The Nine Essentials for the Change Journey (the 9Es©)
Article by Malcolm Anderson
This year we are celebrating ten years since changedrivers was founded and I mention this because it was in one of our early newsletters that we first drew attention to one of the central pieces of our thinking, the 9Es©. Much thinking over many years of reading the theory and implementing change had gone into the creation of a simple model to draw attention to nine key organisational dimensions that required attention if change was to be sustained.
We pointed out that you don't have to make changes in all these areas, but you do need to take all into consideration if you mean to limit the risks of failure and maximise the opportunity to sustain the change you are planning. The 9Es© were not designed to describe the process of change but they are the key areas of risk to sustainability downstream, that must be considered up-front to be effective. So we have now spent nearly another ten years working in a myriad of projects and applying the 9Es© and learning about the strengths and weaknesses of its applicability.
These projects have ranged from supporting major change in large and complex public and private sector organisations to forensic analysis of failed change, often in relation to major software implementations where business expectations have not been fulfilled. They have included both blue-collar and white-collar change as well as individual branches or divisions and small and medium sized businesses. Some have been primarily people-focused while others have centred on the creation of systems for corporate knowledge and optimised processes.
In fact, as you will glean from this list, in ten years we have been privileged to work with all kinds of people and organisations in their capability and performance improvement challenges and we have used the 9Es© to build the roadmap to sustained success in each case. As you would expect the 9Es© has not stood still as times have changed and new insights have been gained both from management writers around the world and by our teams working in implementation.
So, it is timely to present a new 9Es©, to lead us into our next ten years, which encapsulates our learnings. I fear with all this fanfare that you will expect a greater degree of refinement than I am about to reveal but we will see. For the changes are not fundamental. There are still nine parts. It is true the diagram has changed - it now employs an arrow which emphasises process and movement rather than the challenging mountain to climb of the original. The elements probably have greater clarity now but time has demonstrated the robustness of much of the original construct. So let us take a journey through these components and explore what we at changedrivers consider to be our fundamental checklist for change:
The 9Es© in Action
Change Imperative
At the foundation of any process of organisational change, there must be a Change Imperative. There must be good reason to introduce change. At least one key stakeholder who really counts must be sufficiently unhappy with current capability and performance that they are prepared to take on the challenge of change. Ideally he/she will have influence, insight and a budget.
The more stakeholders that share an understanding of the change imperative, the easier change will be to deliver and sustain. But that change imperative must be clearly defined and communicable. It must make logical sense in relation to organisational purpose and direction. That way it will be persuasive and will facilitate bringing support to the cause.
It is also the key to your understanding of the criticality of this that you appreciate that this is the first 'hurdle' that any change program should satisfy. This is particularly true where the change is being championed by someone who does not have the leverage or budget to drive it. No-one will be persuaded unless the 'organisational hurt' makes key stakeholders sufficiently uncomfortable that their WIIFMs (What's In It For Me) for the organisation and themselves will not be met. The change imperative must fulfill this need - showing that unless action is taken, capability and performance is under major threat now or in the foreseeable future.
Shared Vision and Leadership
A Shared Vision will determine the change path. Confucius said "If you do not know your destination, any path will lead you there". Change only makes sense with a clear, shared strategic vision in the form of a desirable, achievable 'future operating model'. Notice that this is more concrete and detailed than an imaginative vision produced as a basis for a long term strategic plan. It resides in a 1-3 year timeframe, and describes a practical and dynamic operating environment of the near future.
It requires sanity testing, sharing and understanding by key stakeholders (both senior and at the 'coalface') and ongoing change leadership to maintain energy and keep the faith. The senior management team must not just approve of the change, or even advocate it, for true sustainability. They must own it and lead it, becoming the change drivers themselves.
Project Coordination & Progress Control
Like any important project, an organisational change must be well planned, managed and administered. Indeed it is sensible if all projects are considered change projects since the purpose of any project is to improve a capability, and if the new capability is to be used effectively it requires a socio-technical solution. Don't be put off by the language. This is simply a concise way of emphasising that successful solutions involve consideration of both systems and people.
Once you have a project you need sound structure, roles, information, progress reporting and risk management. This requires a project management methodology, but beware the project methodology guru to whom the method is more important than the result.
Knowledge and Systems
The convergence of corporate knowledge (processes, policy and KPIs as authoritative knowledge) is enabling change to be sustained more effectively by ensuring consistent application of desired future approaches to work. This is especially true if knowledge is managed and broadcast through systems developed using socio-technical considerations to make them easier to access and use.
The result will be one that effectively translates strategy into an accessible operating environment that facilitates consistency and training, supports measurement and compliance, and releases capability for creativity and innovation.
Structure & Resources
Once the future operating model has been described, the necessary changes can be defined in structure, roles and responsibilities, resources and governance arrangements. Budgets and headcounts can be planned based on knowledge of required process and performance. Performance measurement and reporting systems can be developed. Critically the scale of the change will become increasingly clear from these plans and project goals, budget and timescales can be refined to ensure they are achievable.
Competency and Culture
The skills, knowledge and behaviours required to sustain the change need to be defined so that HR systems - recruitment, training & development, performance management, reward and recognition and succession planning - can be focused on building and sustaining new core competencies.
Culture and Behavioural change can be mapped and plans can be developed to align WIIFMs with organisational values. This means much more than $. It means getting to the root of why your people come to work and behave as they do.
Stakeholders and Communications
Effective Communication must underpin all change activity. In order to encourage understanding of the need for change, build buy-in and sustain commitment, a clear communications plan must be implemented and sustained for the duration of the change process to manage stakeholder commitment during the ups and downs of the project.
Change is often regarded as 'a failure in the middle' and requires ongoing stakeholder engagement and understanding to sustain momentum and commitment. More change projects fail from fading stakeholder support than from any other cause so this often under-appreciated element of change management is virtually the most important.
Know who are the critical stakeholders and why, whether the change is large or small. Understand their WIIFMs and calculate when you will need their support and plan to grow their allegiance and their resilience. Engage all who care to be change champions on your behalf and support their efforts with communication and early wins.
Strategic Alignment
The strategic direction of the change initiative must be managed. Once you have a range of activities developing in parallel you will need to monitor their direction and dependencies. You cannot assume that jigsaw pieces developed in different workshops will readily fit together even if you thought you had a fine plan. This is because different challenges will be faced and cause local accommodations to be made.
This means several things. The internal alignment of the various parts of the project must be managed to ensure a coherent result can be delivered. The direction of the project and the nature of its deliverables must conform to the changing requirements of stakeholders and the organisation as a whole. Misalignment can produce confusion and disaffection, and ultimately failure of the project to achieve business goals. So be ready to be pragmatic about making course corrections during the project. Remember, hope never was a method!
Managing Deliverables, Issues & Risks
The above elements are focused by this glue that holds the whole hands-on change process together. It consists of the methods, tools and management of stakeholder commitment, project team effectiveness, deliverables development and benefits realisation. It requires:
- Practical and energetic application
- Focus on deliverables, early wins and benefits realisation
- A sound system for managing risks and issues (not just listing them!)
- Reliable communication between project strands
The 9Es© can be used as a checklist when planning business cases, establishing projects, communicating with stakeholders and when reviewing progress and alignment. It has certainly proved valuable to us at changedrivers since I first published the article on the model nearly ten years ago but it will undoubtedly continue to evolve as we continue to grow and learn.