23-Weekly project reviews
How do innovation leaders maintain the support and funding for their change agenda and transformational roadmaps?
AFFECTED STAKEHOLDERS
GISTICS leads targeted two-day planning workshops called Innovation Leadership Academies.
The figure below depicts the primary outputs of these onsite workshops: 30 to 90 projects of a two-year journey in organizational transformation, each comprising 15 days or 45 days that a single individual or small team can accomplish within a particular organization and with existing resources and infrastructure.
Innovation Leadership Academies entail 2-day project planning workshops and primary owners for each project. Short, one-on-one teleconference reviews with a project owner and a public calendar or project wiki creates more than enough peer-pressure and motivation to complete many weekly projects of a master project roadmap.
TWO PLANNING DAYS = TRANSFORMATIONAL ROADMAP
The bulk of the first day entails two to nine small workgroups, each focused upon one aspect or subsystem of a future-state operational capability.
Each workgroup of affected stakeholders and a subject matter expert specify five to eleven projects of for each enabling capability or subsystem.
Affected stakeholders create projects that accommodate the cultural norms (values and procedures) of the firm, using force-field model analysis and simple worksheets.
Self-specification of these projects by the stakeholders affected by the project or beneficiaries of the completed projects also creates ownership and funding support—two critical and generally overlooked success factors.
When more fully fleshed out in a one- or two-page project plan, each becomes a statement of work (SOW) that the management can direct to internal staff, new hires, or external consultants and suppliers.
These statements of work include the following:
- Concrete deliverables
- Criteria of satisfaction
- Tools and procedures
- Budgets and discretionary expenses
- Key performance indicators and benchmarks
- Agreement to provide a daily summary of work performed
- Protocols and forms for making a communication request
ACCEPTANCE OF CHANGE
Firms manage major change in ways unique to each firm.
However, most firms follow well-known patterns of making a major change successful—even if those patterns do not align with current requirements. Firms do what their systems allow them to do.
In a perfect worlds, leadership declares the vision and strategic objectives, executive management aligns available resources to achieve those objectives, operational executives prioritize work and assignments, and staff and externals get it done.
If nothing changes in the world and customers want more of the same things, then the declare-align-prioritize-deliver mode works well.
In a world of sudden change, innovating from the bottom up with 15-day and 45-day projects ensures agility and ongoing adaptation.
Thus, vendors must bring to their customers a framework and process for innovating from the bottom up, using small groups of affected stakeholders and 15-day project formats.
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