Change Management
Our experience in previous transformation initiatives has illustrated that unless transformation projects, especially those that include system implementations are supported by behaviour change and new business practices, it is inevitable that the desired business benefits will not be realised. It is our view that for any business transformation project to be successful, extensive attention needs to be given to the Change Management work stream.

The main purpose of a Change Management workstream within transformation and system implementation initiatives is to facilitate understanding among key stakeholders and personnel of the need for change; to implement interventions to equip them with the appropriate capabilities and motivation to change; and provide support through the appropriate organisation infrastructure processes and characteristics.

In its simplest form, Change Management is about changing individual behaviour. The real challenges of for example a system implementation initiative lie not in technology, but in the mind sets and skills of the people who must accept and exercise their roles in the new business environment.

Our Change Management Method
Changing It has a fundamental belief in terms of managing change. Our approach to addressing the Change Management aspects of a transformation project is to be inclusive and collaborative, providing our clients with an organisation-wide “readiness” process, bringing the process and associated tools to minimise the organisation’s delivery and performance risks, typically associated with large scale change.

Our Change Management method is made up of four focus areas:

Project Team: In order for you to realise the intended benefits of the business transformation project, it will be critical to build high performance project teams – which have a common understanding of the project objectives; are committed to the project and demonstrate consistency in terms of messages about the project. This aspect of the Change Management workstream also addresses the following activities;

• Project mobilisation and team building interventions
• Definition of team values and norms, roles, responsibilities, communication, goals and incentives
• Regular assessment of team effectiveness
• Implementation of interventions to improve team cohesiveness, performance and motivation levels
• Facilitation of team renewal interventions, as and when required
• Provision of support to other project workstreams on matters pertaining to change and stakeholder management – e.g. co-facilitation of business validation and change impact sessions with process teams
• Coordination of the project capability transfer programme.

Leadership: Without leadership there can be no change. We work individually and collectively with your organisation’s leaders to:

• Focus attention on the change initiative.
• Help them build and demonstrate commitment
• Enable them in their roles as sponsors, communicators and benefit advocates.

Business Readiness: We identify the level of preparedness in the various business units in order to manage any people risks and also facilitate a smooth implementation. Our focus is also on helping individuals develop the mindset and ability to deal with change, as well as the skills and behaviours needed to work with the new business processes and technology. In addition, we align the organisation design, reporting relationships, role descriptions and performance measures with the reengineered business processes (usually in cooperation with your Human Resources), in order to sustain the change post go live.

Communication and Stakeholder Enrolment: Effective project communication educates stakeholders about project progress and provides them with the opportunity to provide input into the project. By being “close” to the project, stakeholders will view themselves as being co-creators of project deliverables, rather than “recipients” of the project. This will not only lead to a better quality end product, but to a substantially improved understanding, acceptance and support thereof by stakeholders.