Background
This summer, the Change Management Learning Center hosted a series of
one-hour webinars designed to cover some of the
critical aspects of managing change. This tutorial shares the highlights and key takeaways
from the first webinar - Integrating change management and project management. The content
from this tutorial comes from the new online change management tool - the CM Pilot.
Integrating change management and project management
Applying change management to business initiatives
Change management can be applied to many types of business improvement programs - from
radical changes like BPR, mergers and acquisitions or new product releases to incremental
changes like continuous improvement processes or Six Sigma. Change management is the
process and tools - such as communications, sponsorship, coaching, training and resistance
management plan - for addressing the people side of change. Change management is not an
event - it is a process of helping individuals understand, internalize and support a
change. The challenge for project teams is to effectively
integrate change management with their project management activities.
Conceptual business improvement and change management processes
To see how integration takes place, we begin by looking at a conceptual picture of a
business improvement process and a change management process. Although the pictures below
show high-level steps, most business improvement processes (TQM, BPR, Six Sigma,
reorganization, etc.) contain the five steps below. Likewise, while the change management
process will vary and be more complicated than shown below, these five areas represent
some of the major activities of change management. At the end of the tutorial,
downloadable documents show the detailed Level 1 and Level 2 activities for the integrated
process.
Business improvement process
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Change management process
|
Your starting point changes what you do first
If you begin change management when you begin your project, you are able to integrate
the change management steps into the project steps. This is shown conceptually in the
table below called Scenario 1.
Scenario 1
| Integration primarily occurs in
one of two ways. First, someone from your team (like you) introduces the importance of
change management and the people side of change at the project initiation or second, your
organization has made a commitment to building change competence and utilizes change
management as standard practice on every project. When change management is started at the
beginning of a project, the activities can be fully integrated. Your first step will be to
develop a change management strategy based on the characteristics of your particular
change and the attributes of your organization that is being changed. Change readiness
assessments will help you decide on your strategy and how you will customize the change
management plans you are going to develop. |
Integration of change
management
|
Scenario 2
| Unfortunately in many cases, change management is added
on to a project after it is well underway. The project team may be preparing for
implementation or implementation may have already started, and often times the catalyst
for using change management is resistance by employees, supervisors and managers. In this
situation, your project has already begun to experience difficulties, including
productivity declines, active and passive resistance, and possible loss of valued
employees (all of these can be prevented or minimized when change management is integrated
from the very beginning). In this scenario, your first activity is to find out what has
already happened. You must take the pulse of the organization, identify the source of
resistance, why it has emerged and manage it effectively and quickly. After you have
controlled the damage that is already done, you move into the change management process
and develop a strategy for the rest of the project. |
Add-on of change management
|
Change management process
The picture below depicts the three-phase change management process and the associated
outputs of the process. This process is based on best practices research with over 700
organizations. The new CM Pilot is built on the
process, including all of the associated templates and assessments for each phase of the
process.
 |
Outputs:
- Change characteristics profile
- Organizational attributes profile
- Change management strategy guidelines
- Change management team structure
- Sponsor structure and responsibilities
|
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Outputs:
- Communications plan
- Sponsor roadmap
- Training plan
- Coaching plan
- Resistance management plan
- Master change management plan
- Project team activities
|
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Outputs:
- Compliance audit reports
- Corrective action plans
- After action review
- Transition plan
|
To integrate change management steps into your project, we have provided
a detailed example.
What does an integrated process look like
Below are three word documents that show the Level 1 and Level 2 process activities for
the business improvement process, the change management process and the integrated
process. These steps are set up as documents that can be downloaded and imported directly
into a project management software like MS Project. If you get a gray dialogue box asking
for login information, just click 'Cancel'.
Level 1 and
Level 2 business improvement activities
Level 1 and
Level 2 change management activities
Level 1
and Level 2 integrated project activities
By integrating change management and project management, you will be ensured of a more
effective implementation of your project.
Next steps
The new CM Pilot application is an online
tool with the complete change management process, methodology and over 30 downloadable
templates and assessments you can begin using on your project right away. Single user
licenses are available for $449.
Sign up today for the upcoming change management webinars.
These free one-hour sessions include a web-based portion given through the CM Pilot and a
conference call where change management experts provide tips, stories and answer questions
about key change management topics. Upcoming webinars will cover developing your sponsor
model, preparing your team and managing resistance.
"This is the most beneficial webinar I have
attended. Your delivery was to the point and interesting."
Angela M, Wells Fargo
"It's great having an opportunity to network with others
who are facing similar challenges with implementing effective change management [AND] the
take aways are excellent."
Sheryl C, Lakeland Electric
***
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