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Effectiveness of internal change projects requires effective leadership that is able to be influential without coercion, to persuade through seduction, and to recognize the complexity of influence in corporate settings.

Communication is one of the most complex and at the same time exciting processes of the human being. Although many human aspects are influenced by communication, language is the main component. In addition, in a project-dominated work environment, where the nature of work is different every time, communication is a fundamental piece that every project manager must master.

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The same is true for projects aimed at internal change. Moreover, change communication is more complex than the normal. Typically, when we communicate a message to produce a change in someone's behaviour, we expect an immediate reaction from an isolated individual or a small group of people. On the contrary, in change management we seek to produce a stable and controlled change, over time, where the recipient is a group of people whose answers must be coordinated. The complexity can be overwhelming.

The importance of communication in these cases is essential. If you do not measure the reactions to the change through feedback flows, you run the risk of unsuccessfully implementing the change due to uncertainty and lack of knowledge of the issues.

Therefore, mastery of communication techniques is essential for the proper functioning of a company. To begin with, in organizations of a certain size it is advisable to have internal communication policies that facilitate such feedback. One simple way to set these policies, for example, is to set up weekly meetings. In large corporations, internal communication often requires the hiring of experts to streamline discussions and establish initiatives to share ideas, knowledge or impressions.

In general, the domain of change communications can be divided into three aspects: using the right language, communicate in the optimal context, and to focus communication to the solution of real problems presented in the projects and which are perceived by their Leaders.

Use the right language to communicate change

The words you use to describe change management will mark the willingness of your interlocutors to adopt these new work systems. Whether it's to convince project leaders about the introduction of a new methodology or to motivate project members to keep it in mind during the different phases of the project, the terminology that you have managed will have clear repercussions.

For starters, its very difficult for your team to feel interested in a work system that they do not understand. Therefore, it is best to speak in a language that you know they will understand. If the new methodology is born from the identification of problems with which they are in contact, make the connections obvious so that they can understand the consequences of their work on the whole organization. Communication can empower if it seeks to reinforce the consistency between problems and solutions to the scale of individual work.

Another more simple example, it happens similarly when a doctor explains to their patient what his diagnosis is and why it is important to follow a certain treatment. If you use excessively technical language, although it is probably the most scientifically and academically correct, your patient will not understand, will not give adequate importance to their illness, or will not be able to properly follow the treatment. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the physician to use adequate language to ensure that the patient is aware of his illness and predisposes him to follow the treatment properly. The success of the company (in this case, the good treatment of the patient) depends on it.

Context

Read this article if you are worried that your computer doesn't have all the information needed: Tips for communication in remote work teams

Change management cannot be considered an isolated activity, independent of the rest of the company. Precisely the opposite, change management must permeate all aspects of the company, so it must be shown as a global concept that relates to the company and its circumstances.

A fact that is common to change in all companies, is that it must occur in each and every one of the people involved in the project. The global change will be the result of the addition and interaction of all the subjects involved in the project or in the company.

Therefore, change must be presented as a discipline that requires regular and progressive training, prior knowledge and interaction between individuals.

Regardless of these facts, the change manager must pay special attention to the needs and specific situation of each company and market, in order to be able to adapt the change methodologies in a personalized way to the circumstances of the company.

Solving real problems

Company managers seek solutions to their daily business problems to enable them to reach a final product that meets the needs of their customers and obtain the desired market share.

Therefore, in order to convince them of the need to make changes and an adequate management of the change process, it is necessary to touch on the issues that matter to them, that the changes aim to improve the results of the projects. For example, if the organization does not have a methodology for coordinating projects with interdependencies, new conversations about the contribution of projects in terms of external benefits, the objectives of the different programs and the guidelines that guide the overall strategy should aim to spread to all levels, to be gradually incorporated as a business culture. Thus, project members should move from being part of a project to being part of a corporate portfolio with more ambitious goals.

One of the main responsibilities of the change manager is to identify how process failures, described at the macro level, can be modified in a realistic manner. It is essential that an arrangement be reached between a top-down and bottom-up perspective.

Acceptance = language + context + troubleshooting

Today, more than ever, organizations need effective change management. The change today is greater than ever before in business history: faster and more important and more complex. Due to the demands of the market, companies also become more demanding and ask for positive and concrete results.

