Stewart McKie

Leading businesses know that change is an ever-present and influential aspect of their operating environment. For many organizations, effective change management is nothing less than a core competency needed to maintain their competitive edge or even to survive. However managing change is a challenge and situational awareness (SA) is an important new capability that will help every organization manage change more effectively.

SA as a concept, technology and practice has been around for some years in specific operating environments, such as the military and aviation. SA supports the ability of individuals operating in these environments to handle complex and rapidly changing situations in which decisions are often made under stressful conditions. SA also assumes that these individuals are operating as part of a network of others and delivers an essential component of network-enabled capability.

Mica R Endsley, a pioneer in SA thinking says, “Most simply put, SA is knowing what is going on around you” [1]. But like most simple things “knowing what is going on around you” is not that easy in today’s complex organizations and dynamic business operating environment. That’s why the conceptual framework of SA is deep and demands sophisticated technology to deliver.

This white paper first outlines the challenge of change management and introduces the conceptual framework for SA. Then the paper discusses the application of SA to enable effective organizational change management and the technology architecture required to support this effort.

The Challenge of Change

The challenge of change in a business organization can be summed up in three words: Before, during and after. Most organizations implement change to convert a “before” situation into an “after”. What happens “during” this conversion process is where the heart of the challenge of change lies. And most organizations want to make sure that whilst undergoing change, organizational and operational turbulence is kept to a minimum.

Organizational and operational turbulence can be beneficial. As a positive force, beneficial turbulence reflects the need to introduce discontinuities into organizations in order to induce or promote innovation. Beneficial turbulence acts a way of shaking up people’s thinking and breaking the shackles of ingrained patterns of working that may be out of sync with current realities.

However in many organizations change turbulence has a negative impact. Resources are stretched as change initiatives are layered on top and alongside each other. People become disillusioned, partners become distanced and customers disenchanted as change management activity saps organizational bandwidth and impacts relationships. Minimizing this negative turbulence, by getting from before to after as quickly and effectively as possible, is what effective change management is all about.

Unfortunately the technology to support change management is immature and fragmented. Forecasting tools can help with planning change. Program and project management applications can help to effect and manage specific change initiatives. Vertical IT change management applications can help to manage specific technology-related change management processes. But few, if any, applications are designed to promote effective change management by embracing many change processes at once, in a holistic way, to minimize their collective potential to create negative turbulence during the transition from before to after.

One important way to enable effective change management is to improve the situational awareness of the organization and of individual change managers while undergoing inter-connected change initiatives. By improving this situational awareness you can:

• ist 36.0pt;" class="MsoNormal">Minimize change conflicts that result in over/under utilization of resources
• Identify change impacts before they cause turbulence
• Improve the ability of managers to make decisions under stress
• Better project revised change outcomes to keep expectations realistic
• Involve more stakeholders in the ownership and results of change initiatives

From a technology perspective SA is not just better business intelligence, although it delivers higher quality information about organizational change, nor is it just improved program or project management, although it depends on these tools for raw data about change activities. Business SA provides change visualization capabilities to improve business change decisions made under stress and reduce the turbulence of change.

What is SA?

Situational awareness (SA) is not a new thing - as a concept, practice or technology. As Endsley says “Prehistoric man undoubtedly needed to be aware of many cues in his environment in order to successfully hunt and keep from being hunted.” Today, SA concepts and technology are widely used by the military and in specific industry verticals such as air traffic control.

Endsley defines SA as, “the perception of elements in the environment within a volume of time and space, the comprehension of their meaning and the projection of their status in the near future.” However the real-world application of SA is also firmly grounded within core general business practices such as goal-setting, decision-making and performance management.

Endsley’s breakdown of SA capability has three levels:

1. Perception - of cues and stimulus from the environment
   
   
2. Comprehension – involving the integration of information to facilitate relevance determination and sense-making
   
   
3. Projection – the ability to forecast future situation events and dynamics

In addition, Endsley highlights the importance of temporal factors to SA, for example in understanding:

• how much time is available until some event occurs or some action must be taken
• the rate at which information is changing currently to help project future state

Hendy [2] also emphasizes these temporal factors in terms of an information-processing model that provides a measure of time pressure. Time pressure is a key part of the dynamic of SA and is determined by the ratio of

Time taken to process the information

necessary to make a decision

_______________________________

Time Available before the decision
has to be actioned

Time pressure is also a key factor in decision-making under stress (DMUS) in order to make correct performance choices. Endsley notes that SA is separate from decision-making and performance but it’s easy to see how SA significantly enhances both. Indeed in many actual implementations of SA, such as in aircraft cockpits, SA may be a significant contributor to a decision that results in a life-or-death action.

