Creating a sponsor roadmap

Download a printable version of this tutorial in PDF format.

Based on research from the 2005 Best Practices in Change Management study, we found many teams used quality handouts as a way to provide change management resources for their organization.  We will now provide our weekly tutorials in a downloadable PDF format so you are able to view and print them as resources.  Depending on the topic of the tutorial, you might choose to provide it as a handout with your team, business leaders or employees. 

We will also continue to provide the tutorials in html format as found below.

Executive sponsorship tops the list

Note:  The 2005 Change Management Best Practice Report will be finalized and available in June 2005.

A sponsor roadmap (see template below) identifies the key activities and responsibilities of your primary sponsor and other business leaders who are needed to support the change.  It is organized by phase of the project. One of the key roles of the change management team is to create identifiable actions that senior managers can do to sponsor the change.  Below, 2005 Report data provides a list of the most effective identifiable actions. 

Preparing your sponsor 

Below are three "how to" action steps for the change management team to follow when preparing the primary sponsor:

1. Prepare a roadmap for your primary sponsor using the template provided below.
    
2. Provide the primary sponsor with this plan.  Also provide the primary sponsor with sponsor checklists organized by the target audience and timing for the change.  Complete checklists can be found in the Change Management Toolkit (hardcopy) or Change Management Pilot (online version).
    
3. Facilitate and assist the sponsor in completing activities in the sponsor roadmap and completing items on the checklist.  The change management team will be an ongoing aide to the primary sponsor to:

• provide support to the project team
• develop management sponsorship with critical sponsors and the leadership team (sponsor assessment results done in Phase 1 are used to support this step, sponsor assessments can be found in the Change Management Toolkit or Change Management Pilot
• provide direction and create awareness with employees

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Summary

This tutorial provided a process for systematically developing your sponsorship roadmap and shared some of the key activities for executive sponsors to participate actively and visibly throughout the project.  The new best practices study will include an entire section devoted to the sponsors role including their most important activities, most common mistakes, special tactics when your sponsor is at the wrong level, how to coach and educate your sponsor and methods for managing resistance with senior managers.  For a complete sponsorship roadmap template, including all checklists and sponsor assessments, see the Change Management Toolkit or online Change Management Pilot.