To get acceptance of the change systems, you can rely on the three fundamental pillars that we have developed throughout this article: use a precise language while also being accessible, adapt to the context and the concrete needs of each company and each market scenario and demonstrate that an efficient change management will solve practical problems for the company.

If you are interested in this article, you can continue reading some of these:

change management concepts and definitions

5 considerations for managing a project portfolio

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Why make status reports?

Every project needs a status report , also known as progress report, in which the status of the project is clearly, accurately and objectively reported.

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A project status report is intended to provide an evaluation of the progress and communicate execution details. Therefore, the development of the progress report is of great importance, since it is vital that it be carried out following a predetermined model. Only in this way will the users of the reports be able to compare them with each other:

Comparing status reports for different phases of the same project gives you a better idea of the distance covered, analyzing how far future projections from previous phases have been verified or denied
Comparing reports from different projects is crucial, especially among similar projects using Gantt charts, to understand where discrepancies between estimates and real data are

If you do not have a reporting model in your organization, you are missing out on the advantage of being able to compare reports. To make matters worse, homogeneous models allow users of such reports to find the information they need quickly, as they know how it’s structured. This is one of the aspects where by a Project Management Office can bring great benefits for internal communication in an organization.

A status report contains a brief description of the main elements of the report, establishing causes and explanations that justify and give context to the data. Metrics and graphics will allow the user to understand the progress of the project in a very short time.

The executive summary: Basis for monitoring a project

This section requires an objective description of how the project is running . The summary should present clearly and simply the most important results of the project, including:

Milestones fulfilled
Deliverables and quality
Risks or unforeseen events
Relationship between estimates and real, in at least three aspects: resource allocation, costs and deadlines
The difference between the estimated progress and the progress to date. If the date of delivery is considered unrealistic, this alarm signal is the first step to alert the customer and negotiate a new date with him.

On the other hand, the executive summary is very effective for a detailed follow-up of the unplanned challenges that arose during project development, as well as actions to be implemented in the short term , so that any eventuality can be mitigated.

The purpose is to ensure that the project continues on the path to success, delivering the project on time, with the expected quality.

Project progress reporting: steady progress assessment

The constant evaluation of a project is vital to know what countermeasures should be taken to make the project successful. Hence the preparation of this section outlines the most problematic areas of the project.

Likewise, suggestions and corrections can be advanced to solve a specific problem. As the project, often, cannot wait to receive feedback on these aspects, decisions are already taken, so this point can delineate already decided actions.

Registration Template: Project Control

The status report should generate relevant information about the risks recorded. It is advisable to start from a registry template by means of which you can retrieve useful information in an orderly way. This registry template will contain:

Project Risk Factors,
Probabilities
Project impact

You can visit ITM Platform’s free risk assessment matrix to compile this information quickly.

Know all about metrics: Promotes project tracking

Managing a project is only possible if you have the tools to quantify the different parameters involved, offering objective and comparable data. Thus, you can measure, for example:

Delivery times
Quality of the deliverables, based on the number of requirements included
Costs incurred to date
Percentage costs over total
Amount of unanticipated costs incurred
Hours worked, either per worker or by professional category

Result indicator

If the result is not a material product but a service, and the project covers the phases of implementation and marketing, there will be a large number of quantifiable aspects related to the result, such as the number of users, their average cost, and so on. These indicators will serve to measure the quality of delivery.

If you are interested in knowing which indicators you can use to manage your portfolio, you can continue reading these articles:

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The most common project indicators: time and budget

Traditionally the measures of cost and time have been worked with, commonly known as 'On Time and On Budget' (OTOB). This means that the project is delivered on time and within budget.

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It's normal for any project manager to consider that the most important project indicators are the elements included in OTOB, such as time compliance and the synergy between the budget and the original plan , in order to determine the profitability of the project.

However, there are many more metrics to consider when measuring management effectiveness, project profitability, and even the contribution to the long-term objectives of the organization. Cost and time measures are a start, but it is important to complement them. There are now multiple measures that monitor the project during its development and allow for a more accurate analysis.

