Who does change management?
Roles in change management tutorial series

Organizations are constantly introducing change - a redesigned process, a new technology, a new product, a new performance review system, moving physical locations or reorganizing the structure. These changes ultimately impact how individual employees do their jobs. And the success of each organizational change effort is tied to how successfully each of those individuals make their own personal transition. Projects and initiatives need change management to encourage and enable individuals to make their personal transitions successfully. But who plays a role in supporting individuals through those transitions? Who does change management?

This tutorial presents an overview of Prosci's Roles in Change Management Model - describing each of the roles, why they are important and what their responsibilities are in supporting change and change management.

Foundation

Let's begin with some definitions and clarification:

• Change management is: the application of the set of tools, processes, skills and principles for managing the people side of change to achieve the required outcomes of a change project or initiative (definition from Prosci).
• The goal of change management is: to enable and encourage the successful individual transitions required by a project or initiative - since organizational results are only achieved when the individual employees impacted by a change embrace and adopt the new way of doing their jobs.

The question remains: who plays a role in employees embracing, adopting and utilizing a solution coming from a project or initiative? Who does change management?

Prosci's Roles in Change Management Model

Below is Prosci's Roles in Change Management Model. The model presents five distinct change management roles that must be fulfilled and work together to make a change successful.

Prosci's Roles in Change Management Model

Change management is not done by one person - a change management specialist assigned to a project. Effective change management requires the participation and involvement from all of the "gears" in the model. Each of the roles presented in the model has a unique relationship to change, and thus a unique role in change management.

Why the role is important:

• Having dedicated resources for change management was #4 on the list of overall greatest contributors to success in the 2009 benchmarking study.
• There is a growing body of data that shows a correlation between the success of a change initiative and how well the people side was managed.
• Without dedicated resources, change management activities will not be completed. Unfortunately, when budgets and schedules are squeezed, change management is pushed to the bottom of the priority list if there are not dedicated resources.
• The 2011 best practices in change management benchmarking study collected additional data on the advantages of having dedicated resources and the risks of not having dedicated resources. The new report will be available in the second half of 2011.

What are the responsibilities of this role:

1. Apply a structured change management methodology - instead of operating in an ad hoc manner, approach change management with purpose and intent, following a process and using standard tools.
2. Formulate strategy - evaluate how big the change is and who will be impacted to develop a customized strategy.
3. Develop plans - based on the strategy work, create a customized set of plans for moving people forward - including a communication plan, a sponsor roadmap, a coaching plan, a training plan and a resistance management plan.
4. Support other "gears" - the change management resource is the coach and the go-to person for the other roles, particularly the executives, senior leaders, managers and supervisors.

Resources: 3-day certification, Change Management Toolkit (hardcopy - $389), Change Management Pilot Pro (online - $449), Best Practices in Change Management benchmarking report (journal-style - $289)

Why the role is important:

• In the 2009 benchmarking study, the active and visible participation of the senior leader was cited as the #1 contributor to success (as it was in the 2007, 2005, 2003, 2000 and 1998 studies). In the 2009 study, sponsorship was cited four times more often than any other contributor to success. This role is crucial to success.
• Employees want to see and hear the executive's commitment to the change. The authority they provide carries over to other change management roles.
• Effective sponsorship is a predictor of success or failure on the project.

What are the responsibilities of this role:

1. Active and visible participation throughout the project - there are three key words here: active, visible and throughout - sponsors must be present and seen by employees.
2. Build a coalition of sponsorship and manage resistance - the sponsorship coalition describes the group of managers and leaders who will take the change back to their department, division, workgroup, etc. The primary sponsor must build and maintain a healthy coalition.
3. Communicate directly with employees - employees want to hear the business reasons for the change from someone at the top, executives and senior managers are preferred senders of change messages.

Resources: 4 to 6 hour executive briefing by a Prosci Master Instructor (call +1-970-203-9332 or email training@prosci.com)

Why the role is important:

• Managers and supervisors are close to the action - it is their people who must change how they do their jobs for the change to be successful.
• In any organization there are two types of change constantly happening: 1) top-down initiatives launched by senior leaders (macro-changes) and 2) responses to daily demands from customers and suppliers (micro-changes). Managers and supervisors support their employees through both types of changes.
• The attitude and actions of a manager will show up in his or her people - whether the attitude is one of support or one of opposition.

What are the responsibilities of this role:

1. Communicator - employees prefer to hear messages about how the change directly impacts them and their team from the person they report to.
2. Advocate - if the manager opposes the change, chances are that his or her people will as well - in many cases, the opposite is also true.
3. Coach - helping employees through their own personal transitions is the essence of change coaching by middle managers and supervisors.
4. Liaison - the role of liaison involves interacting with the project team, taking direction and providing feedback.
5. Resistance manager - research shows that the best intervention to mitigate resistance comes from the employee's immediate supervisor.

Resources: Change Management Guide for Managers (hardcopy - $189 with quantity discounts), 1-day coaching program taught by a Prosci Master Instructor (call +1-970-203-9332 or email training@prosci.com)

Why the role is important:

• The project team is tasked with managing the technical side of the change. In the end, they are the people who design how things will be done differently than they are today.
• Without direction and management, the technical side of the project will not move forward.
• The project team also plays a role in ensuring that change management is part of the project - by providing the appropriate resources (budget and personnel) and time.
• Change management will be most effective when it is pulled in at the launch of the project.

What are the responsibilities of this role:

1. Design the actual change - create the solution that ultimately impacts how people do their jobs.
2. Manage the "technical side" - with tools like the charter, business case, schedule, resources, work breakdown structure, budget, etc.
3. Engage with change management team/resource - work with the change management resource or team to ensure that the technical side and the people side of the change progress in unison, provide timely project information.
4. Integrate change management plans into project plan - start change management at the beginning of the project and weave the change management strategy and plans into the technical side plans to create one seamless project plan.

Why the role is important:

• Project support functions bring expertise in a particular area - these groups include: Human Resources staff, Organization Development staff, Training specialists, Communication specialists, Subject Matter Experts, solution designers, etc.
• In some cases, one of these project support functions might operate as the change management team or resource.

What are the responsibilities of this role:

1. Experience and expertise - project support functions bring experience from past changes that can be applied to the current change.
2. Knowledge - each of these groups has specialized knowledge that can help the project team and the change management resource or team.
3. Tools - each of the areas brings specific tools that support change management activities - just be sure the tools align with change management best practices.

Conclusion

Effective change management takes more than just a skilled practitioner assigned to a project. To achieve the ultimate goal - "employees adopting, embracing and utilizing a change to their jobs" - a number of players throughout the organization must be actively engaged in change management, fulfilling their specific role based on their unique relationship to change.