Change Management Summary

By: Jeannie Benoist, Consultant & Michael Yahner, CA DCSS

1.What is the Organizational Change Management (OCM) Project?

The OCM Project was initiated to implement a change management strategy within DCSS. Organizational Change Management (OCM) is an approach with a structured process and set of tools to support people through changes. The changes can be technical or non-technical. For example, OCM supports people moving from one office to another, and system or process changes.

2.Give us a little background on your  experience/expertise in this area.

The OCM Project Team includes Michael Yahner as the project manager. Michael is a senior manager with extensive experience in leading teams to accomplish organizational goals. Jeannie Benoist and Rick Lytle of Business Advantage Consulting were brought on as the OCM consultants. Together, Jeannie and Rick have over 40 years’ experience leading OCM initiatives in public, private and non-profit organizations. Mary Ann Miller, Assistant Director of the Office of Executive Programs is the OCM Project Sponsor.

3.What got us here and why are we doing this?

We are facing faster, more complex and more cross-functional change than ever before. To be successful in this ever-changing environment we need tools and methodologies to support us. We need to be more intentional about how we handle change, which includes looking at who is impacted sooner in the process and ensuring they are engaged throughout the change. No one wants to get to the end of a change effort and say “whoops, we totally forgot about this unit and they are critical to this effort.”
4.What can everyone expect?

We are in the process of figuring out what the OCM structure will look like at DCSS and our goal is that you actually don’t “notice it.” We hope the approach becomes ingrained in how we do things and when we look back a year from now we say, “wow, things seem calmer. We are still working hard and things are still changing constantly, but we are connecting with the right people earlier in the process, they are helping us see all angles, which helps us better plan for the changes. Folks are feeling less frustrated and more informed about what is going on and how it impacts them.”

We will soon have a contest to pick the office OCM tagline/slogan, so be on the lookout!

We are also building the framework, tools and templates to size, scope and support change efforts. Once we know what the structure, we will identify change advocates and facilitators and train them on the tools and methodology.

Finally, we will pilot the OCM model on three DCSS change initiatives. We don’t know which initiatives yet, but hope to have those selected by December so we can start the pilot in January.

5. How will everyone be involved?

We are grateful for the support we have experienced so far. Our first task was to get a sense of what current OCM practices are already in place here in DCSS. We did this through an OCM Baseline Assessment which included gathering feedback from a total of 266 DCSS employees and LCSA Director volunteers during 17 sessions held over 13 days and resulted in over 1200 pieces of feedback being collected.

A HUGE THANK YOU to all of you who participated!

Here’s what we learned:

• Training overall is done well, but there is a need for more documentation, cross-training and post-training support.
• There is a lot of communication, but there is a need for more targeted, effective communication and an understanding of the ‘big picture’ or vision.
• Stakeholder engagement is happening, but it is not being started early enough or consistently maintained.
• Transition readiness (analysis of the current and future states and impacts) is not routinely practiced.
• Go live support is done well for technical efforts, but not seen as much for non-technical.

We are working with management to determine the best way to share additional results of the assessment with anyone else who is interested. In the meantime, for more information please contact Michael Yahner, Project Manager.

If you have any questions regarding the OCM project, e-mail the OCM mailbox at OCM@dcss.ca.gov.