Key Performance Indicators or KPIs serve as a execution guide to examine and evaluate the performance of a project over time, beginning to end. Their effectiveness lies in the evaluation and monitoring, whether they are normal or special projects.

An indicator is not the same as a metric. To evaluate the data captured as a KPI it is necessary to be able to look at the progression. For example, the number of projects not completed in time becomes a KPI when transformed into a percentage and when placed in the context of the total of projects; or when comparing the change from previous years.

How does distance evolve with estimation?

This starting point allows us to understand the complexity that behind the seemingly simple notion of time. Time can lead to a very high number of project indicators, so it is imperative to be able to select the most important and clear ones.

One of the most valuable indicators related to the measurement of time is the deviation from the initial estimates of deadlines. This indicator evolves throughout the execution of the project. For example, by default ITM Platform offers the following graph, in this case on a software development project.

It can be seen that on January 1, 2018 the deviation between expected percentage and percentage completed is 26%, although the situation was even more serious in mid-December, when the gap reached 30%.

From there, it is easy to extrapolate valuable indicators. Let's look at the following table, which compares the actual data with the nearest estimated points.

	1	2	3	4	5	6	7	8	9	10
Estimate	9%	20%	26%	46%	54%	62%	70%	78%	88%	100%
Real	6%	9%	17%	26%	31%	32%	34%	40%	62%	74%
Difference	3	11	9	20	23	30	36	38	26	26
Increase in difference	+3	+8	-2	+11	+3	+7	+6	+2	-12	0

Although the difference between estimated and actual completed percentage is an interesting value, the variation of the difference is the most important KPI because it identifies the critical points throughout the project execution, such as the inflection at point 4, from which the difference remains above 20 points.

From such a simple indicator, it is possible to examine the causes of deviations in detail, to identify the problems and to put in place measures so that this will not be repeated in the future:

If the estimates of the time needed to complete certain requirements were unrealistic, one must delve into the actual work that was necessary to complete them
If there were unforeseen delays due to avoidable reasons, these motives can be outlined as risks in future projects in order to generate contingency and mitigation plans that allow both isolation and treatment.

Of course, this isolated KPI can not tell the whole story, or may show a very different version of events. For example, the critical path could have been affected from the beginning by an external factor that, when unblocked, would generate the enormous advance between points 8 and 9; but it could also happen that the accumulated delays were due to a little integrated project team and the final advance to the commitment of the team to save the project before the imminence of the delivery.

That is why it is necessary to use this is conjunction with other indicators and with the practical information that can be gathered from conversations with the team members.

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Like all sciences and disciplines, project management and change management have a particular language. Hence, a better understanding of professionals in this field is achieved, which can be communicated without creating ambiguities. However, for newcomers in these areas, the terminology can be complex and confusing. We will define some of the main terms and concepts related to project management and change management to facilitate their understanding.

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Change management

In a dynamic world and market, it is assumed that any company or business must be constantly changing to adapt to the specific needs that customers can present at any given time.

This constant change is what makes it necessary to have an active policy of change management within the company.

Traditionally, change management has been understood as the transition from an original state, in which the company is before the change, to a definitive state, in which the company finds itself after the change. The aim of change management is to make the change with agility, adapting to the needs of the market, and at the same time in the most gentle and simple way for the workers, to avoid altering their attitude towards their work and optimizing their adaptation.

At present, there is a new, more dynamic concept of change management, which involves a gradual, transitional change from one working system to another on an ongoing basis. It is assumed that there will never be a perfect match between work methodologies and market needs, so it becomes necessary to be in permanent change.

According to this second, more modern concept, the change management of the company aims to detect the directions of the market and direct the methodologies of work towards them.

Communication strategy

Communication is the vehicle that allows people and companies to be contacted. Good communication is necessary to successfully implement any work strategy.

In the case of change management, ensuring efficient communication channels between the different services, departments and personnel involved is an essential condition for the change to take place effectively.

Therefore, in addition to adequately clarifying the change management, it is necessary to decide the communication systems that will allow it to be applied properly.

Company culture

A company is like a living being formed from the sum of all the people who constitute it. Therefore, it has its own personality, its own internal culture, and is formed by the employees' attitudes, values, behavioural norms and the illusion and hope for the future that they all have.

