As Kate, the training and development manager at TCW, waited for the meeting to begin, she shifted uneasily in her seat. This was not going to be an easy discussion. Kate and about 200 of her co-workers from TCW’s corporate office had just relocated to less expensive space across town. At first, the project had proceeded swimmingly, and Kate was really glad she had volunteered to represent her department on the project team that was planning the move. But in the end, the relocation hadn’t gone well, and the mood around the office was dour. Some employees seemed downright surly.
So when Edie, the space planner who’d led TCW’s relocation, called the project team together to conduct a postmortem on the move, Kate wasn’t really eager to participate. “Why meet now and rehash all of our mistakes?” Kate wondered. After all, the team had barely met over the five months leading up to the move. No one felt like they needed to get together because things had been going so well. And what purpose would it serve to meet now? The damage was done. Wouldn’t it just be better to put everything behind them and move on?
Edie entered the conference room and started to speak before she even sat down. “OK, we want to identify what went well and what went wrong on the relocation,” Edie announced to the project team. “And then we’ll come up with some lessons that we learned.”
Joel, a paralegal who represented the legal department on the project, raised his hand and directed a question to Edie. “So what’s going to happen to what we say here today?” he asked. “Why are we meeting?”
Edie sighed loudly. “I think we all know things didn’t go the way we planned,” she responded. “We’re here to show that we’re accountable for all this.”
Kate winced. That really didn’t explain anything. “But ‘accountable.’ Hmm,” she wondered. “Is the blaming about to begin?”
So Kate thought she’d help by trying to get things started on a positive note. “Well, if you want to know what went well,” she offered, “we’re here in the new location. I mean, the move happened on time. There wasn’t a delay.”
“Well, maybe we should have delayed,” Joel countered. “The conference rooms are still being renovated and there isn’t any place in the legal department to hold consultations.” Kate saw that Joel was clearly irritated. “We’re trying to get work done and can’t focus with all the noise and dust and paint fumes,” he continued. “This is a disaster. Whose call was it to say we were ready to move?”
Kate had to agree with Joel. Furniture that Kate had ordered for the new training room was on back order, and customer service training had to be rescheduled at the last minute. They probably weren’t ready to move when they did.
“If you didn’t think we were ready, you should have told me,” Edie shot back.
“Don’t forget, our systems were down for the first two days,” Julia, an accountant in the finance department, interjected. “How did that happen? I mean, who let that happen?”
Zvi, the IT analyst assigned to the project, piped in. “We told everyone that systems would be down. Everyone got an email.”
Julia started shaking her head furiously.
Kate wondered where this was going when she saw Aida from the procurement department give her an angry look and begin to speak. “No one prepared employees for this move. I mean, Kate, wasn’t that your responsibility? Aren’t you HR?” Aida said. “In other places I’ve worked, HR gave each employee a welcome kit when they moved. You know, fun facts about the new location, commuter tips, restaurant information. Why didn’t you do any of that?”
Here it was, Kate thought; her turn to face the fire. “Well, I think preparing employees for the move is everyone’s job,” Kate responded. “But a welcome kit sounds like a lovely idea. I wish you had shared that with us sooner.”
Aida snapped back, “So it’s my fault? I should tell you how to do your job?”
Kate turned toward Edie to see if she’d step in to defend her, or at least move the meeting along. But Edie allowed the discussion to continue.
It was Adam, from customer service, who ended up coming to Kate’s aid … in a way. “Well, Aida,” Adam said slowly, emphasizing Aida’s name. “If you want to talk about doing your job, why isn’t there any furniture in the training room? Wasn’t it your job to have everything ordered and delivered on time? Poor Kate had our customer service training ready to launch, and now she’s had to reschedule.”
Aida glared at both of them. “Well, if Kate had placed the order according to the schedule,” she scolded.
This time Kate jumped in to defend herself. “That’s not what happened,” Kate protested. “If you remember, Aida, when I tried to order the furniture, you said …”
And so the meeting continued. Project team members traded accusations back and forth, and it didn’t seem like anyone was immune. To distract herself and stay calm, Kate even started to keep a tally as she took notes. In the end, she was blamed for three mistakes, Aida had two, Adam had six, Zvi had one, and Julia had three. And the entire project team saved the most scathing accusations for Edie.
“Was this what Edie meant when she said she wanted us to show accountability?” Kate wondered. And she still couldn’t see the point. “We’re all going to walk out of here really resenting one another,” Kate feared. “Why are we doing this?”
Edie finally signaled that it was almost time to wrap up the meeting. “OK, that was bad, folks,” Edie summarized. “But what did we learn from this project? What are our lessons learned?”
Now everyone was quiet.
“Anything? Anything, folks?” Edie asked as she glanced at each team member. The silence continued.
“OK, well then, thanks for your time.” Edie exhaled loudly as she shuffled her papers together and quickly exited the conference room.
“I’d run too,” Kate mused silently. She lingered for a few moments until her teammates had left the room. “Well, I know the lesson I learned,” Kate said to herself. “Don’t volunteer. Ever.”
Is there a different lesson that Kate could have learned from her participation in the relocation project? After all, the team did appear to make some mistakes leading up to the move. Could they have avoided making any of them? Did they learn anything that could help prevent these mistakes from happening on another project? The team probably made some wise decisions too as their project unfolded. What did the team do well that TCW should repeat in the future?
Unfortunately, Kate, Edie, and the TCW relocation team won’t find out the answers to these questions. They were so focused on affixing blame that they missed the opportunity to learn from their experience. If Edie had encouraged the project team to critically examine what happened and why, rather than discussing who made what error, the team might have uncovered ideas that would help them succeed more in the future. And if Edie had arranged for the team to meet throughout the course of their project to discuss progress, ideas, and concerns, instead of waiting until the end for a postmortem, the team also might have learned where adjustments were needed that could have led to a better outcome.
In chapter 16, we’ll look at a process that Kate, Edie, and the team could have used to conduct a more productive and less contentious meeting. You’ll learn about a change management tool called the action review, and see how you can use it to focus your team on learning and continuous improvement. You’ll see that there are plenty of opportunities for you to figure out what’s working and what isn’t—and to learn and improve—as you work on a change initiative. To take advantage of these opportunities, you’ll see that you need to demonstrate some sound project management discipline. You need to focus on the hard side of change. And you’ll see that you need to create an environment that supports candid dialogue and a willingness to admit mistakes. To help your team learn from their experience, you need to focus on the soft side of change too.
In chapter 17, we’ll explore steps you and your team can take to address problems that may arise as your change initiative unfolds. You’ll see that it doesn’t help to sweep potential issues under the rug, like Kate and her team may have done as they worked on TCW’s relocation. You’ll see that the actions you take to fix a change initiative that’s going off the rails are similar to the steps you take to address other problems you’re experiencing at work and in your personal life. Admitting you have a problem is the first step to recovery. In chapter 17, we’ll look at that first step, plus a few more you can take to help get a troubled change initiative back on track. And yes, those actions require you to focus on both the hard and soft sides of change.