person, and makes the world a little bit better as well.

Now, do you think that on the Timnas case, the three factors mentioned by Pink above is the true driving factor for the team? Or do you think that money can play it’s magic again as always ?

Reference:

• YouTube, Daniel Pink RSA video, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc
• Daniel Pink website, www.danpink.com
• Photo taken from www.antaraphoto.com and Daniel Pink RSA YouTube video.

Learning from Indonesia's National Football Team (Part 2)

Keeping the team focus – managing the stakeholder

 

As mentioned the first part of the note, Learning from Indonesia's National Football Team (Part 1), on the first game of final, it has been said that the Indonesia’s Timnas has faced lots of distraction during their practice session.

 

 

It has been said that there are lots of different parties that, probably due the success that the Timnas has achieved so far, wanted to take part in team success.  It has become a distraction in a way that it has shifted the focus of the team, that they are not seems to be able to fully concentrate on the preparation for the first final game.

The distraction, combined with a laser incident, and the fact that the Malaysian has also been playing very well, contributed to the only lost that the Timnas faced during the championship.  And the Timnas only lost, unfortunately, has become the one lost that prevented the Timnas from proudly claimed the champion title.

Keeping the Team Focus – Managing the Stakeholder

One way to help keep your team to focus is by managing the external factor or external influence towards the team.  This external factor/influence might be coming from people or group of people, which are affected by the deliverable of the team.

On the general terms, these external people or group of people that are affected by the deliverable of a team is called the team Stakeholder.

A stakeholder is any person or organization, who can be positively or negatively impacted by, or cause an impact on the actions of a company, government, or organization. Types of stakeholders are:

• Primary stakeholders: are those ultimately affected, either positively or negatively by an organization's actions.
• Secondary stakeholders: are the ‘intermediaries’, that is, persons or organizations who are indirectly affected by an organization's actions.
• Key stakeholders : (who can also belong to the first two groups) have significant influence upon or importance within an organization

And as you and your team become more successful, the actions you and your team have taken will affect more and more people. The more people you affect, the more likely it is that your actions will impact people who have power and influence over your work. These people could be strong supporters of your work – or they could block it.

For the Timnas case, unfortunately, a stakeholder might have affected the blocking of Timnas from reaching the success of claiming the champion title.

Stakeholder Analysis

Stakeholder analysis is a term that refers to the action of analyzing the attitudes of stakeholders towards something (most frequently a project). It is frequently used during the preparation phase of a project to assess the attitudes of the stakeholders regarding the potential changes. Stakeholder analysis can be done once or on a regular basis to track changes in stakeholder attitudes over time.

Stakeholder analysis has the goal of developing cooperation between the stakeholder and the team and, ultimately, assuring successful outcomes for the activity. Stakeholder analysis is performed when there is a need to clarify the consequences of envisaged changes or at the start of new projects and in connection with organizational changes generally.

It is important to identify all stakeholders for the purpose of identifying their success criteria and turning these into quality goals

There are several steps in performing Stakeholder Analysis as the following.

Step 1. Identify Your Stakeholders

The first step in your stakeholder analysis is to identify who your stakeholders are. As part of this, think of all the people who are affected by your work, who have influence or power over it, or have an interest in its successful or unsuccessful conclusion.

Remember that although stakeholders may be both organizations and people, ultimately you must communicate with people. Make sure that you identify the correct individual stakeholders within a stakeholder organization.

Important thing to note also is that you need to perform this step regularly as required, as your stakeholder might changes along the course of your project due to i.e. organization changes.

Step 2. Prioritize Your Stakeholders

You may now have a long list of people and organizations that are affected by your work. Some of these may have the power either to block or advance. Some may be interested in what you are doing, others may not care.

Map out your stakeholders on a Power/Interest Grid on the template as shown in below, and classify them by their power over your work and by their interest in your work.

Someone's position on the grid shows you the actions you have to take with them:

·    High power, interested people: these are the people you must fully engage and make the greatest efforts to satisfy.

·    High power, less interested people: put enough work in with these people to keep them satisfied, but not so much that they become bored with your message.

·    Low power, interested people: keep these people adequately informed, and talk to them to ensure that no major issues are arising. These people can often be very helpful with the detail of your project.

·    Low power, less interested people: again, monitor these people, but do not bore them with excessive communication.

There are other type of matrix that you can work with to be able to map your stakeholder, other example as below is used by WWF in their activities.

Step 3. Understand Your Key Stakeholders

You now need to know more about your key stakeholders. You need to know how they are likely to feel about and react to your project. You also need to know how best to engage them in your project and how best to communicate with them.

