Change is inevitable in any project, but how you manage it can make a big difference in the success and satisfaction of your team and stakeholders. In this article, you will learn some of the best ways to support and drive changes with your project team and stakeholders, based on the principles and practices of project change management.
Project change management is the process of identifying, evaluating, approving, implementing, and communicating changes that affect the scope, schedule, budget, quality, or risks of a project. It helps you to align the expectations and needs of your team and stakeholders with the project objectives and deliverables, and to minimize the negative impacts of change on the project performance and outcomes.
General ways to support a change plan are tenacious communication + fertile relations with the relevant stakeholders (internal & external). Some techniques can help: e.g. nudges technique, celebrations of important steps etc. Most the time, the main wish is a change of culture. To drive the change and fight against the fatigue, the objective should be to build individual and organisation resilience. If everybody (most of stakeholders) is continuously persuaded about the vison and the urgency of the change the chance of success is high.
D’abord être persuadé de la nécessité de changer. Ensuite, bien dresser les objectifs et les conséquences positives mais aussi négatives Ensuite embarquer le plus de salariés possible sur le projet. Enfin, garder le cap, et assumer.
In projects, the change manager (OCM) works with the team to understand what is changing, for whom, and how the change will impact groups. In my experience, OCM is an employee advocate and should collect and analyze data from the impacted groups to drive design and implementation decisions. OCM performs a deep dive into the particulars and purpose of the change and provides input and recommendations to the project team. OCM communicates concerns with the project team and intervenes to ensure employee experience is considered and always at the forefront. OCM and the project manager partner to meet the desired business outcomes, so any change management plans created should be embedded in the project plan and schedule.
I am of the mindset that positive change management is 2 fold: planning/implementation, and communication/team acceptance. You can have all the great project managers line up every process, every tool, every budget line item, available to minimize risk and to maximize project outcomes but if you do not have your team understanding the entire objective, and have their buy-in then you cannot achieve the ultimate goal. Positive change agents affect every aspect of change in an organization. Even people who do not agree with an aspect of change, but understand their managers thought process behind it will influence another person's ability to get behind that change.
Change Management is about people, it's about driving changes by taking people with you. Ghant chats, budgets, and cycles are all part of the forest of tools and processes that may help and at times hinder. but for me, for change to be a success it has to be sustainable in the long term, in the short term it may not show immediate benefits and may cost more, at which point many great promising ideas die. you need to manage expectations for short mid and long-term benefits, but then depend on supporting and creating a macro and micro change-embracing culture that will be sustained without external drivers.
Project change management is essential for avoiding scope creep, reducing rework and errors, enhancing stakeholder engagement, boosting team morale and productivity, and managing risks and issues. All of these can help to increase project acceptance, reduce costs and delays, improve project quality and efficiency, and ensure project success.
communications is key, engaging people from an early stage and keeping them informed. Giving everyone an option to discuss how it may affect them, getting negative aspects and addressing key concerns. In the main people don't like change but if they understand what and why's they are more likely to engage.
This is a very deep discussion with limited allotted characters. First projects require very specific objectives and vision. If there is not a clear leader or director of this vision then there can be creep on any scope of a project. This creep can lead to delayed timelines and deliverables which is never desirable. Having a very clear project charter that outlines key stakeholders clear objectives a clear problem statement, risks if known. none of this will matter however if you do not have a strong project leader who can help drive the project and keep people on track of the key objectives in the focus of what the project needs. Things can get off track at any given time and a project leader needs to be able to get people back on track.
To plan for project change management, you need to define roles and responsibilities, establish procedures and tools, develop a change management plan, and communicate it to your team and stakeholders. This includes who can initiate, approve, implement, and communicate changes, how they will collaborate and coordinate with each other, how to document, track, analyze, and report changes, what software or platforms to use for change management, and the scope, objectives, approach, and activities of the plan. Getting feedback and buy-in from stakeholders is also important.
In any time of change, it's easy to want to do everything yourself. Establishing a clear team that can help you with delegation of responsibilities will empower others to assist you, and will also make them positive change agents. so in essence it will make them part of project management. having a great team lined up and prepared for change when you're implementing any kind of a project is a great strategy. Anybody can look up project management tools in Google. There are a lot of them. It is more important to know about how to empower your team to utilize those tools to know that you can tell them that they can go out and seek the tools themselves come to you with proposals and share in the strategies for change.
To support and drive changes with your project team, you need to involve them in the change management process and provide them with clear and timely information on the changes. You should also recognize and reward their efforts and achievements in adapting to and implementing the changes, while addressing any resistance or challenges they may face. Offering support and coaching to overcome these challenges is essential in order to celebrate their successes and milestones.
I'm a huge proponent of autonomy and empowerment. But I do believe in setting realistic expectations. Setting timelines and deliverables that are very clear and realistic are very important with any product that you are encountering. There's nothing more demoralizing than setting your team up for failure and if you cannot have realistic expectations you will do just that. Make sure that when you're setting up any project you get all the facts and information and tools aligned so that your team has everything they need to drive the project home and all the required deliverables are done in the timelines that you have established. Make sure that you're available to offer any type of service support or mentoring along the way as a leader.
To support and drive changes with your stakeholders, it is necessary to identify and prioritize them based on their influence, interest, and expectations on the project and the changes. You should then inform and consult them about the changes, explain the rationale, benefits, and impacts of the changes, and negotiate and agree with your stakeholders on the changes. Additionally, you must seek their approval and commitment for the changes, as well as their feedback and suggestions for improvement. It is also important to monitor and evaluate the outcomes and effects of the changes on the stakeholder satisfaction and value, as well as report and follow up on any issues or concerns that may arise.
A clear case of knowing your audience. Knowing what to ask, what to deliver, and what to promise your audience. Each stakeholder is going to provide you with an expertise for your project. You need to commit to them the same commitment they're giving to you. Time, effort and ability to give and receive information that will help see the project to the end. You need to be able to interact receive feedback, constructive information that will help you improve your process or your project and implementation of change.
Change Management is about the people. This discuss applies mainly to waterfall projects?; agile is more adaptable to change. For any change, a compelling message or reason is key and in waterfall, the compelling message relates to baseline documents, regulatory requirements etc So the stakeholders need to see what's in it for them also, for example achievement of project objectives for the project management team etc. And influences for execution like force field analysis (supporting and contrary factors) for implementation of change proposals, and risk management for enhancing the supporting factors and mitigating the opposing. Also, reinforcement of the change post implementation, considering company culture and human resources.