Five levers of organizational
change management
The discipline of project management has a set of recognized tools
that support its execution - project charter, statement of work, work
breakdown structure, schedule, etc. Similarly, change management has a
set of tools that support the "people side" of change - regardless of
the change that is being introduced.
While some in your organization
might view change management as "just communication" or "just
training", Prosci's research has shown
that change management is most effective when it is a
holistic set of tools aimed at supporting individuals
though changes to how they do their jobs.
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Tutorial highlights - |
Definition and tools for:
- Communication plan
- Sponsorship plan
- Coaching plan
- Training plan
- Resistance management plan
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This tutorial
describes the five organizational change management
plans - or "levers" - in Prosci's
methodology. The methodology is available in the
3-day certification training, the hardcopy
Change Management Toolkit
(3-ring binder with CD-ROM) or
the online Change Management
Pilot.
- Communication plan
- Sponsorship roadmap
- Coaching plan
- Training plan
- Resistance management plan
These five organizational change management levers are the core of
Phase 2 - Managing change in Prosci's change management methodology. To
be effective, each plan is customized
based on the assessments and strategy developed in Phase 1 -
Preparing change. Customization occurs based on the size and type of
change, as well as the nature of the groups being impacted by the
change. This tutorial defines the plans and
shows how each of the five supports the successful transition of
the individuals impacted by the change
- described as Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability
and Reinforcement (read
more about ADKAR).
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Description: Communication is
more than just
telling someone something. While many organizations have
communication departments and many project teams build
communication plans, there is often a missing component -
recognizing how communication fits into the larger change
process. Sometimes, people mistakenly equate change
management with communication - i.e. "Change management =
communication". Communication is a critical component of
implementing change, but is by no means the only requirement
for successful change (in fact, best practices research
shows that the active and visible role of the sponsor of
change is the number one contributor to success - addressed
in the sponsorship roadmap section below).
Effective communication does not mean a "pretty"
newsletter, the use of a standard template or even a high
frequency of messages. Effective communication is targeted for each of the
different audiences
impacted by the change - what they care about
and what they need to know. A structured communication plan,
based on best practices research, presents the right
messages, at the right
time, in the right
format or channel,
and comes from the right sender. Prosci's methodology
includes plans for developing these plans and key messages
about change that must be communicated based on best practices research with over 1000
participants.
Connection to ADKAR:
Communication is a tool used to build
Awareness of the
need for change and Desire
to participate and support the
change. When ADKAR is used as this foundation, communication
is more effective and provides information in the correct
sequence to help employees understand and internalize the
change. |
Communication tools in Prosci's
methodology:
- Impact Index
- Communication plan template
- Communication planning spreadsheet
- Key messages
- Key messages: executives
- Key messages: middle managers
- Key messages: employees
- Communication customization guidelines
- Communication best practices
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Sponsorship tools in Prosci's
methodology:
- Impact
Index
- Primary sponsor assessment
- Sponsor competency assessment
- Sponsor assessment diagram
- Sponsorship roadmap template
- Sponsor planning and start-up checklist
- Sponsor design checklist
- Sponsor implementation checklist
- Sponsor customization guidelines
- Sponsorship best practices
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Description: Effective sponsorship
was cited as the number one contributor
to project success in all four of Prosci's change management benchmarking studies (1998, 2000,
2003, 2005). Best practices show three high-level roles of the
sponsor - to participate
actively and visibly, to build a
coalition of support with other senior leaders and
managers, and to communicate
directly with employees about the business reasons and
nature of the change.
Unfortunately, sometimes even the best senior leaders do not
demonstrate effective sponsorship. Some may not have experience
in this role or know exactly what it looks like; others may find
that competing priorities result in less than optimal
involvement. It is the role of the change management resource on
a project team to provide support and
structure for the specific actions needed from these
senior leaders - to coach upward. The sponsorship roadmap
provides this structure, removing the mystique around
"sponsoring a change" and making it
real and concrete. A comprehensive sponsorship
roadmap lays out what the sponsor needs to be doing with 1) the
project team, 2) peers and other senior managers, and 3)
front-line employees. It also breaks down activities by the
phase of the project - for example initiation, design,
implementation and closeout.
Connection to ADKAR:
When senior leaders demonstrate their and the organization's
commitment to a change (by
following the sponsor roadmap), employees take notice. Effective
sponsorship is needed to create an Awareness
of the need for change, as benchmarking research
indicates that the sponsor is
the preferred sender of messages related to the business reasons
and organizational implications for a particular initiative.
