Don’t Forget the Customer of Your Change Initiative

Put your teams at the helm of change.

“We can’t bother the team with our change plans. It will be too disruptive to the delivery of features. What if we decide not to move forward? This would waste their time and energy. It is best to keep the team focused on the work. Once we have decided what to do, that is the time to engage the team.”
— A Manager in an Agile Transformation

A statement like this can seem noble. Protecting the team is not a bad thing. But when change is in the air, isolating your teams from the chaos of change is not productive. It results in pushing change on the teams. These changes rarely last.

Let’s put this in a new light.

Take your product. Customer centricity is all the rage these days. If you want to deliver a product that delights your customers, engage them in its development. The best customer outcomes emerge when you gain customer empathy through direct engagement. You must understand their pain and co-create solutions with them. This is your fastest path to deliver something they need.

So who is the customer of your change initiative? Who do you impact by the change? Whose pains do you address by the change? Who needs the new way of working? And who is best to determine what the “right” change will be?

The customer of your change initiative is your team and the people in it.

This perspective is often overlooked. So let’s first take a deeper look at how we sometimes go awry. Then, we will review how the team centric approach can work better.

Having a Seat at the Table

We often, in error, elect to limit decision making to a select few. This thinking originates in the doctrine of traditional, hierarchical management.

To get a seat at the decision making table, you have to prove yourself or get promoted to a level of seniority. We assume bringing experience to the table will derive better decisions. Also, we limit participation to reduce disruption to the larger group affected by the decisions.

The decision making group can take many forms. It can be a leadership team, a change board, or some other governing body.

For change initiatives, a central group who decides all changes can limit effectiveness. The change group often is too far removed from the customer of the change—the teams.

We often involve only management in change decisions. No team members are present. We assume this will allow the team to focus on the work and not distract them. But it actually works against us when it comes to change.

Centralizing change decisions works against the change.

Keeping change decisions in a centralized group limits innovation. A select few generate ideas. And they often have poor information density about the reality on the ground. This is akin to developing a product with little to no customer engagement or co-creation. The approach is unlikely to devise the “right” changes to behaviors.

We Need a Bigger Table And More Chairs

By involving your teams in the change, the change has its best chance of succeeding. Involving your teams means engaging every member rather than a select few.

Co-creation is powerful. It can help a change stick. If a team is able to co-create and navigate to their new behavior, their beliefs will change. They will have ownership in the changes and will be more likely to continue the new behavior.

The best judges of the effectiveness of a new behavior are those affected by the change.

Having many perspectives is also a critical component. This means involving team members from different experience levels and specialties. When we apply many lenses to the change, it will more likely cover the bases for all involved. The new behaviors will address nuances that we would otherwise overlook.

The best judges of the effectiveness of a new behavior are those affected by the change. They are also the best equipped to adjust the change to their unique context.

We need to change our perspective on the disruption to the team by involving them in the change. Rather than seeing this as a cost, we should see it as an investment in a better future.

So How Exactly Does This Work?

Whole team involvement in a change initiative is easier than it appears. Mike Rother provides a simple technique in his book The Toyota Kata¹.

There are two elements to The Toyota Kata—the Improvement Kata and the Coaching Kata. Let me break these down for you.

Improvement Kata

I have to admit I love the Improvement Kata. I have seen teams come alive using this technique. It does wonders for developing problem solving capability and building team ownership.

The Improvement Kata is a starter template for approaching change in a scientific manner.

To use this with your teams, bring your team or teams into a workshop. If you have many teams, you can structure the workshop to achieve whole team engagement. Do this through main room discussion, small group breakouts, and main room checkpoints.

There are six steps for building and using an Improvement Kata

Step 1: Set the challenge for the change.
Step 2: Grasp the current condition,
Step 3: Identify the first significant target condition towards the challenge.
Step 4: Outline and conduct experiments daily towards the target condition. Adjust as you encounter obstacles.
Step 5: Measure progress towards the target condition every 1 – 2 weeks.
Step 6: Repeat Steps 3 through 5 until you meet the challenge.

Coaching Kata

As an Agile coach, I find the Coaching Kata a useful tool. It allows me to engage with teams in a manner that lets them stay in charge of their change. The good news: it is simple to practice.

The Coaching Kata is a starter template for a coach or manager of a team approaching a change challenge. It complements the Improvement Kata. Every team with an Improvement Kata should have a coach or manager to coach them through the change.

Coaching should take the form of questions. These questions should center around the team’s Improvement Kata journey. Example questions might be:

Can you refresh me on the goal of your change challenge?
What current conditions are you trying to change?
What is your next target condition?
How are you measuring if you have reached your next target condition?
What was the last experiment you tried?
Do you have any obstacles? Can I help remove them?
What and when is your next experiment? Can I observe?
When can I check back in with you again?

It is critical that you do not direct the team during the Coaching Kata. Providing answers to the team takes away team ownership. And it does not develop team problem solving skills.

Asking the team where and how they can involve you will ensure you are part of their journey.

The effectiveness of this approach will amaze you. When contrasted with pushing change decisions on a team, there is no contest.

That Is How You Put Your Teams at the Helm of Change

Now, all you have to do is put it into practice. It is easier than you think. Remember:

Avoid limiting seats at the table
Make your table large and bring lots of chairs
Ensure “whole team” involvement
Try out the Improvement and Coaching Katas from The Toyota Kata¹

Before long, you will find your teams taking charge of the change and owning it.

References

The Toyota Kata by Mike Rother (2010)

Coach Lankford

Todd Lankford unlocks Lean Leverage in organizations to cultivate powerful, engaged product teams who maximize outcomes and impact.

His articles share his experiences and learnings along the way. Join the mailing list to get them in your inbox.

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