In the first two parts of this series, we described the secret sauce of Agile is understanding that Agile is a framework built on strong principles you adjust to fit your organization. The goal is to make the right adjustments while not losing the underlying strengths that Agile brings.

The four key Agile principles we have identified are:

If you haven’t had a chance to review our previous blogs on the first two principles, check it them out here: Breaking projects into smaller bites and Connecting with Customers

The Power of Teams

As kids, I think everyone of us wanted to be superheroes. Teams give us that ability – they turn ordinary people into top performers. In his book Scrum Twice the Work in Half the Time – Sutherland explains the difference between your best and worst individual performers is 10 times. That means the best performers get 10 times more done than the worst. That sounds impressive, until you hear the difference between the worst and best teams is 2,000 times (2,000 times better starts to sound and feel a lot like a superhero).

Part of the difference might be in existing team structure. Most of the time, we think about teams as individuals working on similar items with a manager directing traffic. That’s not a team. And, it won’t provide the advantage of leveraging the intelligence of the group. In his book Turn the Ship Around, Marquette talks about how, traditionally in a submarine, you have one captain thinking for the 140 crew. Marquette discusses how he got each individual to think for themselves. By doing that, he outperformed every other submarine in the US fleet. It was easy for him to see that no other captain, however smart they may be, is going to be as smart as 140 people.

How to harness the Power of Teams

For those who have worked in a solid team, it’s a great experience.  However, teams need the right elements to be successful. An example I like to share is a research project called Aristotle looking at successful teams that Google conducted. They started with an assumption that great teams would be made of great individuals, but couldn’t find any correlation. What they did find were five key elements that did correlate with team performance:

If you’re looking for structure, Scrum, the most popular Agile framework, provides teams a simple approach on how to plan, touch base regularly, review work against plans, and implement regular retrospectives to identify and make needed adjustments.

Benefits of Teams

There are so many benefits to high functioning teams, but one of the most valuable is innovation. New ideas often come from leveraging existing ideas in a new way. When you present a problem to a group, each person comes with a different perspective, a lifetime of different experiences, and the more diverse your team is, the more diverse those experiences will be. Great ideas come from one person seeing the problem in a different way, and then others in the group building on those ideas till at the end you have a completely new solution.  This means:

As an organization – innovation is the lifeblood of any good company. It is the ultimate source of competitive advantage. It is why companies like Google and Amazon are so hard to compete with.

As a customer – it gives you the best product at the best price. Customers are so tired of hearing the word “or.” Would you like quality or would you like a price you can afford?  Innovation gives you the ability to give customers “and.” Toyota did this in the 50’s, providing the quality of a Mercedes for the cost of a Ford, gaining a decade of competitive advantage.

As a team – we talked about a key part of successful teams is meaning and impact. There is a joy of going home (or logging off our computer in our home office) at the end of the day knowing that, as a team, you did the impossible and the world is better because of it. Innovation makes the impossible possible, and it’s fun getting to do it.

You don’t have to be Agile to improve what your teams are doing today.  Look at the Google Aristotle aspects of a team and think about how you make groups more like teams.  Wherever you are today, leveraging the genius of the entire organization will help you be far more effective, with a side effect of much happier employees.

In the last part of our Agile Series, we’ll take a look at Continual Learning.

 

 

Traditional project management has been around for a while. Taylor’s scientific management, which provided a way to define, analyze and improve workflows, was published in 1911 and Henry Gantt created the Gantt chart in 1917 (in case you ever wondered why it’s called a Gantt chart).

But despite the long history, we still have a ways to go before a project methodology hits the mark. PMI’s pulse of the profession shows 69% of projects meet the original goals, 57% are on budget, and 52% are on time. As if 48% of projects coming in late isn’t bad enough, 15% completely fail. That’s a lot of lost time, money, and effort. Every one of those failed projects started with a vision that just didn’t turn out the way they planned.

Before we get too hung up on failure, remember that just like the Starship Enterprise – each of those projects aimed to go where no one had gone before. In normal business operations, process improvement specialists have the advantage of taking a repeatable process and improving it, but with projects, we are working with something different every time. That’s not an easy job.

