Enjoy Technical Writing ? 'Leading the Change' by Stefan Gentz

On day 1 of TCWorld India conference 2013 last week in Bangalore, most of the sessions were on trends, challenges, strategy, content governance, and process of technical communication. Stefan Gentz from Tracom presented an important concept where he talked about Change Management, in ?Leading the Change?.

Five Triggers of Change Management

Stefan started with a few quotes from history on ?Change? and added that it is inevitable, and the only constant in life. He talked about ?Change Management? and referred to McKinsey?s research that quoted five triggers that cause ?CM?. Four of these are ?Catching up to Rivals Companies?, ?Completing or integrating a merger?, ?Turning around a crises?, ?Turning for a better performance?. However, the last and most notable is ?Reducing cost?.

Before talking about Change Management for businesses and specific to technical communication, Stefan discussed what derives the need for change management. It was ?Economic and Social forces?.

To keep audience on toes and interested; Stefan was immaculate in humor with relevant comments.

Eight Errors in Change Management Execution

Stefan talked about the top 8 errors in CM as:

In this list, I particularly liked two points:

• Undercommunicating the Vision: Most often, the organizations have the right vision and they get a right roadmap to execute it. I personally feel that a vision not communicated is as good as not having a vision at all. Not enough communicating it to the team (either way in hierarchy) dilutes the spirit and energy towards that vision. It magnifies the obstacles thus adding to the resistance to Change Management. I believe that this communication has to be professional yet friendly. Merely changing the vision statement on website and stationery never works. The managers and supervisors need to talk about it personally, the need for change, the roadmap, and the benefits. It inspires confidence and adds strength to the bond.

• Failing to Create Short-Term Wins: This is important. Many a times, organizations do not celebrate milestones. This again subsides the spirits of those who are working towards Change Management. It is important to have milestones, meet those, and celebrate those small wins to keep the energy juices flowing.

For change in content strategy, the above two points are extremely important. Unless the internal users understand the vision for Change Management, they would be hardly receptive to that change.

John Kotter?s Success Story

Next, Stefan referred to Prof John Kotter?s Success Story, with eight concrete points as below.

Of these eight points, I found the following four as more relevant to change management in technical communication.

• Establish a Sense of Urgency: Unless we show urgency, everything else will keep on pushing Change Management down in the priority list. When we have a business case for Change Management, it should be clear, and thought-provoking enough that it should generate a sense of urgency for call to action. [The Business Case should highlight how the current/old process is ineffective, how content silos are piling up with massive opportunity for content reuse in a new and improved process. Some facts and statistics on man hours and ROI can help others understand the ?sense of urgency?].

• Communicate Vision Change: As I mentioned above, communicating the vision change to all employees in the chain is extremely important. The communication should be clear, friendly yet professional, and should be receptive to comments/feedback to inculcate a sense of involvement. [Once the Business Case is prepared by the supervisors/managers, it should be discussed with all users involved. The objective is not merely to be transparent; it is to make it understood to all that the process is changing for the right reason, and for the benefit of all and not only for a select few. In addition to writers, the vision should be communicated to reviewers, editors, translators, artwork designers, and everybody who is part of documentation process in any capacity or role]

• Short Term Wins: The goal should be punctuated with smaller milestones. One, these milestones when met act as fuel to help the team keep going. Two, it ensures that we are in right direction. [For technical communication, the roadmap can be planned with measurable milestones. For example, the ?Change Management Strategy? can have a step as ?to prepare detailed plan with measurable goals and impact on current operations?, and another step as ?Rapid prototyping and map the benefits when compared to current process?. Each such successful plan execution should be discussed openly and celebrated.]

• Communicate Culture Change: A CM invariably calls for change in culture. Rather than people feeling as if some change is happening, it is always better it is proactively communicated, along with why it is required and how it will benefit the people and the business. [For technical communication, the shift from writing SOPs in MS Word to Structured FrameMaker, or moving from RoboHelp to XMetal means that the work culture changes. The supervisors should communicate it to prepare users? (writers and all others involved in documentation process) for this change, talking about the challenges ahead and also highlighting the overall benefits to the users and to the organization.]

Five Key Rules for Change Management

Stefan talked about ?Five Key rules for Change Management?, as:

• Mobilize and Sustain Energy
• Communicate Objective cleary and creatively
• Raise Employee Expectations
• Change People Behavior
• Engage the Attention of Individuals at all levels of organization

Conclusion

The penultimate important point made by Stefan was that ?Change Management is not Crises Management?. Stefan says ?Crisis Management and Change Management are often mixed up. Proper change management needs resources (i.e. time and money). In a crisis situation, we are usually missing both. Crisis Management needs much faster and often more harsh decision making. There is no need for creating a sense of urgency (it?s ?change now or die?), communication is reduced to announce management decisions and behavior change needs to ?switch? instead of ?evolve?. Crisis Management is about taking quick short term actions to survive, while Change Management is about implementing long term solutions for sustainable success.?

To conclude his presentation, Stefan put forward a very true and relevant statement that ?Culture eats Strategy for Lunch?. Most of the organizations resist to Change Management because of their existing culture. Culture is by nature, resistive to change. To spring changes, it has to begin with change in culture.

What has been your experiences to propose change management?

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The audience connected well with this talk and a few writers asked how to begin the Change Management, and where does it actually begin. It was interactive, informative, and a nicely paced talk.

Source: http://enjoytechnicalwriting.com/2013/02/27/leading-the-change-by-stefan-gentz/

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