From Here to There: Defining the Future

From Here to There: Defining the Future

Takeaways

“The change leader’s job is to create advocates for the change at every level of the organization.” Jack Welch

From Here to There: Defining the Future

What it Means

Creating a compelling vision, crafting a clear roadmap and executing an effective communications strategy are key ingredients of managing change. Great leaders can paint a picture of the future state that not only captures the mind, but also the heart allowing participants in the change process to see how much better things will be after the change efforts have been completed.

Why it Matters

·         A change initiative rarely gains great momentum without a tangible, passionate cry for change.

·         It creates unity and common ground among all the people touched by the change.

·         People engaged in the project need to understand where they are heading, how to get there and what’s in it for them.

“Change has few cheerleaders in its early days, but when the change process works and brings great results, everyone is the father of the change.” Jack Welch

Action Plan

From Here to There: Defining the Future

Whether you are managing a smaller project in your department or leading a massive integration between corporations, creating a compelling vision and a roadmap, and having a clear plan to communicate them are fundamental criteria for successful implementation of any change initiative. The activities that follow will:

·         Summarize the key components necessary to create your own vision for change

·         Outline the elements necessary to build your roadmap

·         Review key steps to develop your communication plan

Your Starting Point

1.      Do I already have a concise version of the Shared Need (refer to What’s in it for Me?)?

2.      Do I have some high level talking points of what the Vision could be?

3.      What informal input have I already collected about the Vision from key leaders?

4.      What are the key stepping stones (aka milestones) that will be a part of the roadmap?

5.      Do I have a good understanding of which communication tools are available in my organization?

6.      Which parts of the organization will require the most communication and why?

Quick Wins for Managing Change

Depending on what your responses were in the What’s in it for Me? Activity, the four simple activities can be a great support as you begin to create the foundation of your Vision, Roadmap, and Communication Plan. The purpose here is not to formalize the entire change initiative at this stage, but rather to begin to get people talking, imagining the possibilities and to identify areas of consensus and divergence.

·         Gather key leaders in the organization to brainstorm ideas about the Vision.

1.      How do they envision it?

2.      Which points seem to be common across multiple leaders?

3.      Where do you see differences?

·         Following the brainstorming session, review your notes and start consolidating the different points of view, until you are able to summarize the issues in a handful of bullet points.

·         Write down the key items that will need to change in order to reach the Vision: this will be the foundation of your Roadmap.

·         Finally, write down the stakeholders that will be negatively affected by the changes. You will need to spend extra time on your Communication Plan for these groups.

Key Questions for Developing a Vision

As you develop your vision, it is essential to think about (and answer) several questions in order to craft the right message and secure early buy-in from a few key leaders in the organization. Review the following questions and write out your answers.

1.      What are the key components of the status quo that need to change?

2.      What will be different in the future?

3.      How will people behave differently in the vision? What’s in it for them?

4.      Who are the few key leaders that will need to support this vison and make it their own? Why did you select each of these leaders?

5.      What messaging about the vision (or future state) of the organization would most likely resonate with each of them? Why?

6.      What will customers experience? How will the vision benefit them?

7.      What is the immediate next step to move in the right direction?

Remember to leverage key foundational items from your “Shared Need,” which you developed earlier in the process. The Vision should leverage the Shared Need as its foundation and then project a forward looking statement on how the organization will change for the better.

Creating Your Roadmap

To realize your vision, you have to be able to measure how far you’ve come and how far you still have to go—and to do this, it’s critical to have a roadmap.

A roadmap is a simple summary of the key milestones you need to reach, in order to eventually realize your Vision. The key ingredient of a powerful Roadmap is simplicity. Don’t get bogged down in the details and the how (this is where your project team will be focusing their efforts). For now, focus on identifying the key stepping stones that mark a significant progress in the right direction.

