Change Management Checklists: Sponsorship

My apologies, Readers.  I have slacked the last two months with updating this blog.  Keep your reading glasses handy, though, because I plan to become much more prolific.

In my last post, I listed what I consider the Five Pillars of Change.  Here, I'll provide a list of activities to keep in mind as you create the Sponsorship portion of your Change Management program.

Note that not every Change program needs to include every item on the list.  Based on the size of your organization, the complexity of the change, and your company's culture, you can pick and choose the activities that will provide the greatest value in helping people adopt the change.

Although it is important to have a comprehensive Change program, and skimping on necessary activities can adversely impact the adoption of the change, including too many activities just for the sake of checking them off a list can be harmful, too.  Carrying out activities that don't add value:

1. Causes people to question the value of all Change Management activities - even those that are essential for success
2. Overwhelms your stakeholders and can lead to burn out
3. Pulls resources - both time and money - from activities that deserve the most focus

With that said, I hereby present a list of Sponsorship activities for your consideration.  This list is not 100% comprehensive, but it will give you a good start in developing a Sponsorship plan.

Sponsorship Activities

• Identify project Sponsors
• Establish project Governance
• Build a Steering Committee
• Develop a Change Agent plan
• Create a Change Agent/Super User Network
• Involve all sponsorship groups in relevant areas of the project early and often...gather and incorporate their feedback, as appropriate
• Develop consistent communications to keep Sponsors and Change Agents informed
• Provide early training for members of all sponsorship groups
• Say, "Thank you" - often and with sincerity
• Be available to help and support all sponsorship groups as they carry out their sponsorship activities

Let Me Know:  Do you agree with this list?  Is there anything else you would add?

The Five Pillars of Change

While I thoroughly enjoyed writing the last few posts as part of the Virtual Book Club, I'm now feeling the need to get super practical.  So, my next set of posts will focus on the actual activities that make up a Change Management program.  I won't be able to include every activity (it's a very long list), but I will provide a fairly comprehensive set of check lists that will get you started in creating your Change Management plan.

I'll be breaking the check lists down based on what I call the "Pillars of Change."  They are:

• Sponsorship (about which I have very strong feelings)
• Stakeholder Management
• Communication
• Training
• Organization Design

As far as I'm concerned, all Change Management activities fall into one of these five pillars.  When you create your plan, you pick and choose a set of activities from each pillar based on the needs of your project and organization.  You then create a timeline based on when each activity is due (based on the larger  project plan) and how long it will take to complete, and voila!  You have the beginning of a Change Management plan.

Coming up first: Sponsorship activities

Let Me Know: Do you think these five pillars cover all Change Management activities?

My Number One Red Flag: Executive Sponsorship

Although everyone enjoys being on a great project team, there are benefits to being on more challenging projects.  They give you opportunities to build your interpersonal skills, practice the arts of negotiation and diplomacy, and force you to become more creative in finding solutions to both standard and unique issues.  One of the major benefits of being on multiple challenging projects, though, is that you become adept at quickly identifying project "red flags."

These red flags warn you that this is not going to be a smooth project.  If I see one red flag, I prepare to dig a little deeper into my bag of Change Management tricks.  If I see two, I start thinking about the overtime hours the project will require.  If I see three red flags, I mentally add months to the timeline and millions to the budget.

Red flags can take a number of forms across many areas of the project.  My top five red flags:

• A lack of structured Project Management
• Client team members who are expected to complete 100% of their day job on top of their project responsibilities
• ERP (or any complex system) implementations that are scheduled to take less than a year
• Disgruntled end users who talk about the project failing before it has even begun

And my number one red flag: A lack of Executive Sponsorship.

It's easy to think in these days of grass-roots movements that strong, centralized leadership is a thing of the past.  If change is being brought about on the global stage without the political equivalent of Executive Sponsorship, why is it so necessary for a project?  Ask yourself, though, "Have you ever seen a popular groundswell of employees demanding a new ERP system?"  Me neither.

I would argue that without Executive Sponsorship, a project team has no chance of implementing a quality product on-time and on-budget.  The problem is that Executive Sponsors often aren't sure what they can do to support the success of the project, and the project team often can't articulate what they need from their Sponsors. 

A Practical Look at the Role of Executive Sponsors

1. Create the Vision:  Projects have a lot of moving parts, and as the pace of the project speeds up, it's easy for each part to start moving in its own direction.  That's why it's crucial for the Sponsor to clearly articulate early and often: A) Why are we doing the project, B) What does the end state look like, and C) How do we define success?  If everyone has the same answers to these three questions, it will help them resolve inter-team conflicts, enable them to prioritize project activities, and ensure that everyone is working toward the same objective.  If the Sponsor doesn't create a shared vision, each person will create his own.
2. Be a Vocal, Visible Champion:  It's not enough for an Executive to agree to be a Sponsor, then sit in her office and send the occasional e-mail.  Sponsors need to be out in front of the organization on a regular basis reinforcing the project vision.  Remind other Executives why it's crucial to dedicate money and people to completing the project.  Explain to employees the benefits they'll realize by adopting the change.  Encourage the project team and show them that you appreciate their hard work.  Executive Sponsors need to be seen as the number one supporter of the project.  And they need to be seen often.
3. Remove Roadblocks: Projects are difficult.  No matter how well planned the work and how dedicated the team members, they will hit roadblocks.  It's the Sponsor's job to remove the roadblocks that the team can't remove for themselves.  This can include freeing up time from an essential Subject Matter Expert, working to resolve issues with a vendor that's not delivering on schedule, or helping to ensure the project team has the resources it needs.  By removing roadblocks, the Sponsor allows the project team to stay focused on their day-to-day project activities.
4. Empower Decision Making: One theory says that decisions should be made by the person or team at the lowest possible level that has the ability to make it.  This means that if a team member has the knowledge and ability to make a decision, he should make it, rather than requiring every decision to be escalated to the team lead, Project Manager, Executive Sponsor, and Steering Committee.  By empowering every person to make the decisions appropriate to their level, you free up people at higher levels to make more strategic decisions.  Does it really make sense for the Project Manager to spend her time deciding what color a web page should be, when what she really needs to focus on is creating an integrated project plan?  In addition, requiring too many decisions to be escalated for resolution creates a backlog that slows down the project.  If every decision has to go to the Executive Sponsor, they will quickly take over his day.  Not only will he not be able to make the decisions quickly enough, but focusing on these decisions will distract him from his real job - supporting the project's success.

Executive Sponsorship is a key success factor for any project.  Have you been on a project where the Executive Sponsor (or lack thereof) directly impacted the success or failure of the implementation?