I had an opportunity to visit the department of motor vehicles.
As I was waiting for my turn, I began browsing some handouts and saw a
reference to SMOG approach to switching lanes. When I took driving lessons
several years back, I had heard this reference. Perhaps because it has become
habitual after several years of driving, I did not think much about it. As I
saw this reference, I thought about how this connected stakeholders and risk
with change management.
SMOG stands for signal, mirror, over-the-shoulder, go safely.
People in the car are team members and people outside the car are the various
stakeholders who may be interested in where you go or not. So, when one changes
direction as any project may experience, stakeholders and team members need
adequate advance warning. These alerts and warnings are part of managing
change. So, our communication through status reports should tell the story of
where we are going to address risks as we take calculated planned turns or
abrupt turns. We do not want anyone honking at us and SMOG helps.
With every meeting (regardless of the project delivery
framework), how are we signaling or watching out for external signals (red
light, no free turn) from other stakeholders and team members? Have we
communicated our intent adequately in advance (activating 3-5 seconds before
turning and stopping it after turning)? Have we set expectations of where
we are going as well as watching for risks around us that could impede us?
Even if we have signaled, have we watched the dashboard, rear-view
mirror, and both side mirrors for known paths we have traveled (in case someone
is accelerating behind us risking our planned paths) and the side lanes (in
case our actions may impede someone inadvertently). These thoughts
connect with how we manage risks (known unknowns) proactively and engage with
stakeholders who may be positively or adversely impacted by our actions. In
project reporting, we bring references to our proposed changes through change
requests and get approval through former governance
What if there are some unknown (to us) knowns (they do exist)
like vehicles or pedestrians on our blind spots. Our actions will impact
these stakeholders’ unknown to us as well as others known to us. Since
prevention is better than cure, we look over our shoulders rather than just
rely on the mirrors or the blind spot signals in today’s cars. So, even when
governance has approved, we communicate our intentions in advance with planned
“go live” type of readiness assessment communication.
When all these things are done, we make the turns safely at the
optimum speed. The same logic applies in project deployments with contingency
and fallback plans. So, you can see that basic driving skills are applicable in
project change management. Can you now drive your project changes safely?
What do you think of my approach here? Share your thoughts.