Endsley and Hendy both see SA as relevant to an individual’s “mental model” - a state of mind that reflects that individual’s perception of the current situation. The foundation for this mental model is a set of goals, the individual’s preconceptions and expectations and the level of automaticity he brings in response to certain stimulus. Hendy says:

“The Mental Model is that part of the operator’s internal state which contains the knowledge and structure necessary to perform a task. As such, the operator’s mental model directly shapes the operator’s actions and determines the potential to perform in accordance with the system demands. The mental model contains the operator’s goal state and provides the reference against which actions are selected and initiated.”

Replace the term “operator” above with “change manager” or “change team” and the relevance of the mental model becomes obvious. In aviation, the experience of fighter pilots and civilian airline pilots has proved that an outdated mental model can lead to disaster. In business, a key benefit of SA is its ability to help individuals and teams update their internal mental model to bring it into line with the realities of the current external “situation map” when operating within the dynamic of change.

Situational Awareness and Change Management

Managing change, especially in large complex organizations, demand high levels of co-operation and collaboration to succeed. From a technology perspective, a change management system is what You [3] defines as a Co-operative system, “computer-based systems that support co-ordinated team efforts towards completion of joint tasks.”

In a team-based, change-led business environment SA creates both group and workspace awareness. Group awareness has been defined as “an understanding of the activities of others, which provides a context for your own activity.” Gutwin and Greenberg [4] define workspace awareness as “the up-to-the-minute knowledge a person holds about another’s interaction with the workplace.” This kind of awareness builds and supports a shared “team cognition” in relation to change initiatives.

So for organizations to sustain effective change management when working in a dynamic environment, support systems must enable team members to create and maintain mental models that include a sense of change awareness. This is what SA offers by embracing a number of “change subjects” and attributes of those subjects as listed below:

A rich set of change subjects is important because it ensures that a wider variety of situation maps can be generated to visualize change and help resolve change turbulence.

Situation Maps: Visualizing Change

For SA to succeed in enabling more effective change management demands a multidimensional view of information. And the most effective way for this information to be delivered is visually, using interactive situation maps.

A situation map is a visual representation of a selective combination of change management dimensions that also provides the ability to quickly highlight and help to resolve change impacts and conflicts. A situation map is literally the visual user interface (VUI) of SA. Examples of situation maps already in use are pilot heads-up displays, air traffic controller radar screens and in-car satellite navigation systems.

A key point about these kinds of situation maps is that they are often based on real-time data feeds, their purpose being to “present” the situation at that point in time. Pilots, air traffic controllers and even car drivers often don’t have the time to play with their situation map to remodel potential outcomes because they are focused on “the here and now”.

But situation maps used in a business change management environment are usually subject to less time pressure. So when used in change management, a situation map may also be expected to perform a forecasting or modelling function so that potential change impacts and conflicts can be identified before rather than after the fact, proactively rather than reactively.

Situation maps can be visualized in many ways, including as

• two and three dimensional chart objects (bar, line, pie etc.)
• tables and multidimensional “cubes”
• histograms and scatter plots
• location maps and radar screens
• architectural plans
• organization charts and hierarchies
• process and flowcharts
• decision trees and mind maps
• virtual reality images (buildings, cloud formations etc)

The value of a situation map depends on using a combination of change subjects both to convey information content and context and to enable the map to be redrawn in response to user input using the change subjects as control variables. This interactivity is essential to allow for projection based on the map presented and for constructing alternate perspectives of the same situation, to create a different point-of-view (POV).

Alternative POVs are recognized in the military (and in consumer virtual reality games) as an essential part of complete SA visibility. For example, if you can see your position through your enemy’s eyes you may benefit from a significantly different and important SA perspective that could lead to different decisions subject to different time pressure.

A situation map or map POV also depends on

• the level of data aggregation (i.e. summary or detail)
• the level of data abstraction (i.e. whole or part)
• personalization (i.e. to the “viewing” user or role)
• domination (i.e. the key point of view relative to the change)

As part of a network-enabled capability, situation maps are ideal as the basis for a collaborative activities conducted over the Internet to facilitate online, interactive and distributed group change management activities.

Situational Awareness Stakeholders

SA can help a wide range of organizational stakeholders involved in change management. These stakeholders include

• CxO management levels
• Change managers
• Change partners
• Operational managers impacted by change

CxO Management

CEO, CFO, CIO and other executive level management will be interested in high level overviews of current change initiatives. When they view a change subject through the situation map they may be less interested in the data behind the map and more interested in specific KPIs or Alerts associated with the map.

Change Managers

Change managers will be interested in situation maps that help them to understand where exceptions/conflicts will occur as they change the map or the underlying to data to model new change scenarios. They will also be interested in how re-modelling of the change situation impacts change initiative timelines and resourcing.

Change Partners

Major change partners will be interested in much the same as change managers but might only see or own a small piece of the overall change management pie. Security permissions linked to the partner role will ensure that partners can collaborate in organizational change as effectively as internal participants and benefit from the same level of situational awareness.

