Question

Yamaha Calendar: Project management and Change Management

A recent hire, fresh from college graduation, joined a recreation company that sold snowmobiles, motorcycles and outboard motors.

One of the first projects he was given was to create a calendar to give to their dealers to give to their customers. Showing the various products being used in their seasons was a popular concept, and the senior management fully supported the idea.

Forming a team, the young graduate developed a project plan. Quotes were gathered, a preliminary product concept developed, design ideas were brainstormed. Budget was approved, all the distribution plans were put together. The team reported their plans to a senior executive who served as a champion for the project.

The concept was called the “weekend Warrior Calendar”. It would show 13 months of activities, with beautiful outdoor photography of snowmobiles in the winter, outboards and all-terrain vehicles in the spring and fall, and in the summer personal watercraft and motorcycles. As well, traditional calendars showed each week as showing a Sunday to Saturday week. The team developed the idea to have the week shown as Monday to Sunday. This way, since weekend usage of the products was so high, people could better plan their weekend itinerary.

Although the team seemingly was progressing, some of the team members were not pleased. One member quoted “These kids. Think they can come in here and change the world! Suddenly we need a champion, a project charter. Geez, what are minutes???” I like the kid, but we got more processes than productivity.”

Another project member had similar comments. “I hear all these new ideas being bounced around, and I never get to bring my opinion. I guess everything is going ok but am I the only one who hates this design. Every calendar starts on Sunday and ends On Saturday. Weekend Warrior Calendar? I think we are asking for confusion.”

It was true, to reflect the nature of the owners of recreation products, who often spend their weekends enjoying their snowmobiles and boats, the calendar was designed to reflect this timing. But there was some project team resistance. The push back was muted as many of the members were extremely enthusiastic about the design, often drowning out dissent.

The first complaint came from an inside employee. She had used the calendar to develop a purchase plan and all the dates ended up being wrong as she assumed a traditional calendar design. Later, a dealer called the VP and suggested the new calendar was a great idea but felt the lack of communication on how it was a different calendar was not adequate.

The VP was livid. “How come I did not know about this?” The Marketing director was also upset. “I was the project Champion and they did not inform me about this? Now I look bad”

Our young project manager was feeling the heat!

Questions:

1. From a change management perspective, what could the team have done better or differently to introduce this unique calendar concept?
2. How could the team members have different opinions with-in the team? Why was there no full consensus? What does this indicate about the team’s development and performance capabilities?
3. How can the team now recover since the project has had a poor introduction?

Answer 1

· From a change management perspective, the team could have done better to introduce the calendar in the following ways-

o Effective communication- The team failed to inform the users on the uniqueness of the calendar. Even the inside employee used it like a traditional calendar which should not have been done so.

o Participation of others- The team should have opted for suggestions and opinions for improvements of the calendar from other team members both senior and new.

o Overcome resistance – The project team members showed resistance to the design. Remember, a project would be successful only if all the team members have shared goals and mission to achieve the project goals. Hence, there should not be any kind of aversion from the team members. It has to be overcome by convincing them about the advantages of using the new calendar.

· The team members have different opinions with-in the team because their participation and suggestions were not sought for. The project manager was intended to just implement his ideas without seeking the project team members’ suggestions for improvements and to make the project successful.

There was no consensus because the project manager did not communicate effectively the design, its advantages and how the project team could contribute to the success of the project.

The above indicates that team’s development and performance capabilities are at stake. The project team is not encouraged nor their ideas sought for. The team’s development is not considered and their performance capabilities assessed before the goals are set. The only aim of the project manager is to make the calendar project successful without considering the team members’ performance capabilities and their resistance.

· The team can now recover since the project has had a poor introduction if the project manager communicates effectively about the goals of the project, product design and invite participation of other team members for improvements. The team managers should allow other team members to speak up to listen to their concerns and address them. This would overcome team resistance and help the project to move successfully to achieve the goals.

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