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 

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