You don't have to be the ED or CTO of your organization to lead a successful technology change. This panel will explore principles of change management for successful technology projects with or without formal authority. We will use case studies and real-life stories as examples of what to do (and what not to do) to help change happen.
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Leading Change Goldstein Baizman Parrish
1. Leading Tech Change(When You’re Not the Boss!) Simone Parrish Innovation Network Washington, DC sparrish@innonet.org Dahna Goldstein PhilanTech Washington, DC dahna@philantech.com Marc Baizman My Computer Guy Boston, MA marc@mcgtraining.com
2. Leading Tech Change Introductions Poll Leading Change without Formal Authority Case Study:Root Cause Tales from the Field Q&A
18. Case Study: Root Cause 35 full-time staff (formerly 36 ) Approx $2 million annual budget (% tech?) LOTS of technology change in 18 months Google Apps for email, calendar, and intranet Salesforce.com (see next slide) Drupal for external web sites VOIP Phone System Managed desktop support vendor
38. Where Simone Works Evaluation consulting, training, research for the sector 14 staff; $1.8m budget Free online planning and evaluation tools (www.innonet.org/pointk)
45. Lessen Their Pain. http://www.flickr.com/photos/jeffyoungstrom/510551658/
46. Try Small Things. Screenshot of a map I made in Google using “My Maps” http://edit.freemap.jp/en/trial_version/edit/world http://www.flickr.com/photos/sheriwetherell/2310288091/
47. Ask What They Need. http://www.flickr.com/photos/melissamaples/3162364969/
48. Hold Their Hands. Detail from http://www.flickr.com/photos/mrg/7784748/
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Notes de l'éditeur
RoleOrg sizeIn-house or consultantAccidental or nonMajor initiatives
Two main elements of any technology change – technology and peopleTechnology Every tech project is different, and the specific tech needs will differ Requires strategy, planning, etc. Some of the rest of this conference addresses those aspectsPeople Past behavior has direct effect on future behavior People within the organization remember the good and bad of past technology changes – “organizational memory How does it affect me and my job?
Rogers adoption curve
A lot of this is drawn from work by Jay Conger, director of the Leadership Institute at the University of Southern California
CredibilityFraming goals on common groundCreating a vivid and compelling caseConnecting emotionally with your audience CredibilityFraming goals on common groundCreating a vivid and compelling caseConnecting emotionally with your audience CredibilityFraming goals on common groundCreating a vivid and compelling caseConnecting emotionally with your audience CredibilityFraming goals on common groundCreating a vivid and compelling caseConnecting emotionally with your audience CredibilityFraming goals on common groundCreating a vivid and compelling caseConnecting emotionally with your audience
What is it?Knowledge and authority about your subjectHow do you get it?Doesn’t happen overnightDomain knowledgeDemonstrated track recordHow do others in your org see your expertise?
TrustIntegrityReliabilityBreadth of relationshipsDifferent parts of orgInfluencersOf course we all have relationships in our organizationsTo establish credibility, need to have good relationships across the organization with senior management with influencers in your organization with potential resisters of whatever the tech change isA few ways to evaluate your relationships do people talk to you about issues they’re having? are they comfortable approaching you? are you an active listener? honesty and integrity are two critical factors in developing good relationships
Of course we all have weaknessesThat’s okThere are ways to shore up weaknesses to still have credibility to lead a tech change
Learn moreDemonstrate that you have learned moreFind other people with needed expertiseIn your orgIn other orgs – e.g., NTEN as network; 501 tech clubsConsultants/outside authorities
Spend time away from technologyMake a habit of talking to peopleEngage them about things that matter to them/to the orgBuilding relationships takes a whileDuring a tech change is not the right timeLearn about your org’s dynamicsHow decisions are madeWho are the influencers?
