When it comes to gauging the success of a strategic initiative, organizations would do well to take the long view. Early wins on a project mean nothing if the change is abandoned six months after the project closes. After all, the long-term benefits of a strategic initiative are what determine its business value.
To quantify those benefits, project leaders must put mechanisms in place to measure the long-term adoption rates and organizational impact of the effort. In addition, every transformation project should include tools and roadmaps to provide support after the project closes, to keep those benefits rolling in.
That long view is an area where many organizations fall short. High performers (organizations that complete 80 percent or more of projects on time, on budget and on scope) are nearly eight times more likely to be highly mature in benefits realization than low performers, according to PMI's 2014 Pulse of the Profession®.
Yet the business case for developing stronger benefits realization practices on strategic initiatives is easy to make. “Change is going to happen,” says Elena Bozylinski, PMP, assistant director of the project management office (PMO) at Loyola University, Baltimore, Maryland, USA. “The only way to be prepared is with specific processes and procedures for managing the change and measuring its success.”
As is so often the case, there is no one-stop solution. But a three-pronged approach that centers on quantitative metrics, qualitative feedback and continued engagement can help ensure the gains last long into the future.
Measure for Measure
The first step in creating a quantifiable picture of a change project's benefits is to determine which metrics the strategic initiative intends to impact, says Szymon Jałocha, PMP, PMO manager at postal group Integer.pl, Krakow, Poland.
Is the project's purpose to increase production numbers, eliminate safety incidents or speed time-to-market for certain business units? Project leaders should determine what impact the initiative is intended to have on the baseline metric over what period of time.
Customer satisfaction, cost reduction, and sales and profits are three metrics routinely used to evaluate the outcome of strategic initiatives. Yet PMI's Pulse of the Profession In-Depth Report: Enabling Organizational Change Through Strategic Initiatives found that employee morale and retention shouldn't be discounted. Forty-five percent of respondents cited it as a best metric to measure.
A schedule for measuring and analyzing key metrics prevents measurements made after the initiative closes from falling by the wayside. Project leaders should also establish a system for communicating the metrics to relevant stakeholders, along with a plan for what metric levels might trigger a follow-up meeting.
On the people front, periodic surveys can be an effective way to quantify and measure long-term adoption rates, says Eric Foss, PMP, director of consulting services, North America for Pcubed, Denver, Colorado, USA. However, the targeted outcomes of each change program should influence the audience and goal of the surveys. “When measuring adoption, you must be clear what you're measuring and who will receive the survey,” he says. “Achieving a change target could present differently in different parts of the organization and different roles.”
Mr. Foss suggests gathering electronic submissions of individual feedback through collaboration technologies that capture real-time feedback as stakeholders operate in the new environment. That input can then be tied to a specific component of the change effort or provide more general recommendations.
“Several years ago, we entered a public-private partnership with a government medical facility. We manage issues related to all of the medical devices, including procurement, distribution and maintenance. This created a significant change for medical staff.
They were used to procuring items based on personal preference, and that created a lot of inefficiencies. Even a simple device like stethoscopes can pose a problem. There are many different ear tips and bell rubbers in different sizes, so if a hospital has many types of stethoscopes, they need more replacement parts on hand. On large equipment, the issue gets even more complex from a support function. Also, medical staff could be unwilling to share equipment—like the neonatal department sharing a ventilator with pediatrics, for instance.
The challenge was to break that mold. We scheduled training sessions on general equipment operation, and we addressed questions about sharing equipment during those sessions. We wanted to move very quickly in all aspects to ensure the changes, but it was a struggle because, as a private partner, we have no authority over medical users and staff. We now have a process in place: If we observe a problem with sharing equipment and we are not able to assist in mediating between the departments, we escalate it through the senior management team.
Stuart Gray, PMI-RMP, PMP, is general manager of Consulens Medical Healthcare Solutions, Durban, South Africa.
We still experience some of this type of resistance after 10 years in the project, largely due to staff changes. Most new staff come from other facilities that still have an old-school approach. When they arrive, they try to instill their old habits in this facility, and we have to step in and rectify the situation through education about the details of the project.
To ensure the change is sustained, we are constantly reminding staff about the contractual operational methodology in this facility. When newer medical staff members have trouble accepting the procurement system, we often refer to the overriding project penalty arrangement that passes risk on to us to repair, maintain and supply in accordance to clinical need and output projections. If the users want to bypass contractual requirements, the risk on the devices' reliability and quantities would pass back to the hospital, and we would not be responsible for the medical devices services. The moment that is understood by newer users, we seem to have a better relationship.
