Methods of Communication

There are many mechanisms for communicating during service transition, and indeed at any time. Using multiple communication means will help people understand the overall message. Let’s explore some of these, starting with workshops.

Communication Models

Models help to communicate expectations for each service or each type of change. Figure 27.2 is an example of a change model used to transition services from an organization to an external service provider (outsource). This is an example of a total organizational change, where there will be changes in management, processes, and staffing, although many staff may transfer into the new service provider organization. Having access to a set of service, change, and transition models in a form that is easy to communicate will help to set expectations during the service transition.

Managing Organization and Stakeholder Change

Service transition’s basic role is building on the basis of agreed design from the service design lifecycle stage to implement a new or changed service. Without change, progress does not happen. A change of any significance may be an organizational change, ranging from moving a few staff to work from new premises to major alterations in the nature of how the business works. Change is an inevitable and important part of organizational development and growth. Change can occur in incremental phases or suddenly, affecting part of or the whole organization, its people, and its culture.

Organizational change efforts fail or fall short of their goals because changes and transitions are not led, managed, and monitored efficiently across the organization and throughout the change process. These gaps in key organizational activities often result in resistance, dissatisfaction, and increased costs.

We will cover in more detail the involvement of service transition in managing organizational change. It includes assurance of the organization change products from service design, stakeholder management and communications, and approaches to cope with change during transition.

Emotional Cycle of Change

To facilitate the acceptance of change, it is important to understand the emotional stages a person experiences. For all significant changes, individuals will go through this process.

Appropriate communication through these stages of transition will drive the energy of individuals from low to high, obtaining involvement and generating a more positive attitude as the change takes place. As emphasized, this is a pattern followed by individuals, and different people will pass through these typical phases at different speeds, so understanding where individuals are on this curve and supporting them and helping them progress through the stages can be a significant resource commitment for service transition. It is important to understand that the individual will be thinking of themselves throughout a significant change, so any communication will be viewed from this personal perspective. Figure 27.3 illustrates this emotional cycle.

Organization, Roles, and Responsibilities

It is the responsibility of the managers and executives of the organization to manage the change and transition.

A clear, strategic vision coming from management and/or executives is imperative to drive and maintain the change.

There needs to be understanding of potential resistance to change as well as open communications to enable change to be handled and responded to in an appropriate manner so that transitions can be effective. This is especially the case if a change is on a scale that is significant enough to affect the organization as a whole.

Service Transition’s Role in Organizational Change

Organizational change is always a challenge. The following factors drive successful change initiatives at the organization level:

• Leadership for the change. This shows management support and commitment.
• Organization adoption. Ensures that there is a consistent approach across the organization.
• Governance. Puts the appropriate controls in place.
• Organization capabilities. Delivery of training and awareness.
• Business and service performance measures. Monitoring for success.
• A strong communication process with regular opportunity for staff feedback. Continuing the engagement of the teams.

Although service transition is not accountable for the overall management of business and technical change, the service transition process owner or manager is a key stakeholder and needs to be proactive in reporting issues and risks to the change leaders—for example, when the volume of changes might impact service operation’s ability to keep the services running.

Let’s look at the concept of organizational adoption in some more detail. Organizational adoption is a subset of change management practice. It typically happens at two levels: individual and organizational.

It is important to understand the culture of the organizations and the people involved. This will often be quite diverse across different business units and geographies. Business culture may be different depending on the industry, geography, and other factors. The culture of the customer, the service provider and IT organization, and the supplier will all have an impact on the management of the change, as will the requirements and attitudes of individual people, especially those managers in senior roles and champions of the change.

Cultural and organizational assessment and change design are the responsibility of strategy and design. However, most significant service transitions will have an effect on working practices and so require a change in the behavior and attitudes of many teams and stakeholder groups. Understanding the organizational change elements of a transition is therefore vital. The assessment of the likely risks and success is an important element of the transition as a whole. Service transition will be involved early in the lifecycle to ensure that risks and success are assessed and incorporated into the design and build of the organizational change.

