Managing the people side of a project is a critical component required to achieve the return on investment for an organisation. Well planned and implemented Change Management in a project ensures faster adoption, higher ultimate utilisation and higher proficiency of the impacted people.
Engaging a specialist Change Manager to help an organisation through the structured change management process to achieve a better result is usually recommended, however this role is often seen as a ‘nice to have’ or can be difficult to justify when budgets are approved. So, if you are undecided on whether a specialist Change Manager is necessary for a project, how do you make this evaluation?
There are many factors to evaluate, here we explore what we consider the top two components that are critical in this assessment.
Project Sponsorship
The first factor to consider is the experience and past results of the Project Sponsor. In particular:
| Decision Factor | Rationale |
| Is the individual experienced or inexperienced in sponsoring projects? | An inexperienced Project Sponsor will likely require some coaching and guidance from a specialist Change Manager. |
| Did the projects they sponsored achieve their objectives and benefits? | This is potentially an indicator that not all aspects of a change were considered and implemented by the Project Sponsor, and this is where a specialist can help. |
| Do they know what is expected of them from a change management perspective and not just as a figurehead dealing with issues and risks that may impact the smooth running of a project? | A specialist Change Manager can help a Project Sponsor in planning out what is required from them to manage the change and subsequent embedding of the change. |
| How invested is the Project Sponsor in relation to the objectives of the project and the change that will occur? Are they receptive and agree to the case for change? | Sometimes Project Sponsors are allocated by a more senior manager and are not fully behind the need for the project. An experienced specialist Change Manager can help identify this and work with the senior manager on the Project Sponsors resistance to the change or suggest an alternative Project Sponsor. This may be the senior manager as it is better to have someone who has the necessary authority over people, processes and systems impacted to be able to promote, authorise and fund the change. |
Change Receptiveness / Fatigue
The second factor is the culture and change receptiveness of the organisation wanting to implement the change.
| Decision Factor | Rationale |
| Have the business areas which will be impacted by the change been through a significant amount of change recently, or are they about to experience a significant amount of change outside the project? | Organisations are facing faster cycles of change and generally more of this is across different functions. Often an organisation will implement multiple changes at the same time. If this is so, a specialist Change Manager can help plan on how to navigate through this. |
| How well does the organisation adapt to change and are its employees or externals receptive to it? | A less receptive organisation will require a more intense change management focus and require a specialist who is able to help an organisation work through this challenge. |
| Have impacted business areas been through several unsuccessfully managed changes in the recent past which may influence perception of this upcoming change? | A specialist Change Manager can aid in working with the organisation to remove this bias early, so that the focus can shift to the changes beings introduced. |
| How compelling is the change itself? | If it is a ‘hard sell’, such as a change to staff numbers or remuneration, then a specialist Change Manager can help guide management on how to handle those difficult conversations with impacted staff and the timing of key messaging. |
In addition to these components, there are many other practical elements to consider, including size and duration of the project, availability of specialist resources, complexity and more. As mentioned in a previous blog post, there are times when change management responsibilities might be shared amongst project team members rather than co-ordinated through a specialist Change Manager.
Ultimately, a specialist Change Manager is there to aid an organisation in achieving their ROI. Investment in a specialist is vital if there are concerns around the Project Sponsor or the current environment within an organisation.