In his book Accelerate – Kotter suggests that every company started out as a network; a few individuals finding a way to get everything done. As the company grows, it needs more repeatable, controlled structure, so it adds a hierarchy. Often, the hierarchy takes over. Kotter suggests the most effective companies figure out how to run both at the same time — a network to quickly react to strategic changes, and a hierarchy to maintain the control and predictability for operations. I would argue that project management is the same. The best project managers understand what tools are available and choose the right one for the right job.

Maslow is credited with saying, “when all you have is a hammer, everything starts to look like a nail.” With all of the management innovations in the last hundred years, we have far more than a hammer today. So, let’s talk about the right tool for the job and discuss Traditional vs Agile Methodologies and where we might meet in the middle with Hybrid.

Traditional Strengths

Before you throw traditional project management out the window, look at some of the accomplishments it’s given us, such as:

• The Three Gorges Dam in China that generated 102 terawatt hours in 2018
• The Russky Bridge in Russia that is over 10,000 feet long
• The Burj Kjalifa tower in Dubai, at 2,716 feet the world’s tallest building.

These traditional projects are marvels at human ingenuity and each involved:

• A clear design to understand what the end product would look like.
• Planning to understand the materials, people, costs, and timeline, as well as how everything would fit together.
• Strict controls during the delivery process to ensure needed tasks were completed and the project remained on time and on budget.
• Quality assurance to ensure the project was delivering to original needed design requirements.

This works where:

• We know what the end project should look like. Construction is a great example.
• We’ve done it before, so we know what’s needed.

The key here is efficiency. Since we know what the end will look like, and can figure out how to do it –finding the best way to integrate all of the different people to get the job done within in the shortest time/budget can be possible.

Agile Strengths

Since the Agile manifesto was drafted in 2001 and the concepts have been in place since the 1990’s, I don’t know that we can still call Agile new, but it’s much younger than the traditional approach. Where traditional project management focuses on the most efficient way to solve a known problem, Agile focuses on creating a solution when we may not completely understand the problem or what the end product will look like. Because of the unknowns in these projects, they are often funded in stages. For example you may approach the solution as – let’s see how much progress can be made in 3 months and then reevaluate from there.

 

These Agile projects involve:

• Starting with a problem, an idea for a solution, and a set time and budget. Instead of scope being fixed like it is in a traditional project, we’ll see what the team can get done in the allotted time.
• Creating a prototype quickly that will let everyone see and feel the ideas to speed the learning process.
• Adjusting the prototype along the way, adding depth to the parts that work and letting go of the parts that don’t.
• Evaluating progress at the end and deciding the next steps, i.e. it may be good enough or it is worth continuing to invest.

This works where:

• We’re building something new – so we are not sure what the end solution will look like. This often applies to products like software, new reports, marketing, or training materials.
• Innovation is important in finding the best way, and in building a solid architecture, to make it easier to support the product in the future.
• The solution can be built in small increments. If you think about an analytics project – there are a lot of different pieces, but any insights found along the way could be used and add value now.
• Instead of efficiency, the key is learning. There is no point in being on time and on budget if you’re building the wrong solution.

 

Combining the Two – A Hybrid Approach

This all sounds great on paper, right? Well as we know, most projects are not purely Agile or purely traditional. Rather than getting religious about which one to choose, good project managers can grab the right principles from either to apply to their projects.

Scrum, one of the Agile methodologies, breaks projects into 1-4 week Sprints. Each Sprint starts with a planning meeting where the team commits to what they will accomplish and then ends with a review where they show customers or stakeholders what was accomplished. Lastly, there is a retrospective, where the team reviews and makes recommendations on improving their overall process.

Similarly, every traditional project I’ve seen (and even most business units) have a weekly meeting to discuss progress and plan the next week. It’s a simple change to formalize these meetings to “Sprints” and commit to what will be done during the week, review last week’s commitments, and then take some time to think about how the process is working to build in continual improvement.

From a traditional perspective, it makes sense to incorporate at least some kind of a plan for an Agile component in the project by defining what will be done during the project (but understating it could adjust). Combining some of the traditional project skills, for example thinking about what resources will be needed outside of the team, risk management, or procurement, along with the required order of tasks are great skills to leverage for managing a project.

