HOW CHANGE MANAGEMENT FITS INTO PROJECTS by Elizabeth Harrin
Referred Link - https://www.girlsguidetopm.com/how-change-management-fits-into-projects/
Change management was largely focused on communicating downwards and training.
Change Management has Changed
Change management today isn’t exactly like that any longer, at least not for most people. Larger organisations may have someone focused on change management, but often change management is (or should be) embedded in everything we do that shifts the way a company works.
Change management is the unwritten requirement in everyone’s job, especially those people involved in projects. Training is still important, but there’s also this idea of ‘readiness’: how prepared the organisation is to do things differently.
And if the answer is ‘not very’, change management is the way that we help them get better prepared. When have you ever come across execs who decided not to change their business because the staff weren’t ready? They might have delayed their plans, or put extra support in place, but if your strategy and survival rely on being able to move with the times and stay competitive, change is coming to those workers whether they like it or not.
Communication remains critical in a changing environment, both in laying the groundwork for the change and for ensuring people know what is happening.
Defining Change Management
The definition of change management I use in my book is this:
The way we facilitate the shift from current practice to new practice in order to achieve a benefit.
In other words, it’s a systematic and planned approach for helping individuals and teams be successful with new ways of working.
Change management delivers that by:
- Building support for the change
- Identifying and addressing resistance to the change
- Helping individuals develop the knowledge and skills required to adopt the new practice successfully.
In doing all of this you are ensuring that your change has the best possible chance of long-term sustainability and success. Because that’s what we really want – and what project sponsors want. For most projects that involve organisational change, the emphasis is on making a difference over the longer term, not just changing behaviour during the month of August, for example.
It’s quite easy to define change management in this way. However, when you start trying to shift the behaviour of people who have worked in a certain way for years and years… Suddenly getting them to do something different seems a lot harder.
Change Management Is Not Project Management
Shifting someone from doing a job one way to doing it another? Isn’t that project management? No, it’s not.
Project management and change management are allied but different disciplines, although as a project manager you will probably end up doing both at points during your project.
Think of it like this:
- Project management is about installation.
- Change management is about implementation.
Here’s a table from my book, Communicating Change: How To Talk About Project Change, that sets out the differences (and one similarity).
The Tools for Change Management
Fortunately, if change management work forms part of your project responsibilities, you aren’t starting from scratch. We have a raft of tools available to make it easier to ‘do’ change management, and you’ll be familiar with many of them.
Here are five tools that you will help you with change management.
- Readiness assessments
These help you understand where the organisation and individuals are in their preparedness for the change. They act as the beginning of the journey and are key to helping you uncover the gap that you have to close in terms of helping people end the journey with their new behaviours.
- Project sponsorship
Unsurprisingly, having senior leaders involved and championing the change is a way to create buy-in, generate interest and get things done.
- Coaching and mentoring
Helping team members on a one-on-one basis to deal with and adapt to the change is time-consuming for large implementations, but you can offer team managers the skills to support their staff and devolve mentoring to subject matter experts or local champions.
- Training
Training is a structured way to embed and support the new behaviours, explain new processes and get people comfortable with new ways of working.
- Communication
Timely and meaningful interactions with the people affected by and interested in the change will underpin and support the achievement of the benefit that you’re looking for.
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