Five tips for: Succeeding in change management
From the "Five tips" tutorial series

1. Start early

Change management is most effective when it begins at the initiation of a project. Participants from both the 2007 and 2009 benchmarking studies indicate a significant preference toward starting change management at project initiation, although many do not find themselves in that situation. The graph below shows that over 80% of participants in the 2009 study said that change management should be started at project initiation, while only one-third of participants were actually starting that early.

The advantages that come from starting change management at the beginning of a project are numerous, including:

• It is applied proactively - When change management begins at project initiation, it plays a more robust and holistic role. It is not simply a tool for reacting to problems and issues that arise, it becomes a tool to activate employees. Anticipated points of resistance and likely objections can be identified and addressed before they negatively impact the project. Communication efforts can be strategically crafted and launched as soon as the project starts to provide a steady, timely and orchestrated flow of information tailored by audience group. And senior leaders can begin demonstrating their support and participating actively and visibly from the very beginning.

• It can drive enthusiasm and engagement - Projects are most successful when employees are ready for and actively engaged in the change. When change management is applied from the start of the change effort, employees are more likely to be on board when the "go live" point arrives. Instead of waiting for push back, change management can be a tool to catalyze passion and enthusiasm.

• It can be integrated in the project plan - Projects utilizing a single, holistic project plan that incorporates both the technical aspects and the people side aspects (through change management) are most effective. When activities are sequenced and integrated, project teams and change management can work together more effectively. 

• It can surface underlying project issues - By bringing a focus on the people side of change early in the project, better design decisions can be made by the project team. Employee participation and feedback results in a better solution that delivers on both the technical and people side fronts.

In addition, there are a number of consequences when change management starts late on a project. Unfortunately this happens too often, but learning from these experiences and benchmarking data can result in improved application. Some of the consequences of starting late highlighted by 2009 study participants included:

• Higher levels of resistance and lower engagement by employees

• Change management activities were limited and ineffective

• Time was wasted playing "catch up"

• Change management was poorly positioned

• Rework required by the project team as people side issues were identified

To start change management early in a project, work to sell change management to both senior leaders and project leaders by connecting change management to what they care about - meeting project objectives on time and on budget. There is a growing body of data showing the benefits of change management and a direct correlation between effective change management and meeting project objectives (read more in the Data on the impact of effective change management tutorial and the Cost-benefit analysis for change management tutorial).

2. Apply structure

Change management should not be ad hoc. It is not effective when it is just a communication plan or training plan developed in isolation or without an overarching strategy. Change management is most effective when if follows a structured approach. In the 2009 benchmarking study, 60% of participants reported following a particular methodology, up from only one third of participants in the 2003 study. In addition, the use of a structured approach has been in the list of top five contributors to success in each of the last four studies since 2003 - landing in the number 4 spot in the 2009 edition of the study.

The advantages of following a structured approach to change management include:

• Ensures that you don't miss key steps - Following a structured methodology helps practitioners cover all of the critical aspects of managing change, from assessing change readiness to reinforcing change. Prosci's 3-phase methodology walks users through Preparing for change, Managing change and Reinforcing change with research-based templates and assessments at each step. By applying a structured process, you can avoid the mistakes others have made and avoid overlooking key steps.

• Makes you more efficient and effective - There is no need to "reinvent the wheel" when it comes to managing change. The use of a structured methodology, based on best practices, allows you to focus your efforts where they need to be focused - on the specific situation and details of the change you are managing.

• Lets you draw on the experience of others - Using a methodology based on a wide body of knowledge makes your more effective. Structured methodologies, like Prosci's 3-phase process, incorporate what works and what has not worked for other change practitioners. With a structured approach, you are benefiting from the experience of previous change managers making you more effective.  

• Earns credibility for "change management" - Change management itself carries with it particular baggage - for instance, being viewed as the "soft" or "fuzzy" side of change. The more structured and formalized the process for dealing with the people side of change, the more credibility your work will have with others in the organization - particularly the technically focused workers or project mangers.