Whichever methodology you use, the key isn’t what you call it. It’s thinking about the results you want and what way will be best to deliver them.

Reporting

One of the hard questions PMOs have to answer is how we keep leadership up to date. Whether projects lean more traditional or more Agile, leadership still needs to know:

• What’s the problem, what’s the proposed solution, and how does it link to our overall strategy?
• How much will it cost, how long will it take, and what overall resources will be needed?
• How are projects progressing, where are we at, and are we on track?
• Are we getting the results or value we originally planned for?

Since we’ve been reporting on traditional projects for quite some time, most teams already have that figured out and you can leverage many of the same components for Agile projects:

• Just like a traditional project, Agile projects should have a clear problem, solution, and tie directly to strategy. Both should have a measure of expected value before they start.
• As mentioned with traditional projects – scope is set, cost and duration are variable. With Agile the opposite is true. Cost and duration are fixed. Teams should talk about how much the expected investment is before the project starts and that should be baselined. At the end of the allotted time, teams should have a conversation with leadership about where they’re at and next steps.
• You can use many of the same measurements with both projects (money invested, expected finish date). Where traditional projects will have weekly written updates, Agile projects should add value delivered each week (or Sprint for Scrum) and invite stakeholders to come see the value in reviews.
• Both projects should be measuring value delivered. In Agile projects, that value should be delivered sooner, and then measured as the project goes (instead of having to wait till the end). Tying progress to value will align the Agile team with customer goals.

Conclusion

Between Agile and Traditional project management approaches, it’s easy to feel like the world is far more complicated. It is. Having to choose between a wrench, a screwdriver, or a hammer is more complicated, but it’s also far more efficient. As a project manager, a department manager, or a leadership team, understanding what tools are available gives you more flexibility to evaluate and decide the most effective methodology for each situation and how to create the right mix of tools for your organization. It may not be as simple as we would like, but when you learn how to use the right tools, you’re apt to be far happier with the end result. Learn more about our Agile Transformation support!

This is the third part in our series, “Getting started with Resource management.” If you haven’t caught the first two parts, be sure to check out : Resource Management: Learning to Crawl + Resource Management: Foraging and Collecting Data.

Congratulations! By this point in your resource management journey you have analyzed if an established resource management process can truly address your team’s pain points, identified the platform you will use to house all of your data sets, and foraged for and collected all of your raw data. You may find yourself asking… So, now what?  

Now, grasshopper, we move from crawling in your resource management journey to walking. And by walking, I mean establishing the data-based framework of the resource management analysis process. By the end of this session you will have the base structure required for your resource management process providing visibility into your resources, their unique skill sets, and a current snapshot of your team’s demand and capacity.  

So Much Data!  

The framework of any resource management process is organized, relatable data; Making your data make sense.

So far, you have a collection of resources (hopefully not the physical bodies piled up in the corner of your office, but rather a list of names), an idea of their soft and hard skills, current project assignments, a list of pipeline initiatives, activity estimated effort, and the typical ebb and flow pattern of each project.

That is a lot of information! Adding more to that heaping pile of data, you have also explored your project roles, technical skills, and your skill proficiency scale. Any more added and that pile will surely topple right over!  

Let’s get organized.  

There are four main components, or databases, to organizing your data:  

1. Resource Profile 
2. Skills Inventory 
3. Current Capacity / Team Roster 
4. Demand Forecast 

Below we will walk through each component to give you some organizational guidelines that will send you well on your way to having a functional resource management framework. 

Resource Profile 

Your resource profile database should be completely people centric. This should tell you all about your resources including HR related data as well as working characteristics.

This database should include direct employees, frequently borrowed interdepartmental employees, and contractors – particularly if these contractors are hired for long-term engagements or are frequently rotated into your resource pool. We will discuss the merits and strategy of how to use contractors as part of your sourcing options in a separate article. For now, we will focus on who is actively engaged with your team. 

