Risk Management – Preventing Reversion: Possible Side Effects

Risk Management - Preventing Reversion: Possible Side Effects

Concern: Arguments About Causality

It is likely that there will be arguments about the causality of the benefits and positive change in performance. This is a negative side effect of the change being so quick.

Solution

Wow Measures are implemented to address these negative side effects, by creating the threat of reversal of fortune.
The employees or stakeholders will back down instantly because they’re not willing to undo the publicly recognised benefits gained from the change.

Concern: Entrenching DRP Responses

A minor negative effect of Wow Measures that may occur is that:

Concern: A person directly responsible for the metric that changed has a 'you are talking about me' response (A directly responsible person response, DRP).

For example, if the number of missed due dates has decreased due to the change, the operations manager may feel that the Wow Measure makes their past performance look poor.

Solution

The DRP response can be softened by drawing attention to all the difficulties faced by the manager, before the changes were made.
Pitch the change as addressing the concerned manager's difficulties. In other words, the manager was ‘right all along’.
This is an important reason to understand the cross-functional pain points of the situation before acting to implement the changes.

Concern: Change in People

A business is most at risk for this possible negative side effect if there is a change in management.

Concern: Changes in key management roles will takes us back to the ‘old way.’ The existing managers who have been through the change process understand to leave it as it is, but a new manager will not have experienced the Wow Measure improvement and is likely to start changing it back to how it is done elsewhere, the ‘old way’.

Typically, this will only occur post-implementation unless a business has a management change during implementation.

Solution

Document evidence of the changes and the Wow Measure during the change process, so that any new manager can see the fortune that the solution has created.