Office of the Future: Designing Transformative Environmental Solutions

On November 17th, Calgary Change Management Think Tank members had the opportunity to see DIRTT in action when we visited their head office and manufacturing facility in south-east Calgary.

Co-hosts Julie Pithers and David Brown and a team of “DIRTTbags” welcomed us, and could not contain their enthusiasm for DIRTT!

DIRTT (Doing It Right This Time) is a disruptive force in the interior design and manufacturing industry. CMTT members who attended the April 2015 luncheon will recall that Julie (the Business Development "DIRTTbag") engaged us in a conversation about the potential for creatively transforming physical work spaces in a psychologically impactful and cost-effective approach to design and construction as an organization evolves.

Beyond the delicious appetizers and drinks, attendees saw the ICE^® 3D software in action. We also had a tour of the DIRTT showroom and experienced DIRTT’s Virtual Reality design facilities.

Altogether, it was a great evening!

(Story & photos contributed by Joan Faulk)

Pauline Patenaude with Virtual Reality glasses at DIRTT

Mel Blitzer experiences Virtual Reality at DIRTT

Yogi Schultz moves around the Virtual Reality space

September 28, 2010 Lunch Meeting Summary

Hello Think Tankers and welcome to autumn in Calgary! We've enjoyed a terrific run of weather here lately, as the leaves turn colours, we are reminded of the coming of Thanksgiving and a bit of reflection and stock-taking on the part of our network.

To that end, we hosted a bit of a planning and idea session this past lunch meeting. We received an update on our recent member survey from Natalie Muyres and Blythe Butler (click here to review the slides) and also engaged the attendees in a discussion on future ideas to improve our network and enhance the level of serve to our members.

We also have issued a call for volunteers to serve as Directors on our Board. The commitment is modest (2-4 hours per month) but the reward is immense! As a Director, you will be in a position to shape the direction of our group, as well as to contribute your talents to upcoming CMTT events. Specifically, we are looking for folks interested in helping plan and deliver our monthly lunches, as well as to design and develop new offerings like webinars and social gatherings.

If you'd like to be considered for a Board of Directors position, please contact Mark Sonnier via LinkedIn e-mail. Thanks and have a great fall!

February 23 Lunch Meeting Summary

Michelle Phaneuf, P.Eng, Q.Med. presented an overview of what conflict is and how to effectively manage it. Allowing people a chance to get through their emotions is key to moving towards resolution of issues. Michelle shared some approaches that can be used to help surface the emotions that arise during conflict to drill down to the core issues. Michelle also led the group through role play scenarios to allow us to try out these new techniques.

Michelle is a specialist in conflict resolution and works with employees and teams to lead them through conflict to creative solutions. One-on-one conflict coaching will allow you to see your situation in a different light and conflict training for staff will improve workplace dynamics. For additional information on Michelle's company, please follow this link to her website www.rea-agreements.com

• Conflict occurs when a person’s needs are not being met or acknowledged. Needs are our values, beliefs, fears, concerns, etc. Examples of needs would be respect, responsibility, professionalism, independence, fun, accountability, appreciation, recognition, acknowledgement, etc.
• There are no difficult people – they are just people who are displaying behaviour to indicate that they have not been able to have their needs met or recognized.
• It’s never about YOU, it’s about determining the unmet, unacknowledged needs of the other party.
• Conflict, in itself, is not a bad thing. Conflict is a natural and healthy process, necessary for making progress and dealing with change. The world may actually need more conflict, not less, if the appropriate skills are known and conflict can be managed productively.
• You may see conflict as “us” against “them”, but if you reframe conflict to “us” against “the problem”, resolution will be simple and mutual.
• The goal is not to end or eliminate conflict but simply to transform the way it is expressed from destructive forms such as aggression, bad behaviour and intolerance into constructive forms such as dialogue and negotiation.
• It’s not about being RIGHT, getting your way or convincing people. There is a big difference between dialogue (conversation between two or more persons) and debate (a contest in which opposing sides of a proposition are argued).

Lunch Meeting Summary: January 26, 2010

Happy New Year to everyone! The Calgary CM Think Tank started 2010 in fine form, with 18 members joining in a lively panel discussion. Thanks to Sonja Miles, Michelle Phaneuf and Blythe Butler for facilitating our table groups. Summaries of their groups' outputs are included below.

