What is Enterprise Change Management?
Change management is defined as the process, tools and techniques to manage the people side of change. It involves 1) understanding the change that is being implemented, 2) analyzing the people that will be impacted by the change and 3) creating the plans and actions that will help drive the successful implementation of the change from the people-perspective (such as communications, sponsorship, coaching, training, resistance management and reinforcement mechanisms).
Enterprise Change Management is different - it is the deployment of change management or the building of change management competencies across the entire organization. In essence, it is ensuring that change management is done effectively on all projects and changes in the organization. Prosci's research and engagements with organizations show three main elements that define Enterprise Change Management:
- A common set of processes and tools for managing change - This is essentially the application of "the process, tools and techniques to manage the people side of change" across all of the changes going on in the organization. It is the repetitive and intentional application of change management.
- A leadership competency at all levels of the organization, from supervisors to senior executives - While the first element is tied to projects, this element is tied to the people in the organization. The leadership competency element is the internalization of the role and responsibility for "leading change" by all of the leaders, managers and supervisors in the organization. It requires training and coaching, as well as on-the-job support.
- A strategic capability that enables the organization to be flexible, change ready and responsive to marketplace changes - This is more of an outcome of the other two elements. When the organization applies change management to many projects and when individuals build the needed expectations and skill set, the organization can count "change-ready" as one of its core competencies.
The above three elements define Enterprise Change Management. In addition, it is important to note that taking on ECM is itself an endeavor for the organization. There is no magic wand or silver bullet to help an organization become competent at managing change. When an organization becomes serious about building this core competency, it must treat ECM as:
- A project - Like any other project, the effort to build the competency to manage change requires planning, design and implementation work. To be successful, a structured approach to managing the project is needed, along with the resources and plans for implementing the "competency building" project.
- A change - For many in the organization, ECM means new behaviors, activities and skill sets. Managing the human component of "deploying change management" will be crucial to the success of the effort. This includes communication, sponsorship and the other tools for managing the human reaction to the competency building effort.
- An effort that must be driven from the top of the organization - In all five of Prosci's best practices studies, the active and visible involvement of senior leaders was cited as the number one contributor to success. Building the competency to manage change is no different. There needs to be a primary sponsor, a strong sponsor coalition and communication directly from senior leaders about the need for "getting better" at managing change.
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BI CENTRE
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