Archive
Change Management
(Archived on 10 April 2006)
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Peter de Jager is an internationally recognized leader in organizational change management this is what he has to say on the underlying dynamics of making it happen successfully.
People choose to Change all the time. We seek promotions, change jobs, move house, leave companies by choice, learn to play the piano, get married and then decide to have children who grow up to be teenagers. Everyone, without exception, chooses to Change when they believe Change is either necessary or desirable.
So much for the Management Myth that people resist change. People do however resist being changed.
As to the belief that Resistance is bad? Resistance is merely protecting what worked for us in the past, until we have a legitimate reason to try something new.
Without resistance wed be at the mercy of every salesperson and every brochure selling us a new service
Contrary to the advice of most Management books on Change Resistance is necessary to the proper functioning of your organization.
Change presents us with a difficult problem. Organisations must embrace change when it is necessary, and must resist change when it isnt. Even more importantly, Management must unlock the secret of getting others to Change.
The first step toward solving these conundrums is to throw out some of the more destructive myths regarding Change. The next step is to recognize the the question Why should I Change? is not the problem, but the solution to what we perceive as being organizational resistance to change.
A reality based Change model accepts the fact that we all need legitimate reasons to Change, and leverages this new perspective into effective Change Management.
The consequences of this type of thinking is that people are empowered to quickly move from a position of Why should we Change? to When will we Change?.
2005, Peter de Jager
Contacts: pdejager@technobility.com
www.technobility.com +1 905-792-8706
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OODA Loops
(Archived on 17 January 2006)
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In war or in business, there is ever increasing emphasis on faster decision
cycles. Response time is increasingly seen as a competitive weapon.
A recent Boeing CEO put it this way. " If I can make decisions faster than
my competitor, if I can get inside his decision cycle, then I've got him."
cycles. Response time is increasingly seen as a competitive weapon.
This emphasis on rapid decision-making, on "getting inside" the decision
cycles of our competitors, is based on the work of the late John Boyd. As a
US Air Force pilot, he was known as "40 Second Boyd" because of a standing
bet he offered. Starting from positions of equal advantage, he could defeat
any fighter pilot within just 40 seconds, or he'd pay $40. There were many
takers but Mr. Boyd never had to pay up.
cycles. Response time is increasingly seen as a competitive weapon.
In a competitive environment, Mr. Boyd knew that whoever could most rapidly
"observe, orient, decide and act" would win. And thus the OODA Loop was
born.
cycles. Response time is increasingly seen as a competitive weapon.
What does this all have to do with project management? Most obviously,
project management allows organisations to implement strategic change more
quickly and effectively, and thus enables more rapid decision cycles.
cycles. Response time is increasingly seen as a competitive weapon.
Chet Richards, Ph.D., specialises in helping firms use time as a competitive
advantage. His newest book, Certain to Win, applies Mr. Boyd's ideas to the
business world. For Dr. Richards, the most crucial part of the OODA loop is
orientation, where we filter and evaluate the meaning of observed events. By
orienting more correctly and more quickly - better and faster than the
competition - we better understand the world around us.
cycles. Response time is increasingly seen as a competitive weapon.
Moving from observation and orientation toward decision and action, Dr.
Richards points out the importance of "common outlook", what Mr. Boyd called
"einheit" (the German word for unit). Here we see an idea common to great
project teams: In a fast moving environment, there is rarely time to seek
permission before every decision. Instead, project team members need a
common understanding of mission - what the military calls "commander's
intent - to achieve the success and speed they desire. A team that
understands the project manager's intent is on track toward faster OODA
Loops, as people empowered to employ initiative in timely pursuit of project
objectives.
cycles. Response time is increasingly seen as a competitive weapon.
"This orientation (filtering) process is particularly relevant to the
project manager due to the number of stakeholders throughout the project
life cycle - project sponsor, executive team, functional peers, project team
members, customers, etc" according to Nick Horney Ph.D., co-author of
Project Management Change.
cycles. Response time is increasingly seen as a competitive weapon.
