We try to avoid change when by definition; change is what we’re here to manage. Why not make it a skill? Learn why managing change is a skill like any other. It is a career differentiator. And it’s easy as can be. This presentation was given at Information Development World on May 16, 2017 Don’t miss our upcoming event, Information Development World: Creating Machine-Ready Content to be held on November 28-30, 2017. http://www.informationdevelopmentworld.com

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Understanding How to Introduce
and Maintain Change
Paul Perrotta, Sr Director, Juniper Networks

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§ 32 years in content development as a writer and
organization leader
While I no longer fluently read cuneiform tablets, I do
remember them
§ Worked at ROLM (IBM, Siemens), Pyramid Technology,
EDS (Siemens Nixdorf, Fujitsu Microelectronics), Cisco
Systems, and Juniper Networks
§ Spent last 5+ years at Juniper Networks, Inc.
• Currently serve as a Senior Director in a product
documentation organization called Information Experience.
• Hardware + software documentation
• I lead a solutions content team, central services (editing,
graphics, Juniper Books, illustration, program management,
production), and operations
§ I have an opinion. Get off my lawn.
$ whoami

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Change
§ Rob just spoke about governance and what it is
§ Change management is the governance for introducing & maintaining
change into those processes and relationships

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Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes
1985
§ Hardcopy text + line art
§ Well-defined process
§ Using WYSIWYG (then GML) software
§ Book paradigm (TOC, PTOC, LOF, LOT,
Index, …) with headers/footers
§ Took a long time
§ Using standard fonts
§ Physical specs
§ Output measured in shelf-feet
§ Change agent = ourselves
2017
§ HTML online text + line art / video / photos /
animations AND in-product guidance
§ Well-defined process
§ Using XML software + CMS + graphics + sound
§ Topic paradigm with metadata and hypertext
links and loading optimization and tracking
§ Who has time?!
§ We have fonts?!
§ Device awareness
§ Output measured in completeness
§ Change agent = everyone

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Governance and Change
Change is everywhere
expected
part of what we do
inevitable
is how we evolve behaviors & governance
is a skill that can be learned and honed
can have its own governance model
Governance tells us what to expect
can be formal / informal
has a different focus at
different levels
Change management

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Managing Change
§ Managing change is a life skill
(not just a professional skill).
§ There is a big overlap in
managing change and
managing innovation.
§ Primary elements of success
center on communication
and execution based on the
context of your corporate
culture and organizational
culture.
Communication
Execution
Solid Positive
Culture

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Managing Change
Change management is not a command-and-control exercise.
It is a hearts-and-minds journey.

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Managing Change: Communication & Execution
This part is about theory…
§ Communication is a multipath flow
(among/between, to/from)
§ What we do today
§ Obstacles and problems
§ What we want to do tomorrow
§ How we’re going to get there
§ What will it look like?
§ Why do it?
Communication
§ Get it done in the right way on time
§ Someone has to be designated as
accountable
§ Is about doing the work to implement
good change while understanding
enough of the complexity
Execution

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§ Communication without execution is
hot air.
§ Execution without communication
has very little credibility.
Managing Change:
Communication & Execution
This part is about theory…
“The perfect is the enemy of the good.”
– Voltaire (ish)
“Better a diamond with a flaw than
a pebble without.”
– Confucius

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Managing Change
What is a Culture of Transparency?
In our group/team/org culture…
§ We all know who we are and what we do
§ Leaders must not only present issues but take input.
• Have we characterized the problem properly?
• Are there others we don’t know about?
§ Communication must flow throughout the organization.
§ Note successes and challenges.
§ Communication must be consistent—your #1 priority in Q1 should still be
your #1 priority in Q2.

