The Implementation Planning Model: An Overview
No organization can maintain “status quo” indefinitely and remain competitive in today’s changing business environment. The need for improvement and change varies and is heavily dependent on organization culture, market demands, competition, work force demographics, longheld industry practices, and a necessary focus on minimizing risk. Even with these forces working for and against change, an organization must decide to improve and modify procedures on a regular and continuing basis. Given this demand for continuous change and the introduction of new practices, the question arises as to why organizations have been traditionally reluctant to introduce and implement best practices.
To assist Construction Industry Institute (CII) members to implement change successfully, the Implementation Strategy Committee introduced the CII Implementation Pyramid approach as an overall model for the implementation process. This research builds on the Pyramid by recognizing that the greatest organizational challenge in initiating new practices is the development of an implementation plan. Specifically, organizations require an implementation plan that provides enough detail so all personnel impacted by the planned change understand the roadmap that is going to be followed. Organizations undertaking an implementation process often fail to establish this roadmap or vision for implementing a proposed practice. The CII Implementation Pyramid recognizes the need for a plan, but does not provide specific details that an organization should follow when developing a plan for a new practice. This work fills a gap which is essential to the successful implementation of the pyramid and is primarily focused on Level 4, “Implementation Plan and Goals.”
This publication describes the background leading to the development of the Implementation Planning Model and its individual components. This model includes a comprehensive process for approaching and implementing new practices. The Implementation Planning Model introduces the implementation steps intended to provide an organized approach to successful implementation. The Implementation Strategy Committee recommends the use of this Implementation Planning Model (Implementation Resource IR 246-2) to develop a comprehensive plan that fully addresses the challenges and achieves the opportunities afforded by implementing a proposed new practice. The implementation resource will give greater detail and provide a guide for any organization to utilize the Implementation Planning Model to develop plans and assess their progress on the roadmap to success.
This implementation resource is derived from Research Report 246-11, “The Implementation Planning Model: Steps to Success.” For a full treatment of this topic, including research performed and basis for the approaches recommended herein, RR 246-11 should be consulted.
