making organizational change a reality: lessons from a customer service initiative (166338209)

7/29/2019 Making Organizational Change a Reality: Lessons from a Customer Service Initiative (166338209)

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Making Organizational Change a Reality:Lessons from a Customer Service Initiative

Joseph Vaughan, Nancy Angelo, & Linda Garnets

October 14, 2010



PURPOSE OF THIS SESSION

• Developing effective service-oriented

organizations, staffed by “change hardy”

individuals is a key challenge for IT leaders.

• We will explain a practical model that can be usedto increase the effectiveness of any organization.

• We will share lessons learned from using the

model in central IT (CIS) at Harvey Mudd College.

• We can only give a brief overview, but we will

upload a longer presentation with more examples



THE PlOT: a meaningful shift toward a more

client-centered organization

We’ll address these questions:

• Who are you?

• Why was change needed?

• Why hire consultants?

• What kinds of change are you talking about?

• How are you getting there?

• What lessons did you learn and what advice doyou have?



HARVEY MUDD COLLEGE

• Young…founded in 1955

• Tiny…756 students, 82 faculty

• Wonderful mission: Harvey Mudd College seeks to

educate engineers, scientists, and mathematicians,well versed in all of these areas and in the

humanities and the social sciences so that they may

assume leadership in their fields with a clear

understanding of the impact of their work on society.• Amazing…see http://www.hmc.edu/amazing-mudd/

Here is one nugget of evidence thatHMC is amazing. We have only 5,500

alumni, which is about the size of theentering class for many universities.Among our alumni we count not one,but two astronauts; the co-author of the MIME standard, Ned Freed; the co-creator of SQL, Don Chamberlin; and

the inventors of Flash (Jonathan Gay),remote procedure calls (Bruce JayNelson) and Audacity (DominicMazzoni).



ANGELO + GARNETS CONSULTING

Handcrafted strategies for realizing

organizational change

Our services:• Consultation:

• Strategic Change - Leadership Development -

Alignment, Partnership, Collaboration & Accountability

• Learning:• Leading Change, Developing High Performance Work

Groups, Developing Change Hardiness, and more.

http://www.hmc.edu/amazing-mudd/



Angelo + Garnets consulting

Handcrafted Strategies for Realizing

Organizational Change

www.angelogarnets.com



THE CIO’S IMPETUS FOR CHANGE AND

HIRING CONSULTANTS

• New President, Maria Klawe, in 2006

• College developed new Strategic Vision soon after she

arrived

•

Conducted an IT Review in 2007• Joseph came to Harvey Mudd in 2008 with mandate to

bring “functional and reliable” IT to the College; focus on

the Central IT organization, CIS.




HIRING CONSULTANTS

• CIS consisted of loyal, dedicated people but, as an

organization, it faced many challenges:• Staff was highly demoralized

• Little direction and loose supervision

• Group leaders only nominally managers

• People were not thinking in terms of performance

• Little planning and limited expectations

•

Little teamwork• Limited focus on customer needs

• 2007 IT Review did not feel accurate to staff and was not seen as a

valuable resource




HIRING CONSULTANTS

• The CIS situation did not square well with two of

HMC’s strategic vision principles:• Nurturing and Developing the Whole Person

•

Improvement of Infrastructure and Resources to SupportHMC's Commitment to Excellence and Building Community

• From my successor at UCLA, heard about

Angelo+Garnets. Called with original intent of getting

help with management team.• In discussion, came to conclusion that organizational

change was the real issue.



THE CASE FOR CHANGE

• Starts with HMC’s Strategic Vision Principles

• New President heard from many that IT was not

functional

• IT Review as a strategy• Maria’s mandate: get the central IT functional,

reliable, service oriented; keep an eye on potential

for innovation in educational technology, but youmay not be able to do that until you have dealt

with the reliability and functionality.



Reliable

Client-Centered

Advancing the HMCmission

Supporting educationthrough innovative uses

of technology

Lay the foundation: setTING CIS direction

We want IT

services that

are:

For this slide, I described Angelo+Garnets method of conductingconfidential interviews, and that one of

their recommendations was to let staff discuss the previous director. My initialreaction was “why would I do that?”.But we did a day long retreat in May2009, during which we spentsignificant time discussing people’s

reaction to the previous director’sdeparture. This let people put itbehind them enough to be able tosupport the very general direction I laidout, and which is captured on thisslide. I said that in return for clear

direction and goal setting, honestfeedback and training ,I was askingpeople to roll with the changes, and bepatient while we filled in the details,but to give us their best contributions.Everyone supported these ideas.



