business start-up

Managing change in business is difficult. No secret there. Managing long term change is difficult. Recent reports indicate that costs for the 2012 Olympic Project are already $1 billion over the original bid budget. How on earth can that happen? Well I guess one of the main reasons is that people rarely seem to learn from the past. Each project I’ve been involved in, or heard about, starts with a clean piece of paper and almost a clear mind. It doesn’t seem to matter that the last 20 projects were; a. not completed, b. completed months after the due date, c. completed on time but at triple the original cost or d. all of the above.

This time it will be different. Of course it will. This time the change will take place in that parallel universe where key staff never get pregnant or leave, where suppliers send everything on time, and on budget, and where markets never change.

One key element in the sinking of plans, projects, and long-term changes is the internal momentum they build. At a certain point, the project seems to take on a life of its own and the reason for the project existing seems to become almost secondary. It turns into some huge ocean liner that seems to be sailing itself and is impossible to turn around.

So what to do? Consider a different approach. Rather than the super luxurious, out-of-control, technically programmed, inhuman ocean liner, imagine the project as a sailing boat. Go back to basics. The project shouldn’t take control. The people driving the plan should be the navigators. You as the manager and owner will be the navigator. There’s a simple three step approach that can help retain control of plans and projects;

Step 1 – Where Are You Now?

The first action with any project is incredibly obvious. You need to establish exactly where you are. This sounds so easy and obvious that often this is ignored.

This is an aspect that is neglected or many assumptions made. People assume they know where they are and become so excited charging after the vision that they overlook important details. After all it’s far more exciting, talking about your hopes and aspirations for the future rather than working out exactly were you are now. This is vital, I’m afraid. In sailing terminology, it equates to getting your bearings and checking what equipment you have before you start the journey.

Where exactly are you in terms of skills, resource, etc? Who’s in charge? What are their strengths, weaknesses, etc? What assumptions are you making?

Step 2 – Where Are You Going?

The second action you need to take is determining exactly where you’re going. This is your vision, your target. This should be exciting. This is your money we’re taking about and if you can’t get excited about it, no-one else will. Above all, the target must be defined clearly. People need to see the end product — what it will look like and what’s in it for them. As a leader, this is probably your number one job.

In terms of the sea journey, the vision is the lighthouse shining out in the distance. This is your goal. This is where you take your bearings from.

Okay, I know you wouldn’t actually sail toward a lighthouse. I’m fairly sure sailors make a point of not getting too near to lighthouses; however, imagine it’s a safe lighthouse, a beacon if you like.

Step 3 – How Will You Get There?

Now imagine that the implementation process is that journey. You know exactly where you are and you know exactly where you’re going. You have to navigate the journey. You’re not going to get to your lighthouse in a straight line. There are a number of elements that will get in the way, including wind, waves, current, rocks, sharks, pirates, etc… Choose your own symbolic enemies. So how would you plan on reaching your destination? Well, in a way you can’t. You can’t predict with any certainty what will happen to the wind, waves, and weather in six months time. What you can do is plan the first few steps as accurately as you can. Then at a certain point you would reassess your position and plan your next few moves. Then reassess and replan. This is the only sensible approach. The danger of not doing this is obvious.

What happens with most projects is that “someone” expects the project to be planned out in the minutest detail for each day of the months or years it takes to complete. This has to be carried out before the journey even begins. There will be stages built in, if it is a large venture, but each is dependant on the preceding one, which hasn’t been completed yet. Finances and other resources are all controlled at the beginning on the best guess. These guesses at resources are inevitably going to be wrong. How can you possibly know how many people will be needed to produce a new product five years from now given the rate of change in business, marketing at the moment? You can’t. In other areas, people will leave, new people will arrive, and resources will not turn up, or turn up early, late, and damaged. Everyone knows this, yet we still go along with it and in large organizations and small business ventures throw in a few “contingency plans” and “risk analysis diagrams” to make them feel better.

I’m not saying that there’s no value in planning or breaking down long-term objectives. You need to know exactly where you are going, and it helps if you can generate some quick wins. These markers along the way can be motivational and give you energy to move on. There needs to be more of an awareness, however, that these targets will continually change. You need to have a flexible plan.

This plan will change. In sailing terms, if you are blown off course you need to reassess and set out a different direction to the end point. I have a feeling that a number of projects go astray and attempt to sail to the next marker rather than the lighthouse.

Time for a Reality Check

Managers who have to implement these changes are setting themselves up for a hiding to nothing using the methods and mental attitude they’ve always used. It must be time for a reality check. The important aspects are:

1. Spending time finding out exactly where you are starting from.

2. Having a clear and compelling image of where you are going. You and any other people involved must buy into this and be motivated to achieving it. If they’re not, it really is a waste of time.

3. Plan the journey as it happens. You should have a sense of where you’re going, but you need to be almost continually changing direction as factors change. Plan and communicate the process in a structured, realistic approach – a few steps at a time, reassess, some more steps, reassess, and so on. HBM

Byron Kalies is a Liverpool-based writer with 12 years' international experience as a management consultant. Examples of his work and more information are at www.byronkalies.co.uk . Kalies’s book "25 Management Techniques in 90 Minutes" (Management Books 2000) was published April 2005.