Developing a New Process

Developing a new process can be a real challenge, both for leaders and for participants.  It can even become painful when people's feelings are involved. 

Here is an example from our department.   Earlier in the summer we created a regular technology coordination meeting.  The purpose of this meeting is to allow a project team to tell other interested staff about their project and seek input before moving ahead with implementation.  The rub comes when a team, which has been working very hard on a project, receives feedback from others that the project isn't ready to go.  Or even if the project is ready to go, a team may be asked many questions, leading the team members to feel that they are "being beat up," or "not trusted to do their jobs."  And  those doing the questioning may feel that their concerns are not being adequately addressed or that the work they need to do to support the project is being dumped on them at the last minute.

This meeting, and the change management process that it supports, has been a very valuable effort, in my opinion.  But I don't like to see people's feelings being hurt.  I keep trying to remind myself that conflict can be a good thing, but it doesn't always feel very good when you are in the middle of it.  I talked with several staff members today, and when I mentioned feelings, one told me, "I don't have feelings."  This made us both laugh.  Feelings are difficult to work with in the high-tech world.

Because I want this new process to evolve and be successful, I'm optimistic that we will all learn from the experience and get better at working together at our coordination meetings.  Feelings are important, so we need to learn to get the issues on the table without too much ego damage.  And in the end, I am confident that the changes we make will be better planned and have less negative impact on our customers.