The Manage IT Newsletter - Getting Real ROI out of IT Efforts by Changing Work Performance:

In this issue we focus on techniques IT organization managers and leaders can use to change the way people perform work and achieve true project ROI success.

Welcome to the November 2005 issue of the "Manage IT Newsletter."

As my long time readers know, this will be the last issue of the year until we return January 2006. In this issue we focus on what you can do to change the way your end-users work so as to realize ROI targets.

Have you ever wondered what you can do to get past the barriers of adoption resistance that prevent you from realizing high-levels of project success? I invite you to read this months article titled "Getting Real ROI out of IT Efforts by Changing Work Performance," to find out what you can do to become a high impact change master.

As always, I also invite you to share this newsletter with your network, friends and colleagues. If you are an IT executive or HR professional, pass a copy of this newsletter on to your IT managers and team members. For a limited time FREE subscriptions will continue to be available by sending a blank email to: ManageITNewsletter-on@zines.webvalence.com If, at any time, you wish to be removed from this list, simply send a blank email to: ManageITNewsletter-off@zines.webvalence.com

With warmest regards,
Joe Santana, Co-author Manage IT
http://www.manageitbook.com ***************************In this Issue
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Focus Topic - Getting Real ROI out of IT Efforts by Changing Work Performance
More resources for your career and business
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Getting Real ROI out of IT Efforts by Changing Work Performance

A recently published article titled "Managing The Human Factors That Affect Technology ROI," (http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=165701202), points out one of the key truths that most IT professionals today have come to realize is a basic new tenet of a technology project or program's success: If the users won't use it, "the return on investment will likely be negative." Clearly, the days when an IT leader could become a hero by running an operation that effectively supported the business and held down the cost of computing are gone. Today's IT leaders and managers must create competitive advantage and/or efficiencies that lower the entire company's costs not just the ITO's. In essence in order to be successful in reaching these loftier objectives, today's IT leaders and managers must be effective corporate change agents. They must do more than introduce new technology, they must change the way people perform their work in order to succeed. The question then is how do you effectively change the way people work?

To answer this, I am going to share with you how Wachovia Corporation, one of the largest providers of financial services to retail, brokerage and corporate customers, with retail operations nationwide is actually doing this right now. Essentially, Wachovia's goal is to be one of the top three providers in every market where they complete and to double their current productivity. To achieve this, the company has successfully built and implemented a standardized mortgage fulfillment platform that is scalable for growth and designed to deliver a superior customer experience that results in deepened client relationships. When I spoke with Tom Wood, Director of Operations for Wachovia's Mortgage Corp. he was quick to point out that this program's success was driven primarily through effective culture and behavior change. In fact according to Wood 20% of the budget for this massive project was invested in people-centric interventions designed to change the way team members worked.

So what exactly did Wachovia do with this 20% investment? What were some of the specific key behavior and performance change practices they employed in this project that led to its success in producing business impact? Here are the five key ingredients of what I like to call "the secret sauce of behavior change:"

1. Perform a skill assessment and prepare development plans. Once you determine how effected employees need to work under your future platform, perform an in-depth assessment of the current level of competency in key skill areas. Use the results of these assessments to build personal development plans for all of the employees impacted by the change in technology and practice.

2. Design blended training solutions to fill competency gaps. In order to attain the most efficient levels of rapid knowledge transfer with minimal interruption of work schedules, develop blended solutions that include web-based recorded programs, web-based live events and in-person instructor led learning sessions as well as using any other appropriate training vehicles. In the case of Wachovia, they employed "web based training" for general knowledge transfer and classroom training to go over scenarios that highlighted how the new knowledge would be put into practice.

3. Develop a coaching plan to reinforce the new behaviors learned in the training program. As mentioned in my column last month, studies show that participants of training programs generally forget 85% of what they've learned within the first 30 days of completing a program, unless their is some form of follow-on support. It is also a well known fact that performing work in a new way requires more effort and thought that simply doing things the way they've always been done. With these two facts in mind, it becomes clear that in order to change how people behave and perform we need to do more than just "teach them a new way and give them the tools." A well-developed coaching plan fills this need by providing support and reinforcement leading to quicker adoption and long-lasting, real performance changes. Wachovia addressed this component by setting up a "SWAT team" of coaches assigned to support and drive the new behaviors in the recently trained workforce for the first three to four weeks after the implementation.

4. Develop a means of providing regular performance feedback. In order to continue to encourage and improve performance in a new behavior, it is imperative that you provide employees with a reliable means of measuring their effectiveness in executing these new behaviors, as well as comparing where they stand relative to both goals and other performers. Wachovia filled this need by setting up weekly balanced scorecards that showed expectations and performance by role and by team.

5. Plan on how you will reward the new behaviors and performance. I never cease to be surprised at how many organizations re-structure and change what they want people to do, but fail to change their compensation and reward systems in a manner that aligns and supports the new behaviors they desire. As part of preparing for a change, take a good look at the types of behaviors your compensation system rewards and if needed make adjustments.

Once you go through the initial process of setting up this 5-point change process around a project, you can use it to continue to shape and develop the program as it matures and adapts to new conditions. At Wachovia for example, Wood tells me that as the new mortgage and refinance loan process evolves, upgrades flow smoothly from the project team through the SWAT team to every employee, thus maintaining a continuous alignment between performance and the ever developing system.

ITO leaders and managers today must become "masters of behavior and performance change" in order to succeed. It seems that with the pressure to produce business measurable impact, IT organizations in companies like Wachovia are getting ahead of the contest. I invite you to join them as front-runners in the race to turn your IT investments into enterprise-wide, impacting results.

My best wishes toward your continued success!
JS

-------- Resources for your career and business -------------

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I hope you enjoyed this issue of the IT Managers Newsletter and as always I look forward to continuing to serve you.