Say yes to mapping purpose and benefits

If the big picture purpose and benefits of the change has not been communicated properly or identified properly and you're already midway through the change, is it worth going back and trying to do it? Does it make sense to try and restart and rework it from the beginning?

I would say - yes!

It happens a lot. Project management skills aren’t as widespread as you think they are and not all people with the title “Project Manager” are actually trained or experienced PMs (in fact, many are just business Subject Matter Experts who have been lumped with leading a project). Projects, especially long projects that have gone over 6 months or a year, often end up having their initial purpose lost three quarters of the way through and you don't have clarity. People are not all on the same page around what the benefits are, what the purpose is, why we are doing this, and what the outcomes are going to be. 

Understanding why this happens can help you get confident about taking the time and effort to reset those benefits. There's a few root causes and you might need to sit back and actually identify what is the root cause in your specific scenario. 

Root Cause #1: Unclear business case

Sometimes it's been that way from the very beginning - in the initial business case or initial challenge to be solved, the purpose and benefits were never identified, documented, or shared. So if you feel like this was never done, always ask the question. And if the answer is no - highlight the problems being experienced and suggest that you run a workshop to help solve them. You can use some of those pain points that are happening in the project or in the team as your reason for why you need to go back and do the setting up the change for success. It might have never really been done and likely because Change doesn't usually get hired until a project has already been stood up, often it hasn't been done properly.

I've worked on projects where the business case has been developed over the course of 6 months, but they don't have clear business benefits of how this is actually going to improve the experience of people and what results in the business they expect. Not just the dollars and the efficiency that they plan to save, but:

• How are you going to improve the way that things are done in the organisation? 
• How are you going to improve people's experience? 
• What are the long-term benefits of this beyond the dollars?

That's one root cause.

Root Cause #2: Change in project leadership

The other root cause could be if there's a change in project leadership.  If there's a new Sponsor, a new Business Owner, a new Product Owner if you're working Agile, or a new Project Manager in Waterfall. I’ve even seen it where a new Ops Lead has changed or a really key business stakeholder has changed. People drop and swap and do secondments and leave the business and enter the business and the project restructures, especially if it is a longer change.

Any of those really key people in the project, if they change, you might see the purpose and the benefits start to get really wishy-washy because the new person's trying to prove that they have a purpose for being there, but they come with their own expectations, assumptions and understanding. In some cases, they might even have been brought in to get the project back on board or get the change back on track.

Root Cause #3: Scope creep

I’ve seen this happen a lot. Now, it's not your job to manage scope creep. That's actually a Project Manager's job (read my blog post on the difference between a Project Manager and Change Manager here). Project Managers essentially are managing the schedule or the timeline, the budget, the scope, and the quality. Often, you've got great people who have been hired and dedicated resources who are all working to solve this problem and deliver this project, suddenly more and more and more gets shoved into the project or into the change because it's like, "Oh, well, for that to work, we need to actually fix this, and then for that to work, we need to fix this." Suddenly, you are doing not just a technology project, but you're also doing an operating model change at the same time or vice versa. Two massive changes that each and of themselves have a lot of risk and a lot of work associated with them. Then suddenly, both of them are dependent on each other and you can't go live without either one.

Root Cause #4: Merging of projects and programs

Then you might end up in a situation where neither of them got properly set up, now they merged or one's come after the other, and then you have to figure out what are the benefits of this. You have to go back to square one.

So at any time if you notice that the purpose and benefits of the change are missing or uncertain or have shifted, have a look at the root cause and take the time and effort to map purpose and benefits from scratch or revisit and update the original set. It’s particularly useful if you’ve just joined a project as you can use it as a tool to understand it. It can even be valuable just before launch to get everyone re-aligned and re-committed together for the big boost of effort and energy that will be needed to get go live over the line. The short answer is: yes - it is worthwhile doing it.

If you’d love to move away from Change delivery and spend more of your time adding value with the upfront Change strategy and planning work, becoming a trusted change advisor is perfect for you. Come along to my brand-new free advanced-level Change Advisor Bootcamp and discover the power of using consulting skills to have more influence and impact. It’s on this Wednesday 24 May from 6.00pm-8.00pm AEST (Sydney time), has been specially crafted for experienced Change practitioners, and will transform how you are valued and respected as a Change expert.

CLICK HERE to register your free spot ASAP for this week’s Change Advisor Bootcamp

Lata xx

P.S. Time is running out to register your free spot for my Change Advisor Bootcamp on this Wednesday 24 May 6.00pm-8.00pm AEST - click here to register.