Achieving Project Goals and Permanently Improving Culture: A Success Story
Written by Samantha Millison, Office of Process Improvement Intern
Edited by Bryce Hogle, Regional Centers Strategic Project Manager at the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS)
January 13, 2023
Bryce attended and completed the 3-Day Change Management Practitioners Workshop at the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT). Following his participation in the workshop, he utilized change management techniques through a Service Level Agreement (SLA) project that changed the history between two divisions for the better.
Bryce Hogle works in Administrative Solutions for the Colorado Department of Human Services (CDHS). In his role, he is dedicated to the Division of Regional Centers (DRC) for strategic project management. Recently, the Division of Facilities Management (DFM) made it a priority within their department to redo all the Service Level Agreements (SLAs) with all of the individual Divisions that they support, therefore initiating Bryce’s change management project.
Bryce Hogle
The Service Level Agreement Project Between the Division of Regional Centers and the Division of Facilities Management
The two main parties involved within the project were the DRC and the DFM. The DRC is a series of group homes that provide services and support to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The DRC covers three regions: North Denver (Wheat Ridge Regional Center), Western Slope (Grand Junction Regional Center), and South districts (Pueblo Regional Center). The DFM is the division that provides housekeeping, grounds maintenance, repair, and maintenance for the entirety of CDHS.
Unfortunately, there has been a history of the two divisions not working collaboratively. Due to a lack of understanding on both sides, there were constant misunderstandings and confusion around how support and services were delivered. However, there were leadership changes that occurred, promoting a better working relationship between the two divisions as both directors of the DRC and the DFM decided that it would be beneficial to further expand upon the SLA in order to facilitate higher levels of understanding and better collaboration. A SLA is a document that defines the level of service that one organization expects from another, so it is essential that this document is clear and communicative. The previous SLA was very brief and did not encompass all of the working agreements that occurred due to the complexity of the business. Consequently, Bryce’s change management project was to create a SLA between the DRC and the DFM to act as a mutual way of operating between the two divisions, as the DRC contracts with the DFM for certain services. Bryce served as the project manager and change manager; he helped to ensure that both divisions got the final SLA constructed, agreed upon, and signed. The project began in December 2021 and was closed in August 2022 with support from both division directors along the way. Following Bryce’s project, both divisions are working on monitoring the agreement and ensuring Regional Center staff.
Reaching Success by Implementing Change Management Principles and Prosci Methodologies
As with many change management projects, Bryce encountered barriers related to the complexity and scope of the SLA document. Trying to list every single detail and every specific dynamic that occurs between the two divisions was difficult, and trying to get people to understand problems amongst a history of conflict and misunderstanding between the two divisions made change implementation even more challenging. Nevertheless, Bryce was able to work through all of the steps and not only create details that were well documented in the plan, but also alternative ways of approaching other tasks that emerged along the way. Bryce credits the successful implementation of his project to the change management principles and Prosci methodologies, such as the ADKAR model and the Prosci Change Triangle (PCT) Assessment, that he learned. Utilizing these strategies actually broadened the scope of the project for valid reasons, and walking through each stage of change helped to increase people’s awareness, desire, and knowledge.
Throughout the project and even afterward, Bryce saw the SLA initiative undergo each stage of the ADKAR model. Awareness came as directors and regional managers were involved early on in the process. There were several engagement sessions where Bryce met with individual teams and did a high-level review of the agreement. By doing so, they were able to extract the main talking points before beginning to work on desire. Working through each level of those talking points in the SLA was how desire was developed, therefore setting the proper tone to make the project more efficient and collaborative. Both parties had to work through the existent interpersonal conflict to make the project a team-based effort and get everyone on the same page. At the end of the day, it was about the people that both the DRC and the DFM serve, so leveraging that ultimate goal between the two was key to building desire. As far as the knowledge aspect of the project, it was important for every director and regional manager in both divisions to review the SLA and provide edits, comments, and questions. Going through every single piece of feedback not only helped to gain clarification, but also helped to comprehensively understand the document. On top of the SLA document itself, both the DRC and the DFM became more educated as both divisions attended each other’s meetings to maintain synergy. Developing ability involved maintaining frequent connection points and providing clarification when needed. The ability to connect on important things like capital investments, improvement projects, maintenance projects, furniture, and other aspects would make it easier to navigate the request system and avoid potential future issues. Now, in the reinforcement stage, it is critical to monitor how the impacted groups are complying with the changes implemented. Bryce continuously has check-in meetings to ensure that everything is running smoothly and if there are any improvements to be made.
Reminiscing About the Past & Offering Advice for the Future
Looking back, Bryce has reflected on the successes of the project and has learned lessons that he can use in the future. The project yielded numerous benefits that will be long-lasting for both divisions, such as higher levels of communication, collaboration, and connection between the DRC and the DFM. The two division directors are in alignment with a shared vision for how to work together, and this alignment is cascading down to the rest of the teams. Before, the two divisions were simply responding to each other, but now, they are critically thinking and problem-solving together. There was certainly an improved speed of adoption with the project, and to Bryce’s understanding, everyone seems to be comfortable with the change of the SLA.
As far as next steps, Bryce stays persistent with conducting check-in meetings to work on monitoring the SLA. If there are aspects that need to be improved, then they can easily be addressed appropriately. Now that the project is considered to be closed, Bryce has pieces of advice that he can contribute to any change management project. First, he says that having the project manager and the change manager be the same person is difficult; they are separate roles and each has its own level of work and responsibility, so it will pay off in the long run to keep the two separate as the project progresses. Second, Bryce advises starting change management earlier because leveraging the people side of change takes time. In order to ensure successful change, there must be a firm understanding of the level of impact as well as a clear identification of the intended audience. Reinforcing continual engagement and keeping people moving along the process is not a task that can be achieved overnight, so time considerations are significant. Third, Bryce realizes that it is okay if the project does not end on time as long as the project objectives are met and the project delivers its purpose. Bryce agrees that delivering a high-quality project late is better than delivering a low-quality project on time as projects typically take longer than planned to complete. Surely, the SLA project’s success has and will continue to positively impact Bryce as well as both divisions involved in the future.
Want to learn more about Change Management at CDOT? Check out our improvement efforts at the Office of Process Improvement’s website!