It’s important to understand the different change management models available.

Why?

For your business to survive, it will need to evolve. For it to evolve, you need to make changes. Without a change management model, the success of those changes is up to nothing more than hope and dumb luck.

I’ve already gone over how to form your own change management strategy, so for this post, I’ll outline everything you need to know about 8 proven change management models that will put your organization at the top of the food chain:

• Lewin’s change management model
• The McKinsey 7-S model
• Kotter’s theory: Coaching people through change
• The “Nudge” theory of change management
• The 5 goals ADKAR for successful change management
• Bridges’ transition model
• Kübler-Ross’ change curve
• The Satir change management model

Let’s get started!

I lost $45,000 because I didn’t have a statement of work in place.

What makes it worse (or perhaps better?!) is that it wasn’t even my money.

It was my previous employer’s.

I was managing a website build for a big client and was under huge pressure to meet a tight deadline. So, as many do, I decided to start the project before the client signed the Statement of Work (SoW).

This was a big, expensive, mistake to make.

It cost an additional $45,000 to re-work parts of the build that the client had verbally approved, but hadn’t legally signed off.

Ouch.

(Despite what you might think, this isn’t the reason I don’t work there anymore!)

According to research, 37% of projects fail due to a lack of defined and approved project goals and objectives, which come with a Statement of Work (SoW). This causes around 80% of organizations to spend at least half their time on expensive rework.

“Not using a Statement of Work – SOW during the project initiation is a major cause of project failure” – 4PM, Statement of Work – SOW

But what is a Statement of Work (SoW) and how do you create one?

All will be revealed in this Process Street post, as we go through:

• What a Statement of Work (SoW) is
• Why bother with a Statement of Work (SoW)
• How to create a Statement of Work (SoW)

If you’re in a hurry, grab this free Statement of Work Process Template now, and catch up with the rest of the post when you can:

Click here to access the Statement of Work (SoW) Process Template!

Otherwise, keep reading and we’ll go through this template, in a little more detail, later.

Let’s get into it!

IT security processes need to be place in order for a company to securely run their operations. But what does that really entail? We cover all this and more in our comprehensive look at what IT security processes look like in different departments and organizations.

Take a look:

• Privileged password management
• Network administrator’s daily tasks
• Network security audit workflow
• Firewall audit workflow
• VPN configuration
• Apache server setup
• Email server security
• Penetration testing
• Start protecting your operations today!

An employee feedback loop can be a great tool if you’re trying to improve the quality of your products or boost the satisfaction of your employees.

There are numerous benefits to gathering and utilizing feedback but there are also several key things to remember that will help you make your feedback loops as effective as possible.

We will look at the different types of feedback loops, how they can positively impact businesses, and the best practices for making them work the first time, every time.

Every business relies on different software applications to thrive in its niche or market. But if your business isn’t in tech, or if you don’t have any software development experience, odds are you’ll need to use pre-made software that doesn’t perfectly fit your business’s needs.

That is, of course, unless you write your own applications from scratch. But don’t you have to know a lot of programming languages or have coding experience to get the job done? Not with no code platforms.

Today, let’s explore what no code platforms are, how they work, and whether you should use a no code platform for your enterprise’s applications and software solutions.

• What is a no code platform, exactly? 
• Advantages of using a no code platform
• Is a no code platform right for your enterprise? 
• No code helps you get ahead without breaking the bank 

Continuous improvement tools are essential.

They’re a means of increasing productivity while eliminating errors. And they’re closely associated with lean manufacturing, particularly in streamlining processes. Every process should be continuously improved, especially in a world where checking email alone costs us 1000 hours every year.

I once used a continuous improvement tool to transform my skill level in meditation. I was amazed at how quickly a process could be made leaner and more agile. If your organization has been wondering which continuous improvement tool to use, Process Street has written this guide with you in mind.

Here’s how to transform your process for success with continuous improvement tools:

• Continuous improvement 101
• What benefits can continuous improvement bring?
• The 5 continuous improvement tools you need

According to ITSMA and Vision Edge Marketing, 74% of marketers don’t keep track of their efforts. This is problematic as it means marketing teams aren’t able to report on how their efforts impact the business as a whole.

At Process Street, we make sure our marketing operations are documented, tracked, and easy to understand, so we can stay on top of our marketing OKRs and ensure they align with top-level company goals. To do this, we utilize Process Street‘s saved view feature.

The saved view gives a summary of workflow data. You can customize these views and present the data to suit your needs. For our marketing team, this means work is tracked and can be easily correlated with internal OKRs. Saved views have helped our marketers gather data, detect patterns, and keep their work on track.

We’ll be covering:

• What are Process Street reports and saved views?
• How our marketing department uses saved views in Process Street’s reports

Let’s get started!
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Continuous improvement without data collection is like driving cross country without signs or a map. 

Data collection is vital to making improvements because without it there’s no real proof of any problem existing to begin with. 

Why are you making improvements? Is it really a problem, or are you just distorted by frustration in the moment? 

Yes, your frustration can give you clues as to what the root problem is, but relying on your feelings alone won’t give you accurate results in the long run.

That’s where data collection can help. Our Analytics feature can be used to paint an objective, unbiased picture of the current state of any given process and help highlight potential areas that could be improved upon. 

So, let’s start by walking through our 5 continuous improvement steps for process optimization:

• Step 1: Identify the process to be improved
• Step 2: Assess efficacy & determine improvements
• Step 3: Implement process improvements
• Step 4: Test & track the updated process
• Step 5: Optimize the process with automation

Let’s get straight to the point – you’re probably searching for a policy and procedure template you can use.

Moreover, if you want an actionable policy and procedure template, you can find two hand-crafted examples below. One is a blueprint you can use to build your own, and the other is a filled-out example of the first, using a fictional company called Brightstar Marketing.

In fact, both can be easily edited and updated by you inside Process Street.

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Whether starting a business or trying to improve an existing one, you have to understand how things will get done. Writing standard operating procedures can seem complicated on the surface, but with some thought, the process can be easy.

Start by answering the following questions: What tasks do you need to do? Who needs to do them? What are the best ways to approach these tasks?

This will be your first step toward systemizing your business. Consequently, creating processes and workflows will define how your day-to-day activities function.

One popular approach is the creation of SOPs (standard operating procedures). But what exactly are SOPs?

Read through these sections to get clued up:

• What is an SOP?
• Writing standard operating procedures: A quick how-to guide
• Examples of Process Street’s fully-written and usable SOPs
• Ensure your SOPs adhere to ISO standards