Easy way to talk about change
Problem
Change doesn’t happen in isolation. Change one thing and inputs and outputs need to be changed to accommodate it. To make significant organisational change happen means that the changes taking place in teams and departments have to be aligned with other teams and departments who are busy making their own changes happen.
This blog is about a simple mechanism I use for helping all parts of an organisation align to each other’s changes.
Re-invent the Scrum!
I have adapted the Agile Daily Scrum or Daily Stand Up meeting. In Agile this meeting brings together the whole team who are working on a change. It is a short meeting, no longer than 15 minutes, and everyone stands up so that they are fully engaged and motivated to keep the meeting short and focused. The agenda is very simple, as each member of the team shares the following information:
1. This is what I have been doing since yesterday
2. This is what I am going to be doing today
3. These are the issues I am concerned about and this is how I am addressing them
New structure
Depending on how fast moving the organisation is, I have created a dial-in meeting (if you can get people together face to face, that is ideal but it takes more organisation) that happens every week, fortnight or month. The purpose of the meeting is for everyone involved in change to understand what others are doing and what the impact of this is on their work. The agenda is:
- Our interpretation of the change is that we have to do X and we have to behave like Y
- To do this we have prioritised to carry out these activities….
- This is what we have achieved so far……
- How does this impact on you?
- So how might you build on it?
- How can we work together to amend the change to meet all of our needs?
The key to this meeting being a success is that it is short, so that everyone can dial-in, and that it is focused on what is happening, not why it is happening or what might be happening in the future or how people are feeling about the changes. All of these items can be debated in strategic planning workshops run alongside these meetings on a less frequent basis.
Keep the focus on actual changes that are happening now, and what effect they are having on the other parts of the organisation around you.
Benefits
The advantages of this regular meeting is that it is a quick and painless way to build the coalitions that are needed to resolve issues, and it is a great way of keeping everyone focused on making regular progress. The meeting self-regulates the group because people like to have progress to share, so it drives people to get things done before the next meeting.
I have found this approach to be very scalable, because it can happen at the team level, with team leaders sharing what their teams are doing, at the department level with department heads sharing the key changes in their areas and at division/directorate level where senior managers can share the practical impact of the big changes they are overseeing.
I hope you find this helpful. As ever, let me know your views.
‘PROSCI Accredited Change Manager | Overcoming Change Resistance | Effective People Leader |Business Transformation Specialist’
7 年This is really useful Melanie. The most important thing during change is to keep talking and listening. These stand ups are a great way to do that without too much hassle.
Accredited Coach, Agility, Transformational Change, Ways of Working | ex-HSBC
7 年Melanie Franklin - we've been running daily stand ups in the team for about 18 months. It's had a huge impact on how we work together, collaborate, and support each other. We do it virtually, not everyone attends every day due to diaries, we don't use it in a strictly agile sense, but everyone likes it and we all know what each other are working on! It's also one thing everyone can do to start working in an agile way.
Independent Consultant
7 年David Shelton this is the article I mentioned on questions / change / scrum
Business and people-focused behaviour change specialist, focused on change and transformation in complex environments
7 年Many of the agile techniques are adopted out of context and then people experiencing them believe the techniques to be of limited value. I have recently completed an agile pm course and whilst I have worked with agile techniques in company before it was reopening to see it fully connected
Seasoned Portfolio, Program & Project Consultant | Global | Delivering Extensive Leadership Expertise in Medium to Large-scale Tech Change programs | Transformational Change Agent
7 年Thanks for outlining the way you approach this, Melanie. The questions you use will focus thinking and behaviour on the in-flight activities. I can see how responses to Q's 1 and 2 would immediately expose possible gaps that can then be addressed (re-aligned, stopped, continued etc) in ongoing strategic meetings and workshops. My experience of a daily Scrum has been one of little return for the time invested. Maybe that's OK at task delivery level but it 'doesn't cut the mustard' when change and its impact is concerned. This approach however, is more tangible and connected to the overall change objective and goal, it's also time efficient when everyone is stretched to the max. The fact that it is scalable is exactly what you need for ownership, accountability, and an Org to actually change. Great stuff!