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Working as a project manager and change management consultant over the last 10 years has afforded me the opportunity to deliver and engage across a broad range of industries and clients, while using a number of project and change management methodologies such as Agile, PMBOK, ADKAR and my consulting firms own my consulting firms own Triple-A Change Model approach. My work has always demanded a high degree of adaptability in terms of the level of maturity and type of change management and project environments within which I have worked. A key differentiator that has often helped support the successful delivery and execution of some of the large, enterprise-wide change interventions that I have worked on has been the presence of an established change management office.
Just as project management has evolved to become an integral business delivery capability, so too is change management gaining more interest and focus as a driver of successful change, be it strategic, business as usual or project related. That said, it is one thing to deliver successful change within a small, contained environment. It is another thing all together delivering change on a national level, across multiple sites and to a number of different stakeholder groups. Being able to draw on a centralised change management capability, enabled by standardised processes and methodologies and a broad awareness across the business of the role and value of change management, can certainly make all the difference.
Setting up a centralised change management office (CMO) can be an incredibly daunting task. This can be even more challenging when there are existing pockets of change management individuals or teams within the environment. Strong leadership and an alignment of the need for a change management office (CMO) for the achievement of an organisations strategic objectives are important building blocks when setting the foundation for this type of centralised capability. There are a number of different approaches and step-based formulas that can be used for setting up a change management office (CMO). My approach that I would like to share looks at 4 phases that will hopefully help guide you with establishing a centralised change capability within your environment.
A CMO serves as a centralised function whereby an organisation can go to for change management services and support. Organisations may have different change requirements in terms of project / change volumes, type and complexity. Consideration should be given to the geographic locations of an organisation, the total number of employee’s and available budget. Therefore, a thorough assessment should be conducted of the organisation and environment to help define the strategy, scope and structure of the CMO in support of the broader organisational strategic goals and objectives. The assessment must also include a thorough breakdown of any existing change management capabilities within the organisation as this will add an additional level of complexity later down the line.
Project data may also be used as input into the assessment as a means understanding how many projects are successful/unsuccessful. Lessons learnt from these projects may also assist with identifying change related gaps to further build on the business case for the establishment of a centralised CMO. The assessment should, if possible, include the number and associated costs incurred by the organisation for any external change management and training consultants/ providers to further illustrate the financial case for the CMO.
Once a thorough assessment of the environment has been done, a clear business case for the establishment of a CMO must be created. The business case should accomplish the following:
Articulate the future vision of the organisation and how this will be further enabled by a centralised change management capability
Position the need and benefits for the establishment of a CMO
Argue the possible risks, impact and costs (financial and reputational) of not establishing the CMO
The business case will be a valuable tool that can be used further down the line when engaging business stakeholders to secure commitment and buy-in to the establishment of the CMO.
As defined within the business case, the proposed new structure must then be aligned with the broader organisations’ strategy. Depending on the organisations structure (centralised, decentralised or matrix), consideration should be given to where the CMO will be located to ensure effective delivery. In the event that there are strategic execution or project management offices, would it make sense for the CMO to integrate with/report into or align with these areas?
In instances where there are existing change management departments, teams and/or individuals, extensive consultation should be undertaken in support of the proposed new structure. How would these resources be incorporated into the new CMO? What would change? What would stay the same? These stakeholders could also add valuable input and support into the design, tools, templates and methodologies being created, as they would be able to draw on delivery experience within their respective environments.
Once the structure has been agreed on, associated roles and responsibilities would need to be defined. Responsibilities are varied and may include building change management awareness, training employees, developing and maintaining a change management methodology and resources, delivering change management on projects or advising leaders on how to structure project implementations to best support employee adoption.
Key to garnering support of the establishment of the CMO as business and strategic enablement function, is the positioning of the new CMO with the organisation’s leadership structures. The business case will help position the expected value and benefits to be derived from the CMO. In low change maturity environments, awareness of the function of change management may need to be created as part of these engagement sessions. Case studies from associated industries can also be used to help sell the benefit of having not only a CMO but also an established, mature change capability within the organisation. Finally, the importance of the role of leadership in driving successful change should be discussed, as the organisation’s executive and leadership teams will become key drivers of the change process going forward. If you are wanting tools to help engage key stakeholders, access our stakeholder Management Toolkit here.
