Changes can come at an organization in a fast and furious way that forces change practitioners to be fast and furious with their planning.  When this happens, it’s easy to get ahead of yourself and just start developing a list of things you need to do, but your list is just a guess unless you take the time to get to know your audience and what is in it for them.

Stakeholder analysis is one of the most important tools in a change practitioner’s toolkit.  I spend more time on this part of the process than most of my colleagues because I find having a thorough stakeholder analysis in my pocket helps build a much more solid change strategy. 

A delicate world economy has given birth to an era of extraordinary change. The usual push to manage costs has spun into a major shove. Companies must pursue significant organizational, process and technology projects to address this business reality. Although project management (PM) skills and resources are obvious requirements, organizational change management (OCM) is the key to success.

Project management addresses the technical or task side of a change. Project Managers use their training and experience to create detailed project plans and measure progress by completing tasks on time and within budget. They declare victory (and generally move on to the next thing) when the new technology and processes are in place, the staff is trained and the organizational charts are redrawn. But is the project really done or, more importantly, a success?

It was a full day of learning and sharing expertise at the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) Conference! No matter for how many years or in how many industries one has led change initiatives, we can always learn from each other. Today was a great reminder of that! I have tried to capture a few treasures from the jam packed sessions.

Speakers from Cisco, IKEA and Qantas shared lessons learned from their respective change journeys. Key takeaways included:

The first full day of the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) conference (#acmp2012) kicked off with a spectacular keynote address by Chip Heath, co-author of Switch: How to Change When Change is Hard.  Heath summarized the results of his book and the key elements of an individual’s Elephant and the Rider and how they enable (or prevent) a change. Simply put, the Elephant refers to the emotional side of an individual and the Rider is the thinker; in order to make sustainable change, both the Elephant and the Rider need to be engaged.

At the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) Conference pre-workshop, I had the great pleasure of participating in a conversation regarding the challenge of addressing culture, or changing culture in an organization. The insights from many colleagues in this dynamic field is invaluable and I would like to share some of it here.

Culture changes are more challenging primarily because they are less finite, less defined, and therefore may make leaders uncomfortable in addressing them.

Traditional change management approaches focus on the individual’s transition from a current to a future state. The individuals’ transition in aggregate enables an organizational shift to the future state.  This approach may not be enough to support a culture change.

Why?

Sitting in my home office, working on some training materials, I noticed a book on my shelf.  The book was Dr. Robert Cialdini’s Influence.  I had read Influence in a college consumer behavior course as a reference for the psychology behind consumer purchasing decisions.  There is a very strong relevance between the principles in the book and gaining buy-in when managing change.

According to Dr. Robert Cialdini, there are six principles of influence.  There is a significant advantage in leveraging these principles in change management initiatives because they can help ensure getting the buy-in necessary to support the change.

The Six Principles of Influence:

Reciprocity

You are probably aware the first PMI Agile Certified Practitioner (PMI-ACP) certifications were awarded to pilot candidates in Q4 2011. The PMI-ACP recognizes knowledge of agile principles, practices, and tools and techniques across agile methodologies. As the PMI website states, “the world is quickly becoming agile. Are you?” It goes on to say “the use of agile as an approach to managing projects has been increasing dramatically over the last several years. Gartner predicts that by the end of 2012, agile development methods will be used on 80% of all software development projects.” It got me thinking about how an Agile PMO would look and feel.

A process analysts’ role, like many others, is rarely limited to its title and often bleeds into other practices, such as Change Management.  When a process consultant appears at a client, sometimes they are told directly “I want to improve process X’s throughput, process Y’s turnover rate, and process z’s cost”.  More often than not though, they are told “I want to improve all my processes”.  The consultant is then forced to ask, “Well, have you identified what your processes are?  What do you want to improve about them?”  The answers here are usually “No”, and “Everything”. 

Let’s first level set on Organizational Change Management (OCM). It is not Change Control which relates to changes to business, system or other technical requirements.  OCM is the act of anticipating, preparing, managing, monitoring, measuring and supporting stakeholders through a transition. Regardless if that transition is large or small, technical, process, or organizationally driven.

People don’t fear change. We bring change to our lives all the time. We change jobs, get married, have children, move etc. People fear and reject change that doesn’t provide value to them or that they perceive as not valuable. As Project Managers, who by nature are inflicting change on an organization, you need to be prepared for your role in change management.

I submit to you that without realizing it, as an experienced Project Manager and/or PMP, you possess more knowledge than you realize to prepare you for your role in change management.

Stakeholder analysis is a formal way of capturing and documenting the level of engagement of key stakeholders. The scope and complexity of the analysis required depends on the scope and complexity of the change you are trying to implement.

A very simple stakeholder analysis would include at least the following data elements with a High/Medium/Low ranking for each stakeholder:

• Level of support needed
• Level of support demonstrated
• Level of interaction with the project team

The delta between these measurements should drive your change management and communications efforts. For example, a stakeholder who isn’t supportive of your project but from whom you don’t need a high level of support to be successful should not be your highest priority for change management efforts.