Here’s one thing we can all agree on: our organizations have never been stretched like they are today. It would be simple to believe the answer is for organizations to narrow their portfolio of changes. Unfortunately, most organizations do not see a lot of its projects as optional. What we can do is a better job of sequencing changes, and we can be much more effective in how we target our limited resources for maximum impact.
Last week Don Harrison, President of IMA and developer of the Accelerating Implementation Methodology (AIM), held a free webinar on what he likes to call “Next Generation Change Management” where he discussed his view of what needs to change about change management. The topic was one of our most popular ever and the discussion he led was truly thought provoking.
Enormous investments are being made each year in large scale, complex business and healthcare changes. From ERP Implementations to new patient care models to mergers and acquisitions, the amount of money being spent on organizational change is staggering. With stakes as high as these, organizations simply cannot afford to fail.
In today’s business world where changes are happening with lightning speed, organizations simply do not have a second to spare for unimportant activities. The time your Sponsors and Change Agents spend on implementing changes needs to be laser-focused on moving the dial towards getting a change implemented quickly and successfully.
Remember the old saying, “If you’re going to talk the talk, you have to walk the walk?” Seems like good management advice for sure. But when it comes to leading change, there’s a third action required, and contrary to popular belief… it’s even more important than walking the talk!
Dear Colleagues,
One of my favorite quotes comes from Charles Darwin, who famously said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most adaptable to change.” As we begin 2018, I am amazed at how these wise words could not be more appropriate for the modern business world.
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Whether your organization uses Agile or a more traditional Waterfall approach to project management there is no doubt the end goal is the same. Getting to value realization for every business initiative is, of course, the name of the game. But, while project management protocols focus on delivering projects on time, on budget and to scope, as change management professionals, we know that is not going to be enough. In order to get to full value realization there is more that needs to be done!
If there’s one thing we know for sure, in today’s business world change is everywhere. This endless state of transition causes everyone we know, everywhere we go to be whirling around like crazy. Keyboards are clicking, phones are ringing, meetings are being held (most with “hard stops” because each person has to get to their next meeting). It’s this constant churn of activity that makes an organization seem like it is running and humming like a well-oiled machine.
We’ve all seen them. Projects that are being governed by a Steering Committee that is nowhere near as effective as it could be. Or Project Teams that aren’t made up of the right kind of resources causing a project to slow down to a crawl or even stall out completely. As experts in Change Management, we know Steering Committees and Project Teams who don’t work well together can be a fatal flaw in any change initiative.
We often get questions about the Accelerating Implementation Methodology (AIM) change management methodology from people who are already certified in Prosci’s ADKAR model. That makes sense. Both methodologies are sound change management frameworks that share a lot of common elements.