Service transition must be actively involved in changing the mindsets of people across the lifecycle to ensure that they are ready to play their role in service transition. This includes the following people:

• Service transition staff
• Customers
• Users
• Service operation functions
• Suppliers
• Key stakeholders

Service transition will focus on simple messages at any one time to ensure that there is consistency in the implementation of the changes. For example, service transition would be interested in helping people to understand the need for knowledge and effective knowledge transfer. It is important to ensure that people understand the importance of making decisions at the right speed/within the appropriate time frame and to complete and review configuration baselines in a timely manner. Transition will ensure that in the future the lifecycle can apply more effective risk assessment and management methods for transitions and follow the deadlines for submitting changes and releases.

Service design will perform the assessment of the capability and capacity of the IT organization to transition the new or changed services. Service transition has a quality assurance role to check that the organization and stakeholders are ready for the change, and it will raise any issues and risks related to organizational change that are identified, such as issues raised during testing, pilots, deployment, and early life support.

Service transition is also responsible for ensuring that the organizational change happens according to the plans. This will include verifying that the change is still relevant in current circumstances and that it delivers the predicted organization structure, capabilities, and resources.

Achieving successful service transition requires organized, competent, and well-motivated people to build, test, deploy, and operate the service.

Because successful service transitions rely on changing the organization and people, it is important to focus on such aspects as competency assessment and development, recruiting, skills development, knowledge transfer, team building, process improvements, and resource deployment. If there is a gap in capability, then service transition will provide input into the relevant area (for example, project management, service design, or continual service improvement).

For successful service transition, an organization needs to determine the underlying values and drivers that enable effective management of change. In Table 27.2 are examples of the cultural aspects and questions to determine those values.

It is important to understand any potential language barriers and whether the organization is able to accept change. Transition will need to plan the appropriate communication and knowledge flow and needs to understand the impact of communication and knowledge transfer.

Service transition needs to be aware of the structure of the organization in terms of communities, networks, and the working environment. Understanding the history of the organization will also be important because the history may inform the future.

It’s important to understand communication mechanisms. Does the organization use meetings effectively, or is there a better way of managing communication?

Does the organization use rewards and motivations, and how is time organized?

All of these factors can make a difference to the success of service transition.

Planning and Implementing Organizational Change

Strategy and design play their part in managing organizational change. An organization’s age and size affect its structure. During a service transition, changes in roles, processes, and relationships must be made or problems will arise. Understanding the different phases of development of the stakeholder organizations helps service transition to manage the stakeholders and users better.

Frequently, plans and designs for managing change are not balanced, and the organization and people side of change is omitted. Within IT organizations, project managers often focus on the technical activities rather than on the changes required for the organization or individuals. It is important that project plans are reviewed to ensure that the organizational change activities are included.

To manage organizational change, it is important that the stakeholders and teams understand what is required and can answer these questions:

• What are the business and organizational strategic drivers, personalities, and policy changes?
• What issues does the proposed change solve?
• What will the new or changed service deliver and what does it look like?
• How do current objectives need to be modified?
• What are the objectives of the change as defined by management, and how will success be judged throughout the levels of the organization?
• What are the processes, templates, decision points, and systems to be used, and what level of reporting data is required for the decisions to be made?
• Who will be involved and who will no longer be involved?
• Who will be affected within and outside the organization?
• What are the constraints (type, range, and flexibility) and what is the time slot, equipment, staff, and supplier availability?
• What is the planned timescale?
• Who or what can help in planning the implementation?
• What skills and measures should be considered?
• How will “normal” life be affected?
• What will the consequential changes be, for example, to business methods?

As part of quality assurance and implementation, the stakeholders and IT teams can be sampled to understand and clarify their expectations about these aspects and in this way be monitored for transition success.

Organizational Change Products

The change in the organization from the current state to a new state can require the adjustment of a combination of elements. This will enable the organizational transformation. The required service is defined in the service design package. Remember, service strategy and design assist with managing organizational change during service transition. These are examples of work products that are typically outputs from service strategy and service design.