Sponsorship is also critical in building the
Desire to participate and
support the change with each employee. Sponsors also play an
important role in Reinforcement
- as their involvement shows employees that the change
will be sustained. |
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Description: Coaching takes place between an
employee and their direct supervisor. The managers and
supervisors in an organization play a critical role in
successful change. They communicate
messages about the change and how it directly impacts
employees. Their attitudes
toward the change filter directly and immediately to
how their employees react to the change. They identify and
manage resistance. And
they provide recognition and
reinforcement during an implementation.
Unfortunately, benchmarking research shows that this key
group is often overlooked and not properly engaged in many
projects.
The coaching plan
outlines the steps for involving managers in change
management activities. First, it lays out how the project
team and change management resource will build commitment, train and skill up managers
and supervisors related to their role in a change. Once onboard, managers and supervisors then conduct both group and
individual coaching sessions to engage front-line
employees. These coaching sessions are crucial to getting
employees and the organization moving forward with change
adoption.
A final note - you cannot try to use a
"proxy" for coaching
activities - not members of the project team, not external
consultants, not human resources representatives - no one.
Coaching is built upon the
relationship that an employee has with the person
they report to. Do not try to circumvent or substitute
anyone as the role of coach. Instead, invest the time,
resources and energy to engage and empower your managers and
supervisors to be good coaches and to build their own
personal competency to lead change.
Connection to ADKAR:
Coaching touches virtually all of the elements of ADKAR.
Research shows that employees want to hear the personal
Awareness of the need
for change from the person they report to. A manager's
desire to change directly influences an employee's
Desire to support the
change. In on-the-job support and coaching, managers and
supervisor help build Knowledge
and Ability. Finally, by
showing their own support and commitment to the long-term
adoption of a change, managers and supervisors provide
Reinforcement to keep a
change in place. |
Coaching tools in Prosci's
methodology:
- Impact
Index
- Coaching
plan template
- Coaching
training template
- Group
coaching agenda
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Individual coaching plan
- Change
management guide for managers and supervisors tools
- Coaching
customization guidelines
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Training tools in Prosci's
methodology:
- Impact Index
- Training audience identification
- Needs assessment and gap analysis
- Requirements document
- Training customization guidelines
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Description: Training is an intervention to build
skills and
capabilities. In addition to communication,
training is probably the most common of the change
management plans. One interesting reason is that your
organization probably has a training department
and a
communication department, but you probably don't have
sponsorship, coaching or resistance management departments.
Without the larger context of change management, training
can often be used as a crutch
and in place of other
critical activities like sponsorship and coaching. One of
the biggest errors a team can make when introducing a change
is to take the stance of "just send the employees to
training, that's all they need". This is poor change
management, and is illustrated in more detail below in the
ADKAR section.
The change manager's role in training is to identify the skills and capabilities
that are needed, any
gaps that exist and the
training requirements. When change management is being
applied effectively, a partnership emerges between the
change management team (who documents knowledge needs) and
the training group (who develops and delivers the needed
training).
Finally, don't forget about the training
in "change management" that is needed. Already, sponsors and
coaches have been identified as important participants in
change management - these two groups likely need training
themselves about their roles and responsibilities in change
management.
Connection to ADKAR:
Training is focused on building
Knowledge - and is not effective for building Awareness
and Desire. Think about experiences where you sat through an
entire day of training, rolling your eyes and wondering why
you just wasted a day in a training you didn't need. The people delivering the training,
and those who wanted you to take the training, both thought
it was a valuable and necessary experience. But since you
did not have the Awareness or Desire, you were not
enthusiastic about the knowledge transfer (and most of it
probably did not sink in). Training is an important part of
creating successful change, but must come after sufficient
Awareness and Desire already exist. |
Resistance management plan
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Description: Resistance to change is the number one
obstacle to successful change based on Prosci's research
over the last nine years. While resistance to any change is
a natural reaction,
there are steps that organizations and managers can take to
prevent and mitigate the impact of resistance. Some might be
surprised to see resistance management planning on the same
level as communication and training. You may view dealing
with resistance as primarily
reactive - how do we respond when we see
resistance. However, there are some significant and
meaningful steps that can be taken early in a project to
address resistance. This is what Prosci calls
proactive resistance management
and is the focus of a resistance management plan.
What steps can you take to prevent or mitigate resistance
before it emerges and impacts the project and the
organization? Begin by identifying what resistance might
look like and where it
is likely to come from.
