If you are looking to start a new career, or enhance your existing skill set, you will want to select a field that’s on an upward trend. With the pace of business being faster than ever, organisations are in a constant state of change. These rapid developments have led to change management become a growing profession. The number of organisations creating change practitioner roles increases daily with more specialised career paths emerging for advanced change practitioners and those tasked with building change competency throughout an organisation.
The delivery of successful change, improved adoption and usage of new capabilities, is crucial to the transformation of existing processes that directly improve overall business profitability and growth.
The role of a change practitioner is extremely rewarding and spans all industries, offering opportunities for career enhancement and diversity. Knowing you have played a crucial role in transforming the lives of people directly impacted by change provides a great sense of achievement, especially when you help to enable individuals opposing change, to become change champions.
A career in change management is going to be rewarding for several reasons. Your job role will deliver real value as you will have a chance to directly impact business strategy, contribute to growth and help people choose to adopt new ways of working. Additionally, your projects will never be the same offering you a great variety of work challenge and the opportunity to fast-track the progress of your career.
Increasingly people are looking for purpose in their jobs, and to help somebody through a challenge they are facing is very rewarding. Leading people through change is hard, you need a process, a toolkit and practice to become good at it. After all you don’t become fit by visiting the gym once. Change management competency is built in exactly the same way, consistent practice. Changes you will work on vary from using a new software application, embracing new organisational values, or making a physical move of an office structure—helping people through challenges at work helps them have a better life.
Change management jobs are a bit unusual in the sense that there is no standard list of responsibilities, but instead a requirement for flexibility, adaptability and creativity. To become a change management practitioner a unique set of skills is required, which can sometimes be difficult to identify but are certainly possible to develop via various training programmes and practice. There are two core competencies to consider:
These terms are open to interpretation, so your approach to the profession is dependent on your role in any given scenario. You will need to have a strong personality that can make decisions quickly, with reference to what’s ahead. Although you’ll have goals to meet, they need often to be quantified and regularly revisited with senior management. This often requires you to set an example as someone who is adaptable to change and understands the business direction.
The short answer is - all. Within change management, people come from incredibly diverse backgrounds including project managers from inside and outside the IT function, business managers within divisions and Operations or HR professionals.
All seem to have a common purpose and desire to ensure that organisations grow, not only by introducing new technical capabilities, but also through their people actually adopting those new capabilities proficiently.
Ultimately, change management covers the right way to treat people during times of adjustment. The increases in demand for, and the high value of, certified change practitioners’ work is obviously attractive, but helping people succeed through the challenges they face is an opportunity for job satisfaction. It helps both the people experiencing change to manage their challenges and gives change practitioners themselves a true sense of purpose.
Becoming good at leading people successfully through change is increasingly seen as a core competency required by leaders in an organisation. Therefore the role of change practitioner is aimed at those who aspire to future leadership roles.
Interested in learning more?
If you're interested in learning more about Prosci's range of models for managing the people side of change, consider attending an upcoming Prosci Change Management Certification Programme.
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