Implementation Planning

Thus far, I have described CORE and given simple examples of its application. However, a Critical Chain implementation is complex. It includes installation, training, business process changes, and new flows of information. It should result in significant changes to how people do their work, changes that must be synchronized across potentially dozens of functions and thousands of people. Much can and does go wrong. Ultimately, we want people to adapt our Critical Chain methodology to their environment in such a way that it becomes part of the organization's DNA.

Planning with the Cycle of Results

In order to use CORE to analyze an implementation plan, just follow the cycle. A number of questions will be immediately obvious, for example: What is driving urgency to change? Who experiences it? Who needs to experience it?

Is there a vision that unifies the urgency experienced by the different players?

Have expectations been set? For whom? Who will set their own expectations, and what is the impact of that?

Has the planning accomplished buy-in?

Who is truly committed? In other words, whom can you trust to take the lead?

Where do you expect value to be created?

What measurements will be used to validate that value was created?

How is that value going to be used, both to (re) shape expectations and to adapt the implementation plan?

If we apply this approach to the steps in Table 5-1, we may discover a number of missing elements, without which we will not get the CORE achievements (the rounded boxes). Adding these elements allows us to hope that we will overcome the root causes shown in Table 5-3 so that the implementation plan will sustain itself long-term. Here are a few things to consider when applying CORE to Table 5-1.

Urgency

A basic process for a group to raise performance to a new level was laid out many years ago by the pioneering social psychologist Kurt Lewin: unfreeze the present level, move to the new level, and freeze at the new level.22 Unfreezing can most easily happen through a sense of urgency, which is why urgency is so crucial.23 Do we truly understand the level of urgency that different people are experiencing? Is it adequate to "unfreeze" people's behaviors? We may have a great Critical Chain champion in an organization, but if she is the only one with a sense of urgency then she will have a difficult struggle. I have seen many champions ultimately lose heart because they did not back up their passion with the ability to generate and communicate a sense of urgency that resonated with their audiences.

Tip: Do the research and find the urgency. The research usually requires interviews, with the questions targeted toward understanding the individuals' personal sense of urgency.

Expectations

People commonly communicate expectations through a vision. The vision is important, but it is seldom enough. Given that different people will have different roles and expectations, we have found that a Communication Plan is usually needed. The Communication Plan is typically a spreadsheet that helps keep track of who is communicating what to whom, including: Expectations of different stakeholders and how expectations have been set.

Marketing to groups not directly involved with the implementation.

Feedback between the PMO, Steering Team, Implementation Team, and others.

Tip: Maintain a communication plan.

Commitment

Who should be involved with the planning? I have already mentioned the Steering Team and Implementation Team concepts. These groups need to leave their stamp on the plan. In a complex implementation involving many people, there will be many levels of planning to coordinate. Always remember that an important purpose for planning is to allow people to develop ownership.

Tip: Use planning to build ownership.

Value

It seems obvious that any change initiative should create value. However, strangely, we often find that people have not fully thought through answers to questions like, "What value?" and "For whom?" Companies invest millions in Product Lifecycle Management (PLM) and Enterprise Project Management (EPM) systems without a clear idea of how those systems will benefit the organization or the individuals in them. Mismatched expectations among buyers and sellers can cause EPM implementations to drag on for years.

Tip: Identify the expected value and how it will be achieved and measured. Start collecting data early; there is no reason to wait.

Validation

Often we find that people assume an implementation will continue to thrive and produce benefits once it is well begun. It is true that benefits gained early can help to justify and give momentum to the implementation. Unfortunately, because the benefits of Critical Chain start well before the organizational DNA has changed, an associated "silver bullet" effect can lead to the negative branches shown in Fig. 5-3.

Tip: Continue to collect and analyze implementation measurements, such as those in Table 5-2, so that your implementation will continue to adapt and improve.

Traps

A number of conceptual traps lay waiting in implementations, traps that people fall into without thinking. You should review these traps periodically, just to make sure you have not fallen into one of them.

It's Not about You

We have a tendency to believe that our own opinions and actions are more important than those of others. We look at what we need to do and what we need to get other people to do, without considering what they need to get themselves to do. We sometimes forget that others may have valid ideas as well.

Instead, think of an implementation as moving from "I" to "They." This might be a progression, for example, from a world in which you as a facilitator take maximum responsibility for the implementation, to a world in which it would proceed even if you were run over by a bus. It goes like this: I: Where we have to start We: Better They: Best We make ourselves obsolete, bridging the gap between "I" and "They," by using CORE concepts: setting expectations, building ownership and commitment, and creating and communicating value. That way we build ownership in the people who will eventually have to take responsibility.

