Minimum Viable Change Process
CONTEXT
"I’m change management certified, but I struggle to apply the tools and processes in the real world”.
Some version of this statement is the most common response I receive from change managers when asked why they joined the Lean Change Agent workshop.
Typically, these participants are seasoned change practitioners who are confronting the limitations of traditional process-heavy change management approaches.
"The solution involves adapting your process to fit the change, rather than trying to force the change to conform to your process."
WHAT IT MEANS
Traditional approaches to change, characterized by heavy documentation and linear phase-gate processes, don’t match the reality of what change practitioners face in the real world.
While all the documentation and processes look good in theory, as soon as we are "parachuted" into an initiative that is in-flight, has had no change management support, and is about to go-live, our processes fall apart.
We can’t start at the beginning and spend weeks completing the process n-step, which can leave us feeling frustrated because we are taught to complete the change management processes in sequence - plan, manage, close.
This leads to an inevitable problem – we focus so much on trying to force the change to fit our process that we lose sight of what matters – facilitating meaningful change.
The solution involves adapting your process to fit the change, rather than trying to force the change to conform to your process.
HOW I HANDLE THIS CHALLENGE
I create a Minimum Viable Change Process (MVCP) for each change.
The MVCP is the minimum amount of process that I think I can get away with.
I have found that there are three things I need to effectively navigate most changes - these three things comprise my baseline MVCP:
A Strategic Change Canvas
A Kanban board
Iterations
While this may seem too simple, it works because it combines three powerful elements of lean-agile ways of working - visual management, flow, and short feedback loops.
The Change Canvas and Kanban board make the change work visible and create a single source of truth for the strategy and execution plan.
Kanban enables a flow-based process of work where I focus on the highest value work first and then pull more work as required.
Regular iterations create a time-boxed process that enables me to get into a rhythm of short feedback loops and continuous alignment.
My baseline MVCP removes all waste from the change process. In a previous post I shared my view that the definition of value in change management is anything that creates context for stakeholders - nothing more, nothing less.
In a subsequent post I shared the common six sources of waste in change management and why we need to eliminate or reduce this waste to deliver greater value.
The following describes exactly how I do this.
To illustrate the application of this MVCP, consider this real-world scenario where I served as the change lead for an Enterprise Architecture Maturity (EAM) initiative with the IT department as the main stakeholder group.
Strategic Change Canvas - Create Alignment
My first priority was to make sure that the IT leadership team (ITLT) was aligned on the change. This is where my Strategic Change Canvas comes in.
Over a period of a few weeks, I conducted 1:1 conversations with each of the ITLT to discuss the change and capture their insights and perspectives directly on the Strategic Change Canvas.
I used MS Whiteboard to facilitate this process and the whiteboard became my big visible change wall.
I assigned each ITLT member a different colour sticky note so that they could easily identify the contribution of their peers on the Change Canvas.
We capped off the process by repurposing a monthly ITLT meeting to bring everyone together to review the Canvas.
The result was a high degree of alignment and a co-created change strategy.
Kanban - Create Flow
Once we were aligned on the Strategy, I set up a Kanban board to manage the tactical change work.
Kanban offers three big advantages for change work.
First, the Kanban board is visual and keeps everyone aligned to work that needs to be done, work in progress, work coming up next, and work that has been completed.
Second, Kanban allows me to pull the most valuable work first, while constantly reassessing and reprioritizing the backlog of work as I learn more about the change.
Third, the Kanban board is my tactical change work plan - It replaces traditional excel documents that are usually hidden in SharePoint.
Kanban makes the plan visual and visible to anyone who wishes to see it - at a glance everyone can get aligned on the tatical change plan.
"The Kanban board is my tactical change work plan - It replaces traditional excel documents that are usually hidden in SharePoint."
Iterations - Create Rhythm
Finally, I created a rhythm for our change work by establishing iterations.
The team agreed to start with a 30-minute weekly change meeting each Monday.
The weekly meeting creates a time-box for our process, keeping everyone aligned and creating short feedback loops so that we can learn our way forward through the change.
Each change meeting happens in front of the Strategic Change Canvas and Kanban board to maintain visual alignment.
We would discuss what we had learned the previous week, update the Kanban board with new activities and experiments to run based on our learnings, and pull new work forward based on value.
Putting It All Together - My MVCP
The image below is an actual image of my Strategic Change Canvas and Kanban board from the EAM initiative.Each week we would meet in front of these tools to maintain continuous alignment and just-in-time planning based on what we were learning each week.
It's that simple.
MVCPs are context sensitive and will look different from initiative-to-initiative.
More complex and fast-moving changes may require more weekly touch points. In that case, I would try adding a stand-up meeting on Wednesday and a change retrospective meeting on Friday to our Monday planning sessions.
No two changes are the same. Use the thinking around MVCPs to build your own custom change process every time.
