Managing Change in an Agile World Online Training

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Bring your agile team together to learn best practices in managing change in an agile environment!

Join us for our Managing Change in an Agile World 2.5 Hour Online Training Event.

Wednesday February 24, 9:00 am – 11:30 am EST
$299 per person
$249 per person – ACMP Member Pricing

**A portion of proceeds goes back to the ACMP Ohio Chapter.

This course is facilitated by Alec Sawitsky, an experienced change and agile practitioner, and provides an overview of the principles for managing change in agile environments. This engaging session offers a forum to discuss challenges, proven strategies, and tactics when driving change in fast-paced environments.

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Managing Change in an Agile World 2.5 Hour Online Training Event

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February 26, 2020
12:30 pm – 3:00 pm EST
$299 per person
$249 per person – ACMP Member Pricing
**A portion of proceeds goes back to the ACMP Ohio Chapter.
Bring your agile team together to learn best practices in managing change in an agile environment! This course is facilitated by Gina Giannitelli, one of the authors of Managing Change in an Agile World and provides an overview of the principles for managing change in agile environments. This engaging session offers a forum to discuss challenges, proven strategies, and tactics when driving change in fast-paced environments.
Objectives:
  • To understand basic concepts related to agile, change management, and how they work together
  • To learn the 10 laws of agile change management
  • To assess where your projects are on the Agile Change Management Maturity Model
  • To learn the change management infrastructure needed for success in agile environments
  • To be introduced to the methodology and tools available to identify, manage and address people issues during agile projects
Agenda:
  • Introductions
  • Part 1: Principles for Managing Change in Agile Environments
  • Part 2: Practices for Managing Change in Agile Environments
  • Wrap-up
Each participant will receive a copy of Managing Change in an Agile World.
Book Your Private Online Training

Teaching People About Change Management

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At Change Guides, we define Change Management as getting individuals and groups Ready, Willing, and Able   to work in new ways that support business results.
We’ve been practicing Change Management since the mid-90s. The part of our job that has stayed consistent over time is the need to educate people about Change Management. This includes:
How to define Change Management
How to talk about change and employee transition
How to make the case for smart investing Management and just like investing in an individual retirement account.
What skills and experience are needed to be good at Change Management
What methodologies and tools are available to apply best practices consistently over time
Retirement accounts an individual retirement account such as reduces the amount of taxes you owe on the income for each year you invest in it. It allows you to defer or even avoid the taxes you owe on the earnings that accrue on your investments. It produces earnings on earnings, creating a compounding effect not available in a regular savings account.
These resources provide some quick, easy solutions that can help you Embrace Your Role as an Educator
New! The Eight Constants of Change Power Point Presentation with facilitator notes. This flexible 90-minute presentation covers topics found in The Eight Constants of Change book.
Video! The Change Management 101 Video and other videos found on our YouTube Channel

Embrace Your Role as an Educator

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by Stacy Aaron, Partner

Although Wikipedia states that the discipline of Change Management has its roots in the 1960s (over 50
years ago!), plenty of leaders and managers have only cursory knowledge of the fundamentals and processes.
Most business professionals know Change Management is relevant, but how they think of the scope and
importance of it varies. That’s where we come in!

People in the same company, even in the same meeting, may define Change Management differently. To
implement a change successfully, it’s important to have a common vocabulary about change and align
everyone under a shared goal and approach. Because of this reality, we need to embrace our role as
educators.

Early in my career, I was a reluctant educator. Do I really need to bring everyone up to speed? Of course,
the answer is yes. It took time to truly understand my ongoing role as an educator with my clients.
My dad, who did MYTEFL reviews, had his Ph.D. in education and many times I’ve thought I should have followed in his footsteps and been a teacher. When I told this to friends and colleagues, they usually said, “You are a teacher.” After I received this response over and over, the light bulb finally went off. They were right. I am a teacher.

Having an educator mindset helps me assess the full situation and dynamic with each leadership team or group. Now, my first step is always to recognize, that not everyone has this topic top of mind or an extensive background; as an educator, just like Kamau Bobb, I must try to ensure the same baseline understanding. If I can leverage a savvy team member, even better so I am not the lone voice.