HR Data 

HR related data is the base of your resource profile database and should contain static information about your resources that should not require frequent monitoring or updates. HR related data should, at minimum, include the following details:  

• Name 
• City, State and/or Region 
• Employee or Contractor 
• Job Title 
• Manager 
• Department 
• Contract End Date 

This data set should be validated and updated at least once a year but should also be reviewed opportunistically such as with departmental restructuring or during annual reviews.

When constructing this part of your database, keep your information objective. You are not attempting to duplicate your company’s human resource dossier. In fact, doing so could result in you, inadvertently, violating an employee’s privacy. You only want to maintain pertinent information that will impact whom you may select for a resource assignment.  

Example: Having an employee’s full address, salary or hire date could result in a violation of privacy should your database be shared or viewed by an unauthorized employee. Protect your team’s privacy by maintaining only generic details. 

Work Characteristics 

Work characteristics is the second part of your resource profile database. This data set is a collection of attributes that provide key filters for your resource pool. As mentioned before, be careful what information you store. Remember, your job is to collect as much pertinent data as necessary to appropriately staff your projects. More, in this case, is often too much. 

Common work characteristics used for resource assignment include, but may not be limited to: 

• Primary Role (Note: This is not their HR Job Title. Please see Role Dictionary below.) 
• Travel Ability 
• Willingness to Relocate 
• Cost & Billing Rate 
• Target Utilization 
• Other: 
  • Certifications 
  • Compliance Requirements 
  • Government Clearances 
  • Foreign Languages Spoken 
  • Soft Skills 

Work characteristics are slightly more dynamic than HR data but can be updated with the same cadence of the HR data information.   

An example of a resource profile database is included below.  

Skills Inventory  

A skills inventory provides a common language when discussing skill sets that are desired for each role within a project. There are four steps to constructing a skills inventory: organize your role dictionary, define the skills, structure the proficiency scale, and stand up the skills module.  

Role Dictionary 

A role dictionary is a way to normalize project roles and define their responsibilities across all projects. Roles should not be identified as, or even aligned to, HR job titles. A team member may have a formal job title of Technical Consultant but fills the primary role of an Architect for most of his or her projects. This would be his or her primary role. 

The Role Dictionary should be structured as a narrative inventory or library. The definitions should be specific enough to identify the key responsibilities and actions a resource will be responsible for but not so specific to include individual skills or requirements. 

Example:  

• Project Manager: The Project Manager is responsible for planning, organizing, and orchestrating the activities of a project to deliver an initiative on schedule, within budget, and within scope. The primary responsibilities include definition and scope planning, work structure planning and sequencing, cost budget and actual management, meeting coordination and maintaining project documentation.  
• Architect: The Architect defines a solution or product to meet a specific set of requirements. The Architect is responsible for considering all components of a proposed solution to ensure that they work together to develop a cohesive result.   

When considering roles, outline your roles with the concept that there should be only one primary role per resource. This is not to say that a single resource cannot fill various roles across multiple projects, but it is best practice to have one resource fill a single role within a single project.   

Define the Skills 

There are several key points to consider when defining skills:   

1. A skills inventory should include all skills that are needed for each project role but should not be limited to resources that fill that role. Therefore, a full skills list will include skills for both project management and program development. However, resources should be able to select any skill that applies to them regardless of their primary role.  
2. Only go to the lowest skill level required to appropriately define the need. If your company uses a single programming language within your environment, then “Software Programming” may be sufficient as a skill. However, if multiple languages are used, you may want to break this down further such as JavaScript, Python, or C++. Likewise, project management is technically a role (that of the Project Manager) and would be too broad of a skill set. This should be separated into management requirements such as Risk, Change, Project Plan, and Financial Management skills. 
3. Do not add proficiency levels to the skills list.  

Example: When considering risk management, the skill should be Risk Management rather than Risk Management Level 1, Risk Management Level 2, and so on.   Separating the skill from the proficiency allows you to maximize your resources. You want to see ALL resources that have Risk Management experience. You can always narrow resources down with a proficiency level but if you only look for resources that have a level 4 proficiency in Risk Management, you may miss the better resource that has all other desired skills, availability, and a level 2 proficiency in Risk Management. 

