Galen Low is joined at the table by Tim Creasey (CIO of Procsi), to discuss how project managers and leadership groups can work together to give micro-innovations a seat on the table for more macro level changes and how that can benefit a business.
Interview Highlights
Tim Creasey, Chief Innovation Officer at Prosci, is the author of “Change Management: The People Side of Change”. [1:27]
Prosci’s mission helps individuals and organizations to become more effective at change. They discovered that the greatest obstacle to success in change was building acceptance and use of solutions. They have spent decades researching to develop methodology, role-based, and tool suites – holistic solutions to change success. [2:04]
Prosci founder Jeff Hiatt really wanted to start a product company. He wanted to do research, then turn it into books and bindings. This was the beginning of the company. [2:58]
Tim tells a little story about why he doesn’t return to change management. They were an in-person training company. They lost their in-person training business in March 2020. So they had to shift everything to virtual. Tim began doing his “thank-you” cameo drop ins on each program to keep the “wow” experience intact. [4:32]
When we ask people to change, the best way to treat them is to set them up to succeed.
Tim Creasey Tim loves diva pop music, and he also shares his love of the Avett Brothers, an Americana group out in North Carolina. [9:16]
Tim mentioned Arnold van Gennep as a cultural anthropologist, who traveled the world studying different cultures and the rights to passage. He identified three buckets of change: moving out of the present, moving through a liminal moment, then being reintegrated into the next phase. [13:26]
Change is difficult for many reasons, including the present, the transition, as well as the future. The future is uncertain and scary. It might even be worse than today. The transition state is messy, mucky, and it presents challenges for change. [14:32]
People managers are often the most important ally, and often overlooked ally, in times of change.
Tim Creasey We talk about the role and responsibilities of people managers in change. We talk about macro-changes they support, which are the big projects. They have a code and a title. [17:21]
Tim explains the difference in surprise and accident. Many of the outcomes of this innovative work, such as staggering the schedule, might have been surprising but it wasn’t an accidental outcome. [23:40]
Prosci uses scar storytelling. SCAR: Situation, Challenge, Approach, Results. [25:07]
It is important to document all outcomes that were unexpected in order to capture some of the experiments taking place at the project level. [26:59]
Innovation is about looking at problems and opportunities as opportunities and possibilities.
Tim Creasey Prosci has six core values, which the executive team established in 2021. Impact, people and integrity. [32:59]
Prosci employees strive to improve their work every day, which is an important definition for excellence. [33:22]
Tim shared a phrase he heard recently on a podcast. The phrase was “lend me your eyes”. Lend me your ears is to listen to me. Lend me your eyes to help me see this opportunity or issue in the best way possible. [34:57]
Tim speaks about the two sides of changes. There is a technical side where we develop, design, and deliver technical solutions. There’s also a people side where we engage our people to help them adopt and use the solution. If you are interested in this:
