CM:Exchange 2

What are your change management hot topic's?

In your daily work as a Change Manager you have to deal with a great deal of resistance for all sorts of reasons. It is part of the job. To write a series of articles on Change Management we are curious to know:  what are the top 5 hot and most relevant topics for change managers today? Calinda Rompa & Isolde Kanikani share their thoughts to start to get the discussion started, hoping to prompt you guys to feel safe and share ;-) If any of you would be interested to collaborate on further CM:Exchanges contact Isolde for more information.

This weeks discussion:

1. What are the top 5 hot and most relevant topics for change managers today?

Isolde: 

1. Definition of our profession so that we can A. be taken seriously by other professions and sponsors, B. people know the value we bring to an organisation and not sidelined into HR and support functions, C. seat on the corporate table so we have a part in defining the planning and strategy behind a change instead of being invited late into the project (anytime after it has started 😉), D. not have to be such broad generalists but specialise in certain areas of change, E. ask for serious budgets for what we do because people know a, b, c.
2. How to make a culture of change in an organisation i.e. continuous change culture and cms facilitate this. Pms, sponsors, middle managers working together with a shared language and method around change that makes the end results of projects higher on the importance list than the fact that there is a change in place. Impact on change fatigue, change champion networks, the community around change as the thread that binds an organisation. Present organisation structure around profit changing for new organisation structure that works around people in order to create profit.
3. The impact of covid and lasting effects hereof, hybrid working situations, global teams working remote etc. 
4. Gathering all the different variations of models, theories and influencers of Change management. Pull out the amazing wealth of what is already on offer, celebrate it and take it into our daily practice. Also alongside this realization, we can’t be a universal generalist because we are change managers. Explore the specialisms that are ignited by our own personal gifts, bringing this to both the CM community and the organisations we work for. 

Calinda:  

1.    At big corporations, most of the time different parties are flown in to work together on the same project. They all have different views on what Change Management is and prefer their own methods above others. How do you convince people that it is more efficient if everyone supports the same method (for example PROSCI)?

2.    How do you get support from your sponsors? What do you do if they are not responding, or have no time to play an active role as a sponsor?

3.    How do you cope with resistance from the middle management layer?

4.    How do you ensure that you are getting enough budget to execute a communications plan or education plan?

5.    What if Project Managers and Change Managers that are working on the same project have different opinions on what a successful outcome of a project looks like? What methods would you use to get everyone on board? In other words, how can you make visible how Change Management and Project Management fit perfectly together? 

Which of the topics most impacts your own work and a possible approach for new projects? 

Calinda:  During Covid, working from home, finding your work-life balance can be very challenging. Internal obstacles when working with different divisions, everyone is speaking in their own jargon etc. How do you cope with different nationalities or cultural backgrounds in your team? What are the biggest challenges?

Isolde: My experience is that the people aspect of the people side of change can be greatly increased. I see in my projects that the way of communicating between individuals is often based on efficiency and abbreviated terminology. I am thinking of the abbreviations for roles, departments, projects or sprints. But it goes further for me. An exercise of clarifying these terms at the beginning of the project would go a long way to humanising our collaboration. Another people-related struggle in various situations is the idea that there is a misunderstanding about the difference between leadership and management. I started to see a number of situations where one or both were present. It gets very interesting if working on the premise that management is dealing with the responsibility, structure and processes needed for business as usual. Leaders on the other hand are there to speak to and motivate the people. This is a basic breakdown based on my own experience and research, happy if you leave a comment with something different here. I think leadership is confused with having a vision and pulling people in a direction without communication. Or Leaders in a position where they need to have management skills or delegate this, but are resistant to creating real clarity leaving a team that struggles to find their shared vision. It goes further still, with some managers not being empowered to lead their people. On the positive side, I have seen a very effective senior manager having both leadership and management skills but working super effectively from the role of change manager for a project team, definitely something to repeat I