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What is Change Management?
 There
is a story told of a doctor who has just completed a surgical procedure. "The operation was a success" he says
"but unfortunately we lost the patient". There are too many similar stories in the
world of project management. The project delivers
what it was supposed to 'technically', yet the end product is considered a failure.
It does not gain acceptance from key stakeholders, and in worst case
scenarios is completely abandoned.
In many such cases, the cause
of the failure would have been poor change management.
Unfortunately, many leading Project Management Methods still give little or no
attention to this increasingly important aspect of project
management.
While the discipline of change management
is a crucial issue and the subject of many learned tomes, we are concerned
with the issue of change management as it applies to IM&T projects -
particularly those of a substantial nature. Change Management is the
collection of disciplines and tasks which are necessary to help the
people in an organisation successfully cope with bringing about the 'new
order'.
How To ‘Manage Change'
As with many other project management principles, the basic
underlying concept of
change management is simple. that
is, ensure
that every stakeholder is fully prepared for the way in which the
project outcomes will affect them. In fact 'Change Management' is
a bit of a misnomer. Our real goal is to manage organisational
'readiness' - in all its various forms.
So,
we do this through effective communication and training right? Well,
sort of..
The
specific activities to be undertaken
depend on many variables, such as the type of project, the degree of
change, the business of the organisation and the experience of
stakeholders - to name a few. Assuming the project will be bringing on
reasonable change, you could expect the change management activities to include
the following:
-
Ensuring support of key executives
-
Understanding the project objectives in detail
-
Gauging
potential impacts and corporate readiness
-
Identification
of all stakeholders
-
Developing
/ implementing strategies, plans and schedules for training and
communication
-
Creating
support and counselling services
-
Assisting
with implementation plan
-
Developing
and implementing new business processes, work-flows, organisation
structures, job descriptions
Some
of these issues seem painfully obvious, yet it is surprising how
often they are ignored, forgotten or put off until later. Many
organisations have business units which have the skills to undertake one
or more of the activities, but they are not always consulted in time, or
given the guidance needed.
Complexities
The
relatively short list of 'typical' activities should not lead you to the
false conclusion that this is a simple task. We were recently involved in
a project which had a full time change management team of five people
over three years, which needed to bring in external expertise from time
to time. Every step is quite involved, and benefits from the use of
experienced staff.
For
example, 'stakeholders' may include staff from your Information
Technology, Human Resource, and Accounting areas as well as your counter
/ manufacturing staff. Are your clients affected? Does it change the way
you report to the board of directors? Are there legal implications, or
changes in the distribution channel? Could it affect organisations who
supply goods or services to you? Stakeholders may be a far bigger group
that you first imagine.
When
analysing the training and communications requirements, you will need to
determine which approaches work best for each group of
stakeholders. Maybe face to face or classroom training works best in one
part of the organisation, and written or computer based may work best
somewhere else. Should training be tested? Should staff have access to
'beta' or 'training' areas to allow them to become familiar with the new
arrangements?
Will
you provide 'experts' at each site, to assist staff during the
implementation phase? What help desk options are to be available? Can
your PABX infrastructure cope? Are the 'help files' adequate? What
reference manuals / facilities are appropriate? If jobs are changing
significantly, counselling services may be appropriate, particularly if
redundancies are a possibility.
The
Key to Change Management
 Many
of the skills needed for effective change management may already be
available in your organisation. Many others are readily available from
consulting / contracting suppliers.
The
key is to coordinate all of these various activities and ensure that
each is completed at the appropriate time. It is a very risky
proposition to leave these tasks to an inexperienced person. They are best done by
someone who has experience, and a proven track record in change management / coordination in a
project environment.
Can
Island Consulting staff help you? It costs nothing to find out, so
contact
us today, and talk over your requirements.
Related
Topics
Following
are topics which are components of change management. We are in the
process of developing information for each one. As hyperlinks
appear, you will be able to click on them for more information.
Resources
A few resources we have found to be of outstanding help.
-
Leading Change - a book from one of
the world's foremost experts on business leadership John Kotter. A
brilliant and easy to read book highlighting an 8 step approach to
leading change.
-
Change
Management Resource Library - a website with hundreds of related
articles and links to other specialist web sites - a 'must' for
anyone interested in change management.
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