Be sure to join us on February 23 for our next meeting. Topic and speaker information will follow shortly. As always, feel free to post meeting topic and content suggestions to our LinkedIn discussion page:

Topic: Heads & Hearts - Logical vs Emotional Appeals to Change (Michelle Phaneuf, facilitator)

Most change requires us to deal with both Logical and Emotional
Decisions to make a change are usually based more in the logical aspect.
People affected by the change usually respond more to the emotional aspect.
Adjust your approach to change based on
Most people are not ready to hear the logic about the change until you acknowledge the emotion.
Commitment to change comes from the heart.
Need emotional buy-in from the people affected. Employees are often informed, but are they engaged?
People accept decisions on an emotional level, but rationalize it through logic.
Culture of the organization is important – a directive culture will tend to lean towards the logical appeal to change, while an open culture will have more success when dealing with the emotional aspects.
The ‘Sandwich Approach’ is when you deal with the emotional first, logic second and then go back to emotional aspects again. It will take multiple phases of this to occur before change is accepted.
What to do when resistance to change is apparent – don’t fight against it, find out what’s behind it.
Be flexible about having to change based on feedback from the ground up.
Provide other communication channels to allow silent (un-spoken) resistance through – blogs, etc.
Give control to the employees through coaching, listening, input, etc.
Consultant being brought in to implement change has to deal with a different dynamic than if change is implemented by employees. Consultant must be a facilitator and have excellent communication skills. Commitment from leadership is especially important when you are a consultant implementing change.

Topic: Generational Aspects of Change Management (Blythe Butler, facilitator)

Summary: Our initial discussion focused on whether generational differences factored into change initiatives in a material way. From there we moved into a discussion on organizational culture and the effect it has on change management and learning systems within the organization.

• There have always been differences between generations in terms of how people view and handle change. This not only depends on how people approach the change, but is also influenced by the change itself. Are the nature of the changes in today's environment any different than before?
• It is important to look at what values are in place within each generation: the culture in which we are raised has an effect on our values.
• How do organizations translate values into expectations? For instance: the younger generation in the workforce tends to want to be involved in strategic decisions at an early stage. This doesn't work with the 'old school', paternalistic view of many senior managers.
• Resource: Dr. Morris Massey: "What are you are is where you were when"
• It is also important to recognize that there can be a culture gap mixed in with generational gaps within a work force. i.e. new Canadians and younger/older mix.
• Being able to assess the generational and cultural gaps, as well as the overall corporate culture should be something that is addressed during on-boarding and orientation sessions. This would allow employees to have the language and the tacit permission to discuss any cultural or generational gaps from the outset and may mitigate resistance to change.
• Observation: There is no need to change instructional design to manage generational differences when it comes to specific task-based training.
• Perhaps the question is more about cultural differences vs. generational differences as the cultural aspect will be at the foundation of each generation.

Organizational Culture:

• The definition of an organizations culture needs to go back into the history of the organization - to its roots. This needs to be translated into a language and embedded in all aspects of the organization's activities. Culture can either support change or work against it.
• Organizational culture has to include:
◦ accountability structures (who is going to hold up the mirror to the organization?)
◦ transparency
◦ leadership behaviour
◦ knowledge of corporate history
◦ structures and systems to support the on-going integration of culture. i.e. link to performance management.
• Question: Can external consultants lead change management effectively? Does this vary between culture-based changes vs. project-based changes?

Topic: Accelerating Recovery after Organization Trauma e.g. mergers, layoffs, etc. (Sonja Miles, facilitator)

(also covered some Hearts & Heads content)

Internal Audience:
- consistent message to understand why the change needed to be made
- focused on front line teams
- people’s value to the organization is clarified; look at the org as a whole
- explain to people the change curve so that people understand the emotions they (their staff) are experiencing/going through
- try to keep leaders from jumping to doing instead of leading
External
- had to be careful about timing of when the change was communicated to customers

Approaches:
- Assess which groups/people are most effected
- Start early with transition education in workshops
- Make the change part of people’s objectives
- Make sure people understand the value they bring to the organization
- Senior team to be realistic that productivity may drop and that is it ok during the change timeframe
- Ask people about what they like/don’t like about the change
- Use Change Agents to speak/represent concerns for their group
- In recovery reset expectations
- Appeal to both head and heart
- Set expectations on time commitment


Heads & Hearts:
Q: Can you separate an audience to use a Head vs. Heart approach?
- May not want to do this as it is hard to split groups apart and also may look preferential
- Make sure that your messages have components of each
- Leader could analyze their teams to know how to best communicate change to their team. E.g., first ‘red’ (drivers) might help to lead the change

Approach – ‘Towards’ & ‘Away’ people
Towards people – describe where the org is going, benefits
Away people – talk about how to mitigate the pain

Ask stakeholders what they don’t like about the change (1 thing) – this may help to disarm people and make them aware that the project understands it is not all positive.

