Step 1: Getting ready to leap, career Switch!

Contents: 1. Introduction 2. Change practitioner Story 3. Top 8 List (Books, articles, etc)

Introduction to Bridging the gap

There are many ways we can feel split from what it is we want or need to achieve and many ways of bridging this gap. Gaps can take all forms from not having enough experience to feeling the needed amount of confidence or desire to achieve a task at work or better yet a dream. I imagine you all have experienced gaps that can feel like chasms, until we create the courage to take a good look at them. For myself, I have come to realise that having a space in front of me is good, not scary, wonderful even. Imagine you are on one side of a high ravine and you want to get to the other side, you don't just sit and wait, you find a bridge. Sometimes a bridge can take an unexpected shape and the creativity and innovation needed to find it is what's so great. After all, it's often said that its the journey that counts not the destination.

In the last 2 months, I have been lucky enough to meet and engage with a 100 or more, new and still finding their feet Prosci change management practitioners. This has a lot to do with my new job, but more about that in due course. I have seen practitioners newly trained and wondering where to find the experience needed to bring clout to the name Change Practitioner. It's a widespread feeling that just because you have a qualification, the reality is that we are not necessarily ready to do a change management job. Some of you are working on first, second and third change projects feeling insecure about the next steps and what your gut feeling says to do. Further still, some have been working with change for years but new to implementing the still forming methodologies out there. For those who are new to change management, there can be a struggle to know which one is the 'official qualification', and the choice seems to be Prosci, APMG, ACMP - CCMP or one of the many variations.

Change management originally was a part of all sorts of other professions but is now in recent years being structured as a profession in its own right. As practitioners, we face a gap that can be crossed, be it with training or gaining experience. This gap is wonderful because we have space to define what the other side looks like, not all professions have this. All of you out there have been the inspiration to begin writing and I hope to create a place we can interact together. This series of articles will share stories, my own change practitioner thoughts, books and cool stuff found along the road of discovering Change management. Stories are set back in time by 2 years, as I am now much further in my own change journey. I hope to engage you, fellow travellers, so we can help each other bridge the gaps. With this in mind, I invite you to share your stories, own awesome thoughts and research.

Story: My beginning

My story starts for now with my wish to change career and work in the direction of Change management (hereafter CM) and business architecture. This was already one and a half years ago. The way to transition from managing businesses to working in a larger company was not clear. There were a number of obstacles in my way. While having a tonne of experience as a generalist manager, the corporate world asks for specialists. Any smaller business manager (1-15 FTE), will know that you need a good amount of knowledge for a lot of things, sometimes one wears the PR hat and in the next moment, you are in consultation with a client. Maybe a nice way to put this is that business managers are specialists at being generalists, I have to smile at this remembering a similar quote.

Realizing this I took the opportunity to discontinue one of my parttime managing jobs in order to create a dedicated becoming specialist time, a.k.a studying. The start of my studying time also coincided with the first day that restrictions were put in place for COVID-19 here in The Netherlands. This gave extra reinforcement to an already strong awareness and desire for self-transformation, so I hit the virtual books. My aim for March and April 2020, was to finish my already started HRM master of science, complete a Lean six sigma green belt, Prince 2 Foundation & Practitioner and my first Change management training from APMG. The great things about these training's are that they opened up a new world to explore. See below for my first discoveries, and read more of the story in the next instalment of 'Bridging the Gap'.

Top 10 list:

1. The Change managers handbook: This is the book I received when taking part in the APMG Change management practitioners training's. This book is full of models, theory and some basic practical ways to go about change management. This together with a couple of other books has been my go-to dictionary of possible tools. On the first page of this book, the author references The Empty raincoat as his inspirational and of course I had to check it out.
2. The Empty raincoat by Charles Handy: This book is certainly a golden oldie but still more relevant than ever. My personal feeling is that Charles Handy should be credited as having phenomenal foresight.
3. CCB Network Webinars: These monthly webinars are free to Prosci change management practitioners and hosted by European Prosci affiliated organisations. They are highly interactive and a great place to get inspired when starting out. They are aimed at all levels from starting to advanced. You come away having learned new concepts, with case studies of CM projects and a few new CM contacts besides. The CCB Network is created by experienced change managers all over Europe with the simple aim of Spreading the word about Prosci.
4. Change fast, Change forward: A post writing about our current situation and the need for a different skill set. There is a great list of change strategies giving a way to gain access to vital skills for today. Link
5. This is your brain on change: Change is about people right? Well, this gets very personal, looking at how the brain deals with change. I found this article a great introduction to the subject and there are lots of further leads should this be interesting for you. Link
6. Overcoming change fatigue (PMI): This article by Andy Jordan hits the spot. When you consider that new changes implemented in response tot he COVID-19 Situation, we are all in some way change fatigued. Link
7. What is ADKAR (Prosci): This is Prosci's introduction to the ADKAR model and my first taste of this methodology. I love the simplicity of this model and how easy it is to apply to pretty much any situation. Link
8. Explaining change management videos: Follow the link to find the Change management institutes (CMI) videos explaining what Change management is from their point of view. There are also some great resources on the site for further exploration. Link

I am a little further than the beginning, not quite at the end and little surprises along the road keep me constantly entertained. Join me in 'Bridging the Gap' step 2. Spread the word fellow traveller,

Greetings Isolde