Change Management has been a hot topic since the dawn of time. Yet, despite the huge investment that companies have made in tools and training and the thousands of books available (over 183,000 on Amazon), we still see a 60-70% failure rate for organizational change projects. A similar proportion of projects do not deliver the full benefits projected in the original business case, due to failings in changing organizational behavior or operational culture.

Given this, what should you do differently to drive engagement, improve communication, achieve small wins, build the business case, and manage all the other elements of the in your business?

If your organization (or your piece of it) struggles with effectively implementing change, ask yourself the following three questions:

1. Do you have a common framework, language, and set of tools for managing significant change?
One of the keys to successful change management is to have a common set of definitions, tools, and approaches that everyone can become familiar with.

2. To what extent are your change management plans integrated into your overall project plans?
The challenge is to make change management part and parcel of your implementation plan, and not an add-on that is managed independently.

3. Who is accountable for effective change management in your organization?
Unless your managers are accountable for making sure that change happens systematically and rigorously, and certain behaviors are rewarded or punished accordingly, change won’t happen.

Everyone agrees that change management is important. Making it happen effectively, though, is hard. That is why Core Catalysts Project Management teams are experts in helping our clients manage and achieve lasting, sustainable, and positive change.

If you are finding change hard, give us a call to see how we might be able to help you!

– Mark Jacobs, Client Service & Delivery