Lunch Meeting Summary: October 27, 2009

Thanks to Sonja Miles, Blythe Butler and Pamela Louie for hosting a terrific session featuring a case study exercise. Part 1 of a 2-part series, the exercise involved creation of a change management methodology in support of a fictitious program management office (PMO). Each of the three groups in attendance took a slightly different variation on the exercise, and their results are posted below.

The second portion of the exercise will be the subject of the upcoming November 23 meeting. Hope you can join us!

Group 1 (Sonja Miles, facilitator)

Scenario:

You are an employee of a medium sized ( about 500 employees) organization which has recently decided to establish a Project Management Office (PMO). As part of the new PMO, you and your colleagues (those at your table) have been tasked to form a team responsible for the development of a change management methodology, governance model and supporting tools.

Background:

The PMO concept is sponsored and endorsed by VP Change Management. The organization has recently reorganized from the Super Board to one leadership group. As part of the Health Care sector, your company occupies a monopoly position and are trying to optimize health care in Alberta. You do not have an established budget, per se, but will be expected to provide business justification for any funding or staffing requirements beyond your immediate team.

Today’s Deliverables:

It is anticipated that by the end of this session, you will have developed the following:

1. Methodology Design Strategy (e.g. In-Source, Out-source, Hybrid, including rationale and supporting details)

• Lean and mean
• Use just in time assessment tool to determine which of the tools should be used
• Adopt a risk communication approach due to the lack of trust between upper management, front line nurses and the public
• Start with an established model and customize. The model selected was Appreciative Inquiry

We assumed that the team was dedicated to working on this and that external consultants would not be brought in. The work is schedule driven and we need to work within the budget allocated.

2. Methodology Components (Elevator Speech, Program Summary – bullet list)

• Start with workshops for all impacted group.
1. Introduction would include an overview of Appreciative Inquiry
• Conduct situational assessment
1. Risks
2. Stakeholders
3. What do we do well in communication, vision, organization, etc.,
4. How do we make it better
• Toolkit
1. Stakeholder engagement
2. Measurement
3. Communication strategies that leverage Appreciative Inquiry
4. “Workout” workshops will be used to identify recommendations to issues and identify improvements
• Elevator speech
1. Working to make things better
2. Improve how we deliver projects and operational benefits
   
   

3. Governance Model (Descriptive and/or Organizational Chart sketch)

• Need to be respectful of the union
• ….did not get any further

Group 2 (Blythe Butler, facilitator)

Scenario:

You are an employee of a LARGE organization which has recently decided to establish a Project Management Office (PMO). As part of the new PMO, you and your colleagues (those at your table) have been tasked to form a team responsible for the development of a change management methodology, governance model and supporting tools.

Background:

The PMO concept is sponsored and endorsed by the VP (reporting to the CIO). The organization has recently experienced mergers and growth. As part of the public sector, your company occupies a dominant, leader position. You do not have an established budget, per se, but will be expected to provide business justification for any funding or staffing requirements beyond your immediate team.

Today’s Deliverables:

It is anticipated that by the end of this session, you will have developed the following:

1. Methodology Design Strategy (e.g. In-Source, Out-source, Hybrid, including rationale and supporting details)

Assumptions:

• company is large, beaurocratic, established.
• the audience is technical: has project management experience but not change management process
• methodology needs to be combined with PM deliverables as well as "softer" results.
• We are going to try to expand the current PM methodology and add CM processes to it.

Why are we doing this? What will be improved?

• increased employee engagement/buy-in through increased understanding
• implementation benefits and success
• adoption rates increased
• end-user satisfaction increased
• added value of the project increased
• will will leverage existing internal assets to ensure efficiency and legacy (communications, HR, marketing, sales.)

Details of our strategy:

• Make the argument to bring in a CM expert so that we can leverage customized expertise while leveraging internal resources (time)
• There would be change management at the project level, but as well as CM methodology for the organization as a whole.
• We would engage the PMO in a discussion around how to implement change management into the performance metrics for the PMO, as well as in the projects being managed.

Our argument: CM will enable the PMO to:

• Determine the "right" projects, and do the right projects well.
• Ensure sustainable buy-in and implementation
• Build the capacity of PM's to do their own CM over time
• Make knowledge transfer a priority
• Create links with other businesses departments to support CM components
• Will measure success beyond functionality, and support that change to happen
• Implement a training program that can be used by internal champions over time

2. Methodology Components (Elevator Speech, Program Summary – bullet list)

• CM will optimize business value. We want to hire a CM consultant to build on our current assets, integrate CM with our existing infrastructure, re-design our success measures to ensure CM legacy, and build CM capacity within current PMs by leveraging other departments.
  
