The face and voice of change
Roles in change management tutorial series
Who are the faces and voices of change? Your immediate
reaction might be the project leader. Or perhaps the change
management specialist. Or the communication specialist.
Benchmarking data, however, suggests a very different answer. In
times of change, employees look to two individuals
in the
organization: the person they report to and the person at the
top (who they view as "in charge" of their part of the
organization). This finding has significant implications on the
roles in change management.
This tutorial examines the "employee-facing" roles
and the "enabling" roles in change management. Change
management is different than other improvement disciplines
because it must be done by supervisors, managers and leaders
throughout the organization - not just by a small group of
specialists.
Five roles in change management
The
first tutorial of this series presented the five roles in
change management, with discussions about why each role is
important and what the responsibilities are for that role.
Prosci's Roles in Change Management Model
Each of the roles is crucial and has a unique and significant
contribution to driving successful change. However, several of the roles do more
of their work behind the scenes while others engage
employees directly.
Employee-facing roles in change management
The employee-facing roles in change management are the two at
the top of the model: 1) Executives and senior managers and 2)
Middle managers and supervisors. These two groups engage in one-on-one and one-to-many interactions with
employees impacted by change. They are the voice and face of
change.
Why do these groups need to be the face and voice of
change?
Employees likely do not know the project manager, the
change management specialist, the HR specialist or the
communication specialist assigned to the project. But they do
know and have a relationship with their immediate supervisors,
and they do know who they consider "in charge" of their part of
the organization. The employee-facing roles are determined by
the nature and the relationships
in the organization, not by an
arbitrary team model or structure created for a given
initiative.
Prosci's benchmarking data shows quite clearly that employees
prefer to hear change messages from the person they report to
and the person they consider as "in charge". Below is
preliminary data from Prosci's 2011 benchmarking study showing
the most effective senders of change messages - senior leaders
for business messages about the change and the immediate
supervisor for personal messages about the change.
Are these two roles the employee-facing roles just because
they are at the top of the model? No. Are they the
employee-facing roles because they have the word "managers" in
their title? Absolutely not. These are the employee-facing roles in change management
because they are the groups that employees look to in times of
change.
What do they need to do?
Prosci's benchmarking research indicates specific roles for
each of these two groups:
|
Executives and senior managers |
|
Middle managers and supervisors |
- Active and visible participation throughout
the entire project
- Build a coalition of sponsorship and
manage resistance
- Communicate directly with employees
|
|
- Communicator
- Advocate
- Coach
- Liaison
- Resistance manager
|
| * From
Prosci's 2009 edition of Best Practices in Change
Management benchmarking report |
These two groups, more than any other, play a
direct and
critical role in helping employees impacted by a project or
initiative to embrace, adopt and ultimately utilize the change
to their day-to-day work. These are the groups that must answer
why a change is happening and how it will impact the specific
employee and the organization. They are the ones who share the
importance of the initiative and their own personal commitment
to the change being successful. They are the face and voice of
change.
More than words
Executives, senior managers, middle managers and supervisors
are more than the "voice" of change - they are both the "voice"
and "face" of change. Employees will not only listen to what is
said, but will look to the actions
of these groups to determine
if a change is meaningful and worth investing the time and
energy it takes to succeed. "Actions speak louder than words" is
an appropriate adage here - as most employees are intelligent
and sophisticated enough to see through half-heated support.
Enabling roles in change management
The enabling roles in the model include: change management
resource/team, project team and project support functions. These
groups do more of their work behind the scenes, preparing the
employee-facing roles to be successful.
These groups are key sources of
information and direction for the employee-facing
roles. These groups must provide timely, accurate and complete
information about the project or initiative so the
employee-facing roles are most effective and delivering aligned
messages. These groups may prepare talking points, frequently
asked question documents and communication collateral such as
presentations and newsletters, but the employee-facing roles are
the ones who should be delivering the messages.
The change management resource/team in particular has a
responsibility to provide guidance to the executives, senior
managers, middle managers and supervisors. They create
sponsor roadmaps for senior
leaders and coaching plans
for managers and supervisors. The role of the change management
resource is to coach the employee-facing roles and make it as
easy as possible for them to fulfill their role. The
employee-facing roles often do not have the time or capacity (and in
many cases, the information) to do all the work themselves -
they look to the change management specialist for direction,
coaching, guidance and information to effectively engage
employees.
Conclusion
Separating the roles in change management into the enabling and employee-facing
categories may be a bit of a shock to change management
practitioners and project leaders. It requires setting aside ego
and realizing that much of your work is done through others. It
also takes a unique skill set to effectively work through others
- to be the conductor of the orchestra or the director of the
play. Employees look to those at the top and the person they
report to in times of change.
In the end,
these roles must take center stage as the face and
voice of change
for change management to be effective.
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