It is desirable to develop a company culture because it contributes to generate a sense of belonging and involvement and, therefore, to improve productivity and interaction between workers.

ROI (Return On Investment)

It is probably the most useful indicator to measure how successful a change is in a business. In practice, it means how much of a result is being drawn from the effort and capital that is being invested initially. Therefore, it is a direct measure of the performance of the effort and the work of the company. More efficient work management systems and methodologies will allow for a higher return on a smaller investment, that is, increase the ROI.

Therefore, quantifying the ROI before and after implementing a new work methodology allows us to study the real impact that this has had on the company and its productivity.

Stakeholder analysis

It means exactly what the word says, to analyze all the people in the company who can be affected by a change initiative, whether they are the ones who have to implement it or who are the beneficiaries or recipients of this change.

In order to analyze the personnel involved, the first step is to ask the correct questions to identify each one, to understand their specific needs, what they expect from the changes that will be introduced and where is the most correct place for each one of them In the company, taking into account the tasks they perform, their training, their place in the hierarchy and their attitude towards change.

Risk Mitigation

The introduction of any change in the company implies the introduction of a risk. One of the functions of project management is risk management.

Prior to the execution of any project, it is necessary to carry out a unified analysis of the risks that can appear and the attitudes that must be taken to avoid them or at least to diminish the impact they have on the project as a whole.

In the case of change management, its very essence implies a risk, since it has an impact on the company and its operation, although in principle it is expected to be positive.

However, risk must be constantly monitored to enhance the positive impact that change can have and avoid or minimize possible negative impacts.

Resistance to change and training

All changes involve some sort of apprehension from the workers, who are accustomed to the working methodologies. To reduce these resistances and facilitate the adoption of changes, the best tool is training. A conscientious, motivated and trained worker, who knows the contributions and advantages of the new work systems, is an employee willing to change and improve progressively.

Conclusion

Project management and change management have their own glossary. Knowing the terminology will help to understand the concepts and, therefore, to apply them properly.

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Portfolio indicators or Key Performance Indicators are paramount in having a global view of the organization and its project performance. In this article, we review the most important ones.

KPI 1: Internal demand in number of days / workers

When your organization manages internal projects, whether it be change projects or new product development, the client and the project sponsor will from within the company. That is why, when poorly managed, internal project portfolios can become crazy races, causing disputes between the various promoters as they try to get ahead of each other in order to increment the team staff, acquire additional funding or the favour of the board of directors.

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Therefore, it is very important to be clear, at all times, about what the total internal demand of each area of the organization is generating for its different projects. It is true that you can rely on what is the largest project or what are the criteria to incur costs, but while the first is a partial indicator, the second does not allow you to see the development of the planned workload. The internal client demand indicator is the perfect KPI for this purpose. Thanks to this, you will know how many days of work each department or functional area of your company generates in the project teams. This information is not only valuable for the CIO and the CEO, but can also help you establish a maximum demand limit for days worked related to the organization (throughout time).

Of course, if there are transversal projects that involve several departments, it is essential to have a good system of project allocation, so that the information contained in the system is not distorted and the indicator is actually useful.

KPI 2: Employees by professional profile

If your organization relies on consultants for your projects, it is very possible that the available skills vary greatly over time. Today you could have four experts in programming JavaScript and none in four months. Hence, it is important to be clear at all times what the composition of your human resources by professional profiles are. The evolution of this indicator will facilitate the work of your PMO, the planning of resources as well as the identification of gaps or oversupply. In addition, graphics are very useful for the management team, as they easily communicate the structure of the personnel involved in projects.

KPI 3: Estimating effort

The previous indicator would do little to manage the portfolio if we could not anticipate the future needs of certain profiles. For this, it is essential to have a view of the estimated efforts in the coming months. Each project manager takes into account where the greatest effort is concentrated in for the projects for which he is responsible for, but very few have the necessary information to know if the "hot seasons" of each project coincide. From such a chart, portfolio managers would know when there is a greater risk of scarcity of certain skills and can plan accordingly. In the given example, the busiest months are June, September, July and April, respectively.

