Projects generally have an immediate impact of loss..... in areas of productivity, value, time, money and and gains in ....... stress, anxiety, conflict and frustration.

Ensure this is understood by all stakeholders.  And know that you can fight this with good Change Management.

You WILL pass through that negative dip and you will get to the other side, which is greener and will result in your true desired state.

You must ensure to utilize your business/project plan as to WHY you took on the project.  Based on the "why" you must have a clear definition of the value parameters.  Then related to this value, you must create a change management plan that will minimize negative impacts, speed up the transition through them, then attain and maximize the positive impacts. This approach also helps justify the investment vs the ROI.

A Change Plan is key to help with the mentality of stakeholders, better understanding that there is a plan and it is only a temporary bad stage that has to be gone through.  When people expect things (know it is coming) everyone is generally more positive and understanding and willing to push forward more collaboratively to get to the next stage of increased productivity. 

An example of this concept is illustrated below:




Change Management  can be focused on in several areas, one of the key areas is of course "people".  Have a plan for the people, and how you will manage them through the change.

Sample tools to help manage people through the change include:
  1. transparent communication
  2. leadership buy-in and support
  3. selection/empowerment of power-users (leverage them)
  4. culture/project solution gap assessments (identify the gap, then create a plan to address the gap)
  5. online training (advancement in technology has made this more popular then class training)
  6. classroom training
  7. workshops
  8. seminars
  9. marketing/advertising
  10. lunch and learns
  11. coaching
  12. mentoring (formal and informal)
  13. checklists
  14. workflow and conditional diagramming
  15. risk and quality management circles (id-analyze-plan-respond, Demming, etc)
  16. external perspectives or support (look outside your organization)

Always ensure a part of the project plan focuses on change management and how the new solution will integrate into the existing operational environment. Don't be afraid of a dip, that generally means you are changing something, and change is a must for growth and advancement. If the dip gets too large, then break it down into smaller ones, but don't let-up.

For more details related to the above diagram, please visit   daniellock.com    He also talks about some good tips to help speed up the progression of getting through that negative dip:


NOTE:
It must be noted, sometimes people confuse Change Control with Change Management.Change Control is focused on changes in Scope (or sometimes called Scope Creep).  This is by far the most dominating type of change projects have to deal with continuously throughout the project, thus people think it is the only real thing to focus on.  HOWEVER, the true value of projects is the difference it makes after it is rolled out.