You can summarize the understanding you have gained on the stakeholder map, so that you can easily see which stakeholders are expected to be blockers or critics, and which stakeholders are likely to be advocates and supporters or your project.

If you are now considering the Timnas stakeholder influence in the success and/or failure of the team, do you see that there are several stakeholders that can be better managed ?

Reference:

-       Stakeholder Analysis – Winning Support for your Projects, MindTools.com, http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_07.htm

-       Stakeholder Analysis, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stakeholder_analysis

-       Stakeholder Analysis, World Wild Life foundation, http://assets.panda.org/downloads/1_1_stakeholder_analysis_11_01_05.pdf

Learning from Indonesia's National Football Team (Part 1)

Lessons in Team Development and Motivation

After a long waiting time, the football fans in Indonesian recently was given the thrilling moment to once again be able to enjoy the solid performance of the Indonesia's national football team (Timnas) in the Suzuki AFF championship.

Indonesia's Timnas has been showing brilliant performance and was undefeatable until they make it to the final, against Malaysia.

The final itself consists of two games. The first game was played at Bukit Jalil, in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.  And the second game was played at Gelora Senayan, in Jakarta, Indonesia.

The Indonesia's Timnas suffered their only lost during the championship in the first final game to the Malaysian team.  A rather tragic lost, since with the score 3-0 for the Malaysian victory, the Indonesia Timnas still can’t claimed the championship title although on the second final game, can turn the table around and beat the Malaysian team with 2-1.

There are several aspects during the journey of the Indonesia's Timnas in the championship that I would like to look at a bit further. As to me, this can be reflected a lot, to a journey that any project team might experience, in going through the phases in project life cycle.

The aspect that I have noticed first is, how the Timnas are build and the role of leader (in this case, the Timnas coach, Alfred Riedl) in building the team into a successful team.

The second aspect is how to maintain the teams focus towards the team’s goal. 

On the Indonesia's Timnas case, after a series of victories, there were a lot of distractions affecting the performance of the team. 

The Timnas coach, Riedl, also mentioned that one factor that might cause of the tragic lost in the first final game was the 'distraction' during the preparation of the team. 

The third aspect is how to maintain the motivation for the team.

The Timnas lost in the first game was surely a hard hit towards the team. Despite this fact, it is a must for the team to be able to rise up again, and be able to prepare well and aim still to win in the second game.

I will try to look at the first aspect – building a team into a successful team - on my current note, and will look at the other aspects on another note.



Building a Team into a Successful Team

The Forming – Storming – Norming – Performing model of group development was first proposed by Bruce Tuckman in 1965, who maintained that these phases are all necessary and inevitable in order for the team to grow to a successful team that deliver results. 

Tuckman later on added fifth stages, Adjourning, to include team break after project completion.

In the first stages of team building, the forming of the team takes place. The individual's behavior is driven by a desire to be accepted by the others, and avoid controversy or conflict.

Supervisors of the team tend to need to be Directive during this phase.

Every group will next enter the storming stage in which different ideas compete for consideration. The team addresses issues such as what problems they are really supposed to solve, how they will function independently and together and what leadership model they will accept. Team members open up to each other and confront each other's ideas and perspectives
.
Supervisors of the team during this phase may be more accessible, but tend to remain directive in their guidance of decision-making and professional behavior. This style often referred to as Selling.

In the next stage, norming, the team manages to have one goal and come to a mutual plan for the team at this stage. Some may have to give up their own ideas and agree with others in order to make the team function. In this stage, all team members take the responsibility and have the ambition to work for the success of the team's goals.

The supervisor of the team on this stage, need to use the Supporting leadership style.

It is possible for some teams to reach the performing stage. The team members are now competent, autonomous and able to handle the decision-making process without supervision. Dissent is expected and allowed as long as it is channeled through means acceptable to the team.

Supervisors of the team during this phase are almost always participative. This usually referred as Delegating style.

The last phase then, adjourning, happens when the team breaks up after a project completion.

Refer back to the Timnas, it seems to me that, the team is still at the forming stage.

Having the players recruited from the different club, although individually are a very high skilled player, it will still require time for the team member to grow and play together as a solid team.  Riedl as the leader in the team is also showing a directive style of leadership that is usually relevant in the forming stage.

Although, looking at the achievement that the new team has accomplished, in being able to make it to the final, I believe that a bright future is there, that the Timnas will rapidly move into the norming or even the performing stage.

So, to all the Indonesia's Timnas fans, let’s continue to support the Timnas, looking at the rapid development of the team in the AFF championship, I’m sure we will see Indonesia's Timnas celebrating a champion title very soon in upcoming football championship event!