  

Group 3 (Pamela Louie, facilitator)

Scenario:

You are an employee of a mid-size organization which has recently decided to establish a Project Management Office (PMO). As part of the new PMO, you and your colleagues (those at your table) have been tasked to form a team responsible for the development of a change management methodology, governance model and supporting tools.

Background:

The PMO concept is sponsored and endorsed by the CIO. The organization has recently decided to embark on a software consolidation strategy, replacing numerous disparate systems with an enterprise system. As part of the Financial Services sector, your company occupies a follower position. You do not have an established budget, per se, but will be expected to provide business justification for any funding or staffing requirements beyond your immediate team.

Today’s Deliverables:

It is anticipated that by the end of this session, you will have developed the following:

1. Methodology Design Strategy (e.g. In-Source, Out-source, Hybrid, including rationale and supporting details)

The Strategy will be strategic in focus and utilize the knowledge and expertise obtained by those industry leaders who have successfully navigated this change. This will be achieved by “poaching” talent from competitors to join the project team where the goal will be obtain knowledge transfer from the more experienced industry leaders to those on the project team which have been seconded from the business.

The rationale in choosing this means of developing the methodology is to reduce time to return to expected performance levels, develop standardization and consistency, take on less risk, and recognize a faster return on the software investment.

2. Methodology Components (Elevator Speech, Program Summary – bullet list)
   
   

Elevator Speech:

A Change Management practice will ensure people’s support for change and allow the organization to implement change while maintaining employee engagement and productivity.

Program Summary

· Establish a baseline and articulate measures in terms of costs and change history/tolerance

· The PMO for Change Management will be set up as a central service. Proposed change initiatives will be reviewed, the approach will be determined, and one of the PMO members will be assigned to lead the change initiative

· A Change Methodology will be applied to each change initiative utilizing best practices, as appropriate for the financial services industry, blended with strategies and tools that the PMO have seen as achieving prior success within the organization

· Business experts will be borrowed from the business to work on a given project alongside individuals brought on in a consulting capacity from other Financial Services organizations who have successfully gone through a similar project. Internal project members will be expected to learn from the experiences of these “consultants” to develop an in-house knowledge base

Lunch Meeting Summary: September 22, 2009

Thanks to the 17 folks who joined us for lunch. We utilized a different format than the usual small-group breakout discussions we normally employ.

Mark Sonnier shared a presentation on Suncor's experiences on the internal delivery of employee and leader workshops on Change and Transition in support of the recent Petro-Canada merger. Key learnings included the importance of open, honest communications and focus on conveying the need for individuals to actively participate in their own transitions, which result from organizational changes.

For October and November lunches, the group will tackle a 2-part case study designed to stimulate discussion on organizational change methodology development, as well as the role of internal and external change support resources. Save the dates: October 27 and November 24!

Luncheon Meeting Notes: July 28, 2009

Meeting Recap:

12 attendees. Agreed to slightly modify format for August meeting to include a “report back” component to the discussion process. One topic per team, with time allowed for sharing results with larger group. Additional topics suggested for future sessions. Catherine Angus offered to submit a proposal for a change management simulation event to gauge member interest. Next meeting: August 25 @ Centini’s.

Discussion Topics:

Topic #1 Leader Alignment: What are some change techniques to effectively engage with middle management?

· Pitfalls of an executive-only change leadership strategy:

o Middle management expects to be consulted with vs. merely included in “all employees” messaging

o Strong pull to have middle managers own and explain the change to affected staff

· Cascading leader alignment:

o Leaders onboard / engage / dialog with next level down (need facilitation help at times)

o Opportunity to improve / enhance / make the change more real at all levels of the organization

o Credibility of middle managers vs. C-level leaders enhanced (closer to the workforce)

· How to ensure middle managers buy-in / “walk the talk”?

o Educate leaders on criticality of modeling desired change behaviours

o Executive coaching opportunity for change practitioners

>

· Biggest challenge is getting execs to be drivers of change

o Very busy (middle managers also)

o Bring them in early

· LISTEN and act on what they say

· Spend time with them (may have to invent forums to get them to come together)

o Technique depends on type of change (i.e. merger vs. application change)

· Paint a realistic picture for them:

o Give examples

o Draw the future

o WIIFM

o Test your understanding: WIIFM with them first

· Cull the naysayers early – coach, or…

· Get them to articulate the benefits of change – Appreciative Inquiry

>

· Key communicator councils – mix of group to champion

· Understand the impact to the middle manager

· Honest answers to pointed questions (one-on-ones)

· Leader alignment could assist here

>

· Middle managers’ bosses need to be on board

· Keep managers engaged with regular “lite” reporting

· Expectation management

· Consistently / regularly communicate the value proposition

· Show how initiative will solve problems

· Get right people together @ right time with right information (NOT TOO MUCH!)