Proficiency Scale 

Your proficiency scale should be inclusive for all levels of expertise, should include a numeric rank, a definition for that rank, should be easy to decipher, and should be applicable to all skills. This is your ranking or scoring system that you will assign to all skills for a specific resource. There is always a 1:1 relationship between a skill and the proficiency level. Two proficiency levels should never be assigned to the same skill.   Below is an example of a standard proficiency scale:  

0 – No Experience 

1 – Has Been Trained. Has a working knowledge of the subject but has limited or no experience. 

2 – Capable. Can complete the work but will likely need to consult a more experienced resource for guidance. 

3 – Skilled. Can complete the work with little to no guidance. 

4 – Expert. Has deep knowledge and experience. 

Stand Up your Skills Model 

Now that you have your roles, skills, and proficiency scale captured, you can stand up your skills model. I recommend that this be a relational database that is linked directly to the resource profile. For each resource, the primary role is identified, a list of skills should be assigned, and the proficiency levels identified. A few best practices for maintaining your skills model include:  

• The skills model should be updated annually or semi-annually depending on how fast your environment changes. Your Resource Manager(s) or Resource Management Office (RMO) owns this database and the responsibility of its maintenance.  
• Resources should self-assign their skills and proficiency levels. Resources know their own capabilities. Allow them to provide you with the base skills assessment. Skills should be assigned at time of hire (for new resources) and regularly updated, such as with their annual performance reviews. You may also identify other, opportunistic times that skills may need to be updated such as department or organizational changes or after completing a project where the resource learned a new skill or advanced in proficiency of an existing skill 
• All assigned skills should be reviewed and updated/approved by managers for accuracy.  

An example of a skills model is shown below.

Notice that Sandra Dee, whose primary role is that of a Developer, has several project management skills in her skills inventory along with architectural and software engineering skills.  

Current Capacity 

Now that we know who our resources are and their unique capabilities, let’s take a look at their current capacity. Your current capacity view should answer the who, what, when, and where for each team member. This is the base of many reports that you will use within your resource management process.  

When first structuring your current capacity report it may be as simple as a team roster. At minimum, this report should include a list of resources, their assignment details, and base project information. 

Keep in mind that the % of Allocation is the FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) required to fill the project role. Additionally, notice that the start and due dates of the assignment may not align with the start and due dates of the project. Roles should only be held in a project for as long as they have an active work assignment. As projects move through stages, roles will naturally roll off and change.  

At this stage in our discovery, be careful not to get too detailed. We aren’t looking for resource assignment for each task on each day. Keep it high level – like at the overall project level – and think in terms of estimate percentage FTE.  

As you gather a bit more experience, your team roster will evolve to show allocation and availability for each assignment as shown in the example below.  

Demand Forecasting 

Resource management demand forecasting brings together several exercises and best practices that we can explore, in depth, in a separate article. For now, for this exercise, let’s focus on what is within your immediate pipeline and no further out than a start date within the next 30 days. This report should be similar to your team roster. However, this report will show requested roles for projects along with specific resources, should call out the assignment status (assigned, soft book, open), should show the requested FTE per assignment, and should include the % of probability for each project. Anything with a probability less than 60%, do not include in this report.  

You’ve Come So Far! Do Not Cheat This Step. 

Once again, this is a big assignment for you. I understand the work that must go into this but I’m here to tell you, it is all worth it! Take as much time as you need to organize your data. If you find you are lacking in certain sections, go back and do some additional research. Once you ready, check in for our next article in our Resource Management series to learn how to connect your data together, defining your team’s resource management process. 

Also, check out our webinar – How do resource management practices affect project and PMO performance? Watch on-demand.

Next Steps

Contact Kolme Group to find out more about our Resource Management Services and we’ll be happy to support you with a free 15 minute Q&A with a resource management expert, please email us at PPManswers@KolmeGroup.com.

Be sure to follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube  and use #KolmeGroup on shared posts!

       

 

What You Need To Know To Better Support Your Teams In Times Of Change  

The world is experiencing the biggest change process that anyone has ever seen – Lockdowns, social distancing, being unable to do ordinary activities... Everything we always considered ‘normal’ is suddenly not so common anymore. Coaching through change is not always the easiest to navigate in rough water but after reading this blog you’ll feel more confident and walk away with some real tactical support to bring back to your team.

