Implementation

How does an agency go from “here to there” in establishing and implementing an effective approach to change management?

Participation and Input

As opposed to the “war room” or “executive retreat” method, change planning and continuous improvement efforts must bring in data and perspectives from all levels of the agency, those being served, and a range of stakeholders. Openly testing and refining assessments and plans in a highly inclusive way, and involving a broad range of staff in an ongoing “feedback loop” as changes are monitored over time generates buy-in and understanding and helps to groom leaders and future executives.

Facilitation

Change Plan development and CI efforts can be highly innovative and enriching developmental experiences in and of themselves. The facilitation of participative working sessions that result in such an experience should be highly customized and dynamic, allowing for safe, candid reflection by those involved, while still resulting in concrete work products and clear accountability. Effective facilitation skills used with agency CI teams are analogous to those used with children and families served (e.g., establishing trust and rapport, creating a sense of safety and transparency, active listening, steering vs. mandating, etc.). An agency’s planning or staff development functions should include such facilitators or contract with an outside facilitator.

Leadership Roles

Given that effective implementation of changes requires a highly inclusive approach, leadership effectiveness is critical for this approach to thrive. Executive teams develop strategic plans that include the goals and objectives that direct change initiatives. They realistically assess organizational readiness for change and provide for its sustainability (e.g., required data resources). Senior leaders clarify who has the authority for making change happen, reinforcing that authority as needed. Sponsor groups charter and set boundaries for continuous improvement teams and review their efforts and progress over time.

Leadership Influence

Leadership roles within a change process include communicating within and outside the organization. Leaders “build the public will” by providing a clear and concrete definition of what practice model is being advanced, what strengths are in place, what problems need to be solved, what improvements and innovations are desired, what is tangibly being done, and what is being learned along the way. They are persuasive champions of the change effort, instilling a sense of excitement about the possibilities and pragmatic resolve to actually make good things happen. Leaders also create constructive relationships with dissenters, establishing a balance between safety and accountability with them. They listen to staff and stakeholders and adapt change efforts as appropriate, modeling inclusiveness and learning, while at the same time reinforcing their resolve to core practice model principles and outcomes for children, youth and families.

Power and Politics

In order to drive successful changes in an environment with competing interests and perspectives, leaders must be politically astute and savvy. Leaders assess who can either influence or detract from the changes they are attempting to make, and then gauge the degree of trust and agreement they share. If trust and agreement are high, leaders collaborate with these allies in influencing others to accept and champion the desired changes with them. If trust and agreement are low, politically astute leaders work to minimize or remove these adversaries from the change process or they establish coalitions of allies who are politically stronger than their adversaries. Leaders who are politically astute also work hard to enlist those who are influential but undecided while conserving their efforts to enlist those who are entirely opposed to their agenda.

Champions of Change

“Champions of change” should be identified and cultivated at all levels of the agency and within the community. Champions within the agency are viewed by staff as positive influence leaders; they articulate the work of change and provide technical assistance and support in sustaining it. They help lead the effort to take staff out of their comfort zone, modeling innovation and growth.Champions within the community also enjoy credibility and influence; they can serve as political buffers and supporters with stakeholders and the media.

Influencing the Middle

Those most likely to be influenced by “champions of change” are not the non-constructive resisters but those in between the champions and resisters. This group is typically the majority of the staff and stakeholders. Sometimes when changes are being implemented, it is the champions and chronic resisters who are given the most attention by leadership. But in a successful implementation campaign, as in a successful political campaign, this middle group is the primary focus of influence.

Chronic Resisters

Those who steadfastly maintain non-constructive resistance, especially when they are responsible for influential programs or functional areas, damage both a sense of safety and accountability within the agency’s culture generally as well as within specific improvement and innovation efforts. The middle group typically watches leadership to see how these resisters will be engaged. In effective change efforts, they are minimized and ultimately managed out of the agency, telling the rest of the staff that champions are recognized, constructive resistance is honored, and non-constructive resistance is not tolerated for long.

Safety and Accountability

Executive teams and sponsor groups have the authority and resources to build safety and accountability for change, and they must be vigilant in doing so. Leadership activities that increase a sense of safety for change include seeking out constructive forms of resistance, actively listening to and using the related feedback to improve change plans and continuous improvement efforts. Those that increase a sense of accountability for change include establishing goals and milestones within change and continuous improvement plans that are directly linked to performance evaluations, development plans and reward systems at both the individual and the program-specific level.

