RoadMap Communication - Change - Rich Sudlow

The next question you might have is "What lies 
aheard?"  What changes will come of it?

There were many clear messages that came out of Open 
Space, especially pertaining to change.  One clear message 
was that we've done this before, and we want to act not 
talk.  We're tired of hearing about change, especially 
organization change, and nothing happening.  When Don 
Spicer was here weren't we going to "reorganize"?  When 
Larry came, didn't we think there would be changes then? 
Then we went through the EduTech survey and saw their 
report...still nothing happened. Didn't we think things 
would change after Covey?? What about the poster sessions 
we had last fall?? Didn't we expect changes after that?  We 
then had Open Space this past summer....we again said the 
same things as before but haven't seen many changes.  We 
did see the merger between OIT and Ed Media, renaming a 
group or two but no real change.  Will this RoadMap 
produce any change?

I've been here a little over 8 years now and have been 
through all this talk too.  I was also frustrated by Open 
Space, it seemed that we were doing nothing...just the 
usual talking again.  Talking about change yet I still work 
in the same organization.  The one where most people are 
overworked because they care about their customers.  The 
one where we always say "yes" to everything that's asked 
of us.  The one where "turfing" exists but we get along 
with all of our co-workers.  The one that frustrates us with 
endless talk, wasting time trying to fix the organization, at 
our customers expense.  What can I tell you that you can 
believe about change taking place in the future?  Would 
you believe anything that I say given our past history of 
talk with no results?  I probably wouldn't so why should 
you? 

What makes us believe that change will take place is to 
have seen results from our talk in the past...actually 
experienced it.  We as the entire OIT haven't experienced it 
yet..however we will soon as we, the OIT, start 
progressing through the RoadMap implementation just 
shared with you.  At OpenSpace I made the the statement 
"The more things change the more they stay the same"  
pertaining to OpenSpace and OIT organization.   I wouldn't 
say that now about the OIT.  In the past few months I've 
seen and experienced change being on the RoadMap team, 
a small portion of the OIT.  Here are five reasons, based on 
my experiences these past few months, that I now believe 
that we will now be changing not just talking:  

First and foremost, this is a team effort, it was based on no 
one person, no one division, it was based on us the OIT.  
When we developed the vision statements and gaps we 
weren't thinking User Services, Systems, Networking, etc..  
We were thinking about the OIT employees, and our 
customers.  As Shiree said "working together isn't always 
characteristic of the OIT".  Indeed working together as the 
OIT was itself an accomplishment.  One that I had never 
seen before.  Not only did we work together but we 
actually accomplished something, we now have a plan, 
with this presentation we pass the first milestone in our 
plan for change.  A plan that we've never had before and a 
milestone we've never passed before.

On the RoadMap team I saw "true" committment.  The 
team spent many hours and was precise and accurate in the 
work of developing the Vision statements, also in root-
causing the data we had in order to verify our mission 
statements were correct, and then in developing the 
RoadMap itself. I believe this is because we all knew we 
would be changing the OIT in the future and wanted to do 
it right.  Many on the team went back working long hours 
to try to compensate for work they had previously 
committed to.  Trying to live Vision statement 1.3 ("meet 
all committments and make no commitments we cannot 
keep") and not just say it.

Although the team is still far from perfect.  We learned to 
start working together towards a common goal, to realize 
we need each other, to respect one another and to not make 
committments for others without talking to them. 

Second, Dean Meyer our consultant, facilitator, teacher  
didn't come in and analyze the OIT, leaving us with a 
bunch of recommendations.  With OpenSpace a completely 
different group come in to record data thus making sure not 
to bias the data being collected.  Dean taught us how to 
analyze the data ourselves, to make vision statements for 
our organization, to look for root-causes not just look for a 
"problem".  We learned the benefits of systemic change vs 
bandaid change.  We learned how the how the 5 
organizational systems are all dependent on and reinforce 
each other, that we need to address all 5 to be world class.  
Dean also highlighted that we need feedback both as 
employees and as an organization.  He taught us that 
systemic change takes time and constant work.  I believe a 
good analogy to the RoadMap is that of raising a child.  
They both take time, patience and constant work in order to 
be successfully?  Using this analogy two or three years 
doesn't seem so long.


Third. We came up with vision statements for a world class 
IT organization.  We weren't thinking about how to band-
aid our current organization as we often have in the past.  
We were focusing on systemic change, looking at the 
complete system not just a part here and a part there. 

Fourth. From the data collected in OpenSpace it was 
evident that the majority of the OIT was behind a change 
and in some cases were demanding it, but we also learned 
from the data that many weren't sure how to get there or 
what the plan would be. 

And last.  The team believes in the direction and the work 
that we've started.  The entire RoadMap design team to the 
person stated that they were committed to continuing with 
the implementation of this project.  The team is encouraged 
by results that have been reported by other organizations 
using the RoadMap process and look forward to the 
possibility of similiar results in our organization.

I worked on a subteam comprised of Carolyn Berzai, 
Charlie Underly and myself, we looked at a lot OpenSpace 
data that talked of change, specifically in the four 
OpenSpace sessions. 

Where should change begin when change is discussed or 
implemented? 

Computer Store: Can we restore confidence (internally 
and externally)? 

But we've always done it that way.

If I could change one thing within the OIT, it would 
be...

	I believe that the RoadMap Design team has learned the 
following from these four OpenSpace sessions:  Change for 
changes sake is not what we want.  We need to know what 
we're changing, why we're changing, how we're changing 
and to see the results of the change.  Changes without 
results are of no value.  Changes that aren't communicated 
well or clearly often brings about fears. It's so much easier 
when you know who, what, where, when and how we're 
going to change.  For this reason there will continue to be 
communication throughout the entire RoadMap process, 
two way communication, about where the OIT is going,  
what the plans are, what the fears and concerns are, and 
most importantly that there's a chance to ask questions and 
provide input should we miss addressing something.

I earlier asked "Will the RoadMap produce any change"?  
The answer to that is no, we the employees of the OIT are 
the ones who will produce the change.  Given the results, 
the change, the oneness experienced these past few months 
in the RoadMap team. I believe that the changes we've 
been talking about for years will soon become evident.  I 
expect to see changes which started taking placein the 
RoadMap team begin to spread throughout the entire OIT 
as we continue to work and implement the RoadMap plan 
in the future.