In a previous post, we explored using the principles of change management to drive the desired initiative, especially if you are not a manager. The first two rules were clarifying and gaining consensus on the problem and lobbying for executive sponsorship. This post will examine planning, communication, feedback intake, and iterating.
Planning
Depending on the complexity of your Laserfiche project, you may want to follow proper project management. You can find ghant chart templates online, which may suffice to track project work status, feedback, and iterating. You must document your plan, track progress, and get buy-in.
Remember (from school) the set of questions required to write a thesis statement. At a minimum, ask yourself these questions to develop the plan:
Who – Who needs to know about this? Who does it impact? Who are the internal and external “customers”?
What – What is the project timeline? What groups or individuals will produce project parts? What do we need to communicate? What are the intended results? What is the scope of the project?
Where – Where is this happening? Will it impact people’s day-to-day physical work environment? Will it affect our customers?
When – When is this taking place? What is the timeframe? When will others be available to assist?
Why – Why are we doing this in the first place? (Recall: your problem)
How – How much will this cost? How will we measure success? How do we know when we are finished? How does the project tie into the goals and objectives of the organization?
Communicate
Comms are crucial to the success of the organizational change. If you have a communication or PR team, ask for their help. If not, are there any existing communications channels such as a newsletter that you may leverage? Is there a meeting of department heads where you may demonstrate a proof-of-concept? If you’ve decided to use a formal project management process, your retrospective meetings can serve as updates. In some organizations, an informal email will do. Communication channel selection requires that you know your audience. Think back to occasions when others shared project updates. What did they do right?
Also, carefully consider the frequency of your communications. No one wants a daily email about a public record request automation project. However, for stakeholders, weekly or bi-monthly emails would be appropriate.
Getting feedback and Iterating
Collecting feedback from colleagues, stakeholders, and customers will be essential for frequently measuring results. Depending on the change you are trying to implement, this can be accomplished in a meeting, via a survey, or one-on-one.
The iterative process is the practice of building, taking in feedback, refining, and improving a project. Teams that use the iterative process create, test, and revise until they're satisfied with the result.
