Strategic Planning 

In the ISP project, we read every relevant piece of data about our company, our competitors, our customers, our suppliers, what other leading MIS shops were doing, "best practices" from other industries, consultants' predictions, latest academic thinking, etc. (see "Literature Search and Sharing" below). We challenged ourselve and our peers to take off the blinders, and after some practice it became second nature. Breaking down our own mindsets was required before asking others to bend theirs.

The conventional approach here is to begin by listing current problems or obstacles. Such data is useful, but can be depressing if overdone. It is far more productive to ask people to describe their vision of how they would like things to look and feel in the future. This exercise challenges people to dream, to construct a positive scenario instead of rehashing the negative. Planning is about the future, not the past. Change projects must unite groups around a common vision that appeals to at least most of the target audience. A clear and compelling vision for the future is the first step toward creating that future. With such a vision in mind, people will endure great hardship and work longer and stronger than anyone (often including themselves) would imagine.

World Class Manufacturing Menu

Of all the guidelines, this is the most important. There is no better way to build ownership and commitment than to involve people. The people to involve are the ones most likely to resist the change, for a simple reason. Winning their commitment eliminates resistance to the project. There is no more effective project supporter than a con­verted project opponent!

Despite what they may say, people want to be a part of designing their own future. Given a chance, they will 1) do more work and 2) own the result. For this reason, change projects should seek every means to get people involved. This con­cept is deceptively simple, but ex­traordinarily powerful. It explains why so many consultant-driven projects fail to deliver promised results. It explains why so many strategic plans never get off the bookshelf.

Change project managers who ig­nore this guideline raise the risk of their projects dramatically.

In addition to the change manage­ment techniques, several tech­niques of project management helped make the ISP project suc­cessful. Since change projects are at heart projects, it should not be surprising that these techniques work. We will describe the most important ones briefly.