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Special areas of focus are remote team leadership, facilitation skills, virtual team collaboration, project jumpstart workshops and design and facilitation of virtual meetings.</p> --> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <hr width="50%"> </center> </td> </tr> <tr> <td> <p style="font-size:1em; text-align:center; vertical-align:top; color:black;"> <b>Contact</b> </p> <p style="font-size:.75em; text-align:left; vertical-align:top; color:black; font-weight:normal;"> Interested in submitting an article?&nbsp;Want to comment about an article? <br> <br> Contact <a href="mailto:John.Wyzalek@TaylorandFrancis.com">John Wyzalek</a> editor of <b>IT Performance Improvement.</b> <br> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> <td width="1px"> <p style="font-size:.05em; text-align:center; vertical-align:top; color:black;">&nbsp;</p> </td> <td width="550"> <table border="0"> <tbody> <tr valign="top"> <!--Sept 2011--> <td> <h2>Dealing with Change</h2> <h4>David Shirley</h4> <p class=text> The only constant on a project is change. The sooner you understand this, the better prepared you are for change. No one really likes change, but it is part of life. Certainly, it is part of projects. There are two change aspects to projects. The first is the changes resulting from the project itself. It can be changes to the way you do business because of undertaking a project, or it could be the changes caused by the project. The second aspect project change is a change to the project, its configuration, schedule, costs, contract and quality and how to handle those changes. </p> <p class=text> The first aspect of project change is the impact resulting from the project itself, and how to deal with those impacts. As said before, no one really likes change, but in reality, changes occur on a daily basis, whether significant changes, like buying a new house, getting married or starting a new job, or minor changes like not having the menu item to order you have your heart set on or the impact of putting up new curtains in your house. Minor changes can be dealt with easily; major changes may require major intervention. The focus is to minimize the impact of change. One of the most important ways to minimize the impact of a change is communications; <b>the more the better</b> is the rule. The biggest complaint from people who are impacted by a change is that they never heard about the change until it was forced upon them. Increasing communications has two effects; an early warning system and to provide a method for people to comment about the change. Whether or not those comments are incorporated is another issue, but the fact that people have a chance to comment gives them a sense of participation. Participation leads to a feeling of ownership, which leads to changes more easily being integrated. People who feel they participated in the decision to make the change feel that they have bought in to the decision. It is difficult for people to reject a change once they have bought in to it. </p> <p class=text> Communications can come in the form of formal or informal, and communicating change should be done using both methods. Formal (or written communications) provides the platform for more detailed communications. The more complex the project, the more emphasis there should be on formal communications. The larger the project, the more emphasis there should be on formal communications. When I talk about large projects I don t necessarily mean projects with long implementation intervals. I consider a project &#034;large&#034; if it is costly or critical to an organization. In those instances communicate frequently and formally with key stakeholders. You certainly don t want them to have any surprises. </p> <p class=text> Help people with change by being an advocate for change. By nature, project managers are change merchants. That s what we do, change things. There are a couple of things you can do to help people with change, beside communications. Keep a positive attitude about change. There are always the &#034;glass half empty&#034; people. Don t be one of them. Change is good. Embrace change. First of all, recognize that people think about change in particular buckets; the no bucket, the let s make a deal bucket, and the get out of my face bucket. The essence of the no bucket is that people flatly deny that there is a change. This happens most when there is a unpleasant or perceived unpleasant change occurring. The best way to deal with this is through understanding and persistence. &#034;I understand where you are coming from, but this change is necessary for & & ..&#034;(fill in the blank - growth, profitability, safety). The &#034;let s make a deal&#034; bucket brings out the people s instincts to try to return to the status quo before the change was instituted. Using all of their reasoning and persuasion, people will try to deal out the change and deal back to the way it was. When people are in that frame of minds, it is difficult to convince them that the change is better than changing it back to the old way of doing things. This is a place when fact-based logic is one of the tools used. The get out of my face reaction usually occurs when the &#034;no&#034; and &#034;let s make a deal&#034; buckets have been emptied. With the emptying of those buckets comes a feeling of hopelessness that leads to anger. &#034;No one has listened to me. I m being railroaded into accepting these changes. I m angry!&#034; This is the type of anger than will burn out on its own. The caution is not trying to force the release. Even when time is of the essence, let the anger dissipate on its own. Let the other person vent. </p> <p class=text> Change may also occur when using the project management discipline because it is a new way of doing business. Companies, especially entrepreneurial companies, like to be a free-wheeling, virtually unstructured mode. Putting structure into projects is like dragging your nails on a chalk board &#151;Remember those?&#151;or some people. One way to deal with that reaction is to show how many resources are saved when there is a structure in place and you don t have to &#034;reinvent the wheel&#034; each time. The use of project templates, lessons learned, and historical information about previous projects can save a considerable amount of time, particularly when personnel turnover occurs. &#9830; <br> <br> <b>Read more <a href="http://ittoday.info/ITPerformanceImprovement/index.htm"><i>IT Performance Improvement</i></a></b> </p> <!--DISCLAIMER NOTICE AND COPYRIGHT--> <p class="copyright"> <br> <br> Certain names and logos on this page and others may constitute trademarks, servicemarks, or tradenames of <a HREF="http://www.crcpress.com" TARGET="_parent">Taylor & Francis LLC.</a> Copyright &#169; 2008&#151;2011 Taylor & Francis LLC. All rights reserved. </p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> <td width="300"> <table> <tbody> <tr> <td> <table style="background-color:#E0E0D1;" cellpadding="10" margin="5" border="0" valign="top"> <tbody> <tr> <td colspan=2> <h3>This article is an excerpt from&#58;</h3> </td> </tr> <tr valign="top"> <td> <center> <img src="http://www.ittoday.info/catalog/images/covers80w/K11028.jpg" Border=0> </center> </td> <td> <h3> <a href="http://www.crcpress.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?isbn=9781439819531&AF=WAUER" target="blank">Project Management for Healthcare</a> </h3> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <p class="text"> Exploring the discipline of project management from the perspective of the healthcare environment, the book dissects the project process and provides the tools and techniques required to successfully plan, execute, and control any healthcare-based project. From identifying stakeholders to constructing a project plan, this book covers the complete spectrum of project planning activities. Complete with chapter summaries, exercises, hints, review questions, and case studies, it illustrates applications across a range of healthcare settings. </p> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> </td> </tr> <tr> <td colspan="2"> <h3>About the Author</h3> <p class="text"> <b>David Shirley</b> is an instructor and consultant with more than 30 years of experience in management and project management in corporate, public, and small business arenas. In additon to cutting-edge work in green, he also innovates project management for the healthcare industry. He also cowrote the book <a href="http://www.crcpress.com/shopping_cart/products/product_detail.asp?isbn=9781439830017&AF=WAUER" target="blank"><b>Green Project Management</b></a> with Richard Maltzman, with whom he runs <a href="http://www.earthpm.com/" target="blank"><b>Earth PM</b></a>, a Web site devoted to green and project management. <br> </p> </p> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </td> </tr> </tbody> </table> </table> </body> </html>