Change Management Job Description: Redux
The first Change Management Job Description tutorial
was released March 4th, 2009. It included a form where
readers could comment on the tutorial and the specific
subheadings in the job description. This tutorial includes
the original job description tutorial along with reader
feedback.
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We at the Change Management Learning
Center receive many inquiries looking for a job description
for “Change Manager” or “Change Management Specialist”.
While there is currently not a single, universally
recognized description – Prosci’s research and experience
does suggest that there are some common elements for the role of change
manager.
Organizations are using a number of terms for the
dedicated change management resources or specialists that
support the people side of organizational change. Some of
the titles for this role include:
- Change Manager
- Change Management Specialist
- Change Management Consultant
- Change Management Analyst
- Change Management Coordinator
- Manager, Change Management
- Organizational Change Management (OCM) Consultant
- Change Management Lead
Regardless of the actual name, these people play a
central role in helping changes succeed by maintaining the
focus and rigor required to support the people side of
change. |
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Earn your
change management
certification today and take the next step toward
becoming a change management specialist.
Upcoming sessions:
- January 12 - 14, 2010 -
FULL
Denver, CO area
- January 26 - 28, 2010 -
FULL
Washington, DC area
- February 2 - 4, 2010
Tampa, FL area
- February 9 - 11, 2010
Denver, CO area
- March 2 - 4, 2010
San Francisco, CA area
- March 16 - 18, 2010
Denver, CO area
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Washington, DC area
- April 13 - 15, 2010
Denver, CO area
- April 20 - 22, 2010
Las Vegas, NV area
- May 18 - 20, 2010
Washington, DC area
Download the certification brochure
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Below is a mock job description for the role of
Change Manager or Change Management Specialist -
along with reader feedback from the March
4th release of the job description. We are still
interested in your feedback, so you can use the
form below
to share your thoughts.
| Position description:
The Change Management
Specialist will play a key role in helping projects (change
initiatives) meet
business, schedule and budget objectives. This person will
focus on the people side of change – including changes to
business processes, systems and technology, job roles
and organization structures. The primary focus will be
creating and implementing change management plans that
minimize employee resistance and maximize employee engagement. The Change Management Specialist
will work to drive faster adoption, greater ultimate
utilization and higher proficiency on the changes impacting
employees in the organization such that business results are
achieved.
Supervision:
While the Change Management Specialist does not
have supervisory responsibility, this person will have to work
though many others in the organization to succeed. The Change
Management Specialist will act as a coach for senior leaders
and executives in helping them fulfill the role of change
sponsor. The Change Management Specialist will also support
project teams in integrating change management activities
into their project plans. Finally, the Change Management
Specialist may provide direct support and coaching to
front-line managers and supervisors as they help their
direct reports through transitions.
|
Reader feedback on position description and
supervision: |
| The Change
Management Specialist will play a key role in
helping projects (change initiatives) meet
business, schedule and budget objectives. *The
word "helping" is too subjective. - Tara
This is a general
potential 'catch all'. I would like to see the
CMO structure of roles and how they link
together as resources in their various processes
through a CMO type structure. - Bob
Supervision; some roles require a
change team and the change lead is a direct
supervisor of the change team, especially if
working on a large enterprise project. So I
think this has to be included in the
description. - Keren
Nice, neat
definition that encompasses many if not all of
the qualities / competencies I would hope to
see. - Stuart
Overall, this is a very good effort to
put provide some structure in selecting Change
management specialist. - Momo
In a large scale
change Scenario: Invariably a change specialist
would have a team of change agents or a cross
functional team to manage change. His position
description should also involve "Bringing the
CFT [cross functional team] or change agents to
a common ground where they understand the change
benefits and the change mandate." As only
a team which knows why they are executing a
change would do it with a lot more conviction
and determination. - Gautam
I think that the description provided
is more one of a generalist than a specialist.
If you use the word 'specialist' it needs to
show in what way are they are a specialist e.g.
they have all the generalist qualities and in
addition they specialise in one or more of the
functional activities of change management, e.g.