Once a CMO is established, a change management methodology supported by resources and tools needs to be created. This will enable individuals to experience change management in a consistent manner, and will serve as a guide to efficient and effective change management delivery. The type and variety of methodologies may depend on the project management methodologies and approaches being adopted across the organisation. A change methodology may vary significantly on an agile driven project versus that of a traditional waterfall based approach. In many instances, organisations have adopted a variety of agile, waterfall and/or hybrid approaches, meaning one change approach may simply not be sufficient. Consideration should also be given to existing methodologies adopted by individuals or teams within the organisation. The advantage of selecting an existing methodology is that these have usually been tried, tested and refined whereas the creation of a brand new methodology will be more time, resource and cost intensive to set-up.
The selection of change management methodology/ies above will influence the tools and templates that may either be sourced, procured or created in instances where the organisation chooses to create a brand-new or hybrid methodology. Driving the consistent use of these tools and templates will once again reinforce an efficient and effective change management experience.
As with any other change type, the establishment of the CMO will require a well-executed change management strategy and plan. Employees and all other key stakeholders such as vendors and other partner organisations, should be taken on the change journey to become aware of and excited about this new capability. For many employees (and leaders), change management as a discipline may be something foreign and even feared. Key messages should be crafted as part of a large scale campaign to position the “what’s in it for me” to create an appetite and desire for formal change interventions going forward. Change management, when delivered well, can have an incredibly powerful, positive impact on employees, as it seeks to address areas such as engagement, resistance management, communication, readiness and support – aspects often ignored during standard project implementations.
Another way to drive employee and leadership buy-in and support is by taking them through change management up-skilling programmes or knowledge sharing sessions. The aim is to impart knowledge and empower employees with an understanding of the psychology of change and reasons why people resist it. There are also a number of tools and techniques that they can use to help manage their own response to change. This combined approach of sharing knowledge and increasing ability will help elevate the overall level of change maturity across the organisation… and a more change-centric organisation will certainly help boost the success of new project/change initiative.
Once the CMO has been established and resourced accordingly, the capability can be ‘tested’. However, this should be done with caution. Bringing the CMO in on existing projects that may be in ICU or far down the delivery chain is strongly discouraged. The aim really is to test the full end-to-end capability, from project inception through to close-out. For this reason, it is recommended that new initiatives be selected; ones that ideally have a good likelihood of succeeding. The methodology, tools, processes and resources can then be tested and learnings documented in support of continuous improvement.
A key element of change management is the use of data to illustrate successful project outcomes. PROSCI’s findings state that there are 3 primary sources for measuring the overall outcome of applying change management. These are:
Impacted employee responses (end user adoption, uptake, use and compliance metrics)
Project results (meeting the project objectives, benefit realisation, performance against KPIs, ROI, revenue, cost, customer satisfaction and, quality improvement)
Project execution (timely achievement of deliverables, amount of disruption, productivity impact, resistance measures)
Using measures to quantify success will help reinforce a Rands and Cents value to the change management office. In addition to this, facilitating formal lessons learnt sessions with both project and change stakeholders will help enhance perceived successes as well as opportunities going forward.
The final phase of establishing a CMO should be the implementation of changes based on feedback and learnings throughout the duration of the test project/s. Reflection, learning and innovation are key elements of successful change and project management. And there is bound to be a period of forming, storming, norming and performing for the new CMO. A mind-set of continuous improvement will help to address gaps and inefficiencies and embodies the spirit of change. An inability to adapt, is usually a recipe for extinction. Therefore, the relevance and sustainability of a CMO centres on its ability to reflect and respond to change accordingly.
In closing, the establishment of a CMO requires careful analysis, planning, patience and execution, with a strong change management focus throughout. It also requires understanding, awareness and support across all levels of an organisation. That said, the benefits of an established and mature centralised change management office are immense. Change management as a discipline is receiving increased recognition in South Africa and across the globe. As change professionals, it is our duty to position and deliver change in a formal, measured and professional manner. I hope to hear of more change management offices (CMOs) being set-up in South Africa going forward as this can only make our work as consultants that much easier.
