For many organizations, the month of September means that planning for the new year is beginning in earnest.  And while the economic situation may be improving, it’s likely that you will be planning for getting more done with less--  Reduced budgets.  Fewer people. From an implementation perspective, this means you’ll need to work smarter and target your resources in the most effective way possible.  Applying the principles and tools of the Accelerating Implementation Methodology (AIM) is a good place to start.

Tip #1-

Use measurement to target your resources for maximum impact

If you have limited resources (and who doesn’t!) then you want to use them wisely.  You can use the Implementation History Assessment (IHA) to gain a systemic look at where you are likely to face barriers like poor Sponsorship, a risk-averse culture, or a weak reinforcement system.  Combine the IHA with the Implementation Risk Forecast (IRF), which measures the risks and barriers on your specific project.  Analyzed together, you’ll have a good idea of where you need to concentrate your time, energy and resources.  This will help you avoid a common implementation “speed bump”- change agents who are seduced by actions that are “safe” but have low impact.

Tip #2-

Make contracting for active Sponsorship your first priority

Whenever you are in a situation with limited resources, your first priority should be to ensure you are continuing to contract for Sponsors who will express, model and reinforce their commitment to the business change.  Since Sponsorship represents a factor of somewhere between 30-50% of the likelihood of implementation success, you should always make certain that you are asking for what you need from your Sponsors.  Use the key role map discipline to identify all of your Reinforcing Sponsors.

Tip#3-

Develop an implementation plan that incorporates the core AIM deliverables

Investing some time and energy up-front to plan to develop a proper and robust implementation plan that’s continuously monitored will pay significant dividends.  Focus your plan based on the results of your IHA and IRF, with a strategic emphasis on Defining the Change, Building Agent Capacity, Generating Sponsorship, Developing Readiness, Building a Communication Plan, and Developing a Reinforcement Strategy.  These 6 AIM elements should be incorporated into your implementation plan. 

Tip#4-

Build readiness for your business change early to reduce the costs of managing resistance later

Remember that whether your change is perceived as positive or negative, you will have resistance.  The best way to manage the resistance is to identify the potential sources of resistance early-on.  If you spend some of your resource energy early in the project life cycle on building readiness (and this requires more than top-down communications through email, a web-site, or similar common communication-plan elements that have no feedback loop) you’ll spend less time and need fewer resources dealing with resistance later.  The end-goal is adoption and behavior change, so you need to build readiness through the Frames of Reference of your Targets.

If you follow these tips, you’ll likely accelerate the implementation of your change. And getting your change completed more quickly reduces cost, and makes better use of your scarce and finite resources.