3. Customize your approach

A "one-size-fits-all" approach for change management is not effective. Each change effort is unique; and the people side of that change should be managed with a customized approach. Customizing the change management approach requires a solid "situational awareness" - an understanding of what this change means and who will be impacted by it. Part of building the situational awareness is tied to really understanding the change at hand. Is it a process change? A system or technology change? Will job roles be impacted? How broadly will the change have impact across the organization? How dramatic will the impacts be? The other side of situational awareness is understanding the groups that are being impacted and the background of the change. How does the organization's culture impact this change? What is the history of change? How competent is the organization - and different employee groups within the organization - at leading change?

In the first phase of Prosci's methodology - Preparing for change - a series of assessments help make sense of the unique change. Assessments include an examination of the change itself (the Change characteristics assessment) and an evaluation of the groups being impacted (the Organizational attributes assessment). In addition, the Impact Index tool allows for the identification of different groups being impacted by the change and the amount of change each will experience.

Customizing the change management approach through assessment and scaling efforts up front enables change management to be targeted and focused. Based on the particular situation, the "right" change management team structure can be selected. The change itself dictates the sponsorship that will be required and the appropriate sponsor coalition needed to drive the change forward. Change management plans - like the communication plan, the coaching plan and the resistance management plan - are developed in a way that truly reflect and address the unique change and the challenges that will be faced.

4. Engage employee-facing players

Benchmarking data indicates that there are two groups that employees want to hear from in times of change. Employees want to hear about the business reasons for change - why the change is happening, risks of not changing, customer and competitor issues driving the change - from someone at the top. They want to hear about the personal implications for them and their team from the person that they report to. This means that the "voice of change" to the organization are the executives, senior managers, middle managers and supervisors throughout the organization. These "employee-facing" players are shown at the top of the roles in change management model below.

Not only do these employee-facing players play a key role in communicating about change, they must also be active participants in managing change. Senior leaders must build coalitions of support and manage resistance from other managers. They also must remain visible and active throughout the project. Middle managers and supervisors play a number of roles in directly interacting with the employees who ultimately bring a change to life.

Change management team members or resources play a central role in enabling these employee-facing players - providing guidance and coaching and ensuring that they fulfill their role. See the Roles in change management tutorial for a more in-depth discussion of these five roles.

5. Focus on the individual

Change management is a tool to accelerate the adoption of change by individuals in an organization. The logic flow below shows why the individual is so important:

• Organizational change is successful when it moves the organization from a current state to a new future state.
• The future state for the organization is only achieved when individuals make changes to their processes and behaviors.
• When individuals make a successful transition from their own current state to their own future state, the project is successful and the organization sees the improvement the project set out to create.
• Change management, then, is the process and tools for moving individuals successfully to their personal future state so the project is successful.

Said another way - organizations don't change, individuals within organizations change. It is easy for project teams and even change management teams to become focused on the work that they are doing - scoping a project, determining resource needs, creating a work breakdown structure, conducting readiness assessments, crafting a communication plan. While these activities are important, one must never lose sight of what truly drives success - individuals adopting a new way of doing their work. Prosci keeps the focus on the individual through the ADKAR® Model. The ADKAR Model describes the five building blocks of success - Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. It provides an outcome orientation to change management work. While the tool used might be communication or training or coaching, the outcomes required for successful change are:

• Awareness - I know why the change is needed
• Desire - I've made the personal decision to participate and support the change
• Knowledge - I know how to change and what to do after the change is in place
• Ability - I can demonstrate the skills and behaviors required by the change
• Reinforcement - I believe there are factors in place so the change will be sustained

Bringing about change within a social environment with human beings requires an understanding of how one person makes a change successfully. This is the foundation of successful change management application - whether the change is an incremental improvement for small workgroup or a dramatic disruption to how an entire enterprise operates. Keeping a focus on the individual as the centerpiece of successful change helps change management practitioners to be successful and ultimately deliver value to the organization.