When the I.T. services division of the Royal Dutch/Shell Group wasrequired to implement a comprehensive set of new security standards inonly six months, it decided to balance the human needs with thetechnical side of the changes.

In January 2000, the Shell Information Technology International (SITI)group received the mandate to institute all-encompassing securitychanges - new passwords every 35 days and updates to hundreds ofservers and networks. As Shell's IT service provider, SITI had to makesure its 2,300 IT staffers knew the security standards inside and outby June, when an independent audit of the new standards would beperformed. Unlike many IT projects, security changes impact the dailyroutine of every employee with the scope of the effect depending onthe type of job. SITI therefore decided that this project, known asTrust Domain, called for a change agent.

Planning and Communication

The first thing Janet Jones, the SITI project manager who handledTrust Domain, did was panic. "I thought, Oh my gosh, how will we getthis done?" Jones says. Then she sat with Trust Domain's sponsors andupper management at SITI and hashed out an overview of the project todetermine what resources were needed. Jones decided to involve achange agent - keeping in mind that no one really likes change but thatdivisionwide compliance was imperative for the project to succeed.Past experience had shown that without a team leader focusingspecifically on the people side of change, resentment might bubble upfrom the ranks. Alan Fraundorf, who was acting CIO for theorganization at the time of the project and now works as a consultantin professional services, agrees. "You can have a great IT staff andextremely successful projects from an IT point of view," he says. "Butyou must deal with the organizational impact of change to have overallsuccess."

Jones knew it was essential to bring an agent on board early to ensurethat project stakeholders were identified and that the communicationbetween the project team and employees was quickly put in place. Theagent had to have strong listening skills and an innovative approachto collaboration. Trust Domain came on the heels of the Y2K project,on which Jones had worked with Christy Dillard, a change agent inShell's professional services department in SITI. The collaborationhad been a success, and Jones knew Dillard had the experience and thequalities she needed to manage Trust Domain. Once Dillard signed on,she brought over Anita Bettis, a second change agent from professionalservices. The three decided that Jones would handle the technical andproject management tasks, while Dillard and Bettis would handle allcommunication with employees and act as liaisons between the projectteam and the SITI staff. In order for the SITI employees to trust theagents and take them seriously, Dillard and Bettis knew they had to bevisible and accessible to the staff on a daily basis. So the two movedinto the SITI offices and began sitting in on all group and departmentmeetings.