Operational Managers

Operational managers are interested in which changes impact them and their people and what future change conflicts could occur that they need to prepare for sooner rather than later. It is vital that situational change awareness is also made available to all operational managers who are impacted by change to ensure that change is managed holistically across the organization.

While situational change awareness lets everyone involved in and impacted by change participate and collaborate using situation maps, the idea is not to attempt to present “one version of the truth”. The aim is to allow all change stakeholders to work with their own point-of-view to better understand how change impacts them individually or the organizational units they are responsible for.

Visual Change Management Application

So what does a visual change management application based on situational awareness look like?

As figure 1 below shows, a visual change management application is neither a portal nor a knowledgebase but emphasizes the subjects of change and provides superior change analytics, visualization and resolution.

Figure 1: Visual Change Manager Application Architecture

Change Subjects Repository and Integration Layer

The core component is the Change Subjects Repository (CSR). This is the database that contains all the reference, relationship and transactional data relating to the range of change subjects that are appropriate for a given organization.

Some of this reference and transactional data may reside in other organizational systems, such as HR or project management systems, and require use of the integration layer to keep the CSR updated. For non-integrated change subjects the reference, relationship and transactional data can be added manually via a forms-based user interface.

Subject maintenance forms are used to create, edit or delete change subjects and manage change subject hierarchies. Subject impact journals are used to change the status of a change subject as and when this change of status occurs. Change subjects may also be linked to other organizational information through the integration layer to add contextual richness - such as Microsoft Office documents, spreadsheets and email messages or web sites/pages

Change Analytics

The change analytics layer provides a set of standard business intelligence analytical capabilities on top of the CSR. The analytical formats provided include:

• end-user views of the data for online, interactive drilldown type inquiries
• reports and lists for publishing to paper, Excel, PDF, HTML etc.
• multidimensional cubes for “slice and dice” type ad-hoc analysis
• email alerts based on event triggers associated with change subjects

This kind of analytics provides audit trail listings, formatted reports and on line analytical processing (OLAP) capabilities on top of the CSR.

Change Visualization

The change visualization layer provides the visual user interface (VUI) to the CSR in the form of a variety of situational maps using radar, point of view, process flow or image based displays. The VUI has a different purpose to the change analytics layer because it is used as a basis for individuals and groups of users to

• rapidly assimilate complex, cross-change subject views of change activities
• collaboratively discuss the situation map over the Internet
• gain consensus over a holistic view of the data

Where the analytics layer is used to inform about the past of change subjects and alert users to possible current issues, the visualization layer is used to visualize and manage “the here and now”.

Change Resolution

The change resolution layer depends on the visualization layer to provide specific types of situation map that are used to model possible future change scenarios and to conduct impact analysis. These are the kinds of activities that involve highly interactive use of the map data by viewers of the map. The change resolution layer is used both to model the future of a specific set of change subjects and to help “close the loop” of the process of managing change impacts.

Visual User Interface (VUI)

SA depends on a highly visual user interface to deliver an optimal value proposition. A simulation of the kind of VUI required for SA is shown below. The VUI has three panels:

1. A left hand panel to navigate change subjects and their relationships using a collapse-expand data tree paradigm. The change subjects displayed reflect the permissions linked to the current user’s role. Selecting different change subject(s) reflects in the display of the linked situation map to the right.
   
   
2. The tree is linked to the upper right panel, which displays the selected change subject(s in the context of an appropriate interactive visual situation map, selected by clicking a tab. The user can interactively manipulate the map co-ordinates to change the data displayed in the panel below.
   
   
3. The situation map is linked to the lower right hand panel, which displays data attributes reflecting the current context of the selected element(s) in the situation map above. The user can interactively manipulate the data to change the map above on-the-fly.

This kind of VUI provides a single screen view of all change subjects and their relationships, an interactive situation map and a way to view/model/change the data to reflect the user’s need to review and resolve change situations and change conflicts.

Conclusion

The use of situational awareness takes change management to a new level by allowing managers to create a holistic, visual and interactive view of the changes going on in the organization.

Improved situational awareness helps to reduce the turbulence of change, increase the organizational capacity for change and encourage more stakeholders to engage with the process of making change more efficient and effective.

Technology that delivers improved situational awareness does so by integrating and complementing existing change management applications and tools, while adding important new capabilities to pull all this information together and present it in ways that focus attention on the subjects of change.

References:

[1] Endsley, M.R., Theoretical Underpinnings of Situation Awareness: A Critical Review

[2] Hendy, K.C., Situation Awareness and Workload: Birds of a Feather

[3] You, Y., A Survey for the Study of Awareness in Co-operative Systems

[4] Gutwin C. and Greenberg, S., The Importance of Awareness for Team Cognition in Distributed Collaboration

Related Stories

• Raytheon awarded Air Force Contract for Space Situational Awareness Improvements Demonstration
• MetaCarta and ArdentMC Provide Situational Awareness for DHS During Presidential Inauguration
• Garmin's(R) GMX 200(TM) Gives Advanced Situational Awareness