Prosci and the Change Management Learning Center are proud to
announce a Special Edition tutorial that provides a 10 minute primer
on change management for executives.
This tutorial is an excellent way to engage your sponsors and
increase their change management awareness.
You can also
download
this tutorial as a PDF to share with your executives and change
management team members.
Change management is a structured process and set of tools for
managing the people side of change. Change management is:
- a process used by project teams to manage system, process
and organizational changes.
- a competency applied by managers and supervisors to help
employees through the transition.
- a strategic capability to increase the capacity to change
and to accelerate changes within an organization.
Why change management
Three different studies over the past four years have shown that
return on investment (ROI) or the total value created by a project is
directly related change management effectiveness.[1]
A study with 327 project leaders indicated that failure to manage the
people side of change, and the associated employee resistance, was the
top obstacle to project success.[2]
Employee resistance to change was
cited five times more frequently than any other project obstacle.
Applying change management can directly impact:
-
speed of
adoption (how quickly the change is adopted into the
organization and how well the project stays on schedule)
-
utilization rate (the overall level of participation
and ultimate utilization of the new processes, tools and job
changes)
-
proficiency (how employees perform in the new
environment – are they achieving the expected performance
levels?)
When these factors are well managed, the
return on investment for projects increases and the probability that
business objectives are achieved, on time and on budget, also increases.
When the people side of change is poorly managed, projects fall behind
schedule, fewer employees engage in the change and proficiency levels
are lower; projects deliver a lower ROI or in some cases fail
completely.
Roles in change management
The key roles in change
management include:
Primary sponsor – The primary sponsor is the
individual who authorizes and funds the project. This person is
usually in control of the resources, systems and people that are
affected by the change.
Sponsor – Sponsor refers to any senior or mid-level
manager with responsibility for employees or systems impacted by the
change. In this context, a sponsor is defined to be any business
leader whose support and active engagement is necessary for the
change to be successful. In some cases the term “stakeholder” is
also used to refer to this role.
Sponsorship – Sponsorship refers to a manager’s
support for a change and the associated behaviors of a good sponsor.
These behaviors include active and visible engagement throughout the
project, effective communications to employees and coalition
building with peers and subordinates.
Sponsor coalition – The sponsor coalition is defined
to be the collection of sponsors within the organization who have
direct control over the employees, processes and systems impacted by
the change. A strong sponsor coalition is a good indicator of
project success, whereas a weak sponsor coalition is a good
indicator that projects will fall behind schedule, miss objectives
or fail completely.
Coach – A coach is any manager who has employees with
a direct reporting relationship. A coach is that person who helps
their employees through the transition process.
Project leader – This role is assigned to that
individual who has overall responsibility to implement the project.
This individual would have direct day-to-day control over the
project team, project management activities and all resources
associated with the project.
Change management leader – This role is assigned to an
individual who creates and implements change management plans for a
project. Change management plans include communications,
sponsorship, coaching, training and resistance management.
Understanding the change management process
Change management has two components: organizational change
management and individual change management.
Organizational change management
is a process for designing and implementing change management activities
that affect broad groups of employees.[3] These activities include:
Phase 1
-
Readiness assessments, risk
assessments and strategy development
-
Identifying and preparing change
management resources on the project team
-
Creating the necessary sponsorship
model and preparing sponsors to effectively lead the change
Phase 2
-
Preparing a communications plan for
the project
-
Creating a roadmap for all key
sponsors of the change
-
Developing a plan to help
supervisors coach employees through the transition
-
Creating a training plan
-
Developing a resistance management
strategy
-
Integrating change management with
project management
Phase 3
-
Auditing compliance with the change
and measuring performance
-
Identifying root causes to
resistance and addressing those points of resistance
-
Celebrating successes and
transitioning the project over to day-to-day operations
Individual change management is a
process for managing change at an individual level with each employee.
This process includes coaching an employee through the change process
and developing professional development plans.
The process for managing change on an individual level has five
elements that serve as the sequential building blocks of success. This
change model is referred to as ADKAR®.[4]
-
Awareness
of the need for change.
-
Desire
to engage and participate in the change.
-
Knowledge
on how to change.
-
Ability
to implement the change.
-
Reinforcement to sustain the change.
Change management structure and deployment
An effective framework for deploying change management has five
elements:
- Sponsorship
- Project
- Process
- Competency
- Structure
Each element plays a unique role in the successful execution of
change management.
Sponsorship
– the leadership team for the organization plays a central role in
sponsoring a change. First, a primary sponsor must be assigned who
matches the criteria for primary sponsor for each major
change initiative. Second, all business leaders who are impacted by
a change must play a role in sponsoring that change throughout the
organization. Effective sponsorship behaviors include:
- Direct communication with employees
about why the change is happening and how the change aligns with
the vision for the organization.
- Coalition building with other
business leaders who have employees impacted by the change to
ensure a strong sponsorship coalition.
- Visible and active participation
throughout the entire project.
Project
– The project team must develop and implement change management
plans for their project that supports the unique type of change and
that aligns with the organization impacted by the change. This will
require change management training and resources on the team with
the skills, knowledge and tools to implement change management
plans.
Process
– The organization must select a change management methodology and
tools to deploy with the project and with business leaders. Using a
structured and formalized process for managing change reduces the
costs and increases the effectiveness of the change management
program.
Competency
– Business leaders and managers in the organization will need some
level of proficiency in change management in order to carry out
their respective roles. For example, senior and mid-level managers
will need competency in effective
sponsorship. Supervisors will need training on how to
effectively coach employees
through the change process.
Structure
– Most organizations require some type of support infrastructure to
maintain change management processes, tools and compliance across
multiple projects. This function normally is a staff role.
Summary
Change management is about
helping employees through the change process in order to:
- Accelerate change within an
organization and reduce the disruption to day-to-day operations.
- Increase the value recovered or ROI
from change projects.
- Ensure that projects are on-time
and on-budget.
- Increase an organization’s change
capacity and the associated responsiveness to market changes.
To find out more about
change management for your organization, contact Prosci at 970-203-9332
or visit the Change Management Learning Center at
www.change-management.com.
About Prosci
Prosci
is an independent research company that was formed in 1994. Since that
time, Prosci has become the worldwide leader in change management
research with data from more than 900 organizations in 59 countries.
Prosci's Learning Centers host more than 80,000 registered participants
in tutorial series and benchmarking programs. Prosci’s latest change
management book ranks number one on Amazon.com and Prosci’s
comprehensive change management training programs are offered
world-wide.
Our product and training
customers include a majority of the Fortune 100 companies and have
included the Department of Defense, Southern California Edison, CUNA
Mutual Group, United Nations, Halliburton Energy Services, the US
Department of Interior, the Zambian Electrical Supply Company, Ltd. and
Aventis-Pasteur to name only a few. Our training options include
distance learning, customized on-site programs and open-enrollment
sessions in Colorado, USA. Our trainers are seasoned executives and
hold advanced degrees in related areas; all have years of industry
experience in Fortune 500 companies.
Download
this tutorial as a PDF
Download
this tutorial as a PDF
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