​We’ve all heard the research.  Roughly 70% of project fail to achieve the intended return.  Approximately 50% of the time this is due to leadership protecting the status quo.  Change is hard.  Even for leaders, it is difficult. 
 
As leaders, we don’t set out to protect “the way we’ve always done it” but we have habits too.  We are used to making decisions using similar criteria or in a certain way.  We also have very busy schedules which sometimes affect our decision making as it relates to change.  We make choices every day and sometimes we have to weigh the time it may take to deal with an issue one way vs another.  We may choose the easier option as we don’t have the time to dedicate to the more difficult path and the results will be similar anyway. 
 
The challenge for leaders is that our staff is looking at our actions.  They are evaluating what they are hearing and they are looking to see if actions are aligning with what is being said.  They are taking their ques from what is being done versus what is being said.  Leaders go through the same change cycle as everybody else.  It can take time to fully comprehend the changes taking place and how you should react.  While you are going through the change cycle, you are sending signals to our staff about the importance of adopting the changes taking place. 
 
Invest in Four Key Areas to Maximize the Opportunity for Success

1. Be authentic and transparent.  Communicate that you are still figuring out what the changes mean for everyone.  You may not have all the answers and the team needs to work together to figure it out. 
2. Form a coalition of sponsors.  You can’t be everywhere at once and when an organization is undergoing significant changes, sometimes you will just need a break.  At the onset of change, engage key leaders to help.  They can facilitate changes in their department and they can participate as part of a broader team that evangelizes the need to change.  When you aren’t in the room, they can take the lead to deliver the message and help to manage resistance. 
3. As the organizational impact of change is recognized, ensure leaders at all levels understand what is changing and why.  Every leader should craft key talking points for their direct reports to ensure there is consistency and understanding among the entire leadership team.
4. Every leader with staff affected by change needs to be visible throughout the change and facilitate an ongoing conversation.  If it sounds like additional work, you are being realistic.  As a leader, you need to be visible and engage the team.  It is more than sending an email or attending a status meeting.  The team is looking to you for guidance and encouragement.  Town halls, lunch and learns, open office hours, random visits to team members, etc should be routine throughout the entire lifecycle of the project. 

 
Yes. It is extra work.  The coalition can help and you can grow the coalition over time.  It won’t replace you being present but it can lessen the load.  Also, consider the organizational consequences of delayed or partial change adoption.  Investing time and energy into being visible and fostering a conversation will pay dividends and you may even achieve a greater return from the change than you expected.
 
Research over the last 15+ years has repeatedly shown that effective leadership is pivotal to the adoption and success of change.  Leaders at every level need to effectively engage and take action.  It is an investment of time and energy but the returns are well worth it.

Organizational agility is the ability for your IT organization to adapt quickly in response to changes in technology or changes in the business.  It requires the IT organization to have a foundation in place that includes the processes and controls that equate to stability but allow for flexibility so that the IT organization can be dynamic, taking advantage of change and potentially, actually thriving on change. 
 
When the IT organization has high agility, it not only supports the business in achieving its’ goals and objectives, IT offers a competitive advantage providing its’ customers with the opportunity to improve the speed to market for new products and services, facilitate a new customer experience, or optimize costs by taking advantage of changes in the technology landscape. 
 
To build agility, IT organizations must take actions to harness the power of change in the organization.  It must help people not only adapt but feel that they can prosper in times of change.  This often requires culture change with the organization.  IT leaders can define a path which embeds agility into the culture.  This requires targeted actions that tie to the very foundation of the organization.  Redefining the vision and strategy process and plan, identifying and changing management behaviors, modifying job descriptions, changing the reward and incentive plan, and redesigning employee development are some basic actions that tie to embedding agility into the culture.  It is an effort that requires focused planning and leadership.

What if you aren’t ready to undertake this type of initiative but you want to improve the agility within your team or division?  What steps can you can take to see some improvement?
 
