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New Jersey Department of Transportation In the late 1990's, in the face of rising "soft costs" and significant delays in moving projects through its construction pipeline, the New Jersey Department of Transportation (NJDOT) decided to overhaul its Capital Program Management (CPM) to an extent that no state had ever before attempted. Rather than allowing each project to find its own way through the functional "stovepipes" of each phase of project scoping, design, and construction, a new Project Management role, structure, and work process was created. Each project was assigned to a Project Manager who was responsible for it from beginning to end, leading teams of specialists from each of the functions as needed in each phase of the process, and assuring that both quality requirements and opportunities for expedience were met. The Project Management approach required many new skills and new ways of thinking. Unfortunately, there was also the need to overcome stiff internal resistance to this change. We worked with CPM to develop and implement a comprehensive change management and communication program. The program addressed the key human factors critical to the success of Project Management, including resistance to change, the skills required to work on project teams and, overall, how to achieve desired results in the new "matrix" of authority and responsibility. Our initial efforts involved: 1) assessing the key areas of resistance and alignment through focus group interviews throughout CPM and a customized Change Readiness Survey of all employees; and 2) building CPM top management's understanding and ability to lead the change as an executive team.
Over the ensuing 18 months we delivered a series of Managing Change workshops for all managers in CPM designed to build: 1) alignment through communication and dialogue about the desired future state; and 2) skills in anticipating and responding to the human dynamics of change. These workshops included a survey assessment of m anagement practices. Individual results were provided to the managers in the workshops and aggregate results on the overall management practices of CPM were analyzed and used as a guide to build on strengths and develop better management practices. Individual contributors participated in Coping with Change workshops that were designed to help employees in CPM understand and cope with the major changes occurring in their work environment. This workshop used another feedback instrument that provided confidential feedback to employees and enabled choices for increasing effectiveness in key behaviors, such as taking initiative, collaboration, and handling conflict. We also worked closely with CPM's executives in facilitating an action planning retreat with the managers who reported directly to them and creating action plans/teams to address emergent issues. As CPM gained experience in the new approach, we gathered data about project management best practices and designed a survey feedback instrument around these practices and the proven practices of successful project management organizations. We also conducted interviews to gather case studies of actual projects from NJDOT that were used to disseminate information about how to lead successful projects and avoid pitfalls. We then designed and delivered a series of workshops based on CPM's "lessons learned" that included the s urvey instrument and the case studies. The purpose of this workshop was to enable managers and project managers to increase their understanding of the behaviors that are essential to high performance in a project management structure. We also conducted a series of meetings with all the managers in CPM to review the aggregate data of both the surveys . Using the data, managers were able to create action plans for both individual and organizational development. At the end of its first year of Project Management, the number and dollar amount of construction contracts awarded, which is the key initial measure of the goal of accelerating projects, had increased dramatically.
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