Okay, here goes test #3 of the webinar blog. Enjoy!
Research and experience shows that the role of the sponsor is critical. It brings authority and credibility to the project and sends very strong signals to the rest of the organization. In all five of Prosci's best practices studies in change management (1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2007), the number one contributor to success identified by participants was active and visible sponsorship.
On the webinar, we address three lists which I think provide a good summary of the need for and challenges around sponsorship:
3 most important roles of sponsors:
1. Participate actively and visibly throughout the project
2. Build a coalition of sponsorship and manage resistance
3. Communicate directly with employees
5 biggest sponsor mistakes
1. Failed to personally engage in the project
2. Avoided direct communications with employees
3. Abdicated or delegated his or her role
4. Wavered in his or her support
5. Failed to build a coalition of sponsorship with key leaders
5 reasons sponsors struggle with change management
1. They don't understand their role
2. They think they can tell people to just change
3. They live in the future state
4. They have limited sponsorship capacity
5. They haven't connected the people side to what they care about
We only briefly touch on what can be done about sponsorship (as we only have an hour and this could take us days to discuss). For building Awareness and Desire to "be a great sponsor", there really is no substitute for bringing in one of Prosci's instructors - experienced Fortune 500 executives - to facilitate a 4-6 hour executive session (email training@prosci.com for more information or a proposal). You play a key role in coaching your sponsor for Knowledge and Ability - once A&D are present.
What do you think? What are some reasons you have had trouble engaging your sponsors? What tactics have you used to get sponsors on board?
Thanks.
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7 comments:
I am keen to find out more about the visuals people mentioned to illustrate which changes are impacting each group of people. I am currently trying to find a nice way of illustrating which of our IT projects are impacting which staff in each office over a 12month period. I'm not sure that it's achievable to display this much information in a single visual. Any ideas?
In global projects, the key sponsors are based out of various locations representing regions/countries... some are at influential positions and other, NOT. How do you get a sponsor to fulfill his responsibilities, if he is not in a powerful position (as per the org. structure)?
Topic: mesuring effectiveness of sponsors. Thinking of the adage from project management - what get's measured get's done - this seems to be a great way to engage sponsors to help deliver the ROI of a project. I could see where the dialogue with the sponsor on what constitutes effectiveness could be utilized as a way to educate the sponsor on their role and the measuring part a way to ensure they stay connected. Thinking that they could also be a way to influence desired behaviors of the sponsor.
In response to your information below around Primary Sponsor and little "s" sponsors, I have found it easier to review to little "s" sponsors as "champions" instead. Some of my clients were getting confused as to which sponsor we were referring to when developing our change management plans for one of my recent projects.
Topic impact on groups of people. In response to Penny post, I would recommend to look for a methodology of "Stakeholder Analysis", here an example: http://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_07.htm Stakeholder Analysis or Stakeholder management methodologies are interesting because it tells you not only how to identify impacted group of people and how much they are impacted, but also how (how close) do you have to manage those groups, according to the amount of impact on them... Hope this help...
Regarding roles of sponsors, manage resistance, there is an article of Chris Argyris where he points how executives chose to deal with resistance to change.
What they use to do is easing in, covering up, avoiding candor and plain speaking about the issue raised by employees. They do this in order to minimizing subordinates defensiveness hoping to getting them to buy into change. The implicit logic behind this way to manage resistance is more less like this:
•Hide your fears about the other person's likely resistance to change. Cover this fear with persistent positiveness. Pretend the two of you agree, especially when you know you don't.
•Deal with resistant responses by stressing the problem rather than the resistance. Be positive. Keep this strategy a secret.
•If this approach doesn't work, make it clear that you won't take no for an answer. After all, you're the boss.
Following up on the ways to visually illustrate change and its impact on groups, I've set up a special page where I've put a couple of my own resoucres. I will also post stuff here that you would like to share:
http://www.change-management.com/webinar-sponsor-end-visuals.htm
TimC
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