We know that change is inevitable in the world, and the same applies to business. As Kelly Smith, one of our Kolme OCM experts, explained in a recent Change Management blog Managing Change: Absent Processes Hurting Your Projects Future! Organizational Change Management (OCM) has been around for decades, but only recently began gaining global recognition. Due to this accelerated global interest, the ones who are managing change processes are experiencing a steep learning curve on what is required to make the change successful. 

A tool that is of great benefit to the successful implementation of change management is coaching.  

 

Why Should I Consider Coaching In The First Place?

Coaching is a very simple and practical method that provides you with your desired outcomes in a short timeframe.  

It’s worth investing your time and effort into coaching, it focuses on solving problems with quick and clear results. Coaching provides a human touch to your organizational change process by offering a 1:1 support system for the people involved and affected by the change. This strengthens the perception that they are not alone in this change, they have room to express their concerns and share their thoughts, and it helps to both build focus and motivate them to make the change successful for themselves.  

Since coaching is spread out over a specific time-frame, rather than a single occurrence, it is basically an individual’s change process within a change process. Therefore, the effect of the change within the individual will be permanent as well. 

 

How Does Coaching Fit In With OCM?  

Founder of PROSCI® and OCM visionary, Jeffrey Hiatt, shares that successful change is rooted in something very simple: how to facilitate change with one person. Being able to change that one person is your key to successful change. Read more about his ideas in his book ADKAR, A model for Change in Business, Government and our Community. 

Coaching complements this methodology, because it focuses on the change process of an individual. It supports each individual’s adoption process around the change that is happening.  Sound like a match made in heaven…  

Coaching serves as the ultimate support tool in transforming your OCM process into an even more people-oriented process.

After all, organizations do not make the decisions to change… people do!

It’s the people in an organization that add the heartbeat and make it a living structure. They need to be valued and supported in their change journey and that’s exactly what coaching is here for as it turns the focus on them, individually. 

 

Suitable Areas For Coaching Within Your Change Management Process

At Kolme Group, we support the ADKAR® methodology for Organizational  Change Management. ADKAR stands for the five objectives that must be achieved for any change to be successful.

Within each objective there is a way to incorporate coaching and further support the chances of successful implementation and sustained adoption of the change. 

Awareness – of the need for change

Coaching people right from the start of the ADKAR process will help you gain awareness of how your teams view the current state and respond to the change the moment it is communicated. 

Taking the time to listen to your team’s views and asking questions to discover why they respond the way they do is important. This will help to kickstart the ongoing conversation on their acceptance process of the awareness messages of why the change is happening and what the consequences are if the change does not happen.  

Desire – to support and participate in the change 

The desire to change depends on a person’s personal situation, amongst other factors. Concerns in this area which threatens the success of the change, can be coached in an early stage.

Looking at what is causing the resistance and discovering the underlying feelings can help to change a person’s view on how desirable the change actually is for them.

This also applies when the ‘What’s in it for me’ (WIIFM) is unclear or missing; coaching can help get a better focus on the personal gain of the change for each individual. 

Knowledge – of how to change 

Building knowledge depends on a person’s capacity and capabilities. Individuals that have the tendency to assume they do not have the capacity or capability to be educated on the knowledge involving the change, can be coached on this topic. 

Helping them identify the capabilities required and helping them understand in which previous situations they already showcased these capabilities, creates a positive outlook on their learning required for the current change. It helps them focus and increase motivation to get it done.  

Ability – to implement the required skills and behaviors 

When it comes to putting the gained knowledge and behaviors in practice, coaching is very beneficial for those that have difficulties making that happen.

Coaching can help them focus on making a step-by-step approach of how they can implement the knowledge/behaviors required. Coaching focuses on small steps, one at a time, instead of taking a giant leap which is what people usually try to do.   

Reinforcement – to sustain the change 

Coaching, in itself, is already reinforcement. Especially if you use the solution oriented coaching method, reinforcement is a part that you apply throughout your coaching conversations.