The most important lesson learned is that there was not enough focus on the issue of change management at the time of developing the agreement and processes. There should have been a specific contract section with the responsibility either by the public partner, or transfer the process and the accountability to the private partner, to ensure the necessary processes are followed by the users.”
Gathering data is only valuable if the change management team is willing to investigate and adapt based on the information. “On at least a monthly basis we track a set of metrics and investigate any anomalies that exist in the data,” says Brandon Lane, PMP, project director, Enterprise Project Management Center of Excellence, Duke Energy, Charlotte, North Carolina, USA. For a recent initiative to roll out an enterprise project management framework, those metrics included the number of people trained and the effectiveness of the communications. “This data-driven approach allows us to focus our efforts where issues may exist.”
Intangible Made Tangible
While metrics can paint a black-and-white picture of the change project's effect, project leaders should also have long-term mechanisms in place to capture the transformative effect of the project on organizational culture.
“Change is moving from existing stage to next stage, and change management is managing key pillars of change: people, process and technology,” says Krunal R. Adhyaru, PMP, strategy implementation officer at industrial solutions firm Nehmeh Corporation, Doha, Qatar. “Process and technology don't resist, but people do.”
Even if adoption rates on a new process are adequate, executive stakeholders would want to know if employees find it clunky or inefficient. A new telecommuting system might be technically adequate but, six months after the initiative's complete, leave employees feeling isolated—and looking for work elsewhere.
To capture that sort of intangible feedback, Mr. Adhyaru recommends establishing an online portal. Employees can ask any questions about changes or their effects, with senior leaders providing answers available to all within the organization. Such a tool doesn't merely signal transparency and leadership commitment after the implementation of a change; it also gives leadership a window into what elements of the change have taken hold, and which are creating issues and delayed resistance.
That knowledge can help the organization tweak its approach to the change even after the official project close.
For example, the Enterprise Project Management Center of Excellence at Duke Energy has a working group of change agents that periodically reviews best practices from all projects across the company long after project launch.
“One key element of sustainability is ensuring a support network is in place for those in the organization, both at the individual contributor and change agent level,” says Mr. Lane.
The Duke Energy team members make sure to learn from what that feedback tells them, too, using such qualitative metrics to boost adoption levels—and shape project plans on strategic initiatives moving forward.
“Valid sources of feedback should not be dismissed,” he says. “We have found it effective to deal with the resistance head-on, with one-on-one or small group meetings and collaborate with the organization to address the underlying issues, where possible.”
Continued Support
Beyond measuring metrics and collecting feedback, project leaders need to establish a framework of tools to support affected members of the organization long into the future. For the rollout of the enterprise project management framework, Duke Energy first concentrated on leaders across the enterprise, offering face-to-face training, webinars and FAQ sheets so those leaders could provide necessary training to future staff. Project managers then received detailed training on the framework.
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PHOTO BY PETER TAYLOR
“The topic of change management should be a standing agenda item for all project team meetings,” says Ms. Bozylinski. “It can also be discussed during the occasional one-on-one check-in conversation or drop-in visits with team members.”
Loyola's project managers are also encouraged to solicit opinions in their partner meetings and share feedback with each other at biweekly check-in meetings hosted by the PMO. That constant dialogue helps reinforce that while change projects are finite, the change itself is not.
“Projects and programs end, and people have a natural tendency to revert back to the old way of working if they haven't completed their individual transition,” says Mr. Foss. “Provide a compelling case for change that will focus members of the organization on the shifts and the resulting benefits, not the change project or transformation program.”
Project leaders should keep a particularly close eye on maintaining support from above. Getting that all-important executive engagement can make a huge difference in sustaining changes—including those that haven't happened yet.
“It is important to show executives the value that can be achieved by the organization if they continue their support for the next period of time,” says Mr. Jałocha, who advises emphasizing the benefits future support will bring. “Executives are constantly looking for new possibilities of organizational improvements.”
To make change truly sustainable, organizations must adopt the old carpenters' adage of “measure twice, cut once.” By gathering as much information—both quantitative and qualitative—as possible, they can get the full picture of how beneficial their transformation efforts have been. In doing so, they can provide continued support long after the project closes—and lay the groundwork for future change. PM