KPI 4: Budget by objectives

Within the economic indicators, one of the most interesting from the point of view of the portfolio is the one that indicates the aggregate investment that is being allocated to each one of the objectives of the organization. This indicator should serve as confirmation that the management of the project portfolio is following the strategic guidelines established by the highest management bodies. If a goal has the highest priority, it is logical that it is receiving the highest share of investment. Any contrary discrepancy must have sufficiently justified grounds. In the given example, if sales growth were more important to managers than increased operational efficiency, the portfolio should be revised to ensure that total investments in these areas correspond to the priorities. It is possible that the operational improvement currently has a very expensive project of change but of limited duration, after which completion the percentages would be re-adjusted.

KPI 5: Process budgeting

What business processes are absorbing more investment? In conjunction with the domestic demand indicator, this indicator leads to optimization, cost reduction and the elimination of redundancies and inefficiencies. Processes that are considered marginal and low value-added often consume resources for administrative and maintenance reasons that are difficult to reduce. However, it is crucial to know what the natural or average value of this indicator is and to ensure that it never rises above it. In the given image, assume that the average cost of storage for 'GlobalCorp360' is at 8%. If at any time it rises above 12% for no apparent reasons, this becomes alarming and yields more than enough evidence to submit the process to an audit.

KPI 6 and 7: Budget by component and current cost per component

The simplest indicator, which shows the budgets for each of the projects involved, remains the most useful for the portfolio manager. As with the calendar for an event manager, the director of a portfolio should always have before him a written reference of the budget of each project. The person responsible for a portfolio must demand the highest precision of the budgets and the costs incurred by each project. For the same reason, it is essential to have a solution that, like ITM Platform, updates the information immediately each time a new invoice is registered, without having to wait for periodic reports.

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Traditional change management systems are based on a transition from an old model to a new one.

These change systems could be seen as a journey, in which one begins at the origin and directs the steps towards a destination, considering that success has been achieved when the objectives established in a given time have been achieved.

However, is this model the right one?

In this present, ever changing world, setting a fixed destination is probably not the best idea. What would probably be more appropriate for the current market, the socio-economic context and our clients, will not be the same in a few months.

Given this, the established destination for our journey, the objective of change, will no longer be our preference once we achieve it.

Therefore, it will be necessary to establish another destination and to chart a new course, initiating a new cycle that is on course to repeat itself.

This concept of change is probably due to its traditional relationship with project management. After all, this has been based precisely on that: in establishing a project to achieve, to chart a course, to define work methodologies and to fulfil them.

However, in today's world, this isn’t enough. A change management system must be able to anticipate the environment, change course to a new destination and adapt to the needs of the company.

Therefore, another way of understanding change management is as a system that, instead of directing change in one direction, seeks to establish structures or systems that allow a paradigm shift in the company. The objective of the change is to make structures more flexible, to improve adaptation mechanisms and, in short, to facilitate the establishment of all future changes without altering the workflows and productivity already instilled, to be able to adapt to market needs.

In this new paradigm, the classic concept of work methodology disappears, since it does not exist as a stable concept, but a dynamic and changing methodology instead.

Essentially moving from a system of sequential change to a system of permanent mobilization.

Ingredients for a mobilized system

Mobilization systems, despite being characterized as having no fixed methodologies, consist of a series of structures necessary to ensure that an efficient change is produced permanently.

The following are components that must be found in any business structure to constitute a mobilization system:

An ecosystem prepared for change. These environments must have some sort of performance algorithms that allow the adoption certain attitudes when in an environment with previously established order. When the market presents a certain change, the reaction must be one that adapts to the necessities imposed by the new market circumstances. In the same way, action protocols can be drawn up that allow modification of attitudes according to the circumstances.
Informal systems within the company. Although the company must have clearly established and formal channels of communication and hierarchy, there must also be other informal, agile systems within the company. This way, communication and change will be more dynamic and agile, and will allow a quick reaction to a change in the circumstances of the company.
Establishing a culture based on change. Change must be understood as a way of working, a way of conducting within the company. "Today more than yesterday but less than tomorrow" and a principle of constant improvement, must be printed on the company's DNA.

Conclusion

Change has come to stay. And it affects not only the working methodologies of companies, but also the change system itself.

The "Change in change", on a constant basis, ensures real-time adaptation to market circumstances and customer needs.