2 simple, impactful, free tools for change, organizational or otherwise
Why I created the change canvas and checklist
I love checklists. My PhD dissertation was about checklists and how checklists can increase performance in only a few minutes without any previous training. Some people may think that checklists are boring, but there are rarely quicker and easier ways to increase performance than by implementing a checklist that captures and simplifies best practices. Read Gawande's The Checklist Manifesto if you don't believe me.
Any change involving people is hard; organizational change can be extraordinarily hard, especially for an organization with a history of success and an established culture.
Fortunately, there are empirically-validated best practices that should be part of any change project (unless you're purposefully experimenting with improvements upon best practices through systematic design and measurement). I've used these best practices during innovation and change projects with clients ranging from Fortune 100 to startup. Strongly recommended!
Tool 1: Now these best practices are captured in a simple, easy to understand Change Checklist.
Hierarchical task analyses always have been and always will be one of the fundamental techniques for human factors, process optimization, industrial engineering, etc. The technique is simple to describe - break an activity down into tasks and subtasks until you've captured and organized everything. You've now established a common language for discussing change, identified areas for improvement and intervention, etc. Importantly, you've broken the activity (or experience or whatever) into manageable components.
As usual, UX and design have come along and added a fresh, chic element to a decades-old technique, calling it experience mapping. As I mentioned, I adore the organization of a checklist. An experience map gives similar visual structure, adding the dimensions of people, time, place, touchpoint, etc.
A well-designed experience map template (or canvas) provides visual structure AND incorporates best practices.
Tool 2: The Change Canvas adds this visual structure to conversations about change, providing guidance about appropriate techniques during each stage if and when change seems hard or impossible. The techniques are pulled from a variety of disciplines and represent best practices for implementing change.
These two tools should be used together, starting with the canvas's simple but huge question, "What do you want to accomplish?" This is the most important question in design and/or innovation research.
As you read through the questions, you might think they seem basic and rudimentary. However, my experiences with leaders, managers, teams, and organizations has taught me that essential fundamentals are rarely agreed upon, documented, or even discussed.
Moving back and forth between the two tools will guide conversations and refine plans for change.