Managing Change

A great part of a website’s everyday operation and every digital project is the process of managing change. Change Management is a discipline in its own right, yet aspects of it encroach on all projects and daily interactions on the web. A Change Request Process for instance is an essential operation for ensuring a project stays true to its original scope and specification. All project managers are familiar with scope creep - when a client tries to institute last-minute changes which were not included in the signed-off specs or costings.

More significantly there is a huge process in managing introduced changes. Most humans are just very set in their ways, and many feel affronted when confronted with innovations and iterations. We always warn our own clients to be wary of the ’Vocal Minority’. This is the group that vehemently and vociferously protests any sort of advancement, however good those changes may in fact be for them. The Internet often brings out the worst in people, and the most seemingly mild-mannered turn actively hostile and vitriolic with no obvious provocation.

When we worked with BBC Worldwide several years ago on the UKTV Style website, we worked with a sample of existing users to improve the experience of the message boards. The combined committee instituted a number of obvious improvements, and all involved were happy with the outcome. Yet when those changes went on general release there were vociferous protests from a small minority of users. The producer got a little unnerved by the scathing critique and re-introduced the previous version, only to be met with an even larger barrage of protests from the hitherto ’Silent Majority’- who had in fact been very happy with the changes.

You will always have trouble-makers, agitators and disrupters - particularly as your business grows in size. Once you reach a certain tipping point, you typically incur the wrath of one of these verbally offensive individuals. We ourselves have not been immune to unwarranted hostility from certain quarters. It is always a question of how to diffuse the situation and move it along in an equitable manner - often requiring some significant mitigation.

I have set out the following guidelines to help cope with such difficult situations:

Process

You must have a process in place for handling change and dealing with the consequence of change. You need to set out different steps of the process, how you identify, classify and respond to such incidents.

Language / NLP

Language in these situations is critical, as the wrong wording can quickly escalate proceedings into something far far worse. Never ask your customers to tell you ’What is wrong?’ rather you should ask ’What can be improved and how’. You should solicit positive actions rather than negative reactions.

Classification

There are two parts to classification - identifying what you are dealing with - and thus which action plan it falls within. Equally important is the priority assigned to particular situations, as the most insidious need to be dealt with the quickest.

Acknowledgement

Simple acknowledgement is often the qickest and best way to diffuse potential trouble-spots. You can admit that their may be some teething problems while you fine-tune the experience. You need to accept the situation without taking on any kind of culpability. As noted previously, language is critical in all such exchanges.

Clarification

You need to ensure that both parties have grasped the right end of the stick - so-to-speak. After all, it may just be a misunderstanding. You should always try to reach a position of clarity on why and for what purpose the complainant is taking issue with you. Often the complaint is not directly related to the origin of the cause. It is important to be able to see through people’s motivations - complaints are often levelled just to achieve publicity or notoriety.

Follow-up / Remedy

Often, the simple act of communicating that you have heard and understood the issue, is enough to diffuse the situation. You need to be careful to use positive and affirmative language - e.g. ’we’re looking into ways to improve... thank you for you feedback / input’. You need to stay clear of any culpability, and if your language is imprecise this will be used against you. Be careful also not to set yourself up for further issues by committing to unrealistic deadlines or actions.