Change Case Study – Major Change in a Government Agency

Situation
A government agency with 40 staff was given responsibility for a new function that effectively
doubled their workload. The existing 40 staff were having difficulty coping with their current
workload. They had 18 months to develop the new policies and procedures required for the new
function. Additional staff would be considered on the basis of a well argued business case for
each position.

Challenges
The CEO of the business listed their main challenges as:

• They had to change without any reduction in service to existing clients
• They had tight budget constraints
• Developing business cases for and training new staff takes time and effort
• They had to learn how to deal with the broader community (rather than just government clients)
• Many existing business processes and procedures were poorly documented
• Change management and project management skills were minimal
• They had many dedicated staff who they didn’t want to burn out
• They needed a simple change process that was easy to learn and apply.

Implementation
The CEO called on TASKey to provide change and project management training and tools. The
objective was to give all staff the practical knowledge and skills they needed to both survive and
implement the new function.

TASKey trained the CEO and all staff in the TASKey TEAM method and tools. TASKey provided
two days training in the method and tools. Staff were pleased that at the end of the two days they
not only understood the method and tools, but they had an overall schedule and many detailed
plans. Most importantly, they had the confidence and tools to independently work together in
teams to create the many smaller plans that enabled the overall change.

The TASKey methods and tools were used consistently over the 18 month period. ToDo lists that
were derived from schedules and plans provided the core of the business cases for more staff.
New team members were trained in the TASKey methods and tools, so they could quickly
participate in managing the change.

On the day before the public launch of the new function, the CEO told TASKey that TASKey
methods and tools had made a significant contribution to the successful change and that the
methods and tools were now an important part of how the agency did business. Key staff
highlighted that: TASKey’s methods and tools had given them the ability to quickly develop
understandable, workable team plans; and individual ToDo lists created from team plans kept
everyone focused and coordinated during implementation.

ROI
The value added by TASKey’s methods and tools was clearly demonstrated by:

• the agency had achieved an outcome that few believed was possible in the first instance,
• existing staff were able to significantly improve their productivity without unacceptable levels of stress, and
• the requirement for costly external consulting support was minimal, because the existing and new staff were able to implement the change by refocusing some of their time and effort.

In summary, TASKey’s methods and tools had made all staff better managers with minimal formal
training.