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Some
believe that implementation ends with a communication roll-out and
training. We have found that this is actually the start of the real
work of implementation: institutionalizing the behavioral changes
necessary to assure the success of a new process or system.
Incorporating
changes into the daily fabric of organizational activity happens
on an individual basis. Each employee (worker and manager) must
stop doing that which is no longer needed by the new process and
begin doing that which is. Classroom training provides familiarity
with new roles and procedures in a controlled environment. But once
the training is completed, the employees have to apply their new
learnings in their individual, real world.
Each person's
work environment must enable successful implementation of what they've
learned. Information, hardware and software are available and working.
Obsolete tasks are eliminated. Procedures and roles are reinforced
and fine-tuned where appropriate. Their peers and supervisors support
them in making the change. And all this must be accomplished in
a short amount of time after training. The longer this phase drags
out, the more discouraged the employee population becomes, dissipating
the benefit of the changes.
This
is why Fact Based Management focuses so heavily on a coaching
process during implementation. We have found that many of the
obstacles that have impeded previous implementations can be uncovered
and removed with timely, in-the-work-place, one-on-one coaching
and problem solving immediately after training.
We develop
coaching by starting with the core team we trained during the design
phase. This team, composed of Fact Based Management consultants
and the "best and brightest" client personnel selected
and trained in our techniques at the start of the project, is expanded
for implementation. Area management of the implementing organization
joins the group as part of a new implementation team.
A two-day implementation workshop prepares the team for their roles
in the coming weeks and months. They review the new process training
and refine its proposed schedule. They are trained on their role
in the changed process. We also train them on recognizing and managing
resistance, measuring and reporting implementation progress and
how to manage the daily activity of implementation. Most importantly,
they are walked through a coaching model and practice how to use
it when working with individuals in their areas.
The
implementation team uses the new skills and coaching model to work
with each employee and validate that they understand the training
and can apply it in their actual workplace. They work with everyone
to ensure that the new process works in their specific work environment,
problem-solving where necessary.
The
implementation team is again changed as the implementation measures
meet their goals. A smaller subset of the team is made up of selected
area managers and employees. This team forms a permanent Process
Management team responsible for ongoing continuous improvement of
the process and process configuration control.
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