Some reasons why people are likely to persist with their existing tools and mindsets


There are lots of material stating that human side of the change is overlooked in ICT projects - or maybe I am just reading those studies ;-)  Clegg & Walsh (2004) suggest that in many cases too little attention is paid to the social side of change. They also list some reasons why people are likely to persist
with their existing tools and mindsets:

• There are no clear, unambiguous reasons to change
• They do not trust the people telling them to change
• They are under pressure and they choose to trust in the familiar
• Replacement tools are not proven (or worse, do not exist)
• Dropping existing tools seems and feels like a failure
• Everyone else is using the same tools
• The tools are part of the group‟s professional identity (“our tools are us”)
• Use of the tools conveys power and legitimacy to their users
• The tools serve and further the interests of their users

Reflecting these topics against my own experiences

They do not trust the people telling them the change. Is very true and also a difficult topic to handle. In case you work  as a consultant and organizations, teams, projects, companies come and go you are not the person to have the trust at the beginning - you may work to gain that trust, but this is more like a stakeholder management and comms issue. You need to involve the right stakeholders, get them to "Committed" state and let them to speak on your behalf. These key persons can be from management as well as from peer group (opinion leaders).

It requires a lot of work to identify the right persons and also interpersonal skill from yourself to work out the topic with them.


Replacement tools are not proven (or worse, do not exist)
As a pro project leader you need to understand what do you have in your hands. When the tools are not proven it will create a certain risk to the project. You need to manage the risk according to risk management methods. What comes to the change management side you have  a dilemma related to the risk - if the tools are not proven you may take (case-by-case) the risk and sell the change not directly telling the target user group the possible flaws of the tools. If things go right you are clear, but this is kind of one shot case. It will be lot harder to try convincing people again once they have noticed that you are not telling the whole truth see They do not trust the people telling them to change. You may also take the honest approach and communicate where the development team is with the replacement tool, react to any feedback and try to get the things on track.

All in all this is a case where I would look into mirror and think - Do I believe into this myself? If the mirror response is No - then you may need to say to your boss that I am not the right person to lead this change.

Everyone else is using the same tools is a tough challenge. I have worked in several cases where the goal is to improve something by replacing the tool or cases where you are forced to change the tool e.g. for technical reasons. I have not found a silver bullet to solve this. Lots of cases the new tool is good for the company on average, but it is a step back for many. How to tackle that. I guess you need to dig into the "what's in it for me". This is also a typical case where you need to plan and communicate the big picture how to move will go through the whole user domain.


The tools are part of the group‟s professional identity (“our tools are us”)
...OK, I give up. How to tell the guys who maybe have developed the tools and have been using them for 10 years and the support guys sit next to the team in the same floor. Let's not forget the CM basics, but I guess in this case it would be good to talk to management, show some carrot (bonus).