Sigma Magic Help Version 18

Sustaining Change

Overview

A company undertaking a transformation to accomplish some significant endeavor must 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, which will most likely generate ill-will or even resistance and may not be sustainable in the long run, and the team's commitment towards the new working method. 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. However, if the new solutions are challenging 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 tool can consider all the factors that need to be implemented 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 specify the threshold for the team survey results. Any survey results greater than this threshold are shown in green, and results less than this threshold are 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 meet your needs better.
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.
6a	Create Button: Click on this button to save all changes and update the worksheet layout (if any).
6b	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 correctly.
• Are we inspiring our organization to follow the new working method? 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 to change to the new way of working?
• Are our rewards and recognition systems aligned 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 completed by the team. If any of the survey elements are less than the threshold selected in the input dialog box, they are shown in red. These need to be captured in the top portion of the worksheet, and actions need to be defined to close any gaps.

Checklist

You will see the following dialog box if you click the Checklist button. The checklist contains a few pointers on things you must 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.

1	Item: The items on the checklist are listed on the left
2	Status: The status of whether the checklist has been answered is listed on the right. If all the checked items are okay, the status image in the header will show a green checkmark. If any checks fail, then the status image in the header will show a red cross mark.

Ideally, all items on the checklist should be marked as reviewed/completed.

Charts

You will see the following dialog box if you click the Charts button.

1	Title: The system will automatically pick a title for your chart. However, if you want to override that with your 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 want to override that with your subtitle, 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 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 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 determine the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20, 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, the x-axis increment is set at 2. Note that this input is currently disabled, and you cannot 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 determine the minimum, increment, and maximum values separated by a semi-colon. For example, if you specify 10;20, the minimum y-axis scale is set at 10, and the maximum y-axis 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, two horizontal lines are plotted at Y = 12 and Y = 15, respectively. Note that this input is optional.
8	Vertical Lines: You can specify the values here if you want to add a few extra vertical reference lines on top of your chart. The format for this input is numeric values separated by semi-colon. For example, if you specify 2;5, two vertical lines are plotted at X = 2 and X = 5, respectively. Note that this input is optional.

Verify

If you click the Verify button, the software will perform some checks on the data you entered. A sample screenshot of the dialog box is shown in the figure below. The software checks 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, they are shown as green-colored checkmarks. If the verification checks fail, they are shown as a red-colored cross. If the verification checks result in a warning, they are shown in the orange exclamation mark, and finally, any checks that are required to be performed by the user are shown as blue info icons.

1	Item: The left-hand side shows the major tabs and the items checked within each section
2	Status: The right-hand side shows the status of the checks.
3	Overall Status: The overall status of all the checks for the given analysis is shown here. The overall status check shows a green thumps-up sign if everything is okay and a red thumps-down sign if any checks have not passed. Note that you cannot proceed with generating analysis results for some analyses if the overall status is not okay.

Outputs

Once you have answered all the data on the worksheet, click on Compute Outputs to the analysis results. A sample screenshot of the sustaining change outputs is shown below. There are no specific graphical outputs to interpret for this analysis. If all the template elements have been filled out, you will get the following message when you click on the Compute Outputs button. 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

The following examples are in the Examples folder.

1. Create a sustaining change analysis to determine if a change initiative will be sustained in the long run. (Sustaining Change 1.xlsx).

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