The Sisyphus Project

1. Contact Info                                                                                                           Sponsored by:
Name:                                                                                                    Municipal World
E-Mail ID:
2. Location
Country
3. Which of the following best represents your job title?
CEO/President/Owner/General Manager
Vice President/Assistant Vice President
Treasurer/Controller/Chief Financial Officer
Director/Assistant Director/Section Head
Manager/Assistant Manager
Supervisor/Assistant Supervisor
Administrative Support/Clerical
Other

How this survey is intended to work... 

Think of a Change Project in which you were involved - one you remember very well and that came to completion.
All of the questions in the survey will relate to that specific Change Project.

If you have the time... it would be very useful if you could fill this survey out twice... once for a 'failed' project and
again for a successful project. I am obviously seeking the key difference between these two types of results.

4. General Consensus on the success/failure of this Change Project

5. Describe the three most important measurements everyone used to come to this conclusion.
          (if no measurements were used... leave the responses blank)

Measure #1
Measure #2
Measure #3
6. Management's view of the Change Project
   (as it can sometimes differ from the general consensus)

7. Describe the three most important measurements MANAGEMENT used
    to come to this conclusion. (if no measurements were used... leave the responses blank)

Measure #1
Measure #2
Measure #3
8. Describe this Change in as much detail as you're willing to offer.
      This is the most important question... We will 'mine' these descriptions
      in great detail to extract additional information.
9. In what type of organization did this Change Project take place?
Business firm
Professional firm/practice
Self-employed in own business
Private school, hospital or other private institution
Local, state or federal government
Other

10. Which of the following best describes the organization's primary business?

Agriculture
Construction
Finance, Insurance, Real Estate
Government
Health Care
Manufacturing
Mining
Retail
Services
Transportation
Communications
Utilities
Wholesale
Nonprofit
Other

11. What part of the organization was most affected by the Change?

General Management
Organizational Structure
Sales
Marketing
Manufacturing
Research & Development
IT Department
Human Resources
Training and Education
Production
Customer Service
Purchasing
Finance/Accounting
Other

12. Approximately how many people were affected by this change?

13. Duration of Change - from start to finish.

How many months? (required)
14. Describe the three Change Management activities/non-activities which generated the most success in moving the Change Forward.
Activity #1
Activity #2
Activity #3
15. Describe the three Change Management activities/non-activities which generated the most failure in moving the Change Forward.
Activity #1
Activity #2
Activity #3
--------------------------------------------------------------
Definition: Change Owner - The person/group who decided that the Change was Necessary.
16. Who were the Change Owner(s) in this project (use relevant titles and descriptions)?
Definition: Change Agent - The person/group who owned the task of implementing the Change.
17. Who were the Change Agent(s) in this project(use relevant titles and descriptions) ?
Definition: Target Audience - The person/group most affected by the Change in either
their Business processes, status, job security, need for training etc. etc.
18. Who were the Target Audience in this project (use relevant titles and descriptions)?
19. It is possible that different groups play multiple roles in any Change.
In the Change Project you're describing, identify which of the following relationships were true.
The Change Owner, Change Agent and Target Audience were the same person/group.
The Change Owner and Change Agent were the same person/group.
The Change Owner and Target Audience were the same person/group
The Change Agent and Target Audience were the same person/group
The Change Owner, Change Agent and Target Audience were different person/groups.

Since it is the Target Audience which must embrace the Change in order for any
Change Project to succeed, the next set of questions is focused on their perspective of the project.
20. Target Audience Reactions

  Strongly Agree Agree Neutral Disagree Strongly Disagree
They could describe the reason for the proposed Change
They agreed with the reason for the proposed Change
They were involved with defining the Change necessary
They felt comfortable raising concerns regarding the Change
They believed the Change benefited everyone not only the company
They understood in detail what Changes would take place
They understood in detail what would remain the same during the Change
There was an open and honest dialogue between themselves and the Change Agent
They had the full support of the Change Owner throughout the Change
They trusted the messages and information communicated by the Change Agent
Enough time was allocated to assimilate the Change
They had the skills necessary to implement the Change
They were provided with the training necessary to implement the Change
21. If you could do one thing differently in the Change Project you were thinking of while filling out this survey... what would that be? And why would it make a difference to the success or failure of the project?
22. I expect that over the coming months I, and others, will produce a series of articles and reports based on this survey project. Would you like to be placed on a mail list to receive a monthly update on these reports? Nobody except myself, Peter de Jager, will have access to your e-mail ID or name and the email will only point you towards the location of the survey reports.
Yes Please.
No Thanks.

23. There will be a series of prizes presented at random for people who took the time to fill this survey.
If you are selected, would you prefer a:

Digital Camera
USB Storage Key
IPod

24. Your final opportunity to comment on this Change survey. Anything big that I missed?
Anything else to add? While there are lots of questions I could have asked...
several of these were essay questions and I wanted to limit the amount of time it
would take to fill out.

The challenge posed by any survey is that the questions asked inevitably bias the results.
By listing a set of possible answers, the reader is steered towards a particular answer.
The alternative is to request 'essay' answers for very open ended questions.
The problem then is how do we extract meaning from 20,000 mini-essays.
I've attempted to provide a mixture of both 'select from a list' and 'give me your perspective'

Yours truly
Peter de Jager

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