How does Change Management
Enhance Project Success?
Donna Unitt

Agenda
 Introduction
 Objectives
 What Change Management is
 What Change Management is not
 Change is personal
 Change & Agile
 Summary & Take Aways
 Questions

Introduction

Introduction – Donna Unitt
 Over 25 years in Supply Chain Logistics
 Over 20 years delivering change and transformation
programmes and projects
 Head of Delivery for Rocket Consulting – an SAP Gold Partner
 Certified APMP Change Management & Agile PM Practitioner
 Member of APM for 19 years
 Chair of Enabling Change SIG for the last 3 years

Enabling Change Special Interest Group (SIG)
 The SIG’s mission is to‘improve the change capability of
organisations, teams and individuals’
 We have an active committee
 Main focus over the past year has been webinars and blogs
– Coaching & Change Management
– Bias and Change Management

Objectives

Session Objectives
 To provide you with an overview of what change management is
and what it is not
 How it applies to projects and changes
 How it can make projects more successful
 Really get you thinking how you incorporate Change
Management into your projects

What is Change Management?

Change Management-Setting the Scene
 APM Body of Knowledge Definition –
– Change Management is a structured approach to moving an
organisation from the current state to the desired future state.
 Change Management
– is about adoption – getting a critical mass of people committed to
sustain the change.
 Project Management
– is about installation – focusing on a plan built around events and time.

What is Change Management?

Change Expectations
 Change Management is about realising the benefits of the
change or project

Installation v’s Implementation
• One of the reasons that organisations don’t reap
the full benefit of change initiatives is that they
confuse installation and implementation and
they stop at installation
• Installation is just a milestone towards full
implementation – they take their foot off the
gas and momentum stops
• Change management needs to be present to
ensure that people leave behind the old and
have embraced the new

What Change Management is not

What Change Management is not
 The governance of programmes.
 IT Change Management in relation to the Information Technology
Infrastructure Library (ITIL), a set of practices for IT Service Management.
 Change Control of scope, milestones, etc. in project management.
 Change Control within Quality Management Systems (QMS) and
Information Technology (IT) systems, which is a formal process used to
ensure that changes to a product or system are introduced in a controlled
and co-ordinated manner.

Change is Personal

Change is everywhere!
=
 Change is a necessity for
survival
 Timescales of change is
becoming ever compressed

Change Curve
 Shock and Denial
– after being confronted with a change, it will often be resisted by lack of
engagement as if trying to prove it doesn’t exist.
– A burst of defensive energy is normal – involve, use a mixture of firmness
and empathy.
 Anger and Blame
– Denial can be replaced by anger ‘its not fair’ a time for empathy helping
people to realistically look at the impacts.
– Don’t minimise the losses they may feel.
 Bargaining and Self Blame
– Blame can turn towards the self.
– Good active listening, sharing in peer groups
 Depression and Confusion
– A drive to hold on to or revert to the former situation.
– Realisaton of losing the battle.
– Need good support structures in place
 Acceptance and Problem Solving
– At this point they accept and decide to address the new future.
– This can take time

C x A = E

Change Acceptance
 Change is ultimately all about people – if they don’t change nothing significant changes.
 Change is deeply personal
 Emotion trumps logic
 It’s the What, Why, How & Who?
 Making the transition – letting go of the ‘as-is’ and reaching out for ‘to-be’ – happens one person at a time, one
day at a time it is not instant.
 Organisations implementing frequent change underestimate the extent, timescale and complexity of the
leadership and management involvement required to overcome resistance and build commitment and acceptance
 Project Management & Change Management must go hand in hand.

Where do we start?
 Who will manage
– Project Manager
– Change Manager
– Change Agents
 The Change Agent / Manager really acts in consulting role

Change Models
 Kotter – 8 Steps
 Lewin – unfreeze / change /
refreeze
 Prosci’s ADKAR model
 Change First – wheel – six
critical success factors

6 Success Factors for Change

Shared Change Purpose
 Let everyone know where you are going
 Its about making the case for the change
 Successfully sharing the purpose of the change
 Imperative – people are dissatisfied with their current ways of working and
understand the cost if they don’t change
 Vision – people have a positive and clear picture of the outcomes of the changes
 Solution – there is a set of milestones to show people how progress will be made
 A sense of urgency is created by selling the story and vision of what the change will
bring
 Momentum is achieved with everyone have a clear understanding of the change, its
objectives and benefits
 They also understand what it means not to embrace the change and what the status
quo means