communications or coaching or training etc. I
think that we should debate roles within a
context and not try to provide role descriptions
in isolation to other potential roles in the
change management space. So, the first debate
should be around whether there is more than one
role in the function of change management
practice (other than the already recognised
roles of sponsor, people leader, stakeholder
etc.) - Tom
Yes I think there
is a need for a position that looks at and
coordinates the overall aspects and impact of
change on an organisation. However there are
some more positive business-related items that I
think this role should look at - these include
the following:
- Analyse overall risks to the organisation
caused by all changes currently being made or
forecast for the future and ensure that
appropriate mitigation actions are in hand
- Ensure that there is no unacceptable loss of
corporate knowledge or capacity caused by the
combined effect of all changes
- Ensure that the combined effect of all changes
does not infringe corporate governance
requirements
Who does the Change Management Specialist report
to? How does the change management specialist
relate to other existing departmental and
managerial organisations such as QA ,
Administration , Finance and Accounts, The Board
etc? - Michael
Very clear and straight-forward
description - Leodegardo
I have been doing
change management on large projects for almost 2
decades now and I have found that I can be most
effective in this role leading a team of
professionals - communications experts, training
designers and developers, OD analysts, HR
consultants..). The reasons for this are
twofold: one, when all these professionals work
as a team we can develop a change program that
is cohesive, holistic and has a tight focus on
our audiences, ensuring that we minimize the
disruption of the change thereby encouraging
faster adoption. I have found that without
someone to facilitate such a team, the various
areas work in silos and the overall program can
have considerable duplication, gaps and mixed
messages. The second value of coming to the
overall project as a PM with a team is more
subtle. A large number of my projects are IT
related and IT continues to struggle with
understanding change management (or change
facilitation as I prefer to call it) and
therefore appreciating its value. They do
however, very much understand 'project
management'. When I am at the table as a project
manager, I have far more credibility than I
would as a consultant and I am far more likely
to be included as a key player, thereby making
it easier to do my job effectively. - Mary
Great introduction -- frames the
position nicely and describes key business
results to which CMs contribute. Only potential
improvement I see could be the addition of a
short section on "work outputs" or "key
deliverables" -- in other words, what someone in
this position produces (as opposed to does).
- Rick |
Roles and responsibilities:
- Apply a structured
change management approach and methodology for the
people side change caused by projects and change
efforts.
- Develop a change management strategy based on a
situational awareness of the details of the change and
the groups being impacted by the change.
- Identify potential people-side risks and anticipated
points of resistance, and develop specific plans to
mitigate or address the concerns.
- Conduct readiness assessments, evaluate results and
present findings in a logical and easy-to-understand
manner.
- Develop a set of actionable and targeted change
management plans – including communication plan, sponsor
roadmap, coaching plan, training plan and resistance
management plan.
- Support the execution of plans by employee-facing
managers and business leaders.
- Be an active and
visible coach to executives leaders who are change
sponsors.
- Create and manage measurement systems to track
adoption, utilization and proficiency of individual
changes.
- Identify resistance and performance gaps, and work to
develop and implement corrective actions
- Create and enable reinforcement
mechanisms and celebrations of success.
- Work with project teams to integrate change
management activities into the overall project plan.
- Work with communication, training, HR and OD
specialists in the formulation of particular plans and
activities to support project implementation.
|
Reader feedback on roles and responsibilities: |
| Work with
communication, training, HR and OD specialists
in the formulation of particular plans and
activities to support project implementation. *I
find that many people believe Change Management
is a communication role / not a 'consultant' to
communication, training, etc. role. I also have
found project managers believing that the change
management specialist is there to assist with
project management (schedule development,
flushing out project details, etc). - Tara
This tends to
assume a direction giving, 'advisor' type of
role, where would you see this in a CMO
structure? Leader strategist or implementer or
all of the above? - Bob
However, I feel that some of the roles
and responsibilities could include, counseling,
establishing stakeholder analysis plan, Business
analysis and business case plans, employees
empowerment plan, etc. - Momo
The role should
include supervisory role. Rational: A plan
(around communication/training) may require the
change manager to execute tasks concurrently for
which he may involve subject matter experts and
other "agents" who would help the change
specialist to accomplish the plan within the set
deadlines. - Gautam
We also do Quality Assurance Management
for our more junior Change Analysts and
Contractors working for us. Also put high focus
on Quality of customer relationship (Develops
and maintains professional, sound constructive
interpersonal relationship with "clients").
- Annie
The roles
described at present have a very 'touchy- feely
' nature and whereas these are important I think
that there are many other more solid
responsibilities that should be specified. These
include the responsibilities associated with the
additional items I have identified above
together with the following:
- Coordinate the time schedule of the overall change with particular
regard to administrative features (who moves
where when and why. Will the accommodation,
service and administrative facilities be in
place etc?)
- Ensure that the total impact of the change has been reviewed and all
necessary actions are in place
- Understand the overall benefits and dis-benefits of individual changes
and the combined effect of all changes
- Ensure that appropriate reviews of all changes take place on a regular
basis
- Advise senior management if changes should be abandoned
- Ensure that changes are complete and that there is no undesirable loss
of corporate expertise, knowledge or business
capacity caused by individual change or the
combined effect of all changes - Michael
As per above... I think the role should
include ability to lead a team. - Mary |
Skills and qualifications:
- A solid understanding of how people go through a
change and the change process; experience with ADKAR is
a plus.
- Experience and knowledge of change management
principles and methodologies (example: Prosci certification)
- Familiarity with project management approaches,
tools and phases of the project lifecycle.
- Exceptional communication skills – both written and
verbal.
- Able to work
effectively at all levels in an organization.
- Excellent active listening skills.
- Problem solving and root cause identification
skills.
- Strong analytic and decision making abilities.
