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The Background
The Background
In order to maintain the privacy of those involved, pseudonyms have been used throughout this report. We completed this project as a course project (Tischer, R. & Farnsworth, M., 2021).
In 2021, Square State Media, a media and marketing company in Wyoming merged with another marketing company and found that the project management systems being used were incompatible with the merged team and processes. They allowed our project team to have access to some of the staff in order to create a change report. At the time, the owner was not prepared to make a final decision on which project management system they wanted to adopt. We took the liberty of reviewing the potential project management systems and based on the criteria we had, we recommended a system called Philo.
Square State Media
The Methodology
The Methodology
Throughout the project, we applied Dormant’s (2011) CACAO, or Chocolate Model of change management. This model uses a four-tiered focus to provide a structured approach to the change initiative:
Change: the new system we wanted to implement
Adopters: the group targeted to use the new system
Change Agents: The change team that will assist in the implementation
Organization: the organization or group that contains the Change, the Adopters, and the Change Agent(s) (Dormant, 2011, p. 10)
Data for this report was collected from interviews and personal conversations with key stakeholders within Square State Media. Additionally, personal observations of the adopters were also used throughout the report.
The Change
The Change
When Square State Media merged with another marketing company, the new organization quickly discovered that there were two different processes for tracking work in two different project management systems. One of the existing systems, Taskmaster, had a lot of bugs after support for Flash was shut down. The team that had been using Taskmaster was already looking for replacement project management systems when they merged with Square State Media. The other system being used was a simple spreadsheet that wasn’t robust enough to provide continued support after the merger. Philo was a tool already being considered to replace Taskmaster when the merger occurred.
Through the course of our data collection process, we identified several reasons why adopters may resist the change initiative. We also developed some potential strategies to offset these concerns, summarized in Table 1.
Table 1 - Reasons to Resist Adoption
(Adapted from Tischer, R. & Farnsworth, M., 2021, pp. 6-7)
We also identified several reasons why adopters may readily accept a change to a new project management system and developed some strategies to maximize acceptance, summarized in Table 2.
Table 2 - Reasons to Accept Adoption
(Adapted from Tischer, R. & Farnsworth, M., 2021, p. 7)
The Adopters
The Adopters
Square State Media consisted of fifteen individuals that we broke into two adopter groups:
Group #1 - Nine employees with significant experience using Taskmaster
Group #2 - six employees with little to no experience using Taskmaster
The main reason we chose to use experience with Taskmaster as the characteristic dividing our two adopter groups was the motivation. The people who were familiar with Taskmaster had been trying to replace it for years. Building buy-in for a new project management system would be relatively easy considering their generally negative opinion of Taskmaster. The people who weren’t familiar with Taskmaster knew that their existing spreadsheet needed to be replaced by a more comprehensive tool and for them it didn’t seem to matter which tool they switched to.
Key adopters
Key adopters
As we conducted a cultural assessment through interviews and personal observations, we identified key adopters that fell into one of three categories—Opinion Leaders, Innovators, and Traditionalists.
See Appendix for more information.
The Change Agents
The Change Agents
Dormant (2011) explains that “change agents need a wide range of expertise. This includes the skills and knowledge associated with the adopter group, data-gathering, communication, technical aspects of the change, training, leadership, the organization and change agentry.” (p. 114). After reviewing the key adopters and the skills of everyone in both adopter groups, we identified the following individuals as potential members of the change team.
Figure 1 - The Change Team
(Tischer, R. & Farnsworth, M., 2021, p. 11)
One area where the change team doesn’t carry as much experience is training. Square State Media is a small enough organization that there isn’t a formal training program. Bob and Sara both have experience facilitating training modules and we thought that if they worked together on the training component, they could probably get the job done. But we also recommended that the team consider an outside training consultant.
Change Characteristics
Change Characteristics
One final step we took before developing an action plan to implement the new project management system was to apply five key change characteristics and rank them from the perspective of both adopter groups (Dormant, 2011, p. 20). These characteristics are:
Relative Advantage - is the change better than the alternatives?