Tip: Ask yourself: am I taking on too much? Am I delegating enough? Are the right people taking ownership?

Broken Trust

Have you ever heard a management team say, "If we implement the following technology, we'll get the following incredible benefits," only to find that after months or years of hard work the implementation fails to produce anything close to those benefits? In my experience, this is common for improvement initiatives; as shown in box 16 of Fig. 5-3, it is not common practice to set clear, realistic expectations for an initiative. This is also a perfect example of broken trust. The promise of unrealistic expectations was made and ultimately broken. Even worse, bad news travels quickly. If you break trust with one group, you have to believe that many others will hear about it. It is no wonder we so often find people who have little faith in their organization's ability to change.

CORE should be used to build and retain trust. We set realistic expectations, take actions to achieve those expectations, and visibly confirm that we have met or fallen below expectations. Either way, we continue learning. This works from an important principle: The easiest way to regain broken trust is never to lose it in the first place. If you make a habit of setting unrealistic expectations, you will often be disappointed. But even more important, you will build a culture of mistrust.

Before beginning any initiative, think through the realistic expectations that you are going to set with different stakeholders. The expectations should be adequate to address the vision and associated urgency. Communicate them broadly, with a Communication Plan and marketing campaign, so that expectations are not at the mercy of the grapevine. Then, when the initiative is underway, communicate how it is going and why.

Tip: Set realistic expectations and communicate progress frequently.

What is "Done"?

Very often, during the Critical Chain scheduling process, we find that people don't know what "done" means for certain tasks or projects. Often someone will understand a task in general terms, but be unable to say at what point it should be handed off. That can lead to quality problems when work is handed off before it is ready, or excess time and effort when work continues beyond what is needed. Team members should always try to clarify the meaning of "done."

During implementation planning, the reverse problem occurs. We create various plans and tools that have implementation work defined as discrete tasks. That may be extremely valuable, but if we are not careful-if we focus too much on things that can be declared "done"-we can lose track of the "level-of-effort" work that needs to be performed steadily into the future, such as: Communication planning Measurements of quality and performance Mentoring for behavioral changes, such as prioritization and reduced multitasking Transfer of methodology elements to the people doing the work Process ownership and improvement These represent work for which it is difficult and often dangerous to declare "done." Still, we have often seen exactly this occur: people assume that these kinds of activities are discrete tasks. They decide, for example, that implementation planning or measurements are no longer necessary once the implementation seems to be going well. They declare "done" and eventually experience the problems described in Fig. 5-3.

Not all implementation work fits neatly into a project plan. Put another way: If all your implementation work fits neatly into a project plan, you are missing something. This should not be surprising, because the Project Management Institute describes a project as a "temporary endeavor" (2008, 434), and we want an implementation to be an ongoing process.

We can apply this principle immediately to the root causes as we are tempted to convert them to tasks. Do we create a sense of urgency and then declare "done," or do we continue to communicate and reinforce the vision and urgency? Do we plan how to overcome the initial obstacles, or continue to evaluate new ones? Do we declare "done" for an implementation, or assume that it is part of a process that will never be "done"? We cannot answer these questions by adding tasks to an implementation plan. We need measurements of value and measurements of implementation status, as shown in Table 5-2. We need communication of expectations and results. We need to understand urgency and feed it into daily and weekly communications. And we need to have people who are responsible for filling these needs.

Maintain a Communication Plan. Create oversight processes to make sure quality problems are addressed. Hold regular Steering and Implementation Team meetings in which critical issues are discussed. Create forums for internal experts to share knowledge. More broadly, create a CORE culture that rewards people for communicating honest expectations and results, whether those results are deemed good or bad.

Tip: Plan for work that will never be "done."

Summary

Real organizational change does not just mean admitting that things need to change or trying different things. It means actually changing the habits that govern how people work-changing the organizational DNA. Improvement initiatives that require real change have, at best, a mediocre record of producing and sustaining long-term benefits, and this Uptake Problem is pervasive. Root causes for it include: Lack of urgency An inadequate solution Lack of ownership in the solution Unwillingness or inability to set clear expectations of value Inability to communicate value These root causes can be addressed by applying CORE, a process developed by Pro-Chain Solutions over the course of many years facilitating Critical Chain implementations.

CORE requires the following steps: 1. Learn and analyze to find or create the shared Urgency.

2. Define and communicate Expectations using a common vision.

3. Build Commitment through planning.

4. Create Value through the implementation.

5. Validate the results through measurements.