Question

What do you think is the most effective strategy a Project Manager can use to manage project change? Explain how not following such strategy can lead to issues with meeting project objectives.

Answer 1

Every change management strategy must include an understanding of the unique characteristics of the change, a supporting structure to implement the strategy, and analysis of the risks of the change and potential resistance to the change.

1. Situational awareness of the change

Change characteristics

Begin by understanding the change that is being introduced. Changes can be formalized projects, strategic initiatives or even small adjustments to how the organization operates. Understanding the characteristics of the change requires you to answer questions like:

• What is the scope of the change?
• How many people will be impacted?
• Who is being impacted?

Organizational attributes

Understand the people and groups being impacted by the change. Organizational attributes are related to the history and culture in the organization and describe the backdrop against which this particular change is being introduced. Consider:

• What is the perceived need for this change among employees and managers?
• How have past changes been managed?
• Is there a shared vision for the organization?
• How much change is going on right now?

Impacted groups

The final step in building situational awareness of a change is developing a map of who is impacted by the change and how they are being impacted. A single change, such as the deployment of a web-based expense reporting program, will impact different groups uniquely:

• Employees who do not have expenses to report will not be impacted at all
• Staff who travel once a quarter may be only slightly impacted
• Associates who are on the road all the time will be more impacted, although filing expenses is only a portion of their day-to-day work.

2. A supporting team structure

Without a team and sponsor to support your change management strategy, it will be very difficult to implement your plans successfully. Here’s why a change management team and sponsor coalition are important:

Team structure

The change management team structure identifies who will be doing the change management work. It outlines the relationship between the project team and the change management team. Frequent team structures include:

• A change manager being embedded into a project team
• A centralized change management team supporting a project team
• Change management being a responsibility assigned to one of the project team members

The key in developing a change management strategy is to be specific and make an informed decision when assigning change management responsibilities and resources.

Sponsor coalition

The sponsor coalition describes the leaders and managers who need to be onboard and actively engaged in leading the change. The primary sponsor is the person who authorizes and champions the change.

3. Change management strategy analysis

Successful strategies of change management include assessments, analysis of the characteristics of a change and custom solutions for any unique situations of the change.

Project risk assessment

The risk of not managing the people side of change on a particular change is related to the dimensions described in the situational awareness section above. Changes that are more dramatic and farther reaching in the organization have a higher risk.

Anticipated resistance

Many times, after a project is introduced and meets resistance, members of the team reflect that "they saw that reaction coming." In creating a strategy for change management, identify where resistance can be expected:

• Are particular regions or divisions impacted differently than others?
• Were certain groups advocating a different solution to the same problem?

Developing special tactics

The final step of the change management strategy is the identification of any special tactics that will be required for this particular change initiative.