Many organizations struggle to establish an effective performance management process, but I beam with pride when I think back to how we revamped and revitalized the process at one global company I worked with. I served as change management leader for the project, and after a year of pretty intense work, I was pleased to see managers and employees holding productive discussions that focused on setting goals, building accountability, and developing new skills. But before I get too cocky about my contribution to this effort, we need to discuss the people who really made this project a success. There was a cadre of ordinary employees on the ground who, in addition to performing their day-to-day jobs, served as key advocates for the changes we were introducing. They were the members of our project’s transition-monitoring team.
Who were they? Well, there was a plant manager from one location, a finance supervisor in another, a safety engineer, a member of the IT team from our corporate office, an R&D scientist from one of our labs, and a smattering of other employees who held different roles across the company. We recruited one employee from each of the company’s locations and divisions, about 25 people in all. These were employees we knew already supported the transition. We leveraged their existing interest and support and asked them to help us advocate with their peers for the change that was coming.
What did they really do that helped make our project a success? They provided us with input about what they thought would and wouldn’t work in their location as our team designed the new performance management process. They reviewed drafts of what we had designed and told us what they did and didn’t like. We shared draft communications with them, and they were candid—really candid—about where we were hitting the right note and where we were about to step into a mess unless we made changes. They talked up the new performance management process with their co-workers. They encouraged their peers to attend training and helped answer their questions and challenges about why the company needed to make changes in the first place. And they told us what was working and what wasn’t and where we needed to intervene to address resistance.
Our transition-monitoring-team members didn’t have any formal decision-making authority on the project—they weren’t members of the core project team or change management team—but they sure helped those of us who were on those teams make better, more informed decisions.
Some organizations refer to their transition-monitoring-team members as change champions. When I think back to how these ordinary employees really stuck their necks out for us on this project—and helped save our necks too—I see that they were in fact our project’s champions. They weren’t shy about telling us that the rating system we designed would confuse employees, and so we made changes that incorporated their feedback before the system launched. And transition-monitoring team members alerted us when communications we had sent out via email were being ignored. They helped us realize that additional steps were required to get employees to pay attention to our messages about the new process. I salute our transition-monitoring team for all the help they provided.
In this chapter, we take a closer look at the transition-monitoring team. You’ll see that a transition-monitoring team can be an invaluable tool for establishing the two-way communication you need for your change initiative to succeed. You can use the practice to help build involvement among stakeholders and ensure that those most affected by the change have opportunities to be heard. You’ll see that the transition-monitoring team can help you address the soft side of change by providing a structured way for you to listen to, communicate with, and involve stakeholders. But the tool can also help you address the hard side of change by ensuring you gather input and ideas you can use to make more informed decisions and improve your project plans.
That’s certainly what happened when I worked with the transition-monitoring team as my company revised its performance management process. And it might be why Luis, in the JCo acquisition case you read in chapter 5, recommended establishing a transition-monitoring team for his project. Let’s see how the team works and how you can use a transition-monitoring team to support a change in your organization.
In his seminal book Managing Transitions, change guru William Bridges (2003) defines a transition-monitoring team as a group of people chosen from across the organization who don’t have responsibility for planning the change, or authority to make decisions related to it, but who serve as a two-way channel to support rapid and accurate communications. Transition-monitoring-team members act as advocates for the change that is occurring within their part of the organization. They supplement traditional communication vehicles like emails and supervisor presentations with peer-to-peer communication.
In championing the change, the transition-monitoring-team members help their co-workers understand how the change affects them and encourage them to adopt what’s coming. But transition-monitoring-team members also listen to their co-workers’ views about the change, communicate issues and concerns to the core project team and change management team, and advocate for the needs of their peers. Their role extends beyond mere promotion of the change to one of representing the needs and interests of their co-workers.
Whatever it is called, the goal of the transition-monitoring team is to support two-way communication throughout the change initiative. As Bridges explains, a transition-monitoring team can help you:
• Convey to employees that your organization cares how employees are responding to the change.
• Provide a sounding board and point of review for plans and decisions made by the core project team.
• Expand participation in the change, and provide more employees with a sense of accountability and ownership of the change.
• Enhance speed of communication by allowing information to be quickly disseminated throughout your organization and misinformation to be corrected.
• Provide an additional formal mechanism for upward communication.
• Support face-to-face communication.
• Help tailor communications about “what’s in it for me” to each specific part of your organization affected by the change.
As I found when my company was changing its performance management process, a transition-monitoring team can serve as an internal focus group for the core project team and change management team. On my project, the transition-monitoring team reviewed project plans and decisions before we rolled them out and provided us with feedback about how well those plans were working, in real time, as we implemented them. Our transition-monitoring team helped us communicate updates about the change throughout the company. And from time to time, it helped us dispel misplaced rumors about the overall intent of our project.
To set up a transition-monitoring team for a change initiative that’s occurring in your organization:
• Choose your transition-monitoring-team members and charge them with their responsibilities.
• Communicate the team’s purpose to the rest of your organization.
• Meet regularly with the team members to solicit their input and convey messages you need them to share with their peers.
Let’s look at each of these steps in more depth.
To staff your transition-monitoring team, start by thinking about each part of your organization that will be affected by the change. Your goal is to enlist at least one team member in each part of your organization that’s affected. This may be one team member for each department or each organizational subunit, depending on the size of your organization and how it is structured.
Look at an early draft of your stakeholder analysis if you have one (see chapter 9), and think about all the various groups of stakeholders you’ve identified. For each stakeholder group, ask yourself:
• Who isn’t serving on the core project team but might have a real interest in this project and might already support what this project is designed to accomplish?
• Who is known for their innovative thinking, and may not be satisfied with how things currently are done?
• Who is well respected by their peers as being competent and trustworthy?
• Whom do employees listen to? Who are employees comfortable sharing their concerns with?
To identify transition-monitoring-team members, you can ask project leaders or department supervisors to nominate prospective candidates, or ask for volunteers. Be sure to choose employees at different organizational levels. And ensure that transition-monitoring-team members reflect the diversity of your organization members.
As you’re recruiting transition-monitoring-team members, explain that their responsibilities will include:
• Reviewing plans and decisions before they’re implemented to provide the core project team and change management team with input about how their co-workers may respond
• Checking in with their peers to see how they’re interpreting and responding to the change, and updating the core project team and the change management team on how the change is being accepted in the part of the organization they represent
• Conveying information to their co-workers about the change, helping to supplement and fill gaps that may exist in other forms of communication
• Advocating with their peers regarding the overall purpose of the change and encouraging them to take necessary steps, such as attending training or trying out new procedures, to adopt the change
• Helping to dispel rumors and misinformation that may be circulating regarding the change
Let your transition-monitoring-team members know how much your organization values the review and communication role they will play during the change project, but make it clear that they won’t have decision-making authority. Their role will be to make recommendations based on what they see in their part of the organization. But when decisions are made, your organization will consider many factors, in addition to input that transition-monitoring-team members will provide.
So why would someone want to participate on a transition-monitoring team if they don’t get to make decisions about what’s happening? Well, this is an opportunity for an employee to provide input and to help contribute to the success of an initiative without having to assume the day-to-day work that core project team members are charged with. They can help shape how the change will be introduced in their area. They can demonstrate peer leadership by helping to guide and influence the perceptions and actions of their co-workers. And in purely practical terms, in most change initiatives there just isn’t room for everyone who wants to, or thinks they should, serve on the core project team. The transition-monitoring team provides an opportunity for people to still play a critically important role when they want to be included on the core project team, but can’t for any number of reasons.
On the performance management project I described earlier, eight employees served on our core project team, and most of them had functional expertise related to the project, such as knowledge of our HR information system or significant managerial experience preparing and delivering employee reviews. On the other hand, 25 employees served on our transition-monitoring team, and most of them had little to no background developing or deploying performance management systems. They were just interested managers and employees, each representing a different part of our company, who wanted a hand in shaping how the new process would be introduced.
For the transition-monitoring team to do their job effectively, the rest of your organization needs to understand the role that the team will play. When your organization begins communicating information about the project, let employees know who is working on the initiative and the role each person will play. Share who’s sponsoring the project, who’s serving as project leader, and who is working on the core project team and change management team. At the same time, explain that your organization has established a transition-monitoring team that will help support the dissemination of information to employees affected by the change, that will listen, and that will ensure that project leaders hear about concerns. Reiterate that the purpose of the transition-monitoring team is to support two-way communication and will help the project team make more informed decisions.
Let department supervisors know that transition-monitoring-team members supplement—but do not replace—the critically important communications role they play on the project. Reassure supervisors that the project team will always share key information with them first before it’s shared with the transition-monitoring-team members who report to them.
Ask department supervisors to announce to their employees the name of the person serving on the transition-monitoring team from their area. This helps legitimize the role that transition-monitoring team members will play on the project and conveys that supervisors and transition-monitoring-team members are working together to help employees stayed informed about what’s happening related to the change.
Be aware that some employees may view the transition-monitoring team as “management stooges,” moles, or spies. To combat that risk, ask transition-monitoring team members to reassure the employees they represent that they’ll protect their anonymity whenever they share information with the core project team and change management team.
And reiterate to transition-monitoring-team members that some of the information they’re receiving regarding the change initiative is confidential. You’re sharing plans and draft documents with them and asking for their input and feedback, and you’re trusting they won’t share information with their peers unless and until you’ve expressly asked them to do that.
To gather input from transition-monitoring-team members and provide them with information they need to convey to their peers, schedule regular meetings with the transition-monitoring team—perhaps once every two to four weeks over the course of your project. Your project leader should attend, accompanied by some or all of the core project team and change management team, depending on the specific topics you plan to address during the meeting.
