People issues are tougher than technology issues, and supply chain professionals tend to underestimate people issues, observe Reuben E. Slone, J. Paul Dittmann, and John T. Mentzer in ‘The New Supply Chain Agenda’ (www.hbr.org). The authors rue that supply chain experts, when asked what it takes to successfully implement initiatives, frequently say that it simply requires excellent analysis and a good project plan. “Many technically-oriented people don’t gravitate naturally to the softer issues of communication planning and organisational buy-in. Yet failures in these areas are at the root of many initiative failures.”
Fear of the unknown
Among the many examples given in the book is one about a firm installing a warehouse management system which ran into a roadblock causing the project to shut down for several months. The biggest mistake, as the project manager realised later was the focus on the technical tasks, figuring that the people stuff could come later. “She failed to recognise that resistance was building as her team worked in a vacuum. With no communication, the management staff people who operated the warehouse felt totally outside the loop. Their anxiety increased exponentially.”
It was not that the changes were bad, the authors explain. But the fear of the unknown can be a powerful force, they caution. In this case, that emotion grew and spread as the project proceeded with little communication, and when it was nearly time to go live, the backlash was so strong that it was impossible to proceed.
‘Perfect’ communication
Hilarious, in contrast, is the example of a company that was smug at communicating ‘over 2 million words to the employees regarding new initiatives.’ This was a Fortune 100 firm, where the project manager leading a major supply chain initiative was confident that the perfect communication plan was in place.
“He followed the initiative with a well-crafted thirty-minute presentation to everyone affected. He followed that with a one-hour review to go deeper into the coming change. About a month after the project began, he issued a newsletter that clearly showed the progress made and the benefits to be achieved. Finally, as the project neared completion, he put a six-hundred-word article in the company newsletter.”
Alas, he had missed one important item, the authors point out. What was that? They note that he failed to first identify the key individuals in each functional area critical to the success of his initiative, and he failed to design a communication plan specifically for those individuals.
Target key players
Unless the communication process precisely targets the key players, it becomes lost in the normal noise of communication in a large enterprise, remind Slone et al. They warn that in every company, there are people such as senior executives or critical subject-matter experts who can make or break a project, especially in complex, cross-functional supply chain projects. To manage change effectively, therefore, “the company must identify these key people and expose them to a customised communication plan, with the message depending on the audience.”
Reassuringly, an example of success mentioned in the book is about how an insightful supply chain project leader could achieve full support in the sales and marketing areas for her project, which involved an automated process to flush slow-moving inventory from the company. How? She first identified each individual in sales and marketing critical to the effort and developed a communications package tailored to them, the authors narrate. “She then met with each person one-on-one and asked for his or her input. After deciding how to incorporate the suggestions, she again met with each person and described her decisions. She gave them frequent updates as the project progressed.”
That should have been a time-consuming process, you may fret. Yes, but the rewards were in the form of all key stakeholders having full ownership, the authors argue. And, interestingly, “She succeeded in making the initiative to reduce obsolete inventory their project, not a supply chain project.”
Recommended read for the stressed-out SCM project leaders.
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