TOPIC OF THE MONTH
 That's what friends are for
With current shifts in the organisation of health service provision, managers face new challenges in change management.
Dave Andrew looks at how a ‘client’s friend’ can play a vital, even decisive, role in contributing to the success of a major change initiative.
Unfortunately, the vast majority of change programmes don’t live up to expectations. This doesn’t necessarily mean they fail completely, but they may experience compromises and reductions in the achieving of overall objectives.
The financial risk associated with change projects can compound failure, especially in the NHS where public money is being spent.
There are as many reasons for failure in a major change initiative as there are projects, but common problems can be identified:
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Inadequate initial attention has been devoted to identifying the desired business outcomes of the project. There is a pressing need for clear thought here. Often the organisation is trying to engineer change, while at the same time deliver a ‘business as usual’ service to patients. Clear thought is always more difficult when the organisation cannot take ‘time out’ from its everyday activities in order to pursue the clear thought in a tranquil and uncluttered state of being.
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There has been insufficient effort to communicate to stakeholders why the business outcomes really matter.
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There is often a temptation to assume that the technology involved in the change project can shoulder more of the burden of change than it actually can in practice. While technology can be a hugely powerful agent to put change into practice, it is essentially a neutral resource in that it must be firmly directed to achieve a particular objective. Using technology is no replacement for strong, energetic and flexible control of the project.
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The person at the organisation appointed to run the change project may not be experienced in change management. Most organisations will appoint what is generally referred to in the public sector as a ‘senior responsible owner’ (SRO), who will be responsible and accountable for the success of the change project. He or she will usually be given considerable authority. However, their normal job is likely to be managing the business rather than implementing change within it. In practice, they may be too close to how things currently function and to internal politics to be objective about radical alternatives.
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Even if the SRO is in fact a good choice for the task in hand, there is still the practical danger that he or she won’t be given enough time to get the job done properly. Unfortunately, when people are given new responsibilities these are often simply added to the list of the person’s current responsibilities. It takes a brave organisation to be able to say to an SRO, in effect, ‘during this particular period we want you to forget about your usual daily tasks and devote yourself totally to this project without distraction’.
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There may be a basic unwillingness at the organisation to face up to the magnitude of the change. Just because a major change project can be summarised briefly as an item on the agenda of an important internal meeting does not mean that carrying out the project will be easy.
The demands of the project are may not be fully understood by the organisation, with the result that the time and resources devoted to the project may be inadequate.
Offering objective solutions
Overall, the fundamental problem an organisation faces when it embarks on a major change programme is that there is a need to change the existing business while continuing to operate it.
A surgeon who performs a major operation on a patient will have the luxury of the patient being under an anaesthetic. Embarking on a major change programme in an organisation is like a surgeon trying to perform a complex operation on a patient who is not under an anaesthetic and is also still running about.
This is precisely why an organisation is likely to benefit from having access to a ‘client’s friend’: a highly able, experienced professional who can advise the client on the general strategy, or the specific tactics, of the entire change process.
The fundamental rationale behind the principle of the client’s friend is that the senior responsible owner, and his or her team at the organisation, are probably not full-time professional change managers. The client’s friend will be, and will also bring a very significant level of independence and objectivity.
Essential skills
The kind of skills that make a good client’s friend are very much the skills first-rate management consultants are likely to possess, particularly consultants who have extensive experience of delivering business change.
Technological experience is less important than a background involving practical responsibility for delivering change programmes. While the client’s friend can indeed be just one person, this does not need to be the case. The ‘job description’ can encapsulate a small group of people whose job is to help the client plan the change strategy, put it into practice, and deal with suppliers along the way.
Where the client's friend comes into their own
The client’s friend system can be enormously powerful and effective.
The main advantage is precisely what you would imagine it to be, namely that the client who is ultimately responsible for the change no longer needs to face the daunting challenge alone.
The client’s friend brings a level of proven expertise to the business of running the project and injects a considerable level of likelihood that the project will be a success.
Ultimately, the client’s friend will offer the SRO support and assistance with every aspect of the project from start to finish. However, they can be particularly helpful with the following:
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Initial planning. Organisations often need assistance with the overall strategy of the initiative, in particular the realistic planning of key business objectives. Just as there is often a direct correlation between the expense of a celebrity’s marriage and the brevity of the marriage, there is frequently a similar correlation between the length and verbosity of planning documents and the likelihood of failure of the project. The client's friend can help with the correct presentation and writing up of plans, detailing clear statements of what will be delivered, in what timescale, and what will be achieved.
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Helping an organisation avoid projects which vaguely promise ‘jam tomorrow’, instead clearly defining a realistic delivery of benefits to a schedule which aligns with operational priorities.
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Setting the change issues in language which the organisation’s leaders understand and which readily enables them to see what kind of project is being put together and why they should buy into it.
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Arranging accurate alignment of technology options to outcomes. It is very easy for organisations to generate an exaggerated concept of what technology can deliver for them.
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Accurate timetabling. How many times does one hear people say 'we were really foolish with our initial plans of our change management initiative; we allocated far too much time for the initiative and pulled it off in about half the time we’d allocated'? These words have probably never been uttered honestly since the dawn of time!
A client’s friend will be very realistic about timescales, and if he or she comes back and tells you that the project in question is going to take about twice as long as you envisaged, don’t be surprised because it probably will.
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Addressing the right procurement issues. This is an area where the client’s friend, who is – at least at one level – paid to be cynical, can be especially useful. All too often, procurement processes can feel as if they are driven by an unholy alliance of technology and procurement specialists who take a positive delight in formulating contracts which non-technical business leaders don’t actually understand and feel ill-equipped to challenge. Organisations are certainly justified in questioning whether procurement arrangements they can’t understand are likely to be in their interests. The client’s friend can insist to any supplier that contracts must be very clear and very straightforward and will have no compunction about denying supplier status to any suppliers who don’t play ball.
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It’s too easy for the project to be managed by an unwieldy project board that draws together all the stakeholders but is prone to indulge in extensive discussions without making very much happen that is truly positive. The client’s friend can ensure that suitable management structures are put in place for tracking progress and identifying key decisions and their consequences.
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The client’s friend will cut to the chase and help the organisation to focus less on processes and more on achieved and delivered benefits.
Cost implications
The cost of using a client’s friend will depend on the size of the project and the scale of the involvement the organisation needs from the client’s friend. But it’s best to hire the friend at the very outset and keep the individual or team in place until the initiative has been brought home to a successful conclusion.
Organisations should bear in mind that hiring a client’s friend is, in effect, a form of insurance that should dramatically increase the chances of the initiative being successful. For this reason, an expenditure of about two percent of the overall cost of the initiative itself is by no means unreasonable as a ball-park figure for the cost of using a client’s friend.
While it is true that a client’s friend will often consist of a number of people rather than only one, a reputable consultancy that offers a client’s friend service should be able to justify its precise resource allocation very convincingly to the organisation. Beware of consultancies that appear to be taking a positive delight in maximising the number of people involved with the project.
There is a growing belief in both the private and public sector that paying to obtain such support for a major initiative is not a sign of weakness but rather a sign of resourcefulness and good forward planning. Indeed, the National Audit Office, which has the job of ensuring that the government gets value for money from its expenditures, has specifically suggested that government departments should spend some part of their budget for a major change initiative on getting support for that initiative.
The cost of hiring a client’s friend is therefore likely to be something that it is in an organisation’s interest to incur, as long as a client’s friend is chosen that seems to empathise with the project and is convincing from the outset as a potential ally.
The cost of engaging a client’s friend is likely to be fairly small compared with the dangers of a major change initiative running into significant budgetary and time overruns.
A massive boost
Having a client’s friend on board is much more than just a kind of insurance policy. It’s also potentially a massive boost to confidence and a real catalyst for making the project go according to plan.
Dave Andrew is the head of the public sector and utilities practice at the business and information technology consultancy Charteris plc.
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