Simplicity - is the change easy to understand?
Adaptability - can the change be adapted to individuals?
Compatibility - is the change similar to the existing system?
Social Impact - will the social status of the adopters be influenced by the change?
We determined that Adopter Group #1, those with experience using Taskmaster, would likely rank each characteristic quite high (23 out of 25). According to Dormant (2011), this score indicates that the implementation is “readily do-able” (p. 21). Adopter Group #2, those without experience using Taskmaster, only scored a 15 out of 25. This is due in part to the fact that their existing system was a simple spreadsheet and any project management system was going to be more complex. Dormant (2011) suggests that a score between 10 and 20 will take careful planning.
The Organization
The Organization
To help us better both formal and informal social structures within Square State Media, we used all the data we collected in interviews, conversations, and personal observations to create a sociogram. We then combined this information with the official org chart in order to create the Change Project Sociogram.
Figure 2 - Change Project Sociogram
(Tischer, R. & Farnsworth, M., 2021, p. 18)
Change Alignment with Strategic Goals
Change Alignment with Strategic Goals
When we created this report, the merged Square State Media was still new enough that clearly defined mission and strategic goals had not yet been identified. However, Dormant (2011), suggests evaluating the alignment between the change initiative and the strategic goals along nine dimensions:
Culture
Image
Mission
Strategy
Policies & Procedures
Current Initiatives
Technologies
Change Climate
Change Load (p. 169)
In each dimension, we scored the switch to Philo as the project management system as 4 out of 5 or higher. The total score we came up with was 42.5 out of 45 indicating an exceptional level of cultural alignment.
The Action Plan
The Action Plan
The Action Plan is broken into five phases, each with a different messaging strategy. These phases are:
Awareness → Advertise the change
Curiosity → Discuss the change
Mental Tryout → Demonstrate the change
Hands-on Tryout → Train for the change
Adoption → Support the change
Here is a brief summary of the Action Plan.
Awareness
Awareness
A staff meeting will be held and Kathy, the owner of Square State Media, will announce the transition to Philo. Kathy, Sara, and Bob will then take time over the following two weeks to consult with senior staff to address questions and concerns. A rough timeline for implementation should also be presented alongside basic talking points about Philo.
Curiosity
Curiosity
During the third week after the initial announcement meeting, another meeting will be held where staff will be able to review potential changes to their workflows. These will not be step-by-step processes, but rather a simplified workflow diagram highlighting key differences between using Taskmaster or a spreadsheet and using Philo. Jake and Henry will also start taking a more active role in addressing questions from the adopters.
Mental Tryout
Mental Tryout
By week six, the core functionality of Philo should be set up as well as the bulk of the new processes. At this point, senior staff should talk to their teams and discuss wish-list features for Philo that could make their jobs easier. The updated workflow diagram should also be reviewed again in preparation for a full demonstration.
Hands-On Tryout
Hands-On Tryout
Weeks seven through twelve will consist of regular training sessions coordinated by Bob and Sara. The adopters should be presented with a high-level overview of all components within Philo as well as an in-depth training on components specific to their individual workflows. A Go-Live date should be set at the end of this phase so that all adopters know when the official transition will occur.
Adoption
Adoption
Once Philo is officially live, the change team will spend the next three months regularly checking in with all adopters to address any issues, collect feedback, and make feature adjustments as needed. Job aids will be provided to assist with specific workflows and adopters should be reminded that the change team is still there to support them.
References
References
Dormant, D. (2011). The chocolate model of change. Lulu.
Tischer, R. & Farnsworth, M. (2021). A Journey in the dark: A proposal to implement a new project management system at Square State Media. OPWL 577 Assignment. https://docs.google.com/document/d/1tUArvI6_ZPlwmqfXsKNX1FtqZHThODb3/edit?usp=sharing&ouid=104202168104753718617&rtpof=true&sd=true
Appendix
Appendix
Final Report and Worksheets
Tischer&Farnsworth_Final_Report_OPWL577.docxPage updated
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