So - you've gone through the work of analyzing your current state map and designing a future state map. But, now that you've defined them, how do you get from Point A to Point B effectively? Some transition plans are designed so broadly that you don't actually have any actionable items, and some are so detailed that they become overloaded with their own encumbrance. Effective transition plans should be both actionable and resilient, balancing broad stroke reasoning with specific achievable milestones, so I like utilizing the following seven rules as a baseline to help build transition plans that actually work.
1) Start with a clear breakdown of the gap analysis for anyone reading the transition plan. this helps ground the other components into the "why" behind these changes being implemented. This gap analysis can change depending on how "zoomed in" the section of the transition plan is, people working in Department A don't usually need to have an in-depth analysis of why we are changing Department B. Make it succinct and relevant to the portion of the transition plan that certain stakeholder groups are seeing.
2) Break transition plans down into phases. Not only does this help with digesting and managing the potentially immense amount of tasks, but it also helps understand the conditions for each phase. For instance: you want to double sales in a region and you believe that the demand is there but you need shorter lead times to be competitive, so you need to increase the velocity of production. That usually isn't a one-step process: Phase 1 may be a general organization and optimization of existing space and machinery or personnel; Phase 2 may be capital expenditure on some machines to fix bottlenecks; The conditions to determine the machinery purchases in phase 2 require the optimization in phase 1 to be completed. Additionally breaking it out into phases can help create key milestones and give teams actionable short to medium term goals.
3) Map dependencies between phases and between segments. Let's continue using the above example - if the estimating team for the product has their own bottleneck, phase 2 of the physical shop improvements (machine purchases) may be dependent not just on phase 1 of the shop improvements, but also on phase 3 of the estimating office improvements. If that dependency isn't clearly mapped, you could be focusing efforts on the wrong area and slowing down the transition plan overall.
4) Identify highest-likelihood risks and build contingencies. This is easier said than done, but build a shortlist of the things most likely to go wrong (not a comprehensive list of everything that could go wrong, just the significant risks), and use that to build contingencies. Your contingencies should include: what went wrong, possible root causes to review, what is the response, and who owns the fix. Because there is a degree of the unknowable here, I don't usually dive really deep into the nitty gritty but rather approach it in broad strokes. For instance - if I believe there is a significant risk of churn at an entry-level position for one of the newly purchased machines, then we would build a plan with HR on job descriptions and hiring parameters ahead of time, and the person in HR in charge of talent acquisition would be noted on the contingency. We would also build a training program to help onboard that new hire as quickly as possible to mitigate interruptions in the transition plan.
5) Similar to the risks and contingencies above, each portion of the transition plan, however your team likes to break it down, should have a named owner. That person should not just be someone to point a finger at, but someone who is empowered to, within the scope of that portion of the transition plan, ensure that it is implemented effectively. One great example of this is that if you have someone in charge of improving turnaround times in the shop on the transition plan, but they aren't given the ability to actually enforce or push specific changes in the shop, then usually you'll end up with someone with a lot of responsibility who is forced to work around the edges to try to accomplish the goals instead of just being able to effectively align the team. Also, where possible, avoid committees. While having regular meetings with stakeholders to take input, usually having a single owner over a portion of a transition plan helps ensure that it is executed effectively.
6) People outside of the transition plan owners and stakeholders need to understand what is happening and why, so build in communication milestones. These milestones can line up with completed portions or they can be completely on their own schedule. Building out that communication plan ahead of time helps ensure that as changes are implemented, the team remembers to communicate with the wider audiences within or outside of the company, and also helps determine how that information gets shared with each audience.
7) And last but not least, define completion. What does a successful of the transition plan actually look like? What does a successful completion of each of the portions of the plan look like? What is continuous improvement versus what is a discrete objective of this transition plan? How can the transition plan's definition of completion potentially change if new technologies or markets emerge and what does that change process look like? How this is defined will vary based on your organization's preferences, but when this definition is not explicitly created, I've seen transition plans get to about 60-80% completion and then just enter a stage of quasi-progress where it's a mix of continuous improvements, new ideas, and the "why" that the plan started with is forgotten.
To recap:
- Succinctly explain the gap analysis, the "why"
- Break the plan into phases
- Map dependencies between segments and phases
- Identify high-likelihood risks and build contingencies
- Assign ownership of each transition plan portion
- Build a communication plan
- Define completion
