NHRD Journal - National HRD Network

Although the result did not spell out "people"
as the cause, it is interesting to note that many
of the causes were to do with the behaviour
and skills of the participants. Arguably all but
the "technical issues" were related to the
capabilities, attitudes and behaviour of people.
What Caused The Project To Fail?
Inexperience in
Scope and
Complexity
17%
Technical
issues
14%
Lack of
Communication
20%
Project
Management
Problems
32% Source: KPMG
Failure to
define
objectives
17%
A different study examined whether package
implementation projects' benefits had been
achieved. Where they had not been delivered,
the question "why?" was asked. Top of the list
was "organizational resistance to change".
Organization resistance to change
Unstable requirements
Lack of business owner ship
Significant Cost Over-runs
Significant schedule Over-runs
Package did not meet expections
Technical problems
Poor project management
0 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
Source: KPMG
Again, several other causes were related to
people, their skills and their behaviour. "Lack
of business ownership" is a major
responsibility of the organizational Change
Management work. Such things as "unstable
requirements", "not meeting expectations", and
"poor project management" would also be
partly due to behaviours and skills.
Organizational Change Management is a vital
aspect of almost any project. It should be seen
as a discrete and specialised work stream. Why
then, you might ask, do we discuss it as part of
the Project Management work. Unfortunately,
it is common to find that the human component
of the project is not recognised as a separate
element of the work. The project management
team frequently have to do their best to ensure
that a technological change is successfully
implanted into the business. In the worst-case
scenario, the project leadership do not see this
as part of their responsibility either and blame
the organization's line management when their
superb new technical solution is not fully
successful when put to use.
Organizational Change Management at
Project Start-up
Many organizational Change Management
issues need to be clear at the start of the project
so that appropriate activities can be included
in the plans, and so that appropriate roles and
responsibilities can be established. Here are
some of the key issues:
• Is there a compelling "Case for Change" that
all participants will buy in to?
• Who are the owners and sponsors of this
change? Will they actively promote the
change and apply pressure as needed?
• What are the populations involved, eg the
overall leadership of the organization,
project participants, sub-contractors, endusers,
other departmental managers, other
members of the workforce, suppliers,
customers etc? For each population (or
subset by role, function, etc) what will their
attitude be? Will they resist the change?
How can we encourage them to act in a way
which will support the project's objectives?
• What style of participation will work best?
Should we involve a broad section of the
target population or keep everything secret
until the change is forced upon them?
• How can we communicate these messages
to the target population?
November 2007 NHRD Journal 11