WTF is a Change Manager anyway - is it just me that's confused?

RIGHT LET'S GET DOWN TO IT

I’ll tell you what, I’m not going to be able to answer the title question in full because it’s one of those questions that has 100’s of different answers depending on whom you speak to. But hey I’m always happy to give it a shot but just don’t expect miracles OK

First of all pardon me for "stating the bleeding obvious" ... a Change Manager is a person who is responsible for all the change that impacts people during a change initiative such as planning, developing, delivering, and tracking change management deliverables including communications, training, stakeholder engagement, change impact assessment, organizational readiness analysis, coaching, resistance management, and change reinforcement.

They can be certified, although certification is not as important as a lot of employers think. I am not certified so I come from a position of experience and knowledge (which is the Art of Change Management) rather than the theory and or certification (the Science of Change Management).

Choosing between the two depends on the specific needs and context of the organisation. Ideally, a balance could be sought, leveraging the strengths of both categories. A blend of theoretical knowledge from certified professionals and practical wisdom from experienced individuals may provide a well-rounded change management team. However, the organisation's culture, the nature of change initiative, and the desired skill set should guide the recruitment decision. Consideration should be given to ongoing professional development for both groups to ensure a dynamic and adaptable Change Management approach.

BIG NIGGLE

Let’s start with a big niggle of mine and get this out of the way first just to clarify what kind of Change Manager I’m talking about:

Someone who focuses on the people side of change, which involves preparing, supporting and equipping people to adopt and use changes to business processes, systems and technology, job roles, organization structures, and more

NOT

Someone who controls the lifecycle of all changes with minimum disruption to IT services and prevents unintended consequences and ensures that changes or alterations to systems are implemented according to an approved framework or model.

ONE DIFFERENTIATION

Got it? Good so let’s concentrate on the “people person” one then shall we? I have categorised these into what I call "Real Change Managers" and "Change Wannabees".

REAL CHANGE MANAGERS

Some while ago I uploaded a post called “REAL CHANGE MANAGERS ” which arose from a post by Ket Patel in which he said “change management is full of people talking b/s ”…?I agreed btw”. Ket further said “Is it time to sensitively hold ourselves and each other to a higher standard?” so I fired up the old PFC (prefrontal cortex) and thought about what a “higher standard” might be. The result is the list of characteristics below that I considered a “real” Change Manager should have. There are clearly many more but I chose these based on my experience and perspective.

I reckon that’s a good start, don’t you?

But let’s go to the other end of the spectrum shall we to those that I call “Change Wannabees” who talk a good fight but when it comes to delivering “no way Jose”.

CHANGE WANNABEES

When I browse through LinkedIn there are so many people on there who have the skill-set of Change Management but whose profile has no real indication of any related work. Yes, everyone will indeed have been involved in some kind of change at work but that doesn’t mean they have that skill set, oh, sorry of course maybe a bit of “training” and “communication” but not a lot else. It is so infuriating.

Let me give you a bit of a relevant anecdote … I got a message from a colleague who asked “I am thinking of changing my title to something like the change guy, or change professional.? Any thoughts”. Why? Because he said “I am pi$$ed off as an Administrator has started calling herself a Senior Change Manager and winning work. It's a bit of a joke really isn't it?”

ANOTHER DIFFERENTIATION

You can also differentiate between those Change Managers who have been "trained and certified" and those who have not but have "been there and done it".

It's long been an argument about which type of Change Manager is the preferred choice but as we know that depends on a host of things like organisational preferences and/or recruiters taking an easy option and recommending a trained and certified practitioner probably because they know no better rather than someone whose been there, done it and got the t-shirt.

Let's have a look at the two options shall we ... "Certificated/Trained" and "Been There, Done That

For this bit, I've come up with somewhat 5 Pro's and 5 Con's for each category which are not your usual suspects (just trying to be a bit different):

CERTIFICATED/TRAINED

Thoughts?

BEEN THERE, DONE IT

Thoughts?

PROJECT MANAGERS ALSO ACTING AS CHANGE MANAGERS

Then of course you also have this interesting section of the "change" community, those Project Managers who think they can do both jobs and still deliver a successful project. Well, it's a nice thought but somewhat unrealistic from my perspective.

If you consider the PM and CM as a role, not a person, many people can fill both simultaneously, but in doing so effectively, there has to be an understanding of the differences between these disciplines, and the problems that may arise because of that.

I'm not going to dwell on this any further as I think I've said a lot about this subject already, so all I will say is in my view a CM and PM model of working in partnership is the way forward. A PM with responsibility for Change Management or conversely a CM with responsibility for Project Management just puts too much pressure on an individual and they may not necessarily have the right experience and skill-set to manage both elements.

Just to emphasise the point I carried out a survey in 2022 entitled “Project Managers also acting as Change Managers”. One of the questions I asked was "How difficult do you find it to act in the two roles?" and the results were:

So two-thirds found it either "Very Difficult" or "Reasonably Difficult" which, in my book, is not the best basis for success.

AND TO END IT ALL

Here are the characteristics I have on my LinkedIn profile. These were penned by Cathy Perme (now retired) in 1999 and are the best set of characteristics I have read that describes a true Change Manager hence using them on my profile:

ACTUALLY, I LIED

What do you think about this:

Change Managers are those knights in shining armour that stride into a change initiative on their trusty white steed brandishing their wisdom, knowledge, understanding, experience tools, and templates with a mind full of ideas to help get your project successfully past that immovable go-live date and as a consequence turn that original vision into reality, at the same time achieving all those benefits that were initially set out to be achieved”

UPDATE

For a better view of the small "tiled graphics" in this article please click here

NOW THIS IS THE END, HONESTLY

It's a bit of a long one I'm afraid but the issues are many and complex so it will give you a lot to think about and hopefully a lot to comment on.

What do you think a Change Manager is?