Effective Change Leadership
 Provides the compass for key people committed to the
goal
 Change leaders within the organisation need to
provide
 Direction
 Guidance
 Support for the Change
 Leaders need to be seen to demonstrate their own
commitment to the change through their actions and
words

Powerful Engagement Processes
• Provides the maps so you can effectively avoid the
pitfalls, find the safe routes and uncover any
shortcuts
• Engagement – an employee’s involvement with,
commitment to, and satisfaction with work
• The four concepts of the powerful engagement are
• Involvement – people need to be involved in the change
• Learning – needs to be hands on
• Rewards – incentivise to change if possible
• Communication – create clarity

Communication
 Projects are undertaken by people
 All projects are social environments
 Communication is how we manage people and social environments
 People are the source of uncertainty in a project environment
 No way to predict human behaviour in a project environment
 Communication determines project outcomes
 Communications Design
 Awareness that communication is not about reporting on the data from a project, rather it is about
shaping reality on a project
 It needs to be used to improve project outcomes
 It is not a burden

Feedback Loops
 Initiating Change
• People feeling they do not have enough time
• People finding insufficient coaching and support
• People unable to see the relevance of the change
• Problems with leaders not ‘walking the talk’
 Sustaining the transformation
• Anxieties about job security, learning, trusting others in new situations and loss of control
• How to measure change, the tension between measurement as learning and as assessment
• Using culture so that change in a pilot group is not seen as a ‘cult’ activity
 Redesign and rethinking
• Governance (for change programme and organisaton) as control – or as direction setting
• Spreading new practices effectively
• Giving meaning to strategy and vision

Committed Local Sponsors
 Enabling middle and first line management to take responsibility for the
change in their area of authority
 They can shorten the change journey through useful local knowledge
 They can be seen as barriers to change, its important that through
empowerment they become enablers for the change
 They need to commit to the change and then demonstrate that
commitment
 They need to be seen as a change leader
 This connects the need to the organisational change to the reality of what
it means to the people having to change

Change Agents and Local Sponsors
 The Change Agent / Manager really acts in consulting role
 4 Aspects that need to be address (Peter Block 2000) Change Agent and Line Management
• Mixed Motivation
• Line managers will too have a vested interest in how things have been. They need to be clear about their own doubts and
questions. The CA needs to be authentic about their own feelings need to build trust.
• Concerns about exposure
• Line managers may have concerns about engaging with a CA and this disturbing the position they have
• Concerns about loss of control
• The line managers reputation and position. They may feel a loss of control
• Clarity about who is involved
• They may state they are committed to the change but may not behave that way. Understand the pressures they are under

The other 2 !!!!
 Strong Personal Connection
• This is about translating the needs of the organisation into something that people can
buy into
• If people feel a personal connection to the change they are able to regain a sense of
control more quickly
 Sustained Personal Performance
• Supporting those involved in the change, helping them through the transition process
and helping them adapt behaviours
• Future Security – people need to believe that their job security will be the same or
enhanced as a result of the change

Change Management & Agile

Change Management & Agile
 Agile is all about early engagement and iterative deliverables
 This closer engagement means that change management and agile fit well together
 Can you demonstrate the change working to some degree?
 Can you build a prototype or proof of concept (Agile)
 Create a vision, use pictures, use story telling
 Can you see where the change has worked already – another site ?
 If you can then it provides a base for further conversations and provides something tangible
 Provide a reason to believe

Summary

Summary
 Projects involve change – people changing behaviours
 Projects can not be successful if the change is not embedded
 Project managers need to encompass change management
within their plans
 Change management is continuous its not something that can
be done once – it’s a process
 Not everyone will embrace a change its about getting a critical
mass

Introduction to Change Management
 For programme and project managers
directly managing change and transformation
programmes and projects, it provides an
accessible introduction to the change
management discipline within a familiar
context, and a starting point for those who
have little background in the field (sections 2-
7).
 For project professionals working in a change
management environment, it helps raise
awareness of the language and concepts
involved (sections 2-3).