The Phenomenon of Prevalence Induced Concept Change

In organizational change, people may respond to improvements in unexpected ways - even though things are getting better, they may be under the impression that things are getting worse - and they may even have data to back up their claims! So, how do you get out of the dilemma of having to justify improvement without starting a theoretical debate detached from what people see, hear and feel?
In this post, we will take a peek at a typical case of Prevalence-Induced Concept Change (PICC) and how to address it in a constructive manner.

What is Prevalence Induced Concept Change?

"Prevalence induced concept change" (PICC) occurs when the frequency of events changes, leading people to modify their definition of what constitutes a problem. This shift in criteria means that as major problems become less common, minor topics start to gain more attention and are perceived as more significant than they actually are - or in reverse!

We will take a common example connected to "Agile Transformation" to illustrate our case - although you may encounter PICC in many forms and shapes.

Transitioning from Classic Project Management

In Classic Project Management, we have our ways of doing things, and everyone knows that nobody's perfect, so there are always some concerns. But, we have arranged ourselves with them, understand them, and how to manage them.

Classic Project Management

• Long-Term Schedules - Projects span several months, with a final delivery date set well in advance. The impact of missing a timeline tends to be massive, and a slippage in schedules requires serious management attention.
• Delayed Feedback - The first feedback comes on "Release Day," and the events on that day tend to be overwhelming due to the sheer volume and severity of problems that went undiscovered during the project.
• Hidden Issues - Problems remain undiscovered until late in the process, making them costly and difficult to address.

And now let us contrast that with a more modern approach.

Modern Delivery Approaches:

• Rapid Cycles - Large projects are divided into short cycles, with intermediate evaluation points.
• Frequent Feedback - Developers receive timely feedback on completed work in small batches.
• High Transparency - Problems are identified and addressed quickly, promoting continuous improvement.

This leads to many follow-up questions: First, how do we even work in a way that we can collect feedback faster - and second, what do we do when we get "bad feedback?" Especially in organizations where Continuous Improvement is not systematized in project management, the question "what do we do with the feedback" can lead to a quagmire of followup concerns that can completely derail a team if not properly addressed.

The Impact of PICC

An organizations advancing from classic project management to a more modern delivery approach may have stakeholders fall for PICC and misinterpret the nature and frequency of what's going on:

• Buffer sizes - By slicing a large project into a sequential set of deliverables, the project gets more checkpoints, and each of them gains a small buffer. So a buffer overrun on one of them is not even an issue - the main timeline is not even in danger when a day of buffer has been consumed! However, a buffer overrun may lead managers to overreact who are used to a buffer overrun always requiring management intervention.
• Higher Expectations - With frequent deliverables, stakeholders have more time to focus on individual deliverables, so they will pay more attention to minor issues they would never have noticed in a project where it was normal that half the scope was unusable upon delivery.
• Perceived Underperformance - A successful product review will always elicit improvement potential, and the constant appearance and high volume of new issues can be misconstrued as underperformance by a management that's used to every report being a quality flaw.

Preventing Misconceptions Caused by PICC

To prevent the misconceptions caused by PICC and ensure that successful improvements are recognized as such, it is essential to create transparency and educate stakeholders of what's actually going on:

Define the Benchmark

Highlight Changes - Frequent evaluations in modern delivery make more issues visible - but also lead to quicker resolutions and thus, better outcomes.

Differentiate Categories - Clarify that the issues reported now are generally smaller and require lower fixing efforts, unlike the severe and late-discovered issues in classic project management that often led to minor issues not even getting addressed at all!

Create Transparency

Provide Objectivity - Agree on severity levels early, and categorize issues accordingly, illustrating, for example, that whereas before, people were simply accepting showstoppers, they are now arguing about button colors.

Analyse trends - Use trend analysis to show how severity classes and quantities shift over time, demonstrating that the measurement is subtly changing.

Manage Expectations

Frame Feedback - Highlight that the feedback is now on a different level than before, and that the purpose of that feedback has also changed.

Correlate Action - Show how feedback is now differently correlated with action, and that the time between highlighting an issue and getting a fix is improving.

Conclusion

Prevalence induced concept change (PICC) can significantly impact how stakeholders perceive the success of teams. Hence, understanding that PICC is happening is a key instrument in managing change and expectations effectively. Be aware of the situation, create objectivity and transparency, then manage expectations to move beyond category errors, misconceptions and perceived deterioration.