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NLP Change Management - John Whitworth

Change Management - Discussion between Michael Beale and John Whitworth of BT, September 2007.

Listen on iTunes

http://www.ppimk.com/nlp-podcast/john.mp3 

MICHAEL: Firstly thank you for taking part in this interview. Would you give a brief synopsis of who you are and what you do? 

JOHN: Good morning, Mike. I’m John Whitworth. I am the Chief Operating Officer for N3, which is one of the major health (1£B+) programmes inside BT. In my career I’ve worked both within organisations and outside of organisations helping with change. 

MICHAEL: Adding to what you’ve said, would you build on the experience that you have as a change agent? 

JOHN: Yes, I’ve worked in the investment banking area which is a fast moving and has constantly reinvented technology, business processes, and people’s behaviour. In addition I’ve worked as a change management consultant, leading change projects for major clients. I’ve had a key change role within a leading insurance company. And now currently in BT I’ve done three or four major roles at   general management level, which have all had transformation as part of their job description. 

MICHAEL: What would you say makes a change project transformational? 

JOHN: I think it has to be a long way away from business as usual. It has to be revolutionary. Even though it is evolutionary in a way we get to it, the results should be revolutionary. 

MICHAEL: Moving on from that, if you were advising the sponsor of a large project about how to maximise the project’s chances of success, what sort of things would you ask the sponsor to consider? 

JOHN: I think the first and the most important thing is to ensure that he gets people committed for the change and the first way of doing that is to have their involvement in understanding what the end result would be. It’s much better to have a shared vision of where you need to be before you start , rather than try and have a single vision and try and get everybody align to it. 

MICHAEL: So you get buy-in and a shared vision. Is there anything else that you would get them to consider very carefully upfront? 

JOHN: Yes, I think you need to treat it as any other project and I think that’s often forgotten. So for example, you don’t need everybody to be at the same level of support for the change. You need to ensure that you have a core group who are going to drive the change, who are the vision.

But then the other people working on that project, if they’re not where you need them to be in a behavioural sense, you have to move them there. And clearly if you want everybody to be a major-change facilitator it’d be a heck of a job. A lot of change programmes get into trouble because they try and make everybody the champion of the change. Don’t do that. I want these people to be champions of parts of the change, I want these people to be helpers, I want these people just to do these little bits, because that then gives you the jigsaw for success at the end. 

MICHAEL: Looking back at your own experience, what do you think are the biggest reasons that change projects fail or don’t get the results that the sponsor wants? 

JOHN: I think one of the reasons is people don’t consider the risks and the issues and have clear stepping stones and milestones within them. They effectively change the project as they go forward.

Also if you don’t have that buy in with people as a whole, individuals will view the project from the side and secretly modify where you’re trying to get to – with unpredictable results!

So I guess it’s like the old adage you know, you should plan it and plan it very well, measure twice and cut once in a change project. Don’t end up keep chopping away at it and changing it around. 

MICHAEL: Are there any other experiences you’ve had where change projects haven’t gone right for any reason? 

JOHN: I think it’s this buy in and communication with the wider community. I don’t think you can over-communicate in change. I think one of the biggest blockers that absolutely kill change projects is fear. I think if you do it right you get people’s understanding of what’s going on, so you take out that fear factor. You have to be clear as to what’s in it for those individuals involved in the change, from their perspectives. It’s very easy to think the organisational change is going to do this and they’ll be benefits. Not enough. You have to understand every key player within the change and what’s the benefit to them? And if you don’t take that into consideration, then I’m afraid again, failure is looming because people’s fear of what’s going to happen to them personally will mean that the change project will suffer. 

MICHAEL: What do you think the value and characteristics are of a good change agent? That’s somebody who facilitates a change, rather than owns it. 

JOHN: I think it’s someone who has effectively got the war scars of what works and what doesn’t. I think as I’ve said before, communication is very important. And I think the communication needs to be done on different levels, so you need to communicate to people in their own terms as part of the change project. Again it’s not just the case of one story fits all, so a good change facilitator will understand how to talk to and how to motivate different people within the change project. And it’ll be a number of different ways, and what works for one person and group won’t work for another and that needs to be clearly understood. 

MICHAEL: What sort of difference do you think a good change agent makes to a project? 

JOHN: I think a change project will slow down, without a good change agent facilitating the change. I think a number of them could possibly lose their way, which has happened in a number of occasions. We all know of well known change projects and transformational projects that have failed. The overall benefit is that people come out the other end feeling that it’s been a worthwhile journey, if you can make everybody achieve that at the end, then I think the change agent’s done his job. 

MICHAEL: Excellent. Now before I ask you for your contact details, are there any final thoughts or recommendations you would give to anyone looking at a big change project? 

JOHN: I think the main thing is the vision. Be really clear why you’re doing it. Think it through, not only where you want to get to but consider other options. People very often have one vision and that’s the one we’ve got to get to. So make it a joint vision with people and don’t be frightened of looking at two or three and seeing the why of doing it? The why is just as important and as the how and the where are you trying to get to. Understand that question: why are we doing this? What are the options to get there? How else can I get there? And you may find an easier path to achieve more. 

MICHAEL: And your contact details? 

JOHN: Yes, anyone who wants to contact me, please contact me at John.Whitworth@bt.com. 

MICHAEL: Thank you very much indeed.

NLP Change Management Master Class