To define your roadmap, follow this exercise:

1.      Define the “Gap” between your current state and the Vision.

2.      List the key things that will need to change in order to execute the Vision under the following headings:

Processes

Which key processes will need to change (or be created) in order to deliver the Vision?

Capabilities

What type of capabilities will the organization need to develop to accomplish the Vision?

Structure

Does the organizational structure need to change to support the Vision? If yes, write down what types of changes need to be made.

Infrastructure

Does the Vision require any major infrastructure changes, such as IT systems overhaul or new systems?

3.      Collect these thoughts from #2 on sticky notes and aim to narrow down your key milestone list to 6 or 8 maximum. The sticky notes make it easy to line them up on a wall and play around with their order. Make note of which items need to precede other milestones (e.g., make the acquisition prior to changing IT systems, etc.).

4.      The simpler and cleaner you keep the roadmap picture, the easier it will be to communicate and remind the organization where they are in the process.

5.      Require that the change initiative teams use this roadmap as part of their detailed project plan. The Vision, Roadmap, Project Plan and Communication Plan need to go hand-in-hand.

Communication Plan

The Communication Plan is one of the most important tools for the success of your initiative. Change Leaders who successfully implement initiatives know that this document is not just something that is used at the beginning of the project, but gets used throughout the entire life of the project.

Remember that the communication Plan only provides a framework for the regular communication of the project and its key milestones. There should also be plenty of informal an ad hoc communications to supplement this plan. In particular, think about those who will be most negatively impacted and whether you need to provide some additional communication mechanisms for them. You may want keep them informed more frequently, to help generate buy in.

Many organizations use a simple Excel sheet to plan their communications and periodically reassess the communication plan effectiveness. Whatever organization tools your employ, at a minimum, you will want to identify four key components:

1.      WHO is your target audience for that specific communication (e.g., major stakeholder groups Sales team, Manufacturing Plant, etc.)? For broad communications, such as a Company quarterly newsletter, it could be all employees. Reference your Stakeholder Map to ensure all your key constituents are captured.

2.      WHAT is the purpose of your communication? Are you communicating the achievement of a major milestone? Is it a status update? Is it a call to action?

3.      WHEN will you deliver communications to specific audiences? It could coincide with existing planned events (Town Hall, Team retreat, Quarterly Review, Weekly Staff Meeting, etc.) or it could be a separate event. In some cases, you may not have a specific timing in mind, make sure you list as a minimum the calendar week or month as a placeholder.

4.      HOW will you actually communicate and via what channels? You may be using live events to deliver a speech or a presentation. Or you may be using indirect channels such as emails, company newsletters, the company intranet site, etc. Remember that repetition is a key to success, so more is better. In addition, alternate the type of medium you use; some people assimilate better through an oral communication, others are more visual and will be more receptive emails, flyers, etc.

5.      One of the advantages of creating this in list in Excel, is the ability to sort the columns in different ways. As you complete your list, sort your list by WHO and then by WHEN. This will enable you to see how often you will be reaching each key audience.

6.      Communication should be frequent and use at least a couple of different mediums for each stakeholder. As a rule of thumb, if your initiative spans the course of a year, you will want to reach each audience at least on a biweekly basis throughout the life of the project.

Below is an example of a Communication Plan.

Target Audience	Communication Date	Channel	Communication Topic
Sales Team	2/2/19	Sales Team Meeting	Vision, Q&A
All Employees	2/17/19	Town Hall	Vision, Status Update
Operations Team	2/24/19	Email	Status Update, Next Steps

Game Pages

From Here to There:

Your Starting Point

Developing a Vision

Communication Plan

Creating a Roadmap

For each section, summarize the following items:

1.      Name of the milestone

2.      Brief description. Remember to include measureable goals, since this will eventually drive your measurement system.

3.      Estimated timeframe.

Current Status	Starting Point	Today’s Organization	Today’s Date

Milestone	Name of Milestone	Brief Description	Estimated Date
1
2
3
4
5
6

Future State	Name of Milestone	Brief Description	Estimated Date