Context“What’s in it for me?”PerspectivesCommitmentHead + heart
Like with fundraisingDataCostSavingsStoriesRemember your audience(s)Build coalitions
Meet your audience(s) where they areFormal and informal presentations of infoAgain, demonstrate commitmentShow your own commitment to the position you’re takingUnderstand your audience’s emotional state (whether talking to one person or a group)Adjust emotional toneDon’t just forge ahead if your audience is in a different emotional placeTalk about this both on the group and individual levelsKnow your audience’s emotional state (as much as possible) before entering into a presentation (e.g., informal conversations, word on the street)
Do people trust you? What’s your track record been? You don’t have a lot of control over this going into the project, but you can certainly change people’s minds during the project (either way!!)
I had already led a successful Google Apps Rollout which helped with Credibility
Easy to get buy-in from ppl lready on ur side! (don’t go to the easy wins!)You know who these people are, they’re the ones who won’t want to touch and new system with a 10 foot pole. You’ll get their buy in by making them feel invested in the outcome, and letting them know that you’re really listening to their concerns (by making changes to your training documents or the system to make their lives easier). Once the “difficult ones” see the light, they’ll be your biggest evangelists.
We let people know months ago that this was coming, and kept reminding them every few weeks. Not in a nagging way, but just to keep it from going completely off their radar.
with a user or set of users first (of all types, tough cookies, advanced if possible). That way they can give you feedback on what’s working and what’s not, and you can make changes accordingly. Don’t forget to REWARD your beta testers too – candy or booze always works well for me. And thank them publicly too.
Don’t try to bite off more than you can chew - start with one specific area of you organization. Then, once you’ve proven yourself, you’ll be able to move on to the other areas.
Support needs to happen throughout the process! Make the experience more tolerable for people experiencing the change.This could be a Word or Google doc, a Wiki, a Screencast (I love Jing for these), whatever – just make sure this is something easily accessible to everyone who needs it. I like to create a custom web tab (Called “TRAINING MANUALS” or something descriptive) that embeds links to everything on one page. And make sure that someone knows how to update it when you’ve hit the lottery and moved to Kauai!
Make sure that you’ve got all these steps written out, and a timeline to implement! Salesforce rollouts are not an overnight process, and you should plan on things taking a while.
Innovation Network offers evaluation consulting, training, and research services to the nonprofit and philanthropic sector. We’re a 501c3 ourselves. Mostly work with 501c3s, from small grassroots nonprofits to major foundations. Incorporated in 1992. Based in DC, but work internationally.The tech budget has varied wildly in the years I’ve been there, largely depending on what funders are interested in. My 2010 tech budget is about six percent of our total operating budget.Out of the staff, there are two of us who work partially on IT and website-related stuff: Me (I spend 25% of my time on website admin, internal IT, and KM, combined), and my assistant, who spends about 30% of his time on online community management, web content, social media, and IT troubleshooting). So functionally, we have about half a person for IT, KM, and website out of our 14-person staff.Note about our free online planning and evaluation tools:This is where a lot of my experience comes from. We offer an Organizational Assessment Tool, a Logic model builder, and an evaluation plan builder, plus more than 250 evaluation and capacity building resources in a searchable database, all at the Point K Learning Center. (And it’s all free.) 17,000 users working on 5,000 projects in 93 countries.
Dahna introduced me already, but I thought I should give you a little bit more context about me (this is the “Credibility” part). I’m a classic “accidental techie”. I started with Innovation Network in 2001 as a “marketing & outreach associate”, mostly focused on writing proposals and editing repots and newsletters. Also some brochure copy writing and production management (Paper brochures! Quaint!)I did already have a strongly manifested tech side; I started building little custom database solutions in 1999. But I still thought of myself, professionally, as primarily a writer.Then people started noticing that I wasn’t afraid of computers, or of un-jamming the copier, and I somehow became the webmaster, and then the person who manages our outsourced network support people (from CITI, Community IT Innovators). Two years ago, through some combination of inertia, loyalty, and awesomeness, I found myself in the position of being the senior IT staff person. I’m pretty happy about that.(I also love this cartoon because it’s only six years old, yet her desktop setup looks so retro.)
