Boundary activities and readiness for ... - Projekti-Instituutti

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While the addition of the third main dimension was the most visible
change to the original framework, the contents of other dimensions were
also refined based on the findings. Within the first main dimension, the
intent for the change, some additions were made. In addition to the visible
need and pressure for the change, the analysis showed how the momentum
needs to be actively sustained. As the initiation and planning stages alone
may take several years, the early enthusiasm must be maintained and even
actively fed by the program managers. Similarly, in addition to a vision and
a sense of direction, the program should also have an explicitly stated goal
that is commonly accepted. As programs differ from smaller and more
clearly defined projects, the goals may still remain at a quite high level and
they may not be fully translated into detailed objectives at the program
level. Thirdly, in addition to the purposeful plan for the change content and
the change process, the program’s organization and governance structure
must be planned, established, and stabilized.
Related to the second dimension, the resources for the program, the
findings suggest that the skillful and charismatic leaders of change should
include a program owner, representing top management and serving as the
ambassador of the program within the wider organization, and a dedicated
program manager who has sufficient authority in the program’s internal
issues. Also, a notion was added to the dimension regarding the dedicated
program team that the resources should be explicitly allocated to the
program (or to multiple hierarchical teams, as it often seems to be in
programs), and the participants’ motivation should be actively maintained.
While the dimension of visible senior management support and
involvement remained as such, the last dimension related to the resources
was developed to more directly address the recipients of change. According
to the analysis, it seems that a central part of the supportive and receptive
environment is that the recipients of change are informed of the
forthcoming changes, at least on a general level, and prepared for them.
4.4.2 Readiness for change program implementation in the three
cases
Next, readiness for change program implementation in each three case
program is analyzed as it appeared at the end of the initiation phase. For
each case, a more detailed account of all dimensions of readiness can be
found in Appendix 5, including exemplary quotes from the interviews. In
cases Center and Chain, which included two rounds of interviews, the
quotes in Appendix 5 are with just a few exceptions from the second round
of interviews, when the change programs were supposed to already be in
early implementation (but as stated in the case description in section 4.1.1,
Center’s program was still in the planning phase).