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Getting Buy-in for the Process Improvement Project

December 8, 2008 | Author: PM Hut | Filed under: Project Stakeholder Management

Getting Buy-in for the Process Improvement Project
By Frank Parth

Getting buy in to the process improvement project cannot be overemphasized. There are three levels at which buy-in needs to occur:

  • Executive level
  • Upper/middle management
  • Employees

The Executive level of the corporation is the least likely to create a problem. They have probably already bought into the need to do process improvements, otherwise the effort would not even start. While there may not be universal agreement among the executives as to the extent of the changes needed, there is at least enough support to authorize the BPI effort.

The people that project manager needs to be concerned about are middle management and employees. Both of these need to be shown the benefits of the change effort (different for each one) and either of them can sabotage it.

Middle management is likely to feel threatened by changes to their organisation or power. If part of their organisation is involved in the process being improved, they have a stake in the project and will be impacted by it. They must be carefully shown how the change will improve their organisation in order for them to start thinking favorably of it.

If they only see a downside to the project but are being told by their executives that they have to go along with it, they will often sabotage the project in subtle ways – not attending meetings, assigning their worst employees to the effort, not signing documents, not meeting timelines. In any BPI project there are an infinite number of ways to damage it while not appearing to do so.

The third group that is impacted are the employees. As soon as employees begin hearing about changes at work, the FUD1 factor starts coming into play. People will start wondering if management is truthfully telling them everything or if this is the beginning of layoffs and downsizing. This is an emotional response, not a rational one, and begins as soon as people hear about the process change effort or as soon as someone comes around asking them how they work. People are going to be nervous about what you’re doing will react to your team and to the project based on that nervousness.

In order to mitigate employee concerns, the project manager needs to involve the employees as much as possible in defining the new processes and include a serious amount of communications and of Organisational Change Management (OCM) effort in the project. The utility company the author is working with hired a consulting firm specializing in OCM to lead this portion of the overall change process. A representative from the OCM organisation is an automatic member of each project team and leads the project communications effort.

Most organisations have a mix of skills and experience levels in them. People who are relatively new, and people who have been there for years. People who are happy with the way things are right now, and people who are unhappy. People who see no problems with they way things work right now, and people who are willing to improve things. There’s an old saying in managing organisational changes: 20% of the employees will be in favor of what you’re doing and are willing to go along with the change; 20% of the employees are happy with things right now see no reason to change, and will resist you; and 60% of the employees are somewhat neutral. They will support you if they can see the benefits to themselves, but will turn against the project if they don’t.

Successful change projects are careful to involve the employees early, clearly sell them on the personal advantages of making the change, and show early successes. Change projects that end up with the changes not be successfully incorporated into the daily work of the employees have probably concentrated on just the mechanics of the change itself and not on the employees.

1 FUD is an acronym for Fear, Uncertainty, and Doubt

Frank Parth, MS, MSSM, MBA, PMP is the President of Project Auditors LLC. Mr. Parth brings 30 years experience in project/program management and technology development to his teaching and consulting work. Mr. Parth has undergraduate and graduate degrees in Physics, a Masters in Systems Management from USC, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker Graduate School of Management (now the Peter F. Drucker and Masatoshi Ito Graduate School). He has published numerous papers in project management and systems engineering and is an international speaker. Most recently he presented “Controlling Scope in International Projects” to PMI’s EMEA 2008 convention in Malta. He is actively involved with the PMI, having served on both local and national committees and is PMI’s Project Manager for the Standard for Program Management, 2nd edition.

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