Change capacity and capability development is a medium to long-term journey requiring effort across the whole organisation. Your organisation should be consistently looking to amass and internalise change management knowledge and best practices to find new and improved ways of practicing better change management. The goal is Level 5 maturity and a 65%+ project success rate.
Often, the beginning of the year reaps the most positive change results, with the latter half of the year more challenging. This could happen for any number of reasons; project teams feel unsupported, change sponsors becoming reluctant to promote the change, or budget pressures require forced re-prioritisation of tactical business objectives. In this case it is important time is spent in analysis of ways to deliver successful change outcomes for the rest of the year and beyond
We recommend 3 ways to help recover lost change momentum:
1. Improve your Communications
Have you considered the effort you are putting into communicating the change? How well is your communications plan structured? Have you identified the different audiences for your change and customised your message to suit each? Do all of your communications clearly state the business reasons why the change in ways of working is required, is required now and outline the consequences of not changing. If the future state of your change is sufficiently visible today have you described how each different impacted function within the business will, and will not, be impacted by it and how each function must change their behaviour and daily ways of working?
Effective communication is much like an advertising campaign. It is not a one-time event, it is often a repetitve process carried out over a period of time, using a variety of channels and communication vehicles before the message is internalised by impacted staff. Progress in the internalisation of the key reasons why the change is required by directly impacted staff can be measured by the effective use of Prosci s ADKAR model, assessments and tools.
Authentic, two-way, face to face communication delivered by the preferred senders in the organisation - the change sponsor and impacted line managers - is a known best practice.
2. Engage and coach management
According to Prosci's 2016 Best Practices report only 32% Line Managers report that they are adequately prepared for their role in change, yes they are essential to the successful adoption of new ways of working. Line managers are closest to the employees impacted by change. Managers are in the perfect position to hear and understand employees concerns with the proposed change; they have ‘insider’ knowledge that is particularly helpful in articulating Whats In It For Me (WIIFM) for employees to participate in the change.
Once they have worked through their own resistance to change, if trained and engaged correctly, middle managers become visible advocates for the change and help encourage buy-in from reluctant employees. As a preferred sender of communications middle managers are often the first person an employee will turn to for help in adopting a new way of working.
Momentum can be ignited and nurtured by leadership, but middle managers are critical to the successful adoption of any change.
3. Treat a change as a project
If change is something that is deployed in your organisation in an unplanned way it is unlikely to achieve its business goals. Successful adoption of a change requires a strong and equal balance of leadership/sponsorship, project management and change management.
Once you have mastered this balance at a project by project level may be then it is appropriate to consider an enterprise wide approach to the introduction of change management as a competency for all employees to adopt and use. Prosci developed their own ECM Deployment Process to do just this. In many ways introducing change management as a core organisational capability takes great change management.
Figure 2: Prosci ECM Deployment Process <http://blog.prosci.com/5-tips-for-building-organizational-change-competency>
Interesting in finding out more about how change management can be effectively integrated with project management:
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Free Brochure: Prosci Delivering Project Results
Learn more about Prosci Delivering Project Results workshop, what you will learn, why you should attend, and what materials you will gain from attendance with our brochure here.
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Prosci Delivering Project Results Workshop
If you found the brochure useful then why not have a look at our upcoming dates for the workshop. This one-day workshop prepares project managers and project teams to effectively integrate their work with change management, to meet their project’s intended outcomes, using a common language and framework for change management in project terms they are familiar with.