Even if all these stakeholders have the same observations, they will have
different orientations. So einheit - that commonality of outlook, so prized
by Mr. Boyd - will be possible only with serious effort on the part of the
project manager.
cycles. Response time is increasingly seen as a competitive weapon.
To achieve commonality of outlook requires clear communication and constant
project re-alignment in the face of divergent stakeholder forces. But with a
connected participant and stakeholder team comes the potential for faster
decision and action. And that in turn delivers that elusive ability to make
faster and better decisions, and to act on them according to project
manager's intent.
By Bud Baker, Raj Soin College of Business, Wright State University, USA.
Source: PM Network, the monthly PMI Magazine
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The Wireless Office
(Archived on 08 July 2005)
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KPMG CIO Ian McBride says wireless access is saving his senior partners and directors an hour a day. Thats big money.
For professional services companies with staff that warm the seats at client sites, or for mobile field crews that are always on the run, it makes sense to give teams access to important operational tools any time any where.
Gartner Group says that Mobile and wireless systems will control the face of corporate computing in 2005. Are you ready?
There are of course a number of ways that staff have mobile access to operational data from a mobile phone voice call, through SMS and push or pull email, through time and expense recording, work assignment and progress reporting, to operational data access (e.g. manuals and methodology), and even training videos.
Its all increasing possible at a lower price, and through systems that are robust and reliable. And the range of applications is wide. Mobile VoIP is an example of how the internet is becoming increasingly mobile. Using a popular free VoIP service like skype (www.skype.com) through a Wi-Fi hotspot means your can provide a conference call connectivity to teams at little cost (laptop and headphones not included). This technology is now being deployed into a Californian community hospital, and will support staff on the move between Wi-Fi nodes.
One of the issues with mobile computing is that sensitive data may now be outside the office, and if the device is lost or stolen, the data may fall into the wrong hands. KPMGs device data is protected by kill-pill technology if a device is reported missing, the next time it is connected to the Internet it will receive a signal to wipe its contents shades of 007 and cyanide pills.
Another approach is to combine mobile computing with thin client interfaces, like TeamFrame. This allows staff to record time and expense, receive work instructions, work as a synchronised team even when geographically dislocated, provide progress updates and raise issues, access work instructions, send email and SMS without data privacy issues. All data (except for downloaded documents) resides on a central server. And because no special software is required, its easy to connect people outside the organization, like customers, partners, vendors and contractors.
Blackberry mobile email nicknamed crackberry because of its addictiveness is the first wave of mobile business computing applications that are becoming ubiquitous. No longer an executive tool, its becoming the new SMS for those with more to say! And close on its heels is a range of applications that offer a wider range of mobile business functionality at a price point any business can afford.
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ASP
(Archived on 15 June 2005)
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A hosted service is Pay as you go. This approach is attractive for budget considerations, since it converts a depreciating capital expenditure to an operating expense. This improves cash flow calculations and can mean lesser cost of funds. This also means lower financial risk, since the client has signed for a known period, and presumably can stop at any time if absolutely necessary, perhaps attracting an early termination clause.
Lower total cost of ownership (TCO). There are numerous additional costs associated with a software purchase versus a subscription service:
| Annual software maintenance and upgrade charges. For a
hosted service, these are part of the subscription |
| Purchase of hardware to run the software |
| Purchase of ancillary software, such a database and application servers |
| Annual maintenance on this support structure of hardware and
software |
| Technical implementation consulting fees |
| Technical training of IT personnel |
| Future cost of deploying upgrades, including designing an upgrade plan |
| Ongoing IT overhead |
Deployment is faster. This means faster time to realise the benefits. The customer can be up and running, with only configuration specific to their needs to be set up. Updates can be made available for the next time the customer logs on.
Accessibility. A subscription application is delivered over the web to a browser. This means there is no client installation, and a built-in look and feel is applied. Personalised settings are not particular to the client, and so the same user can access information at the office or in the field without reconfiguration.
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