Topic #2 Measurement: How can we assess change management effectiveness, including key metrics and reporting?

· Pre/Post employee surveys - Staff retention; turnover

· Focus groups (sometimes you want people to leave…)

· Focus on the drivers for the business change

· Often there is no baseline

· What are the industry metrics / benchmarks?

· Measure via communication vehicles – portal

o Survey Monkey / Zoomerang

· Solicit feedback at department meetings

· Time to Performance: ramp-up time for new hires vs. existing personnel

· Start with audience identification

· Rework and error rates

· Uptake of new technologies

· Application of training knowledge

· Check whether people “got” the message communicated

>

· Use technology: keystroke counter

· Ensure baseline is taken prior to impact

· “Be careful what your measure” - quality is not always measured as improvement

· Timing is important – reflect the change curve

· Change Management success is not often included in project measures

· Project & Business both need to sign off on change

· Both qualitative and quantitative

· Change can be “good” and successful or “bad” and successful

>

· Prior to measurement, need to work with business customers to define what the measurements are, directly linked to business outcomes

· Metric measurement should be incremental, showing progress towards the target and reporting this broadly

>

· Business benefits – articulated in business case / project charter

o Hard metrics ($ savings, operational metrics OK)

o Soft metrics (Perceptions, Attitudes, Behaviours)

o Productivity improvement tougher to measure – consider asking those affected if the change made their work easier

o Learning – Ideas: Requests for support (Help Desk, super user feedback, web hits against toolkits

Topic #3 Development: How can we focus on development of the change management function (barriers, org support, etc.)?

· Suggest separate but equal to the PMO

· Understanding within the organization of the value of the process

· Buy-in at the executive level

· To develop within, you need CM skill set

· Demonstrate value – ROI

· Choose first initiative to set up for success

· Barriers to acceptance could be quantifiable results or measurement

· Barrier to implementation if it isn’t consistently applied

· Org support for a defined formal role & responsibilities and support for a defined process

>

· Link to business results

· Make it measurable – need to establish agreement on metrics

· Need to establish clarity in functional skills in order to ensure delivery of expected service

· Link metrics to compensation of change initiative sponsors

· Barrier exists where PM feels threatened by CM resource, which can result in minimizing the effectiveness of the CM function

· Need relationships / trust with “consumers of CM”

>

· Clear vision of what CM is…

o Components: Leader Alignment (Sponsorship) and Culture, Communications, Learning, Business Readiness (Metrics + Sustainability)

o Leader Role: Vision, expectation setting, performance monitoring / Rewards & consequences

· CM Function Components:

o Staffing: Right people, potential for growth, flexibility, cross-functional or leadership development assignments

o Methodology: Developed internally (organic) vs. purchased (external) or some hybrid of both

o Rules of Engagement: When / how to deploy people and methodology (i.e. formal vs. informal CM)

>

· Risk: Being embedded in an IT project -> not an IT function

· Need perception that this is a professionally skilled role

· Requires enthusiasm – sometimes need a recharge to keep going

Topic #4 Staffing: For organizations wishing to staff devoted CM positions, what are some sizing guidelines to follow?

· Dependency of project size / project volume

· Need to forecast demand to meet requirements

· Need to look @ ROR on projects to industry headcount

· Concern RE: scalability when projects ebb and flow

· Value proposition of services provided

· Link sizing guidelines to org. vision

· Considerations for sizing can depend on the objective of the dept. to deliver robust program in-house vs. advisory services

· Will customers of CM want to be involved?

>

· Sometimes initial event / project driven (SAP, etc.)

o Depends on where work is situated (e.g. IT vs. HR)

· Balance between internal / base load work plus supplemental external staffing for peaks

o Plus external resources bring new ideas, if mindful of existing CM framework

· Where Business Partner role exists, CM can support the organization through them (and staff as a multiple or percentage of the BP levels)

>

· May depend on the CM process / methodology / philosophy subscribed to (may drive resourcing)

· How static is employee population? Is a portion always in transition? What is employee receptiveness to CM?

>

· Baseline of CM in company

o Past CM time estimates

o Past processes & successes

· Knowledge of resistance

· Can CM be a role in a dept. and report to business director?

· CM skillsets vary by function

· Use business directions to understand the sizing parameter

· Cause and effect Pareto diagram for change and risk management \ estimate sizing effort

· 15% of budget for project change and communications

· How mature is the CM methodology in the organization?