Institutionalizing Change Management
Module 1

Over the last decade, the discipline of change management has emerged and evolved. What was once an ad hoc, after-the-fact approach occasionally accompanied by a communications plan or training plan has been replaced by holistic, structured processes with complete toolsets for addressing change management at the individual and organizational levels. The result of improved change management has been greater success at delivering objectives on time and on budget.

Now, leading organizations are taking the next step in the journey, shifting their focus from project-by-project application toward institutionalizing change management practices, processes, capabilities and competencies. Instead of addressing change management one project after another, these organizations are investing time, energy and resources to build organizational change management capabilities and competencies. Prosci calls this effort Enterprise Change Management (ECM), the structured and intentional deployment of change management across and throughout an organization. With Enterprise Change Management, effectively managing the people side of change becomes more than a business practice; it becomes a core competency, competitive differentiator and cultural value of the organization.

Institutionalizing change management takes a concerted effort. It requires resources, budget, time and commitment. It requires treating and managing "institutionalizing change management" as a project and as a change. It is not enough to simply apply change management over and over; there must be a fundamental shift and charter to make great change management the norm. But when this shift occurs, change initiatives are more successful and the organization as a whole achieves greater financial and strategic success. Prosci is introducing a suite of offerings for Enterprise Change Management, providing organizations the direction, research, thought-leadership, and tools necessary for creating breakthrough performance by building change management as an organizational core competency. This tutorial provides the foundation for ECM and introduces Prosci's new ECM Suite (download Prosci ECM Suite brochure).

What is ECM

Enterprise Change Management can be described in a number of ways. The following statements are all explanations of what is meant by Enterprise Change Management. Some may resonate more in your organization than others:

• Institutionalizing change management practices, processes, capabilities and competencies
• Building organizational change management capabilities and competencies
• Deploying change management broadly throughout the enterprise
• “Great change management” is second nature and part of the DNA of the organization
• Change management is the organization's Standard Operation Procedure
• Change management is the norm on projects and initiatives
• Change management is an expectation, not an exception
• All employees have internalized their role in leading change

In an organization that has successfully worked to institutionalize change management - e.g. pursued Enterprise Change Management - common change management processes and tools are consistently and constantly applied, individual competencies in "leading change" are evident from the very top of the organization to the front line, and applying change management has become a strategic capability.

Why take on ECM

The simple answer to "why invest in Enterprise Change Management" is to improve the financial and strategic performance of the organization through more successful change implementations. There are several approaches to telling the story and making the case for deploying change management.

Cumulative, additive benefits: Effective change management on a particular project or initiative drives greater benefit realization. A growing body of data shows that there is a direct correlation between more effectively managing the people side of change and meeting project objectives on time and on budget (see Prosci's 2012 edition of Best Practices in Change Management). When change management is done effectively, the result is a faster speed of adoption, a higher ultimate utilization rate and a greater level of proficiency, which all drive higher Return on Investment (ROI). When the people side of change is ignored, there are greater costs and risks both to the project and to the organization. So the first case for Enterprise Change Management is additive in nature - if effective change management drives success on a given project, then why not begin applying change management on more (or all) projects by deploying it more broadly across the organization?

Dealing with the amount of change: The second case for working to build organizational capabilities and competencies is based on change load. Organizations are experiencing and expecting more change than ever before. The velocity of change continues to increase - with more frequent, larger and more imperative changes being announced each day. In an environment where change has truly become the norm, the time is right to build a capability to more efficiently and effectively implement those changes, and institutionalizing change management is one solution.

Capacity and saturation: Data shows that more and more organizations are facing a point of change saturation. The percentage of participants reporting being near or past the point of saturation has risen dramatically, from 59% in Prosci's 2007 report to 73% in Prosci's 2012 study. One approach for increasing change capacity and addressing the consequences of change saturation is to more effectively manage each of the efforts in the change portfolio. The third case for Enterprise Change Management is increasing the capacity to handle change now and in the future.

More efficient and effective application: A common organizational standard for change management is more effective than allowing each project to address change management on its own. The advantages of deploying change management from an enterprise perspective include common language, common tools, more consistent application, ability to draw on shared resources, shorter learning curves and the ability to continuously improve. This final case for institutionalizing change management parallels the case used for deploying any common approach in the organization - change management is done more efficiently and effectively when there is an organizational standard in place.

Remember when...: The final case for tackling Enterprise Change Management is more of an emotional story than an academic one. Some people will want to rely on data for making the case. However, when asked about approaches for justifying change management, study participants identified the use of scenarios and examples as the most effective tactic. Many organizations have started the ECM journey based solely on a single project that went very well (because change management was applied) or very poorly (because the people side of change was ignored). Once project leaders or senior leaders reach the point of connecting change management with the sentiment "let's do that again" or "let's never do that again" related to the outcomes of an initiative, then they have personally made the case for broader deployment of change management.

Key to succeeding in Enterprise Change Management

One of the biggest keys to succeeding in Enterprise Change Management is treating and managing "institutionalizing change management" as a project and as a change. Many organizations have struggled to truly build change management capabilities and competencies, even when they have been successful at applying change management on particular initiatives, because they never hit the seminal moment when the mindset shifts from "applying change management on Project X" to "institutionalizing change management practices, processes, capabilities and competencies."

Prosci is introducing a suite of offerings designed to help organizations and practitioners make that shift in mindset. To help accomplish this shift, Prosci is using the term "Project ECM" as a descriptor of the effort to deploy change management broadly throughout an enterprise. The use of "project" is intentional, because the effort to institutionalize change management is fundamentally changing how changes are implemented in the organization. A solution for institutionalizing change management must be designed, developed, deployed, embraced and adopted to reach a point where change management is the norm. To fully address Project ECM, Prosci has built out step-by-step instructions and tools for:

• Assessing the current state - how change management occurs today
• Defining the future state - how the organization will look once the capabilities and competencies are in place
• Designing the technical side of the transition state - the solution for institutionalizing change management
• Designing the people side of the transition state - how to build buy-in and commitment for change management

The use of a common framework for change - current state, transition state, future state - applied to one particular change, namely "institutionalizing change management," provides the necessary structure and foundation for driving success.

Prosci ECM Suite

The Prosci ECM Suite is comprised of three offerings (download Prosci ECM Suite brochure or visit www.prosci.com/ecm):