I recently received an email advertising a critical chain course. Some key phrases included, “… no the need for massive cultural or behavioral changes… no intensive company-wide education… requires little preparation…” The implication is that implementation is both powerful and easy: a silver bullet.
     Meanwhile, a recent post on a critical chain discussion list opined, “… a typical multiproject implementation doesn’t last more than three years.”
     The statements are closely connected. In fact, a major reason that critical chain implementations aren’t long-lasting is that behavior changes are ignored, education and communication aren’t planned properly, and the up-front preparation is weak. And one reason those things happen is that the critical chain tools themselves are treated as a silver bullet, causing people to ignore important up-front planning.

Cultural or Behavioral Changes

     You can’t get improvements without behavior changes. (D²G²: Do what you Did, Get what you Got.) You can get improvements to small organizations or individual small projects with localized behavior changes. To get lasting improvements across an organization, you need to plan for lasting behavior changes across the organization. 

Education and Communication

     People who are affected by an implementation, even indirectly, need to know what’s going on. Sometimes lack of perceived urgency from the senior levels means people don’t feel a need to keep moving the implementation forward. Sometimes the urgency is there but goes away: once the initial itch is scratched and the problem is no longer the problem, management attention and resources go elsewhere. In either case, the implementation eventually asphyxiates. The urgency isn’t maintained and communicated. And keep in mind that education is one form of communication.
     Here’s an example for a relatively small (200 people) product engineering organization:

Senior person: I need to fix project management soon. Our technology is old and we’re too slow to update it.
Senior team: We’re on board.
Project managers: When do we start?
Individual contributors: No big deal to us, but it would be nice not to have to continue multitasking.

     There was planning, there was buy-in. The senior person was very much behind the effort. Project plans were created and information flows mapped out. Initially, clear benefits were gained but the implementation went very slowly. Eventually, as personnel moved on, the implementation withered; momentum literally took years to rebuild. What happened?
     It turns out, even for this small company, I left off one important group.

 Line management: You want to do what? Things seem fine to me. Why would I care about that?

     Middle management had been around the organization longer than anyone else. They were the ones who really kept things on track - the old, familiar tracks. The communication and education for this group was poorly done; their apathy was never addressed. They constantly created friction, always expressed in a polite or even cheerful manner. 

Planning

     When a small area that achieved success starts to engage in culture wars with the rest of the organization, they lose. I have often seen bands of hardy explorers adopt critical chain tools and - despite great initial successes - gradually lose ground. The only answer I know: plan the implementation and the communication. It’s never too early to start, because the implementation must be sold internally. Put in place early the pieces needed to keep the ground you’ll gain. I’d say this is the biggest problem addressed in The Billion Dollar Solution; look especially in Part III and study the Cycle of Results.
     Bottom line: If you want success, plan. ProChain implementations begin and end with planning. Enjoy your critical chain course, but ask questions and take nothing on faith.

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