In most organizations, the change management leader convenes and facilitates these meetings as part of their communications and stakeholder engagement responsibilities. They make sure that transition-monitoring-team members are given appropriate time to share what they are seeing and hearing. They establish and maintain an environment where project team members listen to feedback, which may feel critical at times. And they remind transition-monitoring-team members that although their role is to provide input and to advocate among their peers for the change, many factors—in addition to their input—will be weighed as decisions are made. Through their skillful facilitation, the change management leader ensures that no one participant or viewpoint dominates or hijacks the discussion.
Here’s how a typical meeting may go.
• Send transition-monitoring-team members the agenda highlighting the specific topics they need to be prepared to discuss, including any documents you need them to provide feedback on when you meet. For example, if the meeting will focus on communications that are planned, email draft documents to team members so they’re prepared to discuss them at the meeting.
• Kick off each meeting by asking transition-monitoring-team members for an update on how the change is being received in their portion of the organization. Provide them with an opportunity to ask questions and raise concerns that they are hearing from their co-workers. To protect confidentiality, insist that transition-monitoring-team members consolidate feedback from multiple co-workers and eliminate the identities of specific individuals from all information they share during their update.
• Have the change management leader, project leader, or core project team members respond to questions and concerns raised by the transition-monitoring team by providing needed information or clarity, and committing to address issues and concerns that were raised.
• Ask a representative from the change management and/or core project team to review updates on what has changed since the last transition-monitoring-team meeting. Be sure they highlight any actions that were taken as a result of feedback that transition-monitoring-team members previously shared.
• Have the change management and/or core project team present any new project plans or decisions, and ask the transition-monitoring team for feedback on how they anticipate that these new plans will be accepted in the area they represent. For example, you may review draft communications you asked team members to read prior to the meeting and ask for ideas about how these communications are likely to be understood or misunderstood.
• Let attendees know that the core project team and change management team will address issues and concerns they raised during the meeting.
• Wrap up the meeting by reviewing any key messages you need transition-monitoring-team members to convey to their co-workers back on the job and any feedback or input you need them to gather and present at the next transition-monitoring-team meeting. For example, if training is about to begin, you may ask transition-monitoring-team members to encourage their co-workers to enroll. Or if the project team is weighing whether to include a particular feature in an app they’re developing related to the change, you may ask transition-monitoring-team members to solicit input from their co-workers about how likely they are to need and use that feature.
• Depending on the type of input that transition-monitoring-team members need to gather from their co-workers, they may conduct a formal meeting, ask their supervisor to allocate a few minutes to the topic during an upcoming department meeting, solicit feedback via email, or have a quick, informal chat with their peers. Usually, transition-monitoring-team members report the feedback they’re hearing at the next, regularly scheduled transition-monitoring-team meeting. But if the project team needs input before the next meeting, or if a team member becomes aware of a concern that needs to be addressed immediately, there may be some back-and-forth communication between the change management leader, project leader, and transition-monitoring-team members between meetings.
Although the transition-monitoring team is a tool that focuses on the soft, “people side” of change by prioritizing two-way communication, use the practice to improve the quality of your project plans and decisions (that is, the hard side of change). Transition-monitoring-team members don’t have decision-making authority, but they do have vital, on-the-ground insight to share about how well the change may work in the part of the organization they represent.
Core project team members may just want to plow ahead to complete something that the transition-monitoring team wants changed. Be sure to listen—really listen—to the information that transition-monitoring-team members share. Ask everyone to demonstrate patience, maturity, and emotional intelligence during their interactions. Build into your project plans enough time for the transition-monitoring team to solicit input from their peers, and for the core project team to respond to this feedback. There will be times when it won’t make sense to modify plans or decisions to incorporate ideas and feedback shared by transition-monitoring-team members. But there also will be times when you realize, like I did on my performance management project, that the transition-monitoring team has provided feedback that will save you from making a critical mistake.
To introduce the transition-monitoring-team concept to your organization, consider starting small and building gradually over time. Assemble representatives from each area affected by a change and ask them to participate in a one-time focus group. In this internal focus group meeting, ask participants to review and provide feedback on project plans, draft communications, and tentative decisions. Participants might welcome the opportunity to share their input and ideas. After your organization feels comfortable using the one-time focus group approach to support change initiatives, expand the idea to include more frequent update and review meetings with participants. Then expand on the idea again, and assign participants with responsibility for peer-to-peer communication. By then, congratulations are due! You’ve implemented the full transition-monitoring-team practice in your organization.
The transition-monitoring team provides you with an opportunity to involve employees who may be positively inclined to support what’s changing. But is there a role you can provide to the naysayers—those who may be inclined to view what’s changing from a more skeptical perspective? In the next chapter, we’ll look at the red team, whose members are specifically charged with posing objections and pointing out all the flaws in your plans. You’ll see that, just like the transition-monitoring team, the red team can provide you with critically important input that can help make your project a success. So yes, there’s a role for your beloved skeptics too! Read on to learn more.
Bridges, W. 2003. Managing Transitions: Making the Most of Change. Cambridge, MA: Perseus.
University of Georgia. 2017. “Change Champions.” onesource.uga.edu/_resources/files/documents/uga_change_champions_responsibilities.pdf.