Change and pain are interrelated in a couple of ways. First, I think we have all heard many times over that change can be painful. On the other hand, oftentimes, change requires pain. Pursuing this idea a little further, oftentimes people are not willing to change unless they are experiencing enough pain. How can we leverage this idea on our projects and programs?
If we start with the idea that change does not occur without pain, then we need to understand where there is pain. On many projects, I have tried to extract requirements by following the precept of trying to find the pain. This is similar to a doctor examining a patient. The doctor tries to find the pain point and this can signify what is required in order to turn things around and make things right. Solutions and actions follow the location of the pain.
On our projects and programs, we sometimes need a clear boost in motivation around us to move things forward in the best direction. This requires us to clearly be able to identify points of pain, to clearly understand their effects, and to be able to communicate these among stakeholders. I have seen many projects that have a purpose but also are somewhat misguided. While they have a purpose, they do not have a driving force. These can be two different things. When someone has a serious pain, there is a driving force there for change and for implementing the right solutions.
Regardless of the stated purpose of a project, I try very hard to find underlying motivations for doing the project. Being armed with that information in explicit detail empowers you to communicate clearly where the pain is; and when somebody sees and feels that pain, they will be driven to action. It is one of the surest ways to bring about change.
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John Reiling, PMP
Project Management Training Online
Lean Six Sigma Training Online
2 responses so far ↓
1 pawelbrodzinski // Feb 11, 2009 at 3:50 am
The pain factor can be tricky since a pain of one group can be a comfort situation for another and vice versa.
The most obvious example is time tracking. Not having time tracking implemented is a pain for management since they can’t measure profit per project precisely. When time tracking is implemented the rest of people gets additional task which is a pain for them.
2 John Reiling // Mar 31, 2009 at 12:03 am
Hmmm, this is a good point, Pawel. I think that there needs to be a collective pain, where everyone is unified. There are classic examples in politics, where the more collectively everyone feels the pain, the more support there is for action.
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