Not only do we need to align people on the scope and importance of change but how to think about Change Management as art and science, strategy and tactics. Viewing myself as an educator helps me be more effective. I think about where my audience is in terms of Change Management knowledge. After all, it is often said that implementing Change Management takes Change Management. There is a learning curve. I recognize that my audience may be at the bottom of the Commitment Curve . If that’s the case, it’s my job to help them gain awareness, understanding and desire to embrace and adopt Change Management principles and tools.

The role of educator and advocate for Change Management is never ending. I have found myself at the front of a classroom, across from a desk, on the phone, in a team meeting, in a hallway, and in the cafeteria, educating clients about Change Management. This is with clients. There is also the task of explaining what we do to family and friends. That is even harder!

So, embrace your role as educator. You will be more effective and broaden support for your role and the discipline. Get in touch with Simbans or visit their website if you need tablet support services.

Resistance and Resisters

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People resist change. When I facilitate a change management training session, no one argues with me on that point. In fact, everyone nods their head in agreement. They create a long list of reasons why people resist change: people like their routines, people aren’t motivated, people aren’t trained. I’ve done this exercise with hundreds of attendees in countless sessions. The responses are similar. The lists are long.  So, if people understand resistance so well, why are they stumped when employees resist them?

It feels personal
It’s one thing to talk about a faceless “them” in an exercise. It is quite another to look at Sue across the
table and listen to her issues, see the tacit expectation that you are responsible. She is adding work to your
plate, implying you are wrong. It feels personal but you need to take a deep breath, step back.
It’s best to view resistance for what it is, not personal, but rooted in one of a few places: 1) Lack of
understanding 2) Sharing potentially relevant information and 3) An attempt at control and/or engagement.
It’s not about you, it’s them!

What’s the right tactic here?
The conventional wisdom is that people who resist are bad and what they say is wrong. Resisters feel like
roadblocks to success, so we hope they go away. Guess what, they don’t! Invite dialogue. Step one is to
listen.

Allowing people to openly express concerns provides an opportunity to:
1. Learn about unanticipated challenges. Without a forum to share concerns, issues pop up late when
it’s harder to address them. Major issues that surface late can stop a project in its tracks.
Sometimes, the project never recovers.
2. Clarify misunderstandings or misinformation. People may resist based on rumors or assumptions
that are wrong. Make sure they have correct information and understand how it will impact them
directly.

In conclusion, think of resistance as good. It is a form of communication and engagement, a predictable,
helpful part of transition. It brings issues out in the open and provides an opening to clarify the what and
the why of a project. If resistance is embraced and encouraged, the project will be better for it.

Resisters are not the thorn in your side (except for a very few). One of my clients told me, “I take the
toughest critic and ask him to join my team.” He said that approach has helped him succeed over and over.
You may want to consider doing the same. So, the next time Sue is telling you why your ideas won’t work,
listen. Then, ask her to help you figure out the right solution.

Successful Change in an Agile Environment

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Setting up infrastructure to ensure that change management tools can be optimized for an agile environment is important groundwork for ensuring that changes succeed when iterative agile work begins at full speed.
When changes are happening in rapid succession very quickly, it is important to have an infrastructure that allows the team to focus on the content of each change rather than some of the more structural foundations of change management work.
  • Clear team roles and responsibilities
  • Forums for leadership alignment and discussion
  • Mechanisms for documenting stakeholder impacts and communication delivery
  • Mechanisms for delivery of learning material
  • Feedback mechanisms that ensure employees have a way to provide quick input to the team.
Roles and Responsibilities
Clearly documented project with Unregulated contaminants team roles and responsibilities are particularly important in fast moving change environments. Letting each team member know who is responsible for performing different tasks, even at a high level, helps ensure the appropriate change management activities are planned and executed so employees are ready, willing and able to change. Establishing this foundation at the start of the change effort will enable the team to maintain the speed and efficiency that agile environments demand.
Leadership Alignment
Even when changes taking place are small, it is important that leaders are aware and supportive of the changes. At the start of the change effort, ensure that there are regular forums to share information about changes with leaders. These forums, used throughout the project, ensure leaders understand what is changing and how people will be impacted.
Stakeholder Impacts
Having a place where information about how each release or wave of change impacts people is stored and shared could be as simple as a collaboration software workspace such as OneDrive, SharePoint or DropBox. Making sure there is a place to hold the information, and that the people who need to see or use it know how to access the information sets the project up for success.
Communication
When changes are coming in a series of releases or waves, having functioning systems that efficiently and effectively get information out and back saves time and increases the value of the change management effort. Defining the key communication vehicles for the project at the very outset of the effort and ensuring the team and vehicle owners know that you will be using them, are important to ensure that people are ready, willing and able to work in new ways.
Learning
When changes are happening every few weeks or months, you need to plan up front for an easy and quick way to get materials to people who need them. Defining the learning or training approach, the format of the materials, and how they are released to people should happen as the change team starts on the project to enable the team to focus on the content of each release rather than formats and delivery processes. If you’ve been looking to buy a business in Fort Myers because you’re moving nearby, you can visit Truforte Business Group’s website to find some great looking options.