Garuda didadaku …. Garuda Kebanggaanku …. Ku Yakin …. Hari ini …. Pasti Menang


Reference:

• Tuckman’s stages of Group Development, Wikipedia, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuckman's_stages_of_group_development
• Forming Storming Norming Performing Developmental Model, Leadership Champion, http://leadershipchamps.wordpress.com/2008/04/28/forming-storming-norming-performing-developmental-model/

Eat, Pray, Love

An Idea for Change Management Approach in Everyday Life

I was in the middle of the movie ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, starring the beautiful Julia Roberts as Liz Gilbert, a woman going through major changes in her life, when a line in the movie strike me – pain is a way of transformation – then it hit me that the movie is actually can be consider as an approach to change management in a person daily life. 

It seems somehow make sense to me,  that a person and an organization, can have its own approach on change management, and it might be interesting to take a deeper look at the movie from a rather different angle and to reflect to a change management approach that is widely known.

In the movie, Liz Gilbert, having been through several major events in her life, a rough divorce followed by a break up with her boyfriend, found out to her self that she need to spend time to rediscover herself, she then plan a series of activities until end of  the year to help her somehow to be able to do just that.

The series of activities were, eat – this is where she travel to Italy, meet the different people and try the different Italian culinary delight, pray – where she travel to an ashram in India and found that she can forgive herself and then start up again, and love ­­– where she traveled to the Island of God, Bali, and start finding herself loving the people she met in Bali, Ketut the guru and wise-man, Wayan and Tutti, the medicine lady and her child, and Felipe, the new romance in her life.

The Change Curve

The journey in Liz life, somehow to me can be reflected to the journey that any organization and/or project team might encounter in the course of time.  That due to sudden changes that occur, an organization or project team might need to rediscover it self again, aim for its new goal and then if required transform a certain aspect in the organization to be able to adjust, and work to achieve the new goal.

The widely known Change Management approach, The Change Curve, consists of 4 stages/phases that most people and/organization will react to when they are going through changes.

The Change Curve is a popular and powerful model used to understand the stages of personal transition and organizational change. It helps you understand how people will react to change, so that you can help them make their own personal transitions, and make sure that they have the help and support they need.

When a change is first introduced, people's initial reaction may be shock or denial. This is stage 1 of the Change Curve.

Once the reality of the change starts to hit, people tend to react negatively and move to stage 2 of the Change Curve. Some will wrongly fear the negative consequences of change. Others will correctly identify real threats to their position.

As a result, the organization experiences disruption which, if not carefully managed, can quickly spiral into chaos. This is  the critical moment in the change event.

For as long as people resist the change and remain at stage 2 of the Change Curve, the change will be unsuccessful, at least for the people who react in this way. This is a stressful and unpleasant stage. For everyone, it is much healthier to move to stage 3 of the Change Curve, where pessimism and resistance give way to some optimism and acceptance. 

Stage 4 is when people are committed to the change and start rebuilding towards the goal and purpose of the change.

Eat, Pray, Love and The Change Curve

Going back to Liz Gilbert eat-pray-love approach, I can reflect that to the Change Curve in the following. 

Eat – This phase of Liz journey might be equal to the stage 1 (Status quo) and a bit of stage 2 (Disruption) of the Change Curve, when Liz is not really facing and confronting the change, and instead keep her self occupied with all the activities in Italy, although in the end of the Italy journey, it become more apparent to Liz that she needs to start accepting the change.

Pray –The second phase of Liz journey correlate very much to the stage 2 (Disruption) and stage 3 (Exploration) of the Change Curve.  The Ashram journey in India for Liz was started with fear and confusion that ended up with Liz being able to forgive her self and accept all the events and changes that are occurring in her life.

Love – The journey that Liz conducted to Bali relate a lot with the stage 4 (Rebuilding) of the Change Curve.  This is the time where Liz is starting to explore the different possibilities that she have in her life, building a new relationship and also working with her fear to be able to start a new commitment in her life.

Ketut, the Bali guru and wise-man also said to Liz an advice to help her move forward.  The advice was “sometimes to loose balance for love, is a part of living a balanced life”.

I was translating Ketut’s word as – sometimes every organization may need to go through a difficult change process to be able to grow and achieve new visions and goals, and this is a part of being a successful organization.

Ketut indeed, is a wise man.

@January 11, 2011, http://meja-tulis.blogspot.com

Reference:

- Elizabeth Gilbert Official Site: http://www.elizabethgilbert.com/eatpraylove.htm

- Eat. Pray, Love - Official Movie Site: http://www.eatpraylove-movie.net/

- MindTools.com – Using the Change Curve: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_96.htm