Identify customers,suppliers,

stakeholders

Map what we thinkthey need and whatwe give them, whatwe get from themand what interestthey have in our

work

Learn fromcustomers whattheir needs are

Match our increasedunderstanding of customer needs

with levels of demand and CIS's

capacity

Analyze the gapbetween the two

Define what needswe will meet withwhat services inshort, medium,

longer term

Negotiate withleaders of customer

groups

Design services toassure effective and

efficient delivery

Deliver, and trackperformance

Prepare the Organization: THE HiGH LEVEL

PLAN



KEEPING TRACK OF CHANGE

• Here are dimensions that we felt were important to look at

and pay attention to:• Mission/purpose

• Strategy & planning

• Client experience

• Structure/work design

• Human side

• Organizational culture

• Management actions

• I will now give you a flavor of the “earlier” and “now” stages

along a few of these dimensions.



• Uncertaintyabout whatwould happento requests

• If you know theright person togo to…

• Differentialtreatment

• Ticket systemto trackrequests, linkedwith feedbacksurveys

• Help Desk asfirst port of call

• Working onunequaltreatment issue

Dimension: CLIENT EXPERIENCEOn this slide, regarding the ticketsystem surveys, I said that the

response rate is low(2.5%), so weknow there is more to find out, andwe’re working on that, but the level of satisfaction expressed is extremelyhigh (89% ‘good’ or ‘excellent” overallexperience). So we’re working toensure that it is this way for everyone,not just those who respond to thesurvey



• Perceived CISas not aware of needs

• Unsure of direction of CIS

• Focus groups,honestfeedback

• IT Strategy &Initiatives,Monthly

updates fromCIO, Bite of LearningSeries…

Dimension: CLIENT EXPERIENCE



Customer needswere not the

primaryorganizational

principle

We collect dataabout customer

needs in order tohelp design

services

Work focusedand organized

around functionalunits

CIS reallocates

work across unitsto meet priorities

Dimension: Structure/Design of work



• Fear, sadness,anger about

departure of previous director• Deep

uncertainty, “will

I lose my job?”

• Past is behind us• People

understand whatthey need to doto succeed

• Understand

under whatconditions it isreasonable toask someone to

leave

Dimension: HUMAN SIDEOn this slide I mentioned

the value of interviews bythe consultants, which

guarantee confidentialityand extract themes basedon whether three or more

people mention them.

That’s our main source of data for what we are

claiming in the right handbox.



Dimension: HUMAN SIDE

I pointed out that you haveto work hard at the humanside as well as the task side

of change. I gave theexample that we actually

practised, in a staff meeting,

making requests and counterrequests, followed by

agreement



Dimension: Management Actions

Management controlof…

Earlier

Setting Direction Loose

Details of work Tight

Accountability Loose



Dimension: Management Actions

Malcolm Baldrige Awards

Management controlof…

Now

Goal Setting Tight

Details of work Loose

Accountability Tight



Staff developed a Service Vision together

We went out and got feedback (tickets, focusgroups, visiting departments)

Explore gap between what we espouse andwhat is reality

AN EXAMPLE: Service Vision



Tied to the Service Vision, managers arecreating unit goals and reviewing them on aregular basis

Managers see the value of customer feedback

Two units, User Support and Educational Technology, are developing new clientcentered service delivery models and havealready delivered first results

AN EXAMPLE: Service Vision



Communicate, Communicate, Communicate.

You will need to adjust how you work with people to

meet their different needs. Suit your style andefforts to the context.

One can achieve organizational change, andunderstand better how to do it.

Help people come to terms with what’s important tothem - even on issues from the past - rather thanencouraging them to “put it behind them.”

LESSONS LEARNED AND FRIENDLY ADVICE

FROM THE CIO



Get your people engaged, which means startingwhere they are, not where you want them to be. Letthem help you figure it out.

You can understand perspectives without trying tochange them, and it is an important thing to do.

What is obvious to you may not be obvious tomembers of your staff.

Find creative alternatives to letting people go; whenyou do let people go, do your best to take care of them.

MORE FRIENDLY ADVICE FROM THE CIO



Always keep in mind that there are things you don’tknow. Live with uncertainty.

Do your utmost to get real data no matter where it

comes from.

Commit to the process, being prepared to havethings come out differently than you might expect .

Prepare to be overwhelmed: take care of yourself !.

Consultants can be your partners, helping you leadthe change.

EVEN MORE FRIENDLY ADVICE FROM THE

CIO



Persistent and severe suffering is not necessary. You can do this differently.

Get clear on what you are aiming for and keepyour eyes on that prize. Make it a top priority.

Capture the hearts and minds of your people.Engage them in bringing about the change.

How you lead makes a difference. Practicehumility and fierce resolve. Listen & hear as wellas direct.

FRIENDLY ADVICE FROM THE

CONSULTANTS



Pay attention to both the task side and thehuman side. Design the change from both sides.

Create a learning environment that motivates

people to experiment and open up to new waysof doing things.

Get everyone aligned and moving forwardtogether. Track progress.

Communicate, communicate, communicate.

MORE FRIENDLY ADVICE FROM THE

CONSULTANTS



QUESTIONS & DISCUSSION



THANK YOU

making organizational change a reality: lessons from a customer service initiative (166338209)

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