5 Tips to Improve Organizational Agility 

1. Change the way you frame initiatives when communicating with your team.  Provide context as to why changes are occurring, the business impact, and the team’s role in being successful.  When IT staff understand why something is changing, the business impact, and their role, it helps to reduce fear, reinforces the anticipated outcome, and provides them with context for decision making. 
2. Ask key stakeholders about the results they need in order to strengthen the relationship, understand their perspective, and discuss any misconceptions about what is or will be delivered.
3. Challenge the way you and your team manage setbacks.  Strive to turn setbacks into true learning opportunities with everyone on the team examining their own behaviors and actions to determine how they could have changed the outcome. 
4. Routinely ask what you are your team are doing to help each other as well as how you are hindering individual and team performance.  Asking these questions helps to build a stronger understanding of how you can support each other and it often identifies behaviors that are causing difficulties.
5. Discuss your risk tolerance and decision making authorities. In the areas where you have a higher risk tolerance, consider simplifying decision making processes and approval authorities.  Taking this action will empower individuals and teams and greatly improve the speed of decision making. 

 
Embedding organizational agility into the IT culture takes time and focused effort but given the critical nature of technology and the pace of change in your industry, how can you afford to postpone taking steps to improve the effectiveness and adaptability of the organization?

Senior leaders usually define IT transformation initiatives.  After the initial vision and strategy is outlined, it usually falls to the next layer of management to work through the details.   Often, the organization experiences delays in achieving the outcome and they never achieve the expected return on investment.
 
Why does this happen?
 
Management has staff that are busy handling the day to day operations.  Their normal course of action is to shield their teams from projects that will take up their time.  They participate in projects for them.  With critical initiatives such as IT transformation, staff at all levels within the IT organization must participate to ensure the right outcomes and facilitate buy in.
 
A manager is monitoring the work, developing the team, and helping staff work through barriers to complete their operational responsibilities but they aren’t actually doing the work.  They don’t know the details of what it takes to get the job done.  When working on transformation activities, the IT transformation team needs to know the reality of how the work gets done.  Without this information, they often pursue improvement opportunities that will offer little in terms of efficiency, effectiveness, or cost savings.  Many times, the team won’t recognize the true root cause of the issue until they’ve spent time and money on improvement actions.
 
In addition, when frontline staff are not involved in defining the changes associated with the initiative, they are less likely to adopt the changes in a timely manner.  They won’t initially change the way they work or they will make the change and then revert back to the old way of doing things.
 
Engaging staff at all levels within the IT organization is critical to success however; we must also address another critical audience – the customer.
 
With any IT transformation, the result will be changes to how the organization identifies services, makes investments, organizes to handle the work, manages services, and interfaces with their customers.  Changes within IT directly affect your customers and end users.
 
How does an IT organization know the critical components of an IT transformation initiative without engaging their customers?  Engagement of the customer requires more than a hallway conversation or a review of customer satisfaction data.  Critical customers should be engaged in transformation strategy discussions.  They will need a seat at the table. 
 
Once the initial transformation goals and objectives are defined, end users should be engaged to understand their existing experience with IT and their recommendations for improvement.    
 
Throughout the initiative, customer and end user feedback should be incorporated into key decision making.  Open communication regarding decisions and key changes is critical. 
 
IT customers and end users can provide a wealth of information which can help to formulate plans and activities.  They can also become true partners in achieving the intended outcomes. 
 
IT transformation requires more than a solid vision, strategy, objectives, and plan, it requires feedback and engagement of staff and customers at all levels in the organization. ​

At AdOPT, we are transformation consultants focused on strategy, innovation process, and culture to increase effectiveness, improve efficiency, and optimize costs.  We wrote the book on organizational change in IT.  For more information about our Change Adoption Workshop, vision and strategy development, or other services, contact us at info@adoptitsm.com or by calling 520-591-2427.