Change Leadership Toolbox: More than Just a Hammer 
Julie Thomas
Director, Office of Business Excellence
 McKesson Provider Technologies, McKesson Corporation

Introduction:

Success or failure of process improvement efforts are often determined long before the improvements are implemented – but depend largely on the culture change leadership of the organization. This change leadership needs to be a ‘lead by example' model – where the management team and project champions demonstrate a strong role model and possess a well-stocked toolbox of change leadership tools and techniques. Change leaders should mentor their teams on creating an environment where process improvement can succeed; an environment where the culture standards are best practices and commitments.

Learning Objectives:

After this session the attendees will have:

  • An understanding of the definition, purpose, desired outcomes, and context for activities most relevant to your role as a change leader
  • A shared language and tool box for use for change initiatives and expectations associated with change
  • The ability to dispel common change leadership misconceptions
  • A model for managing expectations and concerns of senior management your direct reports and peers
  • Understanding of your role and responsibilities as a change leader and how to effectively manage expectations and drive success through change leadership

Outline:

  • When You're Only Tool is a Hammer, Every Problem Looks Like a Nail
    • One tool is not enough
    • Basic tools every change leader should have
  • Change Leadership – Two Lies and a Truth: Do You Know Which? And Why?
    • What they don't know can't hurt them, or I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you
    • Employees don't have a choice – a.k.a. my way or the highway
    • Risk taking and non-traditional ideas and actions are a good thing
  • Key to Process Improvement Initiatives
    • Why change is hard
    • Why it's important
  • What is Change Leadership?
    • How to recognize change leadership
    • What it is
    • What it looks like
    • What it feels like
    • What it is not
  • The Change Leadership Toolbox
    • Common elements found in successful models
      • Leading Change (Kotter)
      • Adopt-IT™ Framework (NeoChange)
      • Self Assessment Scorecard (Hadden)
    • How to determine which is right for your organization
    • Change Leadership exercise- Use to identify/develop our change leadership team
  • Shared Experiences
    • When it worked
    • When it failed
  • Change Leadership – Two Lies and a Truth: Now You Know Which and Why!
    • What they don't know can't hurt them, or I could tell you but then I'd have to kill you (Lie)
    • Employees don't have a choice – aka my way or the highway (Lie)
    • Risk taking and non-traditional ideas and actions are a good thing (Truth)

Biography:

As the Director of McKesson Provider Technologies Office of Business Excellence (OBE), Julie leads a team of project managers responsible for all aspects of the development/implementation of projects and programs involving department or cross-functional teams focused on the development, improvement and optimization of R&D processes and standards. Under Julie's direction, the Office of Business Excellence has championed the change leadership and process improvement requirements of eleven R&D organizations in their successful pursuit of CMMI Level 2 and Level 3 . A recent OBE initiative involved change leadership project to engage cross-function teams of requirements management, engineering, systems analysis and project management together to map, analyze and identify process improvements necessary to maximize the value proposition of the development lifecycle for McKesson software R&D.

As one of McKesson's Six Sigma Black Belts, Julie has facilitated several process reengineering initiatives focused on streamlining existing software development processes. Using Six Sigma tools and methodologies, Julie championed the change leadership within a software application support organization to establish and embrace a process improvement framework.

Julie was integral in the development of a change management leadership role in the arenas of tools implementation and process improvement, known as the ‘advocate' model. Advocates are expected to effectively communicate the needs of their respective business and to communicate decisions made back to the necessary stakeholders within their business in the areas of process adoption and standardized tool implementation.