Whenever you are using coaching in the last objective of the ADKAR methodology you reinforce the accomplishments achieved in the coaching throughout the previous four objectives.

Praise, recognition and celebrations are the most powerful ones to be used, as they focus on the positive side of change 

 

How To Coach your Team in Change 

Now that you know how coaching can contribute to OCM and in what parts of its lifecycle you can apply it, let’s focus on what is important to know when you are coaching a team member. 

Listen, Listen, Listen!  

Did I mention, listening is key? Whatever you are doing during a coaching session, it all starts with good listening skills.

It‘s called the art of listening for a reason, and that’s because good listening skills do not come easy and you will have to practice in order to master the skill. 

Here are some recommended starting points: 

• Ask open-ended questions – questions that cannot be answered with yes or no
• Prevent asking for the ‘why’ as much as you can – rather use ‘How’ or ‘How come’? This is because ‘why’ is calling for an explanation. Human feelings and experiences cannot always be explained, therefore, asking for the why can quickly push a person in a defensive mode. As a coach you do not want to go there!
• Summarize what you have heard – this demonstrates to the other person that you have been listening actively AND it is a way to check if you have understood correctly. Each individual has a different view of the world, and those can cause unintentional miscommunication between you and that other. Try this, “If I summarize what you have been telling correctly…”
• Make sure you have sufficient time available to provide the coaching session. You want to be in a place where you can devote your attention and give you both the time needed for communication without distraction.  

Driving The Conversation Without Taking The Lead 

• It is in the human nature to focus on the negative: failures, fears, what is NOT there, what CANNOT be accomplished.
  • Let them get it off their chest (listen!), show empathy and start to focus on the positive – their previous accomplishments, current skills & talents. 
  • What IS already there and what they could gain from the change. Your guidance here will be important when your coachee keeps going back to the negative, which will happen.
  • Do not get frustrated, it is the way we were created and luckily, we can change….  
• It helps to ask about previous (or similar) situations that did end well. How did your coachee accomplish that, what skills did they used, how did that make them feel? 
  • Take them back in time and relive the experience, highlight those accomplishments, reinforce by praise, then make a bridge to the current situation and guide them on to see how that approach worked once, therefore they can make it work again. 

Use The Golden Triangle: Think, Do & Feel Questions 

People tend to have a favorite way of expressing themselves. There are people that think (intellect), there are people that feel (emotion) and there are people that take immediate action. Do not focus on their favorite aspect (the one that comes very naturally) but challenge them by asking for the 2 less favorite aspects. 

For example:

You know that type of person that always tells you ‘I Think…’ or ‘I was thinking about that topic and…’

Ask that person how it feels: let them describe that feeling and ask where in the body they feel it. Or ask them to literally describe an experience in detail: how did the environment looked like? What were you seeing/hearing at that exact moment? 

Take the opportunity to help them re-live their experience in all 3 ways (what were they thinking, feeling and doing) to help them better understand their underlying emotions and actions that are involved with the change they are going through.

This provides room to explore more about what needs to happen in order to approach the change successfully 

 

Next Steps In Your Approach

As discussed, using coaching in your change management process is a great complement to help individuals overcoming change. Design your coaching plans with a clear hierarchy of roles – who is coaching who. 

For example: 

• Change Management consultant coaches the Sponsor 
• Sponsor coaches the Direct Managers 
• Each Direct Manager coaches the Team Leads 
• Each Team Lead coaches their Team Members 

Friendly reminder! Be sure that your ratio of coaches is small enough that each team member receives the required time and attention for a successful adoption of the change. 

 

We’re Here to Help You Coach Better

At Kolme Group we care and want to help you get the best out of coaching your teams in times of change. We offer a free, 30-minute consultancy around basic coaching skills to the first 5 applicants. If you are interested, please register below. 

Want to learn more on the fundamentals of Organizational Change Management, check out our webinar here. 

Kolme Group has helped our clients with free Change Management assessments and high-level planning so they can focus the value of Change Management for their organization. Our experienced consultants see great value in using all the tools in our toolbox to make your projects thrive! To find out more about our Project and Change Management Services, please email us at PPManswers@kolmegroup.com.  

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