In my last article, I shared the three phases of a process review and how to execute these. After conducting the review, you will have an improved and well-documented process agreed upon by all major stakeholders. Now you are ready for the next phase: implementation.
As I mentioned in the previous article, after the initial redesign, you need to look at other impacts the restructuring of the process can have on the organization. For example: are fewer or more people required; will there be a need for automation changes; will there be an impact on the organizational structure, or will the process changes lead to shifting responsibilities?
Similar to the review process, I recommend having a project plan in place for the implementation phase, especially when you are planning to implement multiple updated processes at the same time. Keep in mind that implementing new or updated processes is an exercise in change management!
While the project plan for the implementation phase will have the same components as that for the process review, there are four elements that I want to address explicitly: project leadership, communication, education, and running a pilot.
Let's have a look at each of these topics in detail.
Project Leadership
Although the Project Manager for the implementation phase can be the same as for the review phase, this does not necessarily have to be the case. For the review phase, a sharp PM needs to drive the review process and ensure the team considers all aspects of the review.
To successfully implement the updated processes, the PM for this phase needs to be an experienced change management leader who can foresee and overcome any possible obstacles to the changes necessary.
While some of these obstacles can be technical (e.g., related to system changes), it is my experience that the hardest hurdles to overcome when implementing process changes are resistance from employees and managers.
Resistance from employees can originate from the perception that incumbents were executing not correctly in the old process. It also can be caused by employees, correctly or incorrectly, assuming that the updated process will lead to layoffs. And then there is, of course, the probably most common reason for resistance: people do not like to change. Employees know and are comfortable with the existing process, and they do not see or are not willing to see the benefits of the updated one.
Resistance to the new process from managers can stem from the same reasons, but there can be an additional source. Remember the swim lanes you created during the process redesign?
When the process change includes adding or deleting actions from several departments, turf wars might pop up, even when those same managers participated during the review phase!
While a strong change champion and an experienced change manager should be able to handle resistance, this leads us to what is maybe the most critical component of the implementation project plan.
Communication
A communication plan must be one of the deliverables of the implementation project plan. There is no workaround for this.
A good communication plan will help preventing, or at least reducing, resistance to changed processes by allowing employees, managers, and anyone else involved to understand the why, what, how, when, and who of the upcoming changes. The better all stakeholders are informed, the easier it will be to overcome resistance to change and make the updated process work. Keep in mind that when people don't know, they will assume!
The communication plan needs to address the following topics:
- Stakeholders: who needs to receive communication (e.g., C-Suite, managers, employees in general, specific employee groups, third parties);
- Communication Reason: for each stakeholder group it needs to be determined why to notify them (e.g., to keep them up-to-date on progress, to inform them in detail of implementation steps, to get buy-in, to convince, or to provide directions);
- Content: determine for each stakeholder group what they need to be informed about;
- Communication type: how should each stakeholder group be communicated with (e.g., email, job bulletins, instructions, text messages, general company messages, town hall meetings, individual or group meetings);
- Frequency: how often do you need to communicate with each stakeholder group;
- Communication ownership: to ensure that each stakeholder group receives information from the right source, you need to determine who prepares and who owns each piece of communication.
Following the above guidelines will help you ensure that each stakeholder group receives appropriate information in a timely and to-the-point manner.
Education
Although this can be considered a specific type of communication, I want to mention the stakeholders' education separately.
Education can be part of the piloting component, and you can use training materials you develop for the implementation phase later to train new employees on the process.
The better you train staff on the updated process, the better the chance on a smooth implementation when you go live. The training phase also provides an excellent opportunity to table practical questions regarding the execution of the process, which takes us to the pilot.
Pilot
A pilot is executing a new or updated process under actual business circ*mstances, but with limited scope.
While training, provided online or in a classroom setting, can provide details of the process activities and even a simulation, a pilot will give direct and valuable feedback on how the updated process works in real life.
Although this can be risky (real customers, products, services, and data are involved), a well-conducted pilot can do more than helping discover and fix the last process imperfections. Since the pilot will show the updated process in action, it might help convince skeptics about the benefits of the updated process and reduce resistance.
With an implementation project plan in place, you now are good to go to finish your process review. But this is not the end of it!
Your environment will change, your customer's needs will change, systems and tools will change, and as a consequence, your processes will need to change continuously too. This means that you need to have the means in place for Continuous Process Improvement. But that is a totally separate story.
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Disclaimer:
Although every effort has been made to ensure that the personal and professional advice presented in this article is useful and appropriate, I do not assume and hereby disclaim any liability to any person, business, or organization choosing to employ the guidance offered in this article.
Also, I am not an attorney. The information provided in this article does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice; instead, all information, content, and materials available in this article are only for general informational purposes. Information in this article may not constitute the most up-to-date legal or other information. This article might contain links to other third-party websites. Such links are only for the convenience of the reader, user, or browser; I do not recommend or endorse the contents of the third-party sites.
Readers of this article should contact their HR department or attorney to obtain advice concerning any particular legal matter. No reader or user of this article should act or refrain from acting based on information in this article without first seeking legal advice from counsel in the relevant jurisdiction. Only your HR Department or attorney can provide assurance that the information contained herein – and your interpretation of it – applies to your particular situation.
