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Foreword |
Enterprise change is accelerating for most organizations. Mergers, acquisitions, new products and processes and responding to customer demands all require change. Unfortunately, mastery of change is a core competency for few enterprises.
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As executive leaders, CIOs play an important role in developing the content of change in terms of new systems and business processes. But these "hard" issues are not the primary challenges to successful change. New tools and processes are worthless unless people change their behaviors and actions. These personal change struggles are the "soft" issues that CIOs and every executive must address to realize results from change.
Many believe that soft issues can't be managed. This is not true. This report investigates the question, What practical steps can CIOs take to increase their contribution to success for large-scale enterprise change?
Leading Enterprise Change was written by the Gartner Executive Programs (EXP) research team led by Richard Hunter. He was assisted by Tina Nunno (research director) and Graham Waller (program director).
Many organizations and individuals from around the world contributed to the research, including:
- Ivan Toner, Aliant; Robert Proulx, Bombardier Aerospace; Rod Jackson, Cisco; Tony Clasquin, Commonwealth Bank of Australia; John Metzger, Great Atlantic and Pacific Tea Company (A&P); Thomas Ward, Hughes Supply Inc.; Alfred Rolington, Ian Kay and Linda Moore, Jane's Defense Group; Stuart McGuigan, Liberty Mutual; Lawrence M. Murphy Jr., Schenectady City School District (New York); and Joel Manfredo, The Irvine Company.
- Gartner EXP members who offered their insights in our workshops on "The Changing Role of the CIO" at EXP Forums in May and June 2005 in San Francisco, Barcelona and Brisbane.
- Other members of the Gartner EXP research team: Dave Aron, Marcus Blosch, Mark McDonald, Barbara McNurlin, Patrick Meehan, Andrew Rowsell-Jones and Chuck Tucker.
- Gartner Research colleagues: Kraft Bell, Steve Bittinger and Colleen Young.
- Other Gartner EXP colleagues: Angelina Atkins, Lyne Bouchard, Jean-Marc Lejeune, Rudy Lepomme, Pam McGillis, Heather Munoz, Kazuo Tamoto, Barbara Uttini and Ellen Whitin.
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Executive summary |
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The pace and depth of enterprise change are increasing, and CIOs are strongly affected. Few enterprises have directly addressed the most significant barriers to change, such as culture and personal behavior. By applying tools that focus on teams, communications and culture, CIOs can play a leading role in managing change.
The rate and depth of enterprise change are increasing, and the CIO is deeply involved
The pace of change—internal and external—is accelerating for most enterprises. The scope of IS involvement in organizational change is growing as information technology is more deeply embedded in business processes. Yet mastery of change is a core competency for very few organizations.
CIOs don't have direct control over the most important factors required for successful enterprise change, such as culture. Yet when enterprise change doesn't deliver the expected business results, CIOs get blamed disproportionately.
We estimate that less than 10 percent of enterprises and CIOs have permanently institutionalized change management by training managers, by creating an enterprise program management office (PMO) or by other means. In this sense, many CIOs view change management like they viewed project management in the 1980s: something that's dependent on individual skills and circumstances rather than on systematic methods and training.
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Section 1: CIOs must manage change resistance and stakeholders
- Enterprise change is increasing in pace and impact.
- Change requires managing the change process, change content and change context.
- CIOs need tools to shape the demand for change.
- Change resistance follows a predictable and manageable pattern.
- CIOs and all leaders must manage the progression of sponsors, agents and targets through the change process.
Section 2: CIOs play an important role in building the change team
- A&P's "Evergreen" Project—the CIO as sponsor and senior management team player.
- The enterprise change team has three main parts.
- The change management team concentrates on "soft" issues.
- The change sponsor assembles the best team possible with internal and external resources.
Section 3: CIOs are agents for change via targeted two-way communications
- Create a communication plan keyed to the change struggles.
- Change agents and sponsors address the change struggles in order, beginning with blame and denial.
- As change develops, address testing, skepticism and disbelief.
- As change takes concrete form, communicate progress and status.
- As change is fully implemented, communicate success.
Section 4: Reshape enterprise culture to sustain change benefits
- Shape culture from the inside out and the outside in via values and behaviors.
- Redefine success for business and IS.
- Use governance to shape behavior at multiple levels.
- Model new behaviors to match new values and beliefs.
- Institutionalize change expertise.
- Leverage changes in executive culture.
- Look before you change.
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