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management competency
From the "Five tips" tutorial series
During the summer of 2009, Prosci will be releasing a - Tutorial highlights -
number of "Five tips" tutorials. These tutorials will provide
simple, actionable steps to improving change management
application. Each tutorial will focus on a particular element Five tips for: building
of change management, including: competency
1. Treat it as a project
Deploying change management across an organization is not a simple undertaking. It
does not occur as a single announcement or decree by senior leaders. And it does not
occur by simply training people about how to manage change. When you build
organizational competencies in change management, you are fundamentally
changing how the organization handles change.
Prosci has developed the Enterprise Change Management Deployment Process with a
set of steps for designing a deployment effort. Prosci’s ECM Deployment Process is
shown below.
As you think about change management deployment as a project, there are steps for
vision, strategy and implementation that guide the project. In the vision stage, the
team taking on change management competency building defines the future state –
what will it look like when the organization becomes competent at managing change –
and assess the current state – evaluating the levers and risks facing the deployment
effort. Through the strategy and implementation phases, options are evaluated and
decisions are made on how to structure and sequence the deployment effort. This
work culminates in a project plan, just like any other project that impacts the
organization.
When change management deployment is not treated as a project, there can be a lot of
activity with little progress. Direction is needed to guide the deployment efforts and
ensure alignment toward a future state of being change competent (or durable or
flexible).
2. Treat it as a change
Not only should change management competency building be viewed as a project, it
must also be viewed as a change to how people work. When you ask senior leaders
to begin taking on the role of sponsor, they must change how they do their jobs. When
you ask project teams to begin applying change management processes and integrating
“people side” activities into their project plans, they must change how they do their jobs.
When you ask front-line managers and supervisors to become effective coaches of their
direct reports in times of change, they must change how they do their jobs. Applying
change management impacts the day-to-day work of many people in the
organization, and you need to take this change into consideration.
Prosci’s ADKAR® Model describes five key building blocks of any successful change –
Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. In the change management
competency building context, this would translate as:
Specific tactics need to be developed in each of the five areas shown in the strategy
map. There must be effective leadership in place driving the change management
deployment efforts. Decisions must be made on how to attach change management to
projects in the organization. People will need to build new skills – “managing change”
is a new and emerging competency and you must help people in the organization build
that competency. Change management needs an “organizational footprint” – a
structure to support change management application by people throughout the
organization. Finally, business processes that already exist in the organization should
be adapted to incorporate change management – including performance management
processes and project launch processes.
While the five areas seem simple, there should be a well thought-out, sequenced set of
tactics under each of the five areas. A holistic approach ensures that energy is not
expended simply on getting change management started, but that its application in the
organization is long-lasting and sustained.
4. Dedicate a team
Someone has to do the work described above. A team needs to be in place to manage
the project of “deploying change management” - to build out the change management
plans necessary to manage the people side of this change and to develop the specific
tactics that will ultimately bring change management to life in the organization.
Effective teams are representative of the organization and how changes occur in the
organization. It is not adequate to simply have a small team of specialists in one
functional area. Prosci's research shows that change management should have a
presence in Human Resources, the Project Management Office and in business
functions or units that cause change (such as IT or a Process Improvement group). The
lines of business should also be involved, as managers and supervisors throughout the
organization will also be impacted. The team that is deciding how to roll out change
management should also have representation from these different groups so the set of
tactics developed are applicable.
5. Secure sponsorship
Although sponsorship is the last in our five tips, it is certainly number one in terms of
impact on success. Building the organizational competency – becoming flexible and
durable as an organization – requires considerable work and causes considerable
change. It impacts how projects are conceived and launched. It impacts how project
teams move forward in their work. It impacts how senior leaders, middle managers,
front-line supervisors and employees see themselves in relation to change and how
they behave. With this size of enterprise-wide effort impacting nearly the entire
employee base, sponsorship must be effective, active, engaged and well-
positioned.
According to Prosci’s benchmarking research, there are three primary roles of sponsors
in times of change – 1) participate actively and visibly throughout the entire project, 2)
build a coalition with key leaders and managers and 3) communicate directly with
employees. Research indicates that the more effective sponsors are at fulfilling these
three roles, the more successful the change effort will be. Why would the project
called “deploying change management” be any different?
Building change management competency requires the same active and visible
engagement by senior leaders as any other organizational effort.