Beyond the post-its part three; Devising the plan

At this point, we have an agreement to take a human-centred approach to change and we’re clear on why we are doing so. Now it’s time to make a plan.

The nature of the plan will depend on the scale of the project and the size of the organisation. The following is based on the approach to co-designing an IT strategy for a Regional Council.

1.     Context. It is important to understand, and have alignment on, how the project came about (the trigger) and the benefit of taking a human-centred approach. Types of questions to ask here include:

a.     Why are we doing this work? What is the outcome we are seeking?

b.     Why does it make sense to take a human-centred approach?

c.     What other projects are happening that are dependent on this work, or that this work is dependent on?

d.     What budget do we have to complete this work?

e.     What timeframe are we working towards and why (see c above)?

f.      Who is the ultimate owner of this work?

2.     Alignment to strategy. All projects, particularly strategy projects, don’t exist in a vacuum. There is almost always an over-arching programme or challenge. In this case, we are co-designing an IT strategy that must be an enabler to the organisation delivering on the Long-Term Plan. It’s important to both identify and review the relevant project(s), or organisational documents, at this stage of the process.

3.     Stakeholders. Define who is involved in the service across the internal team, external stakeholders, and public stakeholders (influencers). You could do this by brainstorming based on the template below. For this project, we have narrowed the scope to focus on internal stakeholders as this is an internally focused IT strategy, as opposed to a customer-facing digital strategy.

4. Timelines. We’ve all been involved in projects that drag on, seem to have no real timeline, and therefore lack momentum. Let’s not do that. Planning the timeframes upfront and getting key milestones into people’s diaries will ensure we stay focused and do not lose the people who matter along the way.

5. Consider the message. Once you have identified the key stakeholders and planned the timeframes, it’s now time to communicate with the people you want to be involved in the discovery and definition phase. You can do this in person or via email and it’s important to cover off:

a.     Why we are doing this (the outcome you want)

b.     Why we want them involved

c.     How we want them involved

d.     What this means in terms of confidentiality

e.     What we will do with the information

f.      How the next steps will be booked, or what they need to do

g.     How they can ask questions about any of this  

With our plan in hand, we move onto the discovery phase where we will complete empathy interviews with the key stakeholders.

Stay tuned…