There may be a stakeholder map, which allows service transition to understand who is involved and their relative importance and engagement. The current organization and capability assessment, along with the required competency model and competency assessments, will support transitional activity. It is important to understand the constraints (including organization, capability, and resources).

The service management process models, policies, processes, and procedures should also be referred to throughout the transition. This should include the role and responsibility definitions from, for example, a RACI (responsible, accountable, consulted, informed) matrix. This will help with relationship management and support the communication plan. There should also be a supplier framework, especially where multiple suppliers are involved.

Service transition will check that organizational change products and services are fit for purpose. For large-scale changes, such as mergers and acquisitions and outsourcing, this should include validation of the approach to career development for staff. For example, are succession plans being built? Do individuals have an understanding of their progression prospects?

It is also important to carry out performance evaluation at the organization, team, and individual level. Are regular reviews conducted? Is there a formal template for documentation, and is there demonstration of a consistent approach?

Is there a net benefit to people affected by the change in terms of rewards and compensation?

Where there is a shortfall in any roles required, is there a fair and consistent process for selection, including the process of internal movement as well as selection from the external market?

There may be localized or corporate governance requirements, such as relevant laws and agreements. These could include, for example, the European Union Acquired Rights Directive (ARD), the UK Transfer of Undertakings regulations (TUPE), or agreements with works councils and trade unions.

There are a number of work products that are typically delivered from the build stage on which the service transition team depend. Some examples are organization models, providing detail on the new or changed organizational structure; the career development structure; any reward and compensation structure; and structures relating to performance measurement and evaluation.

There should also be a competency model detailed design, incorporating the competency list, matrix of activity, job roles and definitions, and staffing and competency requirements.

For the individual, there should be an assessment, including competency, performance, and learning needs.

Education and training is an important output from the build stage. There should be a plan for the approach to use for learning, testing the courses efficacy and how they will support and enhance performance.

Assessing Organizational Readiness for Change

Part of transition should be the assessment of the organization’s readiness for change. Table 27.3 shows a typical approach to understanding the organizational capability and can be used to assess the role and skill requirements.

You can see the check that is required and where the evidence for it can be found. For example, staff numbers and skills will be evidenced in the plan. The vision and strategy will identify any risks and should be a specific documented output. Roles and responsibilities should be captured, including measures and skills. The assessment report will show the personnel requirements for transition and beyond. Risk assessments and requirements capture will be another important area in the assessment for organizational readiness for change.

Monitoring Progress of Organizational Change

To enable a service transition program to be effective and successful, regular checks/surveys should be performed throughout many different levels of the organization. The results of any survey should be useful in determining the progress made through service transition. This will include the status of employee commitment and any areas for improvement. This will also serve as a useful tool at various milestones within the transition journey.

Employees are encouraged to feel that their opinions count at a critical time as they go into the service transition program. This is where positive engagement of the new processes can be increased by “taking the majority with you,” as the acceptance of the transition spreads throughout the teams affected by it.

Monitoring is, of course, only the first part of a series of actions. The responses obtained must be analyzed and understood. Where required, issues should be addressed and fixed as soon as possible. Respondents to the survey must be kept informed of changes that result from their feedback. Only in this way can staff have confidence that their feedback matters and achieves improvements.

Often, improvements will be identified in the postimplementation review of the service change and can feed into the CSI register.

Organization and People in Sourcing Changes

A change in sourcing of IT services is one of the most significant, and often most traumatic, kinds of organizational change. Several different effects on staff will need to be considered, planned, and prepared for.

The impact of employee shock can be significant. There could be a morale issue caused by transition of staff replaced by the sourcing function. Sourcing is best done in an open atmosphere where all the options are clear and identified. Communication will be critical to ensuring that staff are not undermined by the transition.

Another major change is the way business is conducted. Keeping the relationship between business and service provider professional is vital. Sharing “everything” with an external service provider may lead to distrust if it is not presented in the correct terms. Care must be taken to ensure that information is passed to the service provider on a need-to-know basis.