- Must be a team player and able to work with and
through others.
- Ability to influence others and move toward a common
vision or goal.
- Experience with large-scale organizational change
effort.
- Change Management Professional designation is a plus
(learn more about the new Association of Change
Management Professionals and the Change Management
Professional designation at the
Prosci
Global Conference or by visiting the new
ACMP®
website)
- Previous change management experience is a plus.
|
Reader feedback on skills and qualifications: |
- Strong
organizational skills
- Knowledge of overall business - what changes impact other areas of the
business
- Emotional intelligence
- Resistance management
- Coaching skills
- A poker face helps : ) - Tara
Should include
implementation experience using Change
Management methodologies. - Keren
Noting that change management
experience would be a plus almost implies a
degree of stage development in the role, i.e. a
seasoned / more senior change manager must have
prior change experience, a more junior change
manager may not be expected to have this
experience? - Stuart
I feel that there
should be a clear difference between the
essential and desirable skills. - Momo
Skills can involve leading a team from
the front. - Gautam
Degree in one of
the Social Sciences also a requirement. -
Annie
I would add the following:
Understanding of the Business and its existing
management processes (or similar for the
industry sector concerned). - Michael
Add demonstrated
trustworthiness - Jemmot
Understanding of the theoretical
approaches to change with the ability to
determine and apply the appropriate type and
level of change. - Colin
Can be acquired
and strengthened through formal and non-formal
education and training - Leodegardo
|
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| General
feedback on the job description tutorial: |
| Over all, good work thus far! - Momo
The phrase 'job description'
suggests a description of a role within a post as part of an
established organisational structure and therefore needs to
specify who this job reports to, amongst other information.
As you are trying to provide guidance of a general nature
and not to a specific organisational design I would suggest
that you rather speak of 'role description' and not 'job
description'. If you go this route then your headings change
a bit and the contents become better sorted and more clearly
defined. I am no OD specialist but I recommend that you use
one to help knock this into a more acceptable shape. Also,
there are various standards I have seen over the years for
structuring these I suggest that you use one as a default
and state this so that people know the approach you have
taken. You may also need to include a section on key role
interactions, especially as it relates to other roles in a
typical change management function. - Tom
I think that this is a valuable document that just
needs a few more items to make the change management
specialist more business aware and to give him/her more some
more organisation -wide and specific 'hard', measurable
responsibilities that he/ she cannot hide from. There is too
much focus on the 'people' side of things - this will be
important in some organisations but not in others. The
tutorial should give a balanced approach, covering both
'hard' and 'soft' aspects of change management with equal
emphasis - individual organisations can then decide how to
strike an appropriate balance. - Michael
Here is my feedback: Way soft
and incomplete. Says nothing about accelerating benefits
realization, operational assurance, business readiness,
executive alignment. I love your materials & want to make
them better. - Joanne
This is extremely valuable.
Great start. - Mary |
Send this job description to a friend or colleague
 |
Prosci is currently sponsoring the launch of the
Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP®)
and building a certification program and set of standards
for the designation Change Management Professional (CMP®).
The first phase of this development will take place this
year at the Prosci Global Conference.
At the
2010 Prosci Global Conference,
the ACMP®
charter and constitution will be
ratified and regional chapters
will meet.
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Share your thoughts on the Change Management
Specialist job description:
Please use the form below to
share your thoughts. You can include comments in just one
field, or all of the fields. We will include feedback that
is submitted on this
tutorial in the next release on the roles in change
management. |
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Offerings for applying Prosci's change management methodologies:
Training:
-
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 US - includes over $1000 in products, including
the Best Practices in Change Management benchmarking report, the
Change Management Toolkit and the Change Management Pilot 2010
-
Train-the-trainer ($2300) - learn
how to teach Prosci change management training programs in your
organization
- Onsite training
- bring Prosci to your location for 3-day certification programs,
4-6 hour executive briefings, 1-day manager programs or 1-day
employee programs - call +1-970-203-9332 for more information
Methodology tools:
-
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 Pilot Pro 2010 ($449) - online tool including Prosci's change
management methodology, eLearning modules and downloadable templates,
assessments, presentations and checklists
-
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)
-
PCT Analyzer ($149/$349) -
web-based tool for collecting PCT Assessment data, analyzing
results, identifying risks and developing action steps
References and books:
-
Best Practices in Change Management benchmarking report
($249 / quantity discounts available) - journal-style report with lessons learned and best practices
from 575 participants, presented in an easy-to-use format - reads as
a checklist of what to do and what not to do
-
Change Management: the people side of change ($18.95 /
quantity discounts available) - a primer for anyone
involved in organizational change that addresses why manage change,
individual change management and organizational change management
-
ADKAR: a model for
change ($18.95 / quantity discounts available) - the definitive work
on Prosci's ADKAR® Model
-
Employee's Survival Guide to Change ($14.95 / quantity discounts
available) - 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
Email this page to a friend
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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