Why change management is vital to the success of projects

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Project management is thankfully evolving. We now think more holistically about benefits, sustainability and, most importantly, the realisation of value. So, if our remit as project professionals is widening and we need to keep bridging the gap between strategy and execution, we then need more allies armed with strategic execution tools on our side.

Enter the change manager.

What is change management?

As project professionals, we have our golden set of tools 鈥� from project plans, actions and logs to risk registers 鈥� that enable us to coordinate evolving workstreams and effectively manage risks, benefits and issues. Change managers are no different. Whether we are dealing with transformations at an organisational or a project level, we have tools like change impact assessments that enable us to assess the impact change can have when processes, systems and ways of working change.

This then enables us to create 鈥榗hange heatmaps鈥� to identify areas of the organisation that may be experiencing large amounts of change. Support mechanisms like learning and development plans or feedback workshops, for example, can be initiated to help those who are impacted to better understand and get familiar with the new ways of working.

Lessening the pain of change

Experience has shown me that, when change isn鈥檛 managed, pain results 鈥� from demoralised employees growing resentful of the chaos they have to navigate, to procedural errors in implementation due to employees not fully understanding new ways of working. Undergoing prolonged periods of constant change can also ultimately lead to change fatigue and projects failing, so being able to design strategies to avoid this is where change management really starts to deliver value to projects.

Change managers and the people side of projects

Change managers are masters of stakeholder engagement, as so much of what we do is focused on people and the cultures in which they work and live. Therefore, working with the project manager to 鈥榗lassify鈥� stakeholders based on how the changes will impact them is an important contribution we make.

This allows us to create targeted communication strategies to ensure the right people get the right messages, at the right time and in the right tone and format. For example, a member of the senior leadership team may want to understand the effects of change at a different level to, say, a warehouse operative.

Getting comms right

A cadence of communication can then be built into the project plan to take the fear out of change by increasing the transparency of upcoming changes. Most importantly, key messages about what is not changing can also be shared. This creates comfort; employees see that their world is not going to change overnight and that some things will remain the same.

Also, knowing when upcoming changes come into effect gives people a chance to mentally prepare to work differently. It also gives managers time to put in place support mechanisms before and after the new changes hit, ensuring changes take place in manageable, foreseeable tranches.

For project and change professionals, there is an opportunity to create ongoing dialogue and transparency by demonstrating how changes will lead to benefits realisation and a light at the end of the (sometimes very long) tunnel.

Feeling part of change

If people feel they are part of the change journey, and that change is being co-created with them (rather than being done to them), this creates psychological safety. This will ultimately lead to less resistance, higher adoption and better benefits realisation rates.
Managing large transformations and programmes can be beyond taxing for project professionals, especially when these transcend borders and bring uncertainty about what the new future state will be like.

However, as Marie Curie once said, 鈥淣othing is to be feared; it is only to be understood.鈥� Working closely with change professionals is the perfect way to help minimise the pain of change by helping those involved understand the benefits that the changes will bring, and to make these digestible and understandable.

Change professionals can support project professionals by designing adoption and communication strategies so that everyone feels energised and empowered to adopt change.

Top tips for successful transformations

People are at the heart of any transformation, and keeping your transformations people-centric by regularly engaging and onboarding stakeholders contributes greatly to transformational programme success.
Engage your change manager as early as possible. Make them part of your core project delivery team so they can work with you to map upcoming pinch points and design strategies to increase adoption and decrease resistance.
Communicate early and regularly. This builds momentum and engagement by increasing transparency and ensuring people don鈥檛 create their own 鈥榝acts鈥� and cause undue panic.
Project and programme changes must be managed and planned with a core focus on engaging stakeholders before, throughout and post-implementation to ensure sustainability of solutions and benefits realisation.
Don鈥檛 impose change on people; include them on the journey.

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A useful article on Change Management. I am less convinced by it as an example of the evolution of project management. With the exception - perhaps - of sustainability. Everything in the article has been a part of Change/Transformation for a long time. Even the People stuff, which only became reflect in BoKs 15 or so years ago. Was recognised by project professionals far earlier. I recall a retail banking transformation which assessed key stakeholder behaviours 25 years ago, and the changes to organisation culture from mass voluntary redundancies and the introduction of new technologies in the early to mid 1990s. I am very happy for the promotion of holistic even systems thinking approach to Change. But we are standing on the shoulders of giants like Geoff Reiss, who led from the early 1990s not just the evolution of programme management, but also early work on portfolio management, PMOs, Benefits management cycle and the People stuff. Which many others have taken, evolved and greatly improved. What worries me is that some are reinventing the wheel and giving it a new name.......

Dear Adrian Firstly many thanks for taking the time to pen a response and to share your thoughts. I concur with you that none of this is new in principle but felt I needed to highlight it as despite being "known" knowledge, is not what I see PMs applying at all when they try to lead large transformations - often they feel the weight of the world is on their shoulders and as someone who is both a Change & Programmes professional, felt the need to highlight that this need not always be the case as they should call upon the expertise of the Change Manager to help support and embed the transition. I also don鈥檛 think it鈥檚 reinventing the wheel 鈥� more that we鈥檝e known what the wheel looks like for years, but haven鈥檛 always been great at actually fitting it before trying to drive off. The growing focus on change management feels less like rebranding and more like closing that gap. Maybe the evolution isn鈥檛 in the thinking, but in finally treating the people side as something to design and deliver deliberately, rather than assuming it will just happen because it鈥檚 been written about before. I'm with you in that we stand on the back of many giants but given the 1000 word limit I had to work with, had to tailor my article quite specifically to highlight that Change management should not be an afterthought and instead, should be built into large transformations from the outset. Again, I very much enjoyed your insight and will certainly look out to to say hello at the next APM Forum/event I attend. :) All good wishes, Jaspal

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