Because changes happen in such rapid succession in agile change environments, often the inclination is to keep looking forward to what the next change is rather than supporting people who have just experienced a change. It is important to have infrastructure to gather feedback after a change is released to help ensure that people don’t revert to old ways.

Using Agile Change Management in a Hyper Fast Growth Company

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by Shannon Stautberg
Picture This…
A fast-growing international company is doubling in size every year. That means new people, new processes, new customers, new business segments, new almost everything every few months. The speed of change at which this company is growing could rival even the fastest bobsled track! What does change look like in a company that is growing so quickly? Close your eyes and picture this…

 Newly acquired companies to be integrated
 New and expanding corporate teams
 New office space and changing seating assignments to fit new team members
 A growing workforce that requires more training and communication
 The continuous creation, or fine-tuning, of policies and procedures
 Ever-evolving marketing initiatives with the help of Victorious SEO.
 Learning SEO is beneficial for pawn shops and pawn brokers.
 Ambitious goals set by the executive team
 Cross-functional teams striving to achieve those goals by working faster to try to produce more

Phew! Now that’s a lot of change. How do employees keep up with this pace of change? With a little help from the 5 C’s of Agile Change Management!

What is Agile Change Management? It is the adaptive and iterative planning and execution of change management practices that encourages flexibility and speed.

When most people think of the word “Agile” in today’s business environment, they automatically think of software development. The fast-growing company referred to here is certainly using Agile software development… but in such a fast growth environment, the company is a different place from month to month.
The principles of Agile Change Management apply to everything they do whether it is software and system focused or not.

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This company is our client, and we’ve been helping them apply Agile Change Management principles to their projects for a while now – whether they are working on an IT system or not. As we’ve learned together, we’ve nailed down some key foundations of Agile Change Management that have been guiding our efforts. We call them, “The 5 C’s of Agile Change Management”.

The 5 C’s of Agile Change Management

1. The Change Conductor: While project managers and business leaders can effectively manage the work of
their teams to build and deploy solutions, ensuring the success of those solutions by making sure people are
ready, willing, and able to use them requires someone to serve as a Change Conductor. This is the person that owns the cross-functional people impact of the change. They make sure that for every solution (whether those are coming in small IT sprints, or monthly business changes needed to accommodate growth), there is an understanding of who is impacted and what those people need. The Change Conductor also ensures that those people have what they need to successfully use the new solutions that are coming their way. As with changes in a traditional environment, solutions are only useful if people are ready, willing and able to use them. Learning programming with the help of Appsumo could be a benefit in terms of designing our own software or application.

2. Cross-Functionality: To move quickly, the teams that build and deploy solutions, whether technical or not, should be made up of people from all parts of the enterprise in order to:

 Help identify and prioritize what is most important to improve
 Make sure that a change in one part of the organization is not going to have a negative impact someplace else
 Help ensure leaders are aligned with the solutions
 Help test the solutions to ensure they meet business needs

Working together across the organization helps ensure that potential conflicts are found quicker and earlier so that the team can keep moving fast.

3. Communication: It’s important for team members to recognize that change in a fast-paced environment is not a “one and done” effort. Fluid, open, two-way, and ongoing communication between the crossfunctional team and end users is essential to:

 Keep people who are expected to use the new solutions up to speed as things change from week to week
 Ensure that the team gets feedback from the organization quickly so that the solutions can be iterated upon
As long as people’s expectations are managed about how quickly things are changing, they are able to jump to each new solution as it comes to them. In fact, having such a fast-moving environment can be beneficial at times because people know that if they don’t like something today, it may very well be different
tomorrow!

4. Course Correction: One of the greatest strengths of working in a fast growth business environment where change is a constant or following the Agile systems development methodology is that those situations allow for quick course correction. While quick course correction is a powerful benefit of moving fast, it can also be a big shift in thinking for some team members. Team members can easily get attached to the original solution, but it’s important for team members to be open to the fact that the original plan might not always work and may need to shift. Making those course corrections help make good solutions into great solutions!