Management Effectiveness

Leadership and management are two interrelated but distinct areas of work, both of which are critical for implementing complex changes. Management work involves establishing the controls and structures necessary for supporting desired changes. These controls and structures include policies, key processes, programs (including HR-related programs), protocols, ground rules and methods for working together and accomplishing complex tasks and activities. Successful change most often occurs through building trust amongst those involved. That trust is based on both a shared vision and will -- the result of effective leadership -- and a confidence that change efforts will proceed in a reliable and competent fashion -- a result of effective management. For example, both leaders and managers work to ensure that staff members follow existing policies and procedures -- leaders by reinforcing the importance of doing the right thing, and managers by reinforcing the importance of doing things the right way.

Monitoring

Commitments regarding change planning must be specific, measurable, within specific timeframes and made publicly by the responsible person, team, function or program area. Monitoring toward successful implementation ofinitiatives or progress toward goals must be done on a regular basis once implementation begins. Effective monitoring includes evaluating plan progress, impact, and lesson learned. Communicating to staff and stakeholders about the findings from monitoring and involving them in these efforts where practical helps to sustain ongoing support forthe agency's efforts to improve. These same principles apply to agency staff, programs and functions.

Overcoming Obstacles

Agencies should anticipate and plan in advance how they will maximize readiness factors and overcome obstacles to implementing their improvement and innovation efforts. Here are some typical obstacles and how to overcome them in general:

Shifting Policies and Regulatory Requirements, PIPs, Reform Plans and Consent Decrees
Include and adjust when needed the environmental scans within the agency’s strategic and change plans. Realign strategic priorities in accord with any emerging non-negotiables. Ensure the agency’s plans are sufficiently adaptable in their design, use and monitoring. Over time, evolve the agency’s influence within the broader environment such that fewer unexpected and disruptive impacts occur.

Unexpected Traumas such as a Child Death or Negative News Cycle
Develop and use the agency’s communication plans and risk management programs to respond (versus responding in ad hoc or reactive ways). Build effective responsiveness to such events into the agency strategic objectives and related improvement initiatives (e.g., an ongoing effort to build trust and partnership with the media). When traumatic events occur, use CI processes to analyze and improve upon the root causes for any gaps, reaffirming the agency mission and values.

Budget Shortfalls and other Unplanned Resource Cuts
Include and adjust when needed the analysis of required and available resources within the agency's strategic and change plans, at times limiting or delaying priorities. Use ongoing monitoring and root cause analysis to streamline resources where they do not have a high impact on agency goals and objectives, or where they are inefficient and redundant (e.g., due to lact of collaboration and partnership). When innovations and breakthroughs are successful, "declare victory" and limit further resource investments. Over time, evolve the agency's influence within the broader environment such that resource cuts are less frequent or less significant.

Changes to the Executive Team or other Key Participants
Use strategic and change planning methods that are highly systematic and participative so that changes in key leadership do not disrupt ongoing strategies, change initiatives and relationship networks. Provide such plans and methods to new leaders as part of their orientation so they immediately understand and support current initiatives, or seek to evolve them from within, versus leading in more disruptive and idiosyncratic ways.

Internal Politics and Interdepartmental Turf Disputes
Use the readiness assessment and continuous improvement priorities themselves to proactively and transparently address these potential obstacles, versus leaving them out of the scope of change and continuous improvement efforts. Use the power and politics guidance included in this chapter.

Lack of Effective Support from Functions like HR and IT
Include strategic support functions in both strategic and change planning to leverage their expertise and enlist their support. Make the alignment of support function capacity an explicit part of strategic priorities and related continuous improvement projects.

Operational or Project Performance Below Expectations
Use monitoring efforts to learn from these experiences, deepen the agency’s root cause and remedies work, and reinforce the agency’s commitment to taking measured risks. Adjust the pace of improvement efforts and priorities in line with current capacity (including staff skills and experience). And if a related root cause is lack of staff follow-through and commitment, reinforce a culture of accountability by taking corrective action in performance management, especially in regards to non-constructive resistance.

In proactively anticipating and planning for potential barriers and obstacles, agencies employ and further build their strengths in critical thinking and creative problem-solving. Many of these obstacles, as well as others such as staff resistance, cultural inertia and a crisis mentality, are addressed by the very activities suggested within this guidance.

Supporting Tools

Tools and templates for effective implementation include:

Continuous improvement team charters from sponsor groups
Communication plan template
Assessment, data collection and analysis tools
Facilitation tools and templates
Monitoring tools and templates
Individual and team capacity planning tools
Project management, meeting management, and decision-making tools
Action research, coaching and performance management tools

Support from Universities and Non-Profits

The role of academic and non-profit institutions in supporting the change management efforts of agencies includes:

Generating case studies of successful agency change management efforts.
Integrating the "products" of practitioner successes (models, tools, process, techniques) with general practice theories of working with children, youth and families and organizational development.
Preparing students for the real world challenges of complex organizations attempting to improve and innovate within a challenging environment.
Shifting their professional development services from a classroom-based curriculum to a more consultative continuous improvement approach.