Sponsorship is the most critical success factor in ensuring a fast and successful implementation of any type of business change {Tweet This}. But once you’ve identified all your Sponsors through the process of Key Role Mapping, how do you go about managing them? One of the greatest challenges of implementing large-scale, complex change is that very often you will be confronted with multiple Sponsors who each bring their own visions, political agendas, and "Frames of Reference," to the change.
40 years. That’s how long Don Harrison, President and founder of IMA has been working in the Change Management industry. While some may joke he started when he was 5, Don has dedicated his entire career to implementing complex changes in organizations. His frequent application of this expertise to technology implementations, cultural changes, mergers and acquisitions, and business process initiatives has led to his popularity as a consultant and keynote speaker for national and international conferences. Plus he is really funny, and that helps!
Sponsorship is the most critical success factor in ensuring a fast and successful implementation of transformational change. Sponsors must do more than just make sure the project gets launched, or authorize funding for an initiative. Sponsors must be active beyond project launch. In fact, quality Sponsorship is determined by both action and position.
Sponsors are the key drivers of transformational change. What they say, what they do, and what they reinforce on a daily basis determines 50-70% of the likelihood of achieving value realization for the transformation. So, what do you do when they are the ones who are reluctant to change?
One of the reasons why organizations are struggling to get their change agendas accomplished is that there is, well, just way too much re-structuring! Every time a new leader comes on board, it seems that the first required action is to re-structure—again. We have clients who literally have had 5 new bosses in the last 6 months. This means new expectations, new ways of operating, new priorities. It’s one of the reasons why so many people find their heads spinning!
One of the key principles in the Accelerating Implementation Methodology (AIM) is, “You can expect the most resistance from those people who have the greatest vested interest in keeping things the same.” More often than not, these people are your middle to upper level managers. The reasoning is quite simple; Senior Managers, Directors and VP’s were hired, and are successful at their jobs, because they fit into the organization’s current culture. So what is their motivation to change their own behavior?
Managers play a major role in ensuring change happens. The more they know about best practices of change management, the easier this will be. However, in reality...they don’t really need to know it all.
Do your Leaders say they support a transformational change, but then don’t have the time to participate in critical meetings? Is it like pulling teeth to get Leaders to make a decision? Is your organization plagued by infighting and politics between Leaders?
Getting the Sponsorship you need is the single most important success factor for any project implementation. The fact is Sponsorship is the most critical success factor in ensuring a fast and successful implementation of any type of business change, but it is also largely misunderstood.
After over 30 years of change management consulting, Don Harrison, President of IMA, has a lot to say about implementing transformational change. In IMA's recent webinar on The Human Side of Transformational Change, Don shared his tips on how to improve execution success of these big, complex changes. He touched on topics such as:
