Signs that the People Side of Change needs attention

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Your Front line staff are grumbling.

Sure everyone is a bit burnt out by change these days, there doesn’t seem to be a chance to catch your breath between one major initiative and the next.  When the grumbling starts project managers will often push through it – trying to overcome resistance with training, senior management directives or just mandating implementation timelines.  It works but then when the next change comes along passive resistance becomes more of a problem.  Front line staff are feeling frustrated and their supervisors are getting tired of the complaints.
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Your Stakeholders are not on the same page.

Often projects involve a range of stakeholder groups with different priorities, timelines, pressures and perspectives.  Ideally everyone is aligned but in the real world this is rare.  More often there is tension and miscommunication, that can lead to unilateral decision making, acting without consultation, lack of coordination, and ultimately conflict.   If the project team isn’t working effectively with all stakeholder groups or the project sponsors are not on the same page the success of the project is at risk.
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Major Initiatives have stalled or been abandoned.

Not every change succeeds, in fact statistics show that over 50% don’t meet their original targets and often by the time a project is underway needs have changed and a new solution is needed.  Sometimes technology changes and the original solution needs updating.  Sometimes being responsive to customer needs means going in a new direction.  While all of this makes sense the front line staff who were asked to get on board the original plan feel a bit jaded when the next initiative comes along.

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Your Lean or CI Suggestion box is empty.

Your Lean Initiative or Continuous Improvement project started well but as time goes on fewer and fewer suggestions are coming in.  Front line managers are having to go out and pull improvement ideas.   Everyone is “too busy” to join an improvement team.  Head office is looking for better numbers and you know opportunities exist but the suggestions are slowing down instead of picking up.
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Your Project Implementations are slowing.

Everyone agrees that the projects you are working on are important yet milestones are not being reached., promises are not being kept and day to day operations are getting in the way.  Your project manager is getting more and more frustrated and can’t seem to get all the stakeholders and partners to even attend meetings regularly.  If something doesn’t change the project could be at risk.
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People issues are taking too much Management time.

Dealing with people issues – resistance, communication, alignment is taking up more of your managers and project leaders time and they are burning the candle at both ends trying to meet both project and people management needs.  Senior managers are having to step in to fill the gap and that is putting pressure on their schedules. You can’t take them away from a project to be trained but you know that some coaching would ultimately save them time in the long run.
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