IMA's Implementing Organizational Changes at Speed Blog

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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. 

One of the common challenges Change Agents confront is getting Sponsors to see how their commitment of resources to Change Management can actually make a difference in business results. We hear this all the time from clients who know that projects could be implemented faster and more successfully if they managed the “people-side” of projects with more discipline. We experience it, too, in our own change management consulting. 

From ERP and Technology Implementations to Shared Services to Lean Six Sigma and other process improvement initiatives, change is everywhere. But in our experience, only 25-30% of all business changes achieve full benefit realization. 

We’ve spent a lot of years in the global Change Management marketplace. Over 35 to be exact. And after all this time, people still don’t seem to “get it.” Day after day, we speak to Sponsors, Senior Executives, and sometimes even Change Agents who still think Change Management is just a buzzword. Or, they believe it is something to be done “out there” by other people. Some still think they can send an email out to the organization announcing a change, and then check Change Management off their to-do list for good. 

The concept of Shared Services certainly isn’t a new one. It’s been a popular business structure since the 1980’s. But, even now in 2017, the number of organizations transitioning to a Shared Services model continues to rise. Why? Because the model makes simple, economic sense. If you centralize administrative functions and share them between business units, you will standardize processes, eliminate redundancies and ultimately reduce costs. Sounds easy, right? 

Don Harrison, developer of the Accelerating Implementation Methodology (AIM), has dedicated his entire, distinguished career to helping organizations worldwide implement complex changes at speed. Several years ago, he began to notice an alarming trend. Organizations were so focused on getting to launch or “go live” of their initiatives, once they got there, they declared the project over. They checked the box that the project was complete and then moved on to the next.  

Change saturation is quickly becoming one of the biggest challenges in organizations across the globe. Our Change Management Consultants see it everywhere they go. “Sure, we can do that.” “Oh, that initiative will improve sales. Let’s get going on it quickly.” While there certainly isn’t a shortage of good ideas out there the bottom line is almost every organization we know has too many initiatives chasing far too few resources.