Chapter 7: Effective Change Leadership for Process Improvement

Whenever someone comes to me for help, I listen very hard and ask myself , What does this person really want ” and what will they do to keep from getting it?

” William Perry

ABOUT YOU, ABOUT THE QUOTE, AND ABOUT THE FUTURE

The ideas and messages in this chapter are an abstraction of an executive training course developed and delivered by Natural SPI called Effective Change Leadership. ^[47] Perhaps you see yourself in the quote that starts this chapter and, if so, that s good because it means you re introspective and know that you can still learn something. If you don t relate to the quote at all, then you may want to keep reading about those other executives and senior managers, who are nothing at all like you.

When it comes to CMM or CMMI for process improvement, I know exactly what most of you are going to do and I know exactly what you re going to say. Most of you are managers, struggling with yourselves and struggling with the environment to become leaders . I know you. I ve watched you, I ve worked with you, I ve tried to coach you, and I ve tried to be your conscience and your guide. To get you to avoid the future which I see as fluid but which you have already accepted as fate, I ve coaxed you, pleaded with you, bribed you, flattered you, groused at you, browbeat you, and I have given up on you, gotten exasperated, and walked away.

Whether you admit it or not, most of you want the same three things the rest of us want: (1) success (power and money), (2) respect (from yourself and others), and (3) both 1 and 2 to continue into your future. Regrettably, like the rest of us, you almost always sacrifice the third for the first two, never understanding that when you do so, you also lose the first two almost instantly. In your defense, you were probably so good in your area of expertise ” software, engineering, sales, or accounting ” that you were rewarded by being moved into management and leadership, an area in which you have little competence and for which you have been given no training, but for which you ve been given tremendous responsibility. But one of your skills is winging it, so you cover the insecurity of not knowing what to do with hubris . In the short run, it works beautifully. I know, once and for a short time, it worked for me, too.

You are not exempt from the history or the statistically documented behavior patterns of your peer executives, you are not an exception, so here is what you re going to say to the organization when it comes to CMMI or process improvement:

• We must get to CMMI Level (pick your number, 1 to 5) to remain competitive.

• I want everyone to support the CMMI effort.

• Your job (or promotion or performance review or raise, you choose) depends on your contribution to CMMI (or getting the maturity level).

• The long- term viability of our enterprise relies on our process capability, not on our individual heroics.

• These are our processes and I expect all of you to follow them.

• CMMI is really important to all of us and our future.

• I expect all of you to embrace change and do things differently.

Those are the things you ll say. Here is what you re going to do or not do :

• When push comes to shove, when you are forced to choose between heroics and process to get the product out the door, you will choose heroics.

• You will reward the heroes, the people who work all night or all weekend to solve a customer problem. You will not reward the silent, humble engineer who puts quality first and prevents problems from ever getting to the customer.

• You will ask for status of the CMMI effort in terms of CMMI compliance. You will not ask for measures that indicate improvements in productivity, quality, cycle time, employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, organizational learning, or other measures of operational excellence.

• You will not ask the process people to give you estimates for effort, cost, and schedule to achieve a CMMI maturity level. You will give them a target date that is tied to your bonus.

• You will tell the people who report to you that you want their support of the CMMI effort. You will not give them any incentive, positive or negative, for that support.

• You will not bother to learn the organizational processes yourself; they are for everyone else.

• You will not personally exhibit the change in behaviors you expect from others.

Alas, as so many who have gone before you, you will fail. Oh, you will get your maturity level/bonus/promotion/raise/praise/plaque on the wall, but make no mistake, you will have failed in leading your organization to change and grow. Of course, this isn t really you; it s those other leaders.

Here is the hope: You can follow the well-worn path just described or you can be the exception and break the cycle. The future, as it turns out, is really up to you.

^[47] Voight, D. and West, M., Effective Change Leadership (ECL ), Natural Systems Process Improvement, Inc., 2003.