Key roles required for successful change outcomes

Change does not happen overnight. Changing processes, implementing new systems, or company structures takes time. Effecting change is also not the sole responsibility of the Organisational Change Manager. Here, we discuss the roles that are critical to effectively lead and manage change in the organisation no matter how small or big the project.??

1 Sponsorship and Organisational Leadership

Good sponsorship is critical to successful change outcomes. In our work, we often encounter projects with no defined primary sponsor, or one that sits too high up in the organisation. However, the importance of having a sponsor, or even a coalition of sponsors guiding the change, cannot be understated. Research conducted by PROSCI? indicates that sponsorship effectiveness has a direct impact on whether projects meet their objectives. In fact, projects with an extremely effective sponsor met or exceeded objectives more than twice as often as those with a very ineffective sponsor.

What defines a good sponsor? We do not only mean the financial sponsor, the person who “signs the cheque” and gives the green light for the initiative. In Change Management terms, the sponsor plays an active role driving the change, which involves communication and buy-in, ensuring enough time is allocated to managing the change, forming the sponsorship coalition, removing obstacles from the project team, and actively dealing with resistance.

Designated sponsors are almost always capable of leading the change, given their seniority in the business. However, they are often not able to do so: they either lack the capacity, interest, or the necessary knowledge of the initiative to play their role in an effective way. Change practitioners can acts as enablers, supporting the sponsorship and organisational leadership to ensure the initiative is led from the top.

Occasionally, we encounter that the leadership of an initiative has been left to the project team and even the change managers, without proper backing from the business. Here we would like to emphasise that leading the change, is not an activity that can be delegated. The change, no matter how meticulously it has been planned out, will have a real challenge attaining its objectives.

Furthermore, research shows that in over 50% of change projects, middle managers and supervisors exhibit the most resistance to change, so it is important to ensure they are aligned with the goals of the change initiative, and equipped to lead the change, communicate, and deal with resistance. It is only through a concerted effort that change can happen

2 Project Management and Organisational Change Management

We already discussed the importance of Change Leadership and the role of sponsors and managers in leading the change in an organisation. Equally important is to have the adequate Change and Project Management to conduct the change. It is helpful here to understand the differences and commonalities between Organisational Change Management and Project Management.

Change Management is a critical success factor for projects but the need for Change Management and its required resources depends on the project type and size. To assess the Change Management needs and to assign the right resources to a project it is crucial to understand the overall objectives and nature of the project, including its impact on the different stakeholder groups. Some projects are technically complex and require strong organisational competencies and resources but only have a minor impact on end users and a limited need for Change Management (e.g., setting up a new data warehouse or migrating servers). Other projects deal with a plethora of different stakeholders and significantly impact the ways of working for a high number of users (e.g., cultural changes or the digitisation of core processes). Such projects have a higher need for Change Management resources and should be supported by an experienced team of change practitioners from the beginning. In this regard, an IBM study found that the success rate of change projects using a dedicated Change Manager rose by 19% compared to those that did not.

3 Change agent network

Change agents can be appointed, who will act as multipliers to encourage others to change. Ideally, change agents will be people who are ready, motivated, and influential, whom the rest of the organisation look up to.

Suitable candidates can be early adopters or volunteers who already embrace the change. Change agents can also act as an ear to the ground, bringing back issues or questions to the project team, so they are dealt with in a timely fashion. Ideally, change agents should be identified in all affected stakeholder groups, so that they can support the change from within. A good Change Management approach will help identify and prepare change agents for their role in enabling the change and make it an integral part of the Change Management plan. We often help our clients identify their key people and train them to take on this role.?

In conclusion, having the appropriate leadership, change management, project management and change agent network in place is critical to effectively effect change in an organisation. Whether the change is big or small, these roles are of critical importance, and nurturing them will ensure change initiatives run smoothly, creating earlier wins and a better employee experience of the change. $?

Maria Hooper , Change Management Expert at Arcondis

If you want to read more about Change Management, you can read our full whitepaper here: Arcondis OCM Whitepaper