Focus on outcomes and benefits. At the core of successful change management is a clear focus on desired outcomes and benefits. For public companies, for instance, increased shareholder value should be the mantra that guides the development of a BPM initiative. While this may seem intuitive, the challenge lies in enabling and translating the individual efforts throughout the organization into impact on shareholder value.

An effective mechanism for achieving this is the development of value driver trees that detail the dynamics of value creation for an organization (see exhibit 2). By using this technique, shareholder value can be traced to various financial drivers (such as revenue), to operational drivers (such as increased market share), and to specific performance measures (such as customer satisfaction). Not only does this approach aid change management, but it also provides a direct feed to the information content of a BPM system. Value driver trees identify and clarify strategic financial and nonfinancial measures that link back to the overall strategy, and allow for cascading them consistently through the organization.

Developing value driver trees is at the heart of the value realization cycle, which must be actively managed to ensure the desired outcomes and benefits are achieved. This cycle should be the compass that guides the BPM journey and it involves several steps: identifying shareholder improvement targets, developing value drivers, determining key performance indicators related to value drivers, defining the business enabler -- process, technology, and organization initiatives, tracking progress (milestones) of enabler initiatives, ensuring desired actions are taken, and booking the benefits.

Vision and commit. It is always important to articulate the case for change, for instance, by identifying a change trigger. In the case of a holistic BPM system, that trigger is often the need to develop a management system that helps an organization navigate turbulent times, much like the situations described at the beginning of this article. The change trigger can also be cascaded to particular BPM initiatives. As an example, the trigger for the redesign of a budgeting process might be the need to improve cycle times.

To ensure the evolution to a fully integrated system, it is important to establish and communicate a holistic, integrated vision as a first step. This is valuable, as it allows the organization and the various stakeholders to understand all the key connect points that must be made over time. This will ensure that various related initiatives that might be occurring throughout the organization are aligned with the overall direction.

However, given the scope of BPM, it is important to dissect the journey into manageable initiatives. For example, your program may start with the development of a balanced scorecard, the development of an information portal, or the redesign of the closing process. For each initiative, it is important to develop a specific vision, and identify and involve the key stakeholders. While things may change over time, it is also important to lay out the sequencing of initiatives that will ultimately result in the holistic BPM system.

A vision alone, however, will not sell itself. Successful implementation requires demonstrable leadership commitment. In his Harvard Business Review article, "Leading Change: Why Transformation Efforts Fail," John Kotter, professor of leadership at Harvard Business School, observes, "change, by definition, requires creating a new system, which in turn always demands leadership."

Leadership is not management. Leadership is championing the initiative and living the characteristics that represent a commitment. Examples of such characteristics are responsibility and accountability for success, executing with a sense of urgency, developing win-win solutions, open communication, and team work.

An example of demonstrable, committed leadership can be found in one of IBM's internal BPM initiatives. In the early 1990s, IBM recognized that within the PC business, one of the biggest problems was the lack of real-time data. More often than not, the numbers were out of date by a month or more. Without a single version of the truth, management found it hard to diagnose the ailing PC business, let alone nurse it back to health.

To address the situation, the CFO's office sponsored a turnaround solution. One aspect of that solution was to create IBM's first near real-time information network for global status with only a 24-hour lag time. The information network contained daily shipments, demand and supply information, etc. This allowed everyone to monitor performance simultaneously. Initially, this created consternation among several senior executives. Instead of being change enablers, they could have become change inhibitors. However, the CFO's solution was to suggest 15-minute meetings with each dissenting executive, though none were ever needed. This exhibition of commitment to the initiative communicated volumes down through the organization. In response to the CFO's commitment, each senior executive took a personal interest in ensuring that the people, processes, and systems responsible for flowing data up to the global status for their area was as efficient and effective as possible.