July 2003
Volume 19
Number 7
Communicating Change
It has been said that more than 60 percent of large IT projects fail. For those who are outside of IT, that number is shocking; for those who are inside, it is certainly dismaying. But in neither case is it particularly surprising, especially given the high visibility that many of the failures receive. There are many IT practitioners who believe that these kinds of projects are so inherently risky that a high failure rate is inevitable. However true that may be, there are still some things that every good CIO should make sure are in clear focus and get plenty of attention in order to mitigate the risk factors. One of these is the communications plan.
The phrase “communications plan” may suggest the obvious: a series of announcements about what’s going to happen and when. But a good plan goes way, way beyond this.
Interactive
To begin with, communications should be interactive. This isn’t just
about telling everyone what’s going to happen; the plan should begin
with a process of finding out what it is that people need to hear,
see, read, be told, and find out about. This is almost always more than
just the highlights of the schedule or which training class to attend. For
example, in a large ERP project, the campus may have a number of issues.
These issues might cluster around themes such as: will I be prepared to
handle the new system? (training issues); will the information in the
system be completely private? (security issues); will the system work and
be reliable? (confidence issues); how will my productivity be affected?
(performance issues); will the project change my job responsibilities or
job security? (human resource issues). Finding out what these issues are
– by actually asking people – as early as possible will help in
designing a communications plan that specifically addresses them and in
providing the best atmosphere in which to bring major change about.
Another extremely valuable piece of information that can be unearthed at this stage has to do with expectations. It common for folks all across campus to have a certain vision in their minds about what this new change will look like and what it will mean for them, and yet that vision so often turns out to be very different from reality. From such are disasters made. The users in the Registrar’s office expect that on the go-live date of the new student system, they will have all the paper reports they have always had (and very much need) to do their business and service their customers. Meanwhile, the project implementers know very well that the reports will not only not be ready on the go-live date, even when they are ready, they aren’t going to look anything like the old ones. And some of the reports never will be there because so much information will be online. A big, big gap – and a predictable, but preventable, disappointment.
To identify what the primary change management issues are, the person (even better: the team) responsible for communications might conduct both one-on-one interviews and focus groups, depending on the constituency. Key constituencies in an ERP project, usually the folks who are likely to be the most affected by this major change and who will share in the responsibility for judging its ultimate success, include students, faculty, front-line office/clerical staff, administrative department directors and other managers, and the institution’s top management. Other constituencies might include prospective students, alumni, the surrounding community, and the institution’s vendors.
Tailored
A good communications plan is not acquired off-the-shelf. Although many of
the tools for communicating may be found in any big IT project: a project
website, online FAQs, town meetings, focus groups, an e-mail newsletter,
conference calls, one-on-one meetings, posters, videos, demo sites, and so
on, the methodology of applying these tools should vary from project to
project and from campus to campus. An ERP project is very different from
the roll-out of new groupware for e-mail and calendaring; a small
residential college is very different from a large, physically expansive
university.
Tailoring will also help prevent information overload – you don’t want to be sending out so much stuff that people ignore it or start complaining about the deluge. (One caveat, however: don’t assume you know where the overload point is; ask the right people and listen to the answer carefully.) Each circumstance calls for its own communications plan, one that fits the culture, the budget, and the institution’s particular needs.
Promotional (but honest)
Let’s not underestimate the value of cheerleading. Without creating
unrealistic expectations, we do still want to take every opportunity to
point out the enormous benefits that this change will bring about.
After all, why would we do it otherwise?
There should never be any doubt in anyone’s mind that this change is, or at least will be, beneficial to the institution. And this cheerleading should be straight from the top! The president should not only recognize – in some formal way – the effort everyone is making in bringing this big change about, but also the wonderful things that this change will mean for the institution. Others on campus may supplement what the president says, and the more frequently the better, but there can be no substitute for the highest level of attention and recognition.
At the same time, all of the communications should be honest. There is going to be disruption brought about by this change, as well as discomfort for many, not to mention the mistakes that will be made along the way that could have major impact. All of this needs to be addressed. The institution needs to know that the project implementers anticipate and recognize these things and that when they do occur, no one is surprised – there is a planned response in every case. Software is never bug-free; key people leave or get sick before the project is fully implemented; vendors don’t always live up to all of their promises; budget constraints may rear their ugly heads during the project. But if the overall approach is realistic, the institution will be able to cope with all of these circumstances – and still end up with a change that is of great benefit.
Ongoing
The need for excellent communications will last throughout the duration of
the project. For one thing – going back to the notion of interactivity
– it is important to get campus feedback about the project all along the
way, not just at the outset. But there will also be new circumstances to
communicate, new factors to take into consideration, new parameters to
work into the mix. All of these need to be part of on-going
communications.
How to do it
The basis for communications for a major IT change-oriented project is
to establish as many different channels as possible, and to keep all of
the existing and new channels as wide open as possible. In order for a
high-impact project to succeed, everyone needs an opportunity to stay
informed, to provide input, and to keep surprises to a minimum.
A good plan may involve all of the following: a vision statement and then on-going messages from the president; focus groups among a large number of end users and potential end users; acknowledgement from the implementers as to the results of the focus groups; project schedule and calendar updates; background articles and information on key issues; weekly meetings and/or conference calls with stakeholders; progress and milestone reports, written for different constituencies; and FAQs about the project and its aftermath. All of this should be both electronic and on paper, and all should be repeated often – relying on a single message to communicate something important is unrealistic.
How much should you budget for communication about the initiative? According to the Harvard Management Communications Letter, “the Gartner Group advises spending about 17% of the total project budget on communication. Their research finds a strong correlation between investment in communication and the overall success of the project.” The number may seem extraordinarily high to some, but it should be thought of not as a cost, rather as an investment – a way to protect the institution’s other investments in this big change.
A piece written by Suzanne Ross in a recent edition of TechRepublic struck a very familiar chord: “At the end of one major rollout I was involved with (a Lotus Notes implementation that involved a change in e-mail platform for 400 users over five locations, along with a complete change in business processes for one department), I recall thinking that the one thing we could have done better all along was communicate – not just in providing regular updates to users, but from the outset in the preparation of a formal communications strategy. We had a basic plan that covered all the essentials, however, as the project neared completion, we were pushing to meet immoveable deadlines and working ridiculous hours to resolve the technical problems that invariably raised their ugly, unforeseen heads; our attention was sharply focused on problem resolution and deadlines. The communication plan, basic as it was, went right out the window.”
We have been doing big IT projects long enough now to have learned some lessons. Taking communications as seriously as the rest of the IT project implementation will substantially lower the risk of a failed project. LF
The Edutech Report is a monthly publication of Magna Publications
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