Sigma Magic Help Version 15

Sustaining Change

Overview

A company that undertakes a transformation to accomplish some major endeavor will have to inspire its people to think and act differently. Most large-scale change programs focus on designing new processes or technology systems and far less on how to motivate employees to adopt the solution. There are two ways to ensure change - forced compliance from the top that will most likely generate ill-will or even resistance and may not be sustainable in the long run or commitment of the team towards the new way of working. If employees lack that commitment, the change effort is at risk of failure. For us to sustain a new change, the behaviors of the employees need to change, but if the new solutions are difficult to learn or the organization is still rewarding the old behaviors, then change may be difficult. Traditions will continue unless the organization changes the ecosystem in which people behave. This particular tool can be used to think about all the factors that need to be put in place so that new behaviors will stick in the organization, and the change will be successful.

Inputs

This tool can be added to your active workbook by clicking on Change and then selecting Sustaining Change. Click on Analysis Setup to open the menu options for this tool.

Setup

A sample screenshot of the setup menu is shown below.

1	Analysis Type: Specify the tool format for this analysis. This selection is not enabled since there is only one format available.
2	Threshold Value: The input dialog box can be used to specify the threshold for the team survey results. Any survey results greater than this threshold is shown in green and less than this threshold is shown in red.
3	View Example: Click on this button to add an example worksheet. You can use the example to understand how others have filled out the tool or use the example as a starting point and modify it to better meet your needs.
4	Help Button: Click on this button to open the help file for this topic.
5	Cancel Button: Click on this button to cancel all changes to the settings and exit this dialog box.
6	OK Button: Click on this button to save all changes and compute the outputs for this analysis.

The worksheet consists of a checklist with five different elements that you will need to consider to make it a successful change:

• How the leaders behave in the organization. People usually follow the leaders, and unless the leaders have adapted to the new way of working, there is little likelihood that the organization will follow. So, we start by ensuring that we first make the leaders behave in the right way.
• Are we inspiring our organization to follow the new way of working? For this, we need to understand what inspires key stakeholders and that we have a plan to create success and highlight the success stories.
• Have we equipped our people with the right training and tools for them to change to the new way of working?
• Are our rewards and recognition systems in line with the new behaviors we are trying to deploy?
• Are our systems and structures set up to measure the performance that encourages the right behaviors?

This checklist can be jointly filled out by the team. If any of the survey elements are less than the threshold selected in the input dialog box, those elements are shown in red. These need to be captured in the top portion of the worksheet and actions defined to close any gaps.

Checklist

If you click on the Checklist button, you will see the following dialog box. The checklist contains a few pointers on things you need to pay particular attention to while performing this analysis. The checklist has been derived from experience working on past projects. Not all the checklist items need to apply to you. However, you should carefully review the checklist and apply any recommendations that make sense for your project. Make sure to read each checklist item and mark it as completed after you have read and taken actions as appropriate for your project.

Charts

If you click on the Charts button, you will see the following dialog box.

1	Title: The system will automatically pick a title for your chart. However, if you would like to override that with your own title you can specify a title for your chart here. Note that this input is optional.
2	Sub Title: The system will automatically pick a subtitle for your chart. However, if you would like to override that with your own subtitle you can specify a subtitle for your chart here. Note that this input is optional.
3	X Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your own label for the x-axis you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional.
4	Y Label: The system will automatically pick a label for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your own label for the y-axis you can specify a different label here. Note that this input is optional.
5	X Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the x-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the x-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to specify the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20 then the minimum x-axis scale is set at 10 and the maximum x-axis scale is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, then the x-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is currently disabled and you will not be able to change this setting.
6	Y Axis: The system will automatically pick a scale for the y-axis. However, if you would like to override that with your values for the y-axis, you can specify them here. The format for this input is to specify the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20 then the minimum y-axis scale is set at 10 and the maximum y-axis scale is set at 20. If you specify 10;2;20, then, in addition to minimum and maximum values, the y-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is optional.
7	Horizontal Lines: If you want to add a few extra horizontal reference lines on top of your chart you can specify the values here. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 12;15 then two horizontal lines are plotted at Y = 12 and Y = 15 respectively. Note that this input is optional.
8	Vertical Lines: If you want to add a few extra vertical reference lines on top of your chart you can specify the values here. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 2;5 then two vertical lines are plotted at X = 2 and X = 5 respectively. Note that this input is optional.

Verify

If you click on the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you have entered. A sample screenshot of the dialog box is shown in the figure below. The objective of this analysis as well as any checks that are performed is listed in this dialog box. For example, the software may check if you have correctly specified the input options and entered the required data on the worksheet. The results of the analysis checks are listed on the right. If the checks are passed, then they are shown as a green-colored checkmark. If the verification checks fail, then they are shown as a red-colored cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in the orange color exclamation mark and finally, any checks that are required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.

Outputs

Once you have answered all the data on the worksheet and click on Compute Outputs to the analysis results. A sample screenshot of the sustaining change outputs is shown below. There are no specific outputs to interpret for this analysis. You can review the current selections and work on the selected action items to close the gaps and make your change more sustainable.

Notes

Here are a few pointers regarding this analysis:

• To add new bullets on the next line, copy and paste an existing bullet, and to move it to the next line, use Alt-Enter to create a new line within the cell.

Examples

Following examples can be found in the Examples folder.

1. Create a sustaining change analysis to determine if a particular change initiative will sustain in the long run. (Sustaining Change 1.xlsm).