Take people along on the change journey

The October 2009 cover story in MIS magazine profiled Peter Mahler, 'The Architect' of a massive technology overhaul at Coles. In fact his experiences have been turned into a textbook case study by three experts from the University of Melbourne and the London School of Economics. They have written a research paper indicating that the project offers a host of lessons and ideas for other CIO's leading similar transformations. It is a long story that included the transition of divisional IT staff into a centralised function. Although the overall programme was deemed successful, when Wesfarmers took over they instituted a reversal of IT to a more federated structure. Of more interest from a change perspective is that the replenisment system upgrade led to gaps on the shelves at some stores.
The reason being that there were not sufficient staff with the capability of using the new system and Mahler admits that not enough users were brought along on the journey. Desire and Ability are key components of the ADKAR model which is part of the Prosci framework for change and this case study proves yet again that people are the key to maximising project success.
http://thechangesamurai.blogspot.com/


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