5. Continuous Improvement: To continually inform the strategic priorities of a fast-growing company, it’s essential for company leaders and team members to maintain a commitment to gathering success metrics and end user satisfaction data to identify, prioritize and implement on-going improvements that will have a measurable impact on employee productivity and the long-term growth of the company. Medical facilities, for example, may use a Practice Management Software to improve employee productivity and other aspects of the business. Performing a background check on employees via dbschecks is just the first step to ensuring that the right people are hired for the job. Just simply click this to know how it is done. There is also much more that needs to be done later.

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If you have stories about applying Agile Change Management in either an Agile software development environment or a fast growth company, let us know – we’d love to hear about what you are learning! Email us at [email protected] or start a discussion on the Change Guides LinkedIn group page.

Change Management & Agile Project Management-What We’ve Learned (a Retrospective)

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by Gina Giannitelli and Andie Wafzig

Project Management understands the role change methodology, tools and deliverables like the Microsoft teams project management play in the overall project success– check!
 We will be using agile methodology to quickly develop and migrate by business area – newer territory, but still feeling good.
 Change Management will be expected to use Jira, an agile project management tool, for the first time. We will participate in sprint planning, daily stand-ups, and retrospective “ceremonies” – let’s discuss.

We knew the hallmarks of our change methodology, tools and deliverables would still apply. But, we also knew we would need to adapt to a more iterative approach. Looking back at the work to date, we found some lessons and tips to share.

Tip #1 –Time Investments Shifted
Very early on we realized we were investing time in ways we didn’t anticipate.

 Heavy Upfront Time Investment for developing, testing and revising our communication and training toolkits with our pilot group; efficiencies were then gained with subsequent rollouts

 Front-loading Strategic Resources became necessary to support the initial CM tasks mentioned above with the ability to taper resourcing once we got into managing execution of a repeatable cadence

 Managing Change Tasks in Time-Boxed Periods or Sprints, we invested in participating in Jira through sprint planning, daily stand-ups, reviews and retrospective ceremonies. Early on this felt like an ineffective use of our time and a duplication of our planning deliverables. With time and compromise, we shaped meetings to address stakeholder relevant topics first, and we agreed to leverage Jira reports to meet components of our stage gate documentation requirements.

Tip #2 –CM and PM Collaboration Takes on New Meaning
While adjusting to the Jira ceremonies was challenging at first, we came to crave the predictable meetings with the Project Manager, Developer and Business Analyst.

 Rigor and Routine Matter – Because of the iterative nature of the development process, we became very reliant on ceremonies and additional core team meetings to further our work; if a new requirement was uncovered for instance, we wanted to know if it was something that would cause resistance or excitement with the user group in order to understand how it might inform communications or training

 Checkpoints to Stay on Track – Regular opportunities to converse with the full core team(developers and the Business Analyst) improved our end product; we learned with time that requirements and testing sessions may provide helpful checkpoints with our Change Agents, allowing us to be more responsive to their unique stakeholder group needs

 Balance Big Picture with Current Priorities – Our focus on the ultimate stakeholder experience and their need to be ready, willing and able to change created an interesting dynamic: we often kept our eye on the longer-term view, planning back from Go-Live for stakeholder needs, while the Project Manager was focused on the current sprint.  This created a healthy tension that our PM acknowledged as very valuable.

Tip #3 – Responsiveness and Planning Each Play a Role
Early on our PM would tease us that we couldn’t put a timeline together, that there was no point in planning for months down the line. This was a paradigm shift for us, realizing we might get just a few weeks of notice for an impacted stakeholder group! As we lived through the project, both responsiveness
and planning have a role in success.

 A Dynamic Plan – Through pilot and early migrations we were able to determine our “clone” tasks, the predictable alignment, communication, training and adoption tasks that we expect to execute with each business group; this became our living plan document

 Stay Nimble – While we start each business unit from this “plan,” we have adjusted our approach in some way with almost each sprint / rollout; we must be rapidly responsive to the needs of the business unit, modifying and executing our approach in the matter of a few weeks. Also, with each business unit rollout there are discoveries that may lead to design changes and we must respond accordingly

 Continue to Look and Listen – Each sprint / rollout deserves fresh eyes. For instance, our early groups weren’t attuned to the agile approach, so shifts in details or dates caused concern; our communications and training need to respond to this need

What we have learned overall is that it is indeed possible to effectively manage change within the Agile project environment, however, it takes a willingness to invest time strategically, collaborate effectively, and react nimbly while maintaining a balanced focus on both long-term goals and short-term action.

