Last time, we discussed how political competence is becoming an ever more important part of the project manager’s toolkit. All the signs are pointing to PMs being expected to deliver the outcomes of a project, not just the outputs – even if they weren’t even in the room when the outcomes were defined, and the project scoped!
In addition, it is unlikely the PM themself will have the authority to force through any changes, and, frankly, it probably wouldn’t help if they did. Forced changes are rarely successful in the long run, and are strongly resisted.
So, it’s clear we need to find ways of building alliances and coalitions of colleagues to help us get a successful outcome for our project. These coalitions will vary from project to project, and even from outcome to outcome, but they need to be nurtured and brought along.
The first step of this is one we are all used to – identifying the stakeholders in the project. Remember, stakeholders aren’t just the people in the project team, they are everyone impacted by the change, those pushing for the change, and those with power over the project. Sometimes these positions will be formal and well known, other times they are informal, and much more nebulous. Certainly I know some of my IT projects didn’t officially include a certain technical manager, but nothing was going to move forward if they weren’t happy with the change!
Once we have this list of stakeholders, we need to have consider how they are likely to approach the project, and change. There are two dimensions to this, according to the excellent “Get Them On Your Side” by Samuel B. Bacharach, the inspiration for this series. We’ll start with the approach to how much change is needed. As we go through them, see if you can identify these archetypes in your stakeholders.
The Tinkering approach to change deals in incremental improvements
Tinkerers are focussed on well defined and narrow changes to the status quo. They resist large scale overhauls. Tinkerers are a benefit to an organisation when things are going relatively well, and there is no need to drastically change what the organisation does. Instead, small, incremental improvements – getting the same thing done quicker, more easily, more efficiently, more effectively, less expensively, etc. – are pursued and improve the organisation’s position.
The Overhauling approach to change deals with broader goals
Overhaulers are interested in the broader goals of a change. They identify the key motivation for why change is needed, and attempt to retool the unit or organisation completely to meet this need. They can move quickly, and broadly, and risk throwing away many things that are good in pursuit of their vision. Overhaulers are beneficial to an organisation when it is facing a significant change in the environment that requires reinvention.
Now, a person can be a Tinkerer in one project, and an Overhauler in another. However, they are probably going to have a preference for one approach over another in general, and the way you bring the into your coalition needs to reflect that.
Next time, we’ll look at the approach to control of change.
Trevor Roberts is a programme and project management consultant and the founder of Dull Industries – a consultancy focused on project turnaround, AI implementation, and digital strategy.