| Most change in organizations today occurs
because of large scale project implementation. Very often this involves new technology
platforms but sometimes the change is purely a business project change initiative.
Unfortunately change management still has a long way to go to establish its fundamental
importance to the successful implementation and benefit realization of those changes.
Simply put, most project managers think of change management as something that happens
later in the project management life cycle. So let's talk about why this happens and what
as change managers we can do to put it on the agenda.
Project Managers and Change Management
The first and most important distinction to be made is that
as a change manager our role is to enable change to happen, we don't drive the change.
This is usually a huge paradigm shift in thinking for project managers and business
leaders as most think that we make change happen, when what we do is advise on the most
appropriate tools and techniques to employ at any given time in the change cycle to engage
employees in the process of change. It is up to the leaders in the organization to drive
change using our recommended strategies to achieve the desired outcomes of a particular
project.
The second issue is that most project managers and business
leaders think of change management as the "soft stuff" doing the communication,
training and human resources requirements of the change. What they fail to understand is
that the "soft stuff" is really the fundamental driver of change, a change
project, whether focussed on technology or business change is of little value if employees
are not engaged in the change itself and the reason for it and therefore the benefits of
that change.
So here is a way you can influence the thinking of project
managers and business leaders when a new project is on the horizon. Firstly think in terms
of how they think, generally they are thinking phases of managing the project lifecycle,
so for example the following phases; initiate; plan; build; implement; and close. So
firstly think about change management in each of those phases across the "soft
side" of business issues such as communication, stakeholder engagement, training,
human resources issues and measurement. Then decide what activities, actions and
strategies you could recommend to be included in each of these phases and identify the
precise benefit to the project manager and business leader for your specific change
management advice to be included in each of these phases for the project success.
Even with the focus on the project, the essential
ingredient for any successful change program is management and leadership commitment to
the proposed strategy. The greatest challenge therefore for change managers is to ensure
that leaders do not waiver from the challenges ahead. Change is hard, whether you are at
the frontline, or at the executive leadership level. But the most difficult role of all to
cope with change is the CEO, because pressures come from leadership team members warning
against the changes, there will be unrest amongst staff and questions regarding the
strategy. And it is always safer to stay with what is known even if it is not the best
outcome for the organization rather than to take a risk to try to innovate and do
something new that is untested.
So here's what can you do to ensure that the focus stays
on strategy.
1. Establish a project management team comprised of key
leaders that focus on enterprise wide change and dependencies and is chaired by the CEO or
department head. This ensures that the silo mentality is broken down as managers are
required to adapt to a new process, that is, thinking of their specific project and the
impact across the organization, which in turns changes behavior.
2. From a change communication perspective it is important
to ensure that communication is timely and aligned with progress at each of these change
meetings. More importantly it is essential to communicate how each project and strategy
implementation is aligned with the enterprise wide vision and direction of the
organization. This way employees and managers will understand how individual projects are
linked and how the organizational strategy is dependent on them all coming together.
3. All members of the leadership team need to be aligned.
They must have consistent messaging regarding the direction they are communicating and
that it is linked to the organizational vision and strategy. The need to communicate this
face to face and influence support, provide specific details of the positive outcomes of
the strategy to those who are accountable for driving aspects of the strategy.
4. Identifying and communicating the performance
requirements linked to the strategy and confirming this at regular intervals throughout
the year keeps everyone focused on the strategy and tasks.
5. Ensure that all managers make the strategy reviews and
updates a key part of their regular team meetings.
6. Implementation is the most difficult aspect to manage
successfully of any project because this is when it becomes real – most resistance
will be at this phase of the project, so it is important to have engagement strategies in
place before this phase.
7. Identify those members of the leadership team most
likely to be committed to achieving the outcomes and design a specific role for them to
influence their peers and their management teams.
8. Where project management falls down is at the middle
management level unless they have been engaged from the beginning and this means actually
involved in the project and being able to influence the direction. This is where
significant undermining occurs of project implementation and that is largely based in
fear. Find out what the fear is and then address it and ensure that middle management are
engaged from the beginning so they feel less threatened by the unknown.
Senior management provide direction for the strategy,
ensure that appropriate resources both people and financial are available, are focussed
and directly involved and aware of all the issues and risks of the project and most
importantly provide updates and direction on an ongoing basis. The role of the change
manager is to support this by ensuring that all the other issues that could derail the
project are dealt with so that the senior leadership do not back track on the strategy.
Finally to maintain commitment to change all projects need
to be integrated into the longer term strategy and vision of the organization and all
employees from frontline to senior leadership to understand how the project and their role
contributes to the overall vision. Change is only successful when it is seamlessly
integrated into the way the organization operates, not as an appendage to the
organization. And once leaders experience the benefits of getting change management
involved at the beginning of a project versus at the implementation phase, next time the
challenge of getting change management on the project management agenda won't be an issue.
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