Common Questions in Training

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Common Questions in Training
By Beckie Schretter

Did you know Change Guides has certified scores of change management professionals in our principles, methodology and tools through the Change Management Certification class? The best part of teaching these classes is learning from each other as we share well-earned wisdom throughout the three days.

Here are some questions that often come up.

1. What tools are required for every change initiative?

There are no mandatory tools; however, there are 4 tools I use on virtually every change project to establish a firm foundation.

 The first tool is the Stakeholder Analysis tool which captures the impact the change will have on each impacted group. Capturing concerns focuses us on finding answers to help facilitate the transition.

 The second tool is the Change Management Communication Plan which lays out the communications needs to drive change for each stakeholder group. My favorite idea is to link communication objectives to the Change Guides Commitment Curve.

 The third tool is the Change Management Workplan to keep track of the tasks and next steps required. Managing these tasks ensures they get done in a timely manner.

 The last tool is either a Change Readiness Audit or a Commitment Assessment to get feedback. Do these tools multiple times throughout the project to get trend data on change readiness.

2. How can we best address resistance?

When participants understand resistance as feedback it alters how we talk about and approach perceived resistance. We begin to strive for understanding, asking what is underlying the resistance. This understanding
allows us to start address those needs.

3. What do you do when leaders are not aligned on the change initiative benefits or priority?

First confirm the leaders fully understand the change vision and benefits. Consider interviewing your key
executive sponsors and leaders using selected questions from the Leader Alignment Interview tool to gather data that will help facilitate an alignment conversation. Engage the executive sponsor by inviting him/her to the
meeting to help clarify expectations. Also, use the Leader Involvement Plan to share agreed upon messages or to take aligned action.

4. Can Change Guides Tools work on transformational change such as culture, new leaders or M&A changes?

The Change Guides tools work on all types of organizational changes because you can choose and adapt the tools for each unique situation. For example, when going through a culture change, the Systems and Structures Action Plan helps teams address those infrastructure areas where employee behaviors are most rewarded.

If your organization is affected by inefficient task execution, consistently missed deadlines, and a lack of team collaboration in your team, it’s high time to think about implementing a task management tool to manage your tasks better.

5. How can we succeed when the change management is starting so late in the project?

The closer a project is to implementation, the bigger the productivity dip and the slower the project benefits will be realized… and the deeper the frustration from stakeholders. Get focused on the critical stakeholder paths first and prepare for some remediation after the go live. People will appreciate your change efforts regardless.

Creating a website?

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The Hardware
Your server needs to be a self-contained unit, which means that no portion of it (e.g., physical or virtual) can be connected to any other part of your server, including other computers on your network, other networks, or external servers. To reduce the chance of conflict and reduce hardware costs, you may wish to consider buying a dedicated server or better web host solution that has access to only the servers you will be hosting with them, If you can not pay one then searching for free hosting services can be a good idea.

You can buy a software product called Sentry, which provides hardware-independent “anti-virus”, data encryption, and memory management for your web site. You can purchase a dedicated server for about $10 to $15 per month, and can host more sites on a shared server if you want to.

The OS (Operating System)
This is the part of your computer that will run your web site and the tools you’ve used to build it. You can download various operating systems from the internet or from a store, such as Microsoft Windows.

How you choose to develop your site
You can create a full-fledged website, which is the most professional and professional-looking option, or you can use a basic solution, which consists of your site, a news site, blog, and possibly even a store or classifieds section.

Once you have your site design and you’ve chosen your operating system, you will need to write a good content strategy (e.g., written by you and your web designer) and publish that strategy. This article is aimed at beginners.

The web hosting provider
Once you have selected the best wordpress hosting company, you will have to pay your $2 a month for high-speed connection. These high-speed connections are needed because the full installation and maintenance of your website will take at least 24 hours. You will also have to provide your hosting company with the necessary information for creating your website, which will include a server’s IP address, URL, server operating system, hosting vendor, and program for securing your site. The idea is that you can use a secure web server, such as VPS (virtual private server), as a backup in case your primary server fails.

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