12. 12Managing Change
Establish a Baseline Local Culture of Transparency
Scope
• What do we
do?
• What do we
not do?
Vision/Values
• Who are we as
an
organization?
• Where are we
headed?
Goals
• What will we
do by when?
• Who will do
them?
Strategy
• How will we
achieve our
goals?
• What tools
will we use?
• What does
success look
like?
We have to talk about this

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Managing Change
What is Good Communication?
§ Communication takes the form of group meetings, team meetings,
individual meetings, websites, minutes, blogs, email, small cakes, and plain
old talking.
§ Good communication is regular, consistent, true, respectful

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VP
Leadership
Employees
Managing Change
Org Culture of Transparency
Regular updates
Reiteration of plans
Celebrate successes
Listen to issues

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Managing Change
Establish a Corporate Culture of Transparency
VP
Leadership
Employees
VP
Leadership
Employees
VP
Leadership
Employees
Your org Customer Support Dev Eng
Who we are
Our problems
What we’re doing

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Managing Change
What do the Rest of Us Do?
Engage
Product
Mgmt
Product
Marketing
Field Reps
Customer
Support
Dev Eng
Customers
16
§ Communicate with
everyone else
§ Standing team meetings
§ Forums
§ Advisory Boards
§ Be respectful of time
§ Ask a few pointed questions
§ Use A/B testing

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Managing Change
What is Good Execution?
• Good execution means we drive to the correct objectives and
anticipate obstacles.
• We understand who is accountable—if you don’t have a single name
who will take the arrows when it goes wrong, then you don’t know who
is accountable.
• We understand what we’re doing. There is a problem statement, a
schedule, a list of tasks, and a plan for engaging the right people.
• We have a sense of urgency.
• We communicate goals, tasks, progress, and issues.

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Organizations are People
§ Rumours are deadly to organizations
§ Poorly informed people (employees,
coworkers, other organizations) make
things up or ascribe motivations / points of
view
§ When people are informed, they don’t
gossip or mong rumours
§ Communications transparency is the
antirumour and builds trust and thus a
stronger organization.

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Change Derailers
Beating the Ultra-Low Level Simpletons who Hate Incentivized Teams (BULLSHIT)
§ Duplication of effort
§ Funding surprises
§ Goal shifting
§ Resource shifting
§ Missing dates
§ Lack of collaboration
§ Fingerpointing by execs
§ Project cancellation
(changing our minds)
§ Stakeholder surprise
§ Customer surprise

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Takeaways
1. Culture matters
2. Communication is key for org health
3. Communication is key for execution

21. Backup

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Easy Example:
We now need to perform first-article proofs
Change = insert a step after content dev but before print
• What process are we replacing or improving?
• What content needs first-article proofs?
• What’s in-scope for a proof? What’s not?
• Who submits? Who inspects? Who arbitrates?
• How long should a proof take?
• What’s the time frame to correct problems?
• How many times can something be submitted?
• What feedback loops are there?

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Moderate Example:
Our content should conform to a standard BOM
Change = Create a standard then deliver content consistently
• What groups are affected?
• Should there be an analysis? Do we
need standards?
• Do changes affect any other groups or
products?
• Are the changes by vote? Are they
optional? What are the consequences
of not implementing?
• Do we need a proof of concept?
• How do we know when we’re done?
• What org goals does this support?
• What’s the schedule?
• How does this fit with what product
managers want?
• Does this affect our SEO strategy?
• Does this affect our Style Guide?
• Does this apply to all content ever
created? Or just the most recent?
• Do we need new metadata?
• Who wanted us to do this?
• Does this take precedence over my
product schedule?

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Complex Example:
Improve Content Quality
Change = Measure and improve content quality
• What quality measures does
Development use? Marketing?
Support? The company? The
industry? Competitors?
• Which ones are most
important?
• Who gets a vote?
• What are the big levers?
• Should we do an assessment?
Internal or external or both?
• How do we know when we’re
done?
• What’s the schedule?
• Do we all do the same
thing?
• How do we decide?
• Who tracks separate
actions?
• Are we staffed to do
everything?
• Do we have the right skill
sets?
• How do we assess what we
want to do?
• Who are all the
stakeholders?
• What changes are occurring
the rest of the company?
• Who else cares about our
content quality? Sales?
Customers? Support?
• What do we expect to
happen as a result of our
actions?
• Who took my cheese?
• Do these pants make me
look fat?