Like any new venture, every successful change program needs to have an elevator pitch: “In one minute or less describe what the change will be”.
In my experience in Change Management projects I always felt the need to have an easy-to-handle tool which helped me to increase transparency in what exactly will change and at the same to commuivate to stakeholders and people affected by the Change.
Over the course of numerous projects I developed such a tool and named it “Change compass”.
Simple reason: A compass is a good tool for navigating in unknown territory – so the Change compass is a good tool for navigating a Change program. It will tell you in which dimensions Change will happen – and where you need to be prepared in your Change program.
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In one project for instance, in which a global FMCG company implemented R&D-driven, Outside-in Open Innovation, the main changes were:
- Changes in business mission – From “Having the best researchers in the industry peer group” … to “Making the knowledge of the world available”
- Change in goals and KPIs – Goals such as R&D productivity and R&D budgets had to be re-evaluated; Performance / incentive system for R&D Managers needed to be adjusted. Up so far, a part of the annual bonus consisted of the IP contribution, measured by the number of patents filed. Now this is not in line with OI, since R&D managers are actually incentivised not to search outside for clever ideas or to immediately file for patent when an external idea comes in
- Changes processes and IT – A number of new processes had to be designed and a smaller number of existing processes, e.g. the management of the R&D project portfolio, had to be adapted
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Changes in roles and work styles – For managing the interaction between the internal key innovation players and the external co-innovating community a new role had to be installed; Intensity and style of internal co-operation would change in some points, e.g. between innovators and the Patents department; Additionally, the lab managers need to develop co-operation and project management skills with a rather large number of sometimes unknown external innovators
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Changes in mindsets -External co-operation had to be based on new paradigms, e.g. “From ‘Not Invented Here’ to ‘Proudly Discovered Here’’ or “Hiding is less important than Sharing” or “Work-Around is less important than Partnering”
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Changes in skills – Internal key innovation players need to acquire new skills, e.g. on how to write good scientific challenges or on how to use the IT platform