Typically people involved in a project know where resistance
is likely to come from based on past
experience and the nature of the change. Next,
develop a set of steps that you can take to
answer these
objections before the manifest themselves and impact the
project. The resistance management plan also identifies
who will be involved in
managing resistance and how you will
prepare them to intervene.
Finally, there is a component of
reactive resistance management in a complete
change management plan. How will you monitor acceptance and
resistance? What triggers will you use to know that there is
significant resistance, and how will you respond? ADKAR
provides a simple but powerful model for understanding the
root cause of resistance when it does emerge during a
change.
Connection to ADKAR:
Any missing ADKAR element can result in resistance to a
change. A lack of Awareness
of the need for change can directly result in
resistance to change. When an employee does not have a
Desire to change, they
oftentimes resist the initiative. Fear of not having the
Knowledge or
Ability
to be successful in the future state is another main
source of resistance. Without
Reinforcement, employees
will not sustain the change and will revert back to the old way
of doing work. The important point to remember about
resistance is that you need to identify and address the root cause of
the resistance, and not just the symptom. For this reason,
ADKAR can be used in both proactive and reactive approaches as a guide for effectively
engaging and overcoming resistance to change. |
Resistance management tools in Prosci's
methodology:
- Impact
Index
- Proactive resistance management plan
- Resistance management plan template
- Reactive resistance management diagnostic tool
- Top-10 resistance management steps
- Resistance management customization guidelines
- Best practice findings - most common reasons for
resistance
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Putting together your change management plans
Effective change management cannot be viewed as a "recipe for
success" - effective change management must match the change and the
people that are being impacted by the change. While any change needs
each of the five levers above, the relative balance and effort will
depend on the specific change you are implementing. A merger is managed
very differently than a technology upgrade, but each require the five
levers of change management.
Once the plans are created, to be most effective they are
integrated
into the project activities outlined in the project plan. This means
that during the initiation of the project, there are already
communication and sponsorship activities taking place. Before the
"go-live" date, coaching is already taking place and individuals are
trained. Beginning at the launch of the project, resistance is actively anticipated,
identified and managed. This is what is meant by effective change
management - it is holistic (using
all of the tools), proactive
(starting at the beginning of the change) and
integrated (working in unison with project activities)
There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Prosci has spent nine years
research what works and what doesn't when managing change. As a research
and publishing firm, we spend our time turning the best practices into
easy-to-use, holistic and research-based tools. Prosci's methodology is
available in both the hardcopy
Change Management Toolkit (3-ring binder with CD-ROM) and the
online Change Management Pilot
- complete with assessments, templates and checklists for
creating the five organizational levers.
Or, to really experience the methodology, bring a project you are
working on to the 3-day
certification program and apply the tools as you learn them.
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What questions do you
have?
Tools for applying change management:
- Change
management certification ($2100) - 3-day program where you bring
a project you are working on and apply all of the assessments and
tools as you learn them - taught by former Fortune 500 executives at locations across the U.S.
- 2007 Best Practices in Change Management benchmarking report
($249) - journal-style report with lessons learned and best practices
from 426 participants, presented in an easy-to-use format - reads as
a checklist of what to do and what not to do
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Change Management Toolkit ($349) - hardcopy 3-ring binder presenting
Prosci's change management methodology, includes templates, checklists
and assessments for managing the people side of change (includes CD-ROM)
- Change
Management Guide for Managers and Supervisors ($189) -
tools to help supervisors engage and coach their direct reports
through change (includes 4 copies of the Employee's Survival Guide)
- Change
Management Pilot ($449) - online tool including Prosci's change
management methodology, eLearning modules and downloadable templates,
assessments, presentations and checklists
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Change Management Pilot Professional ($559) - the content of the
Change Management Pilot plus additional benchmarking data and an
online version of the Change Management Guide for Managers and
Supervisors
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Change Management: the people side of change ($18.95) - a primer for anyone
involved in organizational change that addresses why manage change,
individual change management and organizational change management
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Employee's Survival Guide to Change ($14.95) - a handbook to help
employees survive and thrive during change, answers frequently asked
questions and empowers employees to take charge of change
*** Prosci also offers
leadership packages - groupings of products at discounts that
offer you some of the most helpful and common combinations of Prosci
change management resources
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Email a Prosci analyst or
call 970-203-9332 with questions about the methodology, its application, or finding the
right resources to support your change management activities.
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