Although many organizations have work processes for assessing the business environment and periodic strategic planning, most do not yet have formalized work processes that are desperately needed for change mastery! We feel that the following three work processes or disciplines are critical for organizations to develop on their way to change mastery:

 

1.   A Program Management Process that allows the organization to effectively manage multi-year change initiatives of strategic value (like building a real differentiator or optimizing customer relations). Program Management provides the facility to identify and manage multiple organizational changes (including multiple change projects) simultaneously - while the organization is continuing to Run the Business.

 

The Program Management processes that we see today are usually owned by an organization that reports to the senior executive of the company.  This Program Management unit serves as the Change the Business structure (or Office) that helps manage the continuous conflict and balance that is needed between the Run the Business and Change the Business agendas.

 

Failure to adopt a Program Management process or to set up an Enterprise Program Office is to ensure that the organization will not do a good job managing change in the face of day-to-day business. The Program Office gives the Chief Executive the support she needs as she does her job as the Chief Change Officer…whose job it is to move the organization toward a series of successful futures, while meeting yearly Run the Business targets. NOTE: A program office set up in the Information Technology Department in order to manage all IT initiatives in an enterprise is NOT an Enterprise Program Office but an Enterprise IT Program Office.

 

2.   A Project Management Process that gives the capability to bring concrete results to a given change initiative in a defined time period.  The organization must have a required Project Management method that provides detailed guidance on how to manage every change project (using steps from the Change Management Method as the key activities to be managed).

 

The Project Management processes that we see in organizations today are usually owned by one of the technical departments like Engineering or Information Technology. For change mastery, the Program Management Office must identify the version of the organization’s Project Management method that will be best suited for change projects and require that the Project Management method be used on all changes of significant size and importance regardless of the organizational unit or function.

 

Failure to adopt a Project Management method is to ensure that the organization will not do a good job managing change, and that the change initiatives that the organization attempts to run simultaneously will not be comparable, making overall Program Management practically impossible to do well.

 

3.   A Change Management Process that gives detailed steps on how to make organizational change happen in a controlled and predictable way.  The organization must have a required Change Management method that gives detailed guidance on how to employ the means of change (i.e., process alterations, employee performance changes, etc.) to alter the means of doing business

(i.e., how the company delivers its products and services to customers, etc.).

 

The Change management processes that we see in organizations today are usually “ad hoc and informal…or “processes de jour,” depending on which Change Management consultants just made a sale to the Chief Executive! Progressive organizations who have mastered change place the ownership for the organization’s Change Management method in the hands of the Program Office

(or their organization’s equivalent).

 

Failure to adopt a Change Management method is to ensure that the organization will not be successful in change projects, despite the level of effectiveness of Program and Project Management.  The organization’s Change Management method provides the content of activities and tasks needed for effective Project Management.

 

Need to move your organization toward change mastery? Start by investing in the three key disciplines of Program Management, Project Management and Change Management. Without theses disciplines, change will continue to be an unpredictable exercise in frustration. 

 

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