Change Management Office:
Benchmarking Data and Considerations
Module 3
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training plan has been replaced by holistic, structured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. 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. The first tutorial in this series provided
an overview of Enterprise Change Management,
and the second tutorial provided guidelines and tips for
adding
structure to your deployment effort.
This tutorial, module 3, focuses on one aspect of
institutionalizing change management - the creation of a
functional group or Change Management Office (CMO). See what
others are doing and learn about important considerations as you
are creating a functional group dedicated to change management.
Latest benchmarking data on the CMO
Prosci's 2012 edition of
Best
Practices in Change Management contains a large section
focused on deploying change management broadly across
an organization. Below are excerpts specifically related to
functional groups focused on change management - the CMO.
How many organizations have CMOs?
The creation of a functional group dedicated to change
management is certainly an emerging trend in the discipline.
Just over one third of participants in the latest benchmarking
study had a Change Management Office or functional group (Figure
80).
The table below shows the percentage of
participants that had a Change Management Office relative to the
organizational maturity level based on the Prosci Change
Management Maturity Model. The data shows that more mature
organizations are much more likely to have a functional group
dedicated to change management than less mature organizations.
| Level in Prosci Change Management Maturity
Model |
Percentage with CMO |
| Level 5 - Organizational Competency |
73% |
| Level 4 - Organizational Standards |
54% |
| Level 3 - Multiple Projects |
48% |
| Level 2 - Single Projects |
32% |
| Level 1 - Absent or Ad hoc |
9% |
Learn more about the new Prosci Change Management Maturity
Model Audit
Where is the CMO located?
Participants who had a functional group
dedicated to change management also indicated where in the
organization that group resided. The top response, as in
previous studies, was in Human Resources (HR) or Organizational
Development (OD). Information Technology (IT), the Project
Management Office (PMO) or within operations were the next most
frequently cited locations (Figure 81).
The presence of IT as second on the list is
interesting. There are likely two reasons for this. First, the
IT group tends to create or launch significant amounts of change
in the organization, and in the past these groups have fallen
into the trap of installing a solution but not ensuring benefits
were realized because they ignored change management. Second,
many Project Management Offices historically started in IT
before migrating to an enterprise level view. Both of these
factors may contribute to the high percentage of CMOs found in
the IT function.
How big is the CMO?
Participants with a CMO indicated how many
employees were part of the group (Figure 82). Just under half of
participants (49.5%) indicated that their change management
functional group was comprised of five or fewer employees.
What is the CMO called?
Participants with a functional group dedicated to change
management shared the name of the group. The most common names
for the group fell into one of three categories:
-
A title using the words “Change Management” including:
Change
Management, Change Management Office, Change Management
Department, Change Management Team, Enterprise Change
Management, Organizational Change Management
-
A title using the word “Change” including:
Business Change,
Change Team, Change Group, Change Unit or Change Leadership
-
A title using one of the following words related to change:
Transition, Improvement, Transformation, Performance or Strategy
Important considerations when creating a CMO
There is no universal model for the Change Management Office
that will work for every organization. The "right" roles and
responsibilities for the Change Management Office will depend on
your organization and how the CMO fits into your effort to
deploy change management more broadly throughout the enterprise.
The "right" location will depend on your organization and
characteristics of your organization. The "right" structure will
depend on your organization and the functionality you have
defined.
Rather than prescribing the approach for the CMO, Prosci has
developed a set of CMO considerations
that should guide your
thinking and decisions about the creation of a change management
functional group. Below are the primary considerations for
creating a Change Management Office.
|
Prosci CMO considerations: |
|
What it should do |
Possibilities include:
- Own and maintain the methodology
- Own and maintain the tools
- Own the curriculum
- Maintain a community (Center of Excellence
or Community of Practice)
- Coach sponsors
- Coach managers/supervisors
- Coach project teams
- Provide change management resources (people)
to specific projects
- Provide consultative support to change
management resources on teams
|
|
Where it should reside |
Variables to consider:
- Access to and visibility into change efforts
- Credibility in the organization
- Historic or cultural implications
- Adequate sponsorship for enterprise-wide
impact
- Ability to liaise with others who work on
projects including: Project managers and teams,
training specialists, communication specialists,
leadership development and groups involved with
defining and creating individual competencies
|
|
How it should be structured |
Decisions required include:
- Centralized vs decentralized
- Amount of staff required
- Representatives in/from the business
|
Decisions about the creation of the Change Management Office
should be part of a larger effort to institutionalize change
management. Learn more about
Prosci's suite of offerings for
organizations pursuing Enterprise Change Management - the effort
to institutionalize change management and build organizational
capabilities and competencies.
Prosci ECM Boot Camp
The Prosci ECM Boot Camp is a one-day workshop that gives you
the foundation, perspective and tools you need to be successful
with Project ECM. You will dive deeper into the current, future
and transition states of Project ECM and apply the construct to
your organization. The fast-paced session draws on the latest
benchmarking data and development from Prosci, equipping you
with tools for creating your own customized strategies and plans
for deploying change management broadly throughout your
organization.
US ECM Boot Camp sessions conducted by Prosci:
- Feb 22, 2013 - Chicago, IL
- April 18, 2013 - Los Angeles (day after ACMP conference)
- June 28, 2013 - Washington DC
- July 23, 2013 - Denver, CO
- Sept 10, 2013 - San Francisco, CA
- Oct 11, 2013 - Cleveland, OH
- Nov 5, 2013 - Houston, TX
-
Download registration form for US programs delivered by
Prosci
Canada ECM Boot Camp sessions conducted by AdPro
Australia ECM Boot Camp sessions conducted by Being Human:
Feedback:
- "The ECM Boot Camp gave me a research-based grounding in
the principles of Enterprise Change Management, and equipped
me with robust tools that enabled me to immediately apply
the learning. Highly recommended for anyone looking to go
beyond project change management to affect an entire
culture."
- Eryc Eyl, Change Acceleration Specialist
- "ECM Boot Camp affords excellent understanding of the
mechanisms underpinning ECM. As importantly, it informs on
the practicalities of making it happen. Any first steps on
the ECM journey will be all the more surefooted for a day
spent here."
- Graeme R, Management Consultant
- "My favorite part of the ECM Boot Camp was learning that
there is already a defined approach and that if you follow
the steps you can make progress – AND that there is a way to
measure that progress – I loved it!"
- Stephanie Christensen, Director of Enterprise Change Management
- "The ECM Boot Camp was very much worth the time and
money that I invested. I walked away knowing what I needed
to do next, to get on the right path to complete my journey
to implementing ECM."
- Marlene Mathias, Six Sigma Black Belt
- "The ECM Boot Camp will kick your organizations Change
Management practices into high gear...."
- Janice, Sr. HR Consultant II
- "If you're serious about achieving true change
management as one of your core organizational competencies,
then find a way to get to this course."
- Jeff, Managing Director, Governmental Agency
Sessions are held at conference facilities near the airport,
so you can take the complimentary airport shuttle to simplify
travel. Tuition for the program is $889 and includes a single
user license for the new ECM Roadmap (online instructional tool)
and access codes for the new Prosci Change Management Maturity
Model Audit. Visit the
ECM Boot Camp website to learn more or
download the registration form to enroll. Seats are limited.
|
Interested in bringing Prosci's
methodologies to your organization?
Prosci offers site licenses that allow you
to leverage Prosci's world-leading research and
methodologies in your organization. With enterprise
site licenses, you are able to customize Prosci's
processes and tools to fit your organization,
integrate Prosci's models into existing processes
and project management approaches, translate into
multiple languages, lower the cost of training
delivery and truly build your organization's change
management capabilities and competencies. Contact a
Prosci Account Manager at +1-970-203-9332 or changemanagement(at)prosci(dot)com to discuss your
change management needs and how Prosci's
research-based, holistic, easy-to-use solutions can
work for you. |
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