Making certain you have the appropriate number of Change Agents, with the desirable skills, in the proper places is a critical component of organizational change management and achieving value realization for your project. In other words, creating a Change Agent Network is crucial for implementation success.
One of the key principles of our change management model is that implementation takes place at the local level. So if your Change Management Methodology doesn't provide tools for identifying the right people for the role of Change Agents, you are going to miss a critical element of successful change.
If you are part of a project team assigned to enterprise-wide change you will need to have Change Agents to support the implementation. Yes, members of the project team will likely be Change Agents, but you will need to build a network as well.
You've recently been assigned as a Change Agent on an important transformational change project. This change has some significant implications for how people do their work. There will be new technology, some re-structuring, lots of new business processes. It's the whole ball of wax. While it's early, you know you need to build readiness for the transformation. Where do you start?
If you are a Change Agent assigned to a project, do you know who all your Sponsors are? It's a critically important question, and the answer is not necessarily obvious. In fact, one of the biggest "aha's" from our AIM change management training is that there are far more Sponsors that need to be attended to than what Change Agents originally thought!
Our change management consultants are often brought in on "mission-critical" strategic initiatives that are high risk, and must be implemented to full value realization. One of the missing pieces we see is that there is no explicit "change architecture" for getting the project implemented. This change architecture includes the identification and development of change Super Users. These Super Users are key to building change readiness in all the areas impacted by the change.
Change management professionals understand the value of change management and a change management methodology. They know that when you pay attention to the human side of the change, projects can be much more successful. But that isn't always the case for other leaders and colleagues. In fact, one of the most common frustrations is that others "don't get it." As a result, the change management professionals naturally become frustrated.
On Tuesday, April 22 we are holding a complimentary webinar on "Sponsorship: Why You Gotta Have It. What to Do to Get It." First of all, why are doing another webinar on Sponsorship? Quite simply, it's because there is nothing as important to project success as Sponsorship. And unfortunately, there is nothing as problematic for Change Agents than securing lasting, active Sponsors!
One of the most common questions we get from clients around Defining the Change in the AIM methodology is to explain what we mean by "human objectives." Let's try and take the mystery out of human objectives once and for all!
So many organizations are investing in some level of business transformation--healthcare transformation, HR transformation, IT transformation, one company solutions. These are complex changes that have many moving parts, just from the technical implementation perspective.
