Tools For Change: Leadership Involvement and Alignment

I’m reviewing two tools for change this week. The first tool is the Leadership Alignment Assessment and the second is the Leadership Involvement Plan. Both of these tools aim to solve a critical issue in most change initiatives, appropriate support by leadership. The leadership involvement plan is similar to the traditional ARCI, or RACI charts that describe responsibility, accountability, contributor and informed. The Leadership Involvement Plan simplifies this by listing only actions and deadlines. The idea is to define roles and responsibilities for the initiative, such as “Conduct regular conference calls with staff regarding project” This example might be applicable for a director where a manager may have an action of “Provide regular status reports to executives”

While this tools is rather straight forward and easy to use, it may be difficult to complete one of these plans for various superiors that my be involved with the project. Understanding roles and responsibilities is very useful for everyone in a project. If you can work through some of the hierarchical challenges this is a valuable tool to use.

The second tool, the Leadership Alignment Assessment, is designed to understand where each of the leaders stands on the facets of the change initiative. The objective is to first identify then work to bring the leaders into alignment on the initiative. In one-on-one interviews with each of the leaders, a series of questions are asked, such as “Who do you think is accountable for the change results” and “How do you define success for the project.

The Leadership Alignment Assessment is a simple technique to use and provides wealth of information. When I used this technique in my own experiences I’ve found many of the leaders agreed on the general principle of change but key elements such as success criteria were different. Through highlighting these differences with the leadership we were able to come to agreement on the initiative. This agreement helps mitigate conflicting priorities and limits personal agendas.

Both of these tools are useful and can be implemented by contributors at any level of the organization. The Leadership Alignment Assessment provides value even when working with a single leader, helping to clarify expectations. You’ll find me using these tools in various ways in the future.

For more information on these tools check out.

http://www.army.mil/ArmyBTKC/enablers/cm/toolkit_04.htm

http://lumanconsultants.com/alignment.pdf

http://www.change-management-toolbook.com/Default.aspx?tabid=1481

http://louisville.bizjournals.com/louisville/stories/2006/08/14/smallb2.html

http://www.highbeam.com/doc/1S1-1202200005238801.html

http://www.changeguidesllc.com/products/tools.asp

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