When Dahna asked me to participate on this panel, my first thought was “Well, I don’t really have a case study. I have a lot of tips and cautionary tales.” Some of the technology projects I have worked on:Internal IT:Gradually building telework capabilities—unchaining consultants from their desktopsMoving from running our own Exchange server and tape-based backup system to hosted Exchange and backupsWebsite Stuff:Website platform switches: From a ColdFusion website to an open source website, and then a switch between two open source platforms.Four rounds of website redesign—the cosmetic side.Reengineering our online tools (twice)—this is tied to the platform and the cosmetics, but this involved a much more detailed specifications and development process.
Technology change is not a magic wand of organizational development.If your organization is suffering major infrastructural challenges; If you don’t have sane and stable leadership;If you can’t pay the bills; If you have high staff turnover; If your board isn’t engaged;TECHNOLOGY CHANGE IS NOT THE ANSWER. If you have major organizational challenges like this, technology change initiatives are even harder to make work, and might even be counter productive.
Credibility / Framing Goals / Vivid and Compelling:If your boss doesn’t trust your expertise (for whatever reason), there are ways around that. Objective data is a great way to get around it--”You don’t have to listen to what I say; check out the data…”The true story:My Boss wanted a blog. This was many years ago, when blogs were still kind of new and mysterious to most people in the nonprofit sector. Our website has thousands of registered users. I am the person who knows our web users the best. I talk to them every day. I have a very good sense of how tech-savvy they are and what they are coming to our website for. I told My Boss that most of our users would not read a blog, and would find it a bit alienating, and that perhaps My Boss should think about his or her motivation for wanting a blog.My credibility was not enough to convince My Boss, who persisted in asking me about a blog about once a month.So, I did a user survey. One of the questions asked my website users to name their three favorite blogs.Out of 382 completed survey responses, only 28 people answered the “blogs” question at all. Of those, 19 answered “Don’t Know”, “N/A”, “None”, or my personal favorite [CLICK] “I hate blogs.”)I found this rather heartwarming.This gave me about a year before My Boss brought up the blog question again.
Credibility/Expertise:If you are new at your job, or if your executive director is new at theirs, or if you have a clash of working styles, your boss might not respect your authoritah. If this happens, I recommend finding an authoritative ally to use as a puppet: Someone your boss *will* listen to, who you can hold up in front of you, to say your words for you, and add that much-needed gravitas.Real-life outside allies I have actually used:Andy Goodman, for encouraging people to make better PowerPoint presentations.Tony Proscio and or Deloitte and Touche’s Bullfighter people, to encourage people to use less jargon.Edward Tufte, if you’re trying to get people to use visual data more effectively.Jakob Nielsen for web usability theory.MailChimp for advice about how to not look like a spammer.The good folks at IdealWare (for software comparisons) and TechSoup (for software and hardware advice).
Credibility = Expertise + Relationships.Other authoritative allies are within your organization—remember what Dahna said about finding the influencers, and what Marc said about the tough cookies. You might not have to make your case alone. It’s better if you don’t.
Related to “framing goals on common ground” and “connecting emotionally”:Tech change is (I would argue) more likely to succeed when the people you are trying to foist change upon recognize that you are trying to lessen their pain.Whether that’s financial pain, the pain of inefficiency and day-to-day frustration—whatever. You could also be lessening their pain by increasing their flexibility and job satisfaction.My Real Story:We’re a Microsoft shop. (I realize that may cut into my credibility with some of you, but that’s another topic.)Office 2007: For years, we didn’t need to upgrade. Why should we? We all know how to use this, it works for us, changing is such a pain, etc.I starting pushing an upgrade before my boss or staff were ready to deal with it. I got nowhere. Not upgrading hadn’t hurt them yet.Then, we started getting the docx’s as email attachments. People realized that if we didn’t upgrade, we wouldn’t be able to open files our clients and funders are sending us.Sold.
Building a Vivid and Compelling CaseEven if you don’t have a big budget or the buy-in for a major tech initiative, there are a lot of little things you can do to make things work better for your staff.Try small things on your own. Just here and there. If they don’t work, no-one will care (or even notice). If they do work, hooray! Not only can they relieve very small aches and pains; small things can help you create a clear case for bigger things. Here’s your chance to collect some data.My Real Life Stories:- Big GIS systems—that’s Geographic Information Systems, or ways of collecting and displaying data that has a geographic aspect, like “who voted for Obama by county”, or “where the most ice has been lost in the Arctic”—are fabulous for a lot of reasons. They also tend to be a major investment. Show people how cool maps can be by using free tools—even something really simple like a CLICK Google map of where your last group of beta testers were, or the CLICK color-your-own-maps at edit.freemap.jp (this is a map of countries that have at least one registered user of the Point K Learning Center. I’m thinking about bribing someone in Russia.) CLICK again to make the maps go away.Adobe Acrobat—We’re not eligible to get it through Tech Soup (Adobe’s charitable donation guidelines are very specific and we aren’t covered). I finally carved out the budget for three licenses. Those three licenses have saved us more than 80 staff hours over the last year, paying for themselves many times over—so, when I was putting the budget together for 2010, I could make a good case for getting more Acrobat licenses.
Framing Goals / Connecting EmotionallyIn terms of training and adoption, I’ve found it’s critical to ask people what they really need.Ask them personally. Ask them in a private setting.Not everyone will read the documentation and experiment on their own. (Most people will say they will do that, but they won’t. And then the system doesn’t get adopted. And then the system fails.) A lot of people are embarrassed to say what kind of training they really need, or they are afraid it would be too expensive. Makes them vulnerable. Makes them feel threatened. Emphasize: One-on-one approaches are best for asking what they need. This is not the place for a raise-your-hand poll in a staff meeting.Do what you can to provide what they really need, whether it’s one-on-one walkthroughs, online self-paced training, or training in a classroom setting--even it that means you and your staff talking through it together.Follow up.
Connecting EmotionallyPromise your staff that you won’t let them fail—not in words, but in your actions.People are scared that they won’t be able to use the new system properly; that it will take them a long time to learn, and interfere with their work; that it will make them feel stupid.If you make them feel safe, things will go a lot smoother, with less screaming.Tie this back to making yourself trustworthy. If they don’t feel comfortable talking to you, you’re not going to be able to hold their hand. Already need to have established relationship of trust.
Connecting EmotionallyThe Flickr caption on this photo says “I never liked carrots much. Having them come in new shapes and colors doesn't help.”Generally, we are in favor of the “carrot” approach to incentives.We like to give people little rewards for adopting new systems / adapting to change.When the demonstrable lessening of pain is not its own reward, we like to add more “carrots”, like gold stars, or chocolate, or Starbucks cards.Sometimes that’s not enough, and we need to get a little bit mean. Find some sticks to back up the carrots.Tying adoption to compensation and/or performance review ratings, for example. Or shaming non-compliant people (can be private to start with, then threats of public). This is going in your permanent record. Callouts in a public forum—like at a staff meeting. The system shows who has logged in recently.
Final bits of advice, which may seem contradictory: Credibility: Stand your ground / be flexible. (If you know you are right, keep fighting—but recognize when it’s time to stop fighting and focus on something else for a while.)Building Your Case: Take time out for learning / Stay focused on the task at hand. (Try to see the forest, and the trees.)Framing Your Goals: Dream big / be realistic. (If you don’t put it in the budget, you’ll never get it.)Connecting Emotionally: Don’t expect too much of them / don’t underestimate them. (People really do want their work to be more efficient and effective, but change is intimidating.)
Meet your audience(s) where they areFormal and informal presentations of infoAgain, demonstrate commitmentShow your own commitment to the position you’re takingUnderstand your audience’s emotional state (whether talking to one person or a group)Adjust emotional toneDon’t just forge ahead if your audience is in a different emotional placeTalk about this both on the group and individual levelsKnow your audience’s emotional state (as much as possible) before entering into a presentation (e.g., informal conversations, word on the street)