Location change may also be extremely disruptive if not handled carefully during transition. There are a number of possible locational sourcing options, from local sourcing (remaining in the same geographic location as the business) to offshore sourcing (where the service provider is in a specific location). Combinations are becoming common, with different functions, or aspects of functions, delivered in different fashions. The cultural and organizational issues relating to the change in location need to be addressed to guarantee a successful service transition.

Linking of sourcing activities throughout the organization happens when there are multiple sources provided from different areas across the organization. Every aspect of the sourcing operation must be linked to the appropriate area/group within the business. These links need to be identified, established, and tested early on or the sourcing relationship will not be efficient.

Methods, Practices, and Techniques for Managing Change

The requirement to manage organizational change needs to be taken into account when the methods, practices, and techniques are chosen.

Stakeholder Management Strategy

The stakeholder management strategy from service design sets out who the stakeholders are and what their interests and influences are likely to be. It is important to understand how the project or program will engage with them, what information will be communicated, and how feedback from the stakeholders will be processed.

It is helpful for service transition if stakeholders are listed under categories such as “users/beneficiaries” and “providers.” Each category can then be broken down further if necessary. Categories should be recognizable groups rather than abstract ones, for example, an organizational location rather than a belief system. Some categories may identify the same individuals, but it is often useful to differentiate between stakeholders “wearing different hats.” You can see examples of stakeholders in Figure 27.4.

Stakeholders inevitably have different areas of interest in the overall change; for example, some will be concerned with how the change will affect their working environment, while others will want to influence changes in the way customers are handled.

A stakeholder map is a useful way of plotting the various stakeholders against their interests in the service transition and its activities and outcomes. Service transition should work with service design to ensure that there is an accurate and relevant stakeholder map or equivalent. Figure 27.5 provides an example of a stakeholder map.

A stakeholder analysis helps to ensure that there is sufficient understanding of the stakeholder requirements and the stakeholders’ interest in, and impact on, the change. Stakeholders’ positions (in terms of influence and impact) may be rational and justifiable or emotional and unfounded. However, they must all be taken into account because, by definition, stakeholders can affect the change process and hence the service transition. The stakeholder analysis helps to ensure that communication channels are targeted appropriately and that messages, media, and levels of detail reflect the needs of the relevant stakeholders. Often, one larger communication approach covering all areas can help to deliver a more consistent and stronger message than by operating at functional levels.

One technique for analyzing stakeholders is to consider each stakeholder in terms of their importance to service transition and the potential impact of the change on them and “plot” them on a matrix. This will guide the activities that service transition should adopt.

For example, a business sponsor will have a “high” status of importance to the overall service change, and depending on the scale and opportunities for any return on their investment, the impact of the new or changed service may be “low,” “medium,” or “high.”

Someone who works on the service desk and supports a different service will have a low importance to the overall service change, and the impact of service on them will be low. In Figure 27.6, you can see an example of a stakeholder power impact matrix.

Stakeholders may move up or down the matrix as the service progresses through the lifecycle, so it is important to revisit the stakeholder analysis work, particularly during the detailed planning for service transition. Responsible stakeholders can and should enhance and potentially alter the course of the service transition.

During the service lifecycle, stakeholders may come and go. Key stakeholders, such as the change sponsors, should (hopefully!) remain constant throughout. But sufficient records and documentation will be maintained to enable effective handover in the event that individuals are replaced: “sufficient” is adjudged in accordance with business risk and cost.

Some stakeholders will be able to participate in advisory or assurance roles, some will be important in assessing the realization of the benefits, and others will have an audit perspective.

The planning chart shows the current commitment level of individuals and groups and how that commitment must change if the transition is to be successful. You can see an example of this in Figure 27.7.

Each individual is rated with an O to indicate their current position and an X to indicate the degree of commitment needed from them. Sometimes they need to step back; for example, the departing director of customers shown in the chart in Figure 27.7 would need to hand over the leadership role.