Managing change during coronavirus

by The Change Compass | Mar 9, 2020 | Change approach

The world is now watching and experiencing an emerging coronavirus pandemic.  There is widespread anticipation and fear in many parts of the world, especially those with higher rates of infection.   This poses an interesting scenario of testing the capability of organisations in managing change during coronavirus.  And in fact …. the virus itself is a change that forces organisations to work and organise itself differently.

The change caused by coronavirus is vast.  Travel bookings are cancelled and prohibited.  Employees in highly infected areas are told to work from home.  Expatriates are sent home and many face forced quarantine.  In Australia, Australian evacuees from Wuhan in China (where the virus was first spread to humans) are placed in Christmas Island detention centres.  In many parts of the world, cities have become ghost towns.  Soccer stadiums lay empty.  Some countries have even closed borders to countries infected with high rates of the virus.  In Hong Kong office staff are working from home, along with their partners.  And often within close proximity of where their children are playing, which can be challenging.

No doubt about it – the coronavirus is one of the tests of an organisation’s ability to undergo change.  Some are more prepared than others.

So how does an organisation manage the changes inflicted by coronavirus?

Change leadership

Most companies follow the usual approaches of sending out notifications on company policies and any restrictions such as business travel and working from home policies.  However, in this time of uncertainty leaders need to stand out and help navigate through the various changes caused by the virus. 

This means communicating early and frequently about what is happening and relaying any useful information as needed such as travel and technology needs.  Leaders need to gage any employee sentiments and concerns about what is happening around them.  Promote discussions as needed to sense-check any employee concerns and offer support.

Effective change leaders also need to proactive interpret what the changes mean to the team and assess the various impacts of the change.  Does it make sense for all team members to work from home?  Are there any connectivity issues?  Does the team have the skills to work virtually?  How are the team’s deliverables going to be impacted by the virus in terms of potential increases or decreases in workload? What other teams might benefit from the support of the team in the current environment?

Rules of engagement

With any significant changes in ways of working and operating there needs to be clear rules of engagement set for employees.

For example:

• To support virtual working what are the ground rules if any in terms of responsiveness and virtual engagement?  Does there need to be regular individual checking throughout the meeting to ensure everyone has a chance to speak?

• Are there meeting rules that are required to ensure the team remains cohesive and engaged?  Does there need to be a separate minute taker, time keeper, etc.?

• Do individual expectations need to be reset within a changed workplace?  How does everyone show their work output within a virtual environment?  And what is the expectation on virtual collaboration?

• Are there rules of expectations for those who are sick or have a cold/flu in terms of not being in the workplace?

• How is performance evaluated within a virtual working situation?

Agile organisations can easily bend and flex according to changing industry pressures and customer requirements.  If business volumes drop, what are the ways in which the organisation can scale down as needed to stay afloat?  This is more than just about business continuity plans as it is about the flexibility of the operating model and ways of working to undergo rapid change.

Using virtual tools for collaboration

When the previous epidemic SARS hit back in 2003 working virtually was less prevalent.  Now, equipped with a range of technological tools, organizations can easily make things work much more effectively in a virtual environment. 

The trick is not to assume that one magical tool will meet all of your needs.  Instead, use different tools for different purposes.  Here are some digital tools that may help:

• Telecommunications:  Google Hangout, Skype, Zoom

• Project tracking: Basecamp, Trello, Jira

• Online discussion boards: Microsoft Teams, Slack, Yammer

• Virtual collaboration: Draw.io, Google Docs

• Visual graphics: Canva

Working virtually can also mean that some of the body languages cannot be seen and therefore using visual aids is more critical in a virtual working environment more than in a face-to-face situation.  Using visual aids helps to make communication even clearer and easier to follow for the audience. 

Draw.io is worth mentioning as it is free and also super easy to use.  There is a range of different templates that are ready to use.  A team can use this to start brainstorming ideas, work through a logic tree, fill in a flow-chart, develop a project approach, define a timeline, etc.

Balancing planned initiatives

Most organisations are already balancing multiple changes at any given time prior to the arrival of coronavirus.  What this means to most organisations is that the impact of coronavirus is one more change that piles on top of existing change initiatives.

Organisations need to carefully assess the planned set of changes and ascertain to what extent existing changes may need to be tweaked as a result of the virus.  Do initiatives need to be delayed or paused?  Or will the implementation approach need to be different as a result of the virtual nature of work for more targeted employees?  Will communication mediums need to change as a result?  What about learning mediums?  What are the feasible learning platforms and how effective are these for targeted employees? 

Data visualisation tools for change such as The Change Compass can provide a visual way of understanding the volume and pace of change across the organisation.  In particular, assessing the collective impacts of events such as the virus on the employees given other planned changes.  This, in turn, can help with business decision making regarding the roll -out of the various changes to maximise business readiness and adoption.

Build your change approach using this proven technique that Mckinsey consultants use

by The Change Compass | Feb 17, 2020 | Change approach

Often change approaches are built not using a structured and well-defined series of logics but often using a cookie-cutter, standard change approach or change strategy template.  In some cases, a ‘gut-feel’ may also be used based on stakeholder wishes or preferences.  These are subject to stakeholder criticism nor do not achieve the goals of the initiative.

The usual standard change approach for most initiatives often entail the following.

1. Stakeholder engagement – setting up forums and sending emails to stakeholders
2. Training – planning for and executing training delivery to ensure users understand the new system/process
3. Pre-go live readiness – send reminder emails and build intranet articles to raise awareness

How might we better derive change approach using sound logic and an evidence-backed approach?

One way to construct a logical, structured and well-thought-through change approach is by using a logic tree.  A logic tree is a visualization that captures all the component parts of a problem, in order to make it easier to identify a hypothesis that can then be tested using data and analysis.  Logic trees are great for making decisions by visually decomposing the various elements and reviewing these holistically. 

In the following example, a family uses a logic tree to decide which new town to move to by narrowing almost 30 possible potential locations to just one.  In the following diagram (from Bulletproof problem solving, Wiley 2019) you can see how this family started with the problem it is trying to solve, and then broke down the problem into its elements.  Then within each branch a weighting is assigned to each branch, in terms of percentages.  Then each sub-branch is also assigned weightings. 

Then as a next step data can be collected to determine which town meets the various criteria as defined in the logic tree.  By doing this, laying out the various components, and analysing its weightings, you can derive the best location.

This is how McKinsey consultants and other strategy consultants solve large complex problems.  The logic tree forces you to structure your problem versus being lost in focusing on certain approaches and neglecting others.  Any problem can be solved using this approach.  Even the largest of problems can be broken down into its smallest components.

Strategy consultants then go through every branch to analyse them and collect data to prove or disprove each branch one by one.  This means, that each branch or hypothesis is tested and proven or disproven.  In this way, every option is considered and the chance of making a wrong decision is greatly reduced.

So how might we build a logic tree that helps derive the change approach for an initiative?

1.  Start by defining the problem or question to be addressed.  What is the goal of the initiative?  Is it to implement a new system that is fully adopted by its users?  Is it to increase cross-selling by sharing customer information across business units?
2. Think of the broader buckets of each branch.  What are the core types of change approaches to address the problem?  Think widely and carefully about all the types of buckets possible that would address the problem.
3. Expand the branches until you have covered all possibilities
4. Go through and assign a weighting in percentage terms to each branch and then use this to determine the focus and importance you may want to place on certain branches in terms of research and data collection
5. Go through each branch and systematically to reject any that do not apply based on data.  For example, one branch could be to use video as a channel to communicate.  However if the data shows that previous usage of video to communicate key messages did not result in raising awareness for this stakeholder group, then reject this option

Here is one partial example of deriving a change approach for a customer complaints project.

Click here to download this diagram.

One important principle to note when building branches is to ensure that the branches are MECE.  MECE stands for mutually exclusive and collectively exhaustive.  Mutually exclusive means that you need to ensure that each branch is unique and does not overlap with any other branch.  Collectively exhaustive means that every option or alternative has been considered and nothing is left off.  In this way, the branches you have built are bulletproof from a logical structure perspective.

Building a change approach using a structured approach that is data-supported and logic tested will earn significant stride with the most critical of your stakeholders.  You can even hold a workshop to work with your stakeholders to define the logic tree and assign weightings so that that the agreed approach is one that is clearly visible and logically sound.

Another important point to keep in mind is how each of the branches of the logic tree change approach will interface into the overall change environment. When planning on the execution of the overall change approach or each branch of the approach, one needs to be clear around the velocity and volume of change and what else is happening in the change landscape. Using data visualisation tools such as The Change Compass is one way to grasp and plan around the change environment.