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 with 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 where you go or not. So when one changes direction as any project may experience, stakeholders and team members need adequate advance warning. This 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 our external signals (red light, no free turn). Have we communicated our intent adequately in advance (activating 3-5 seconds before turning and stopping it after turning)?
Even if we have signaled, have we watched the 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 the shoulders rather than just rely on the mirrors or the blindspot signals in today’s cars. So, even when governance has approved, we communicate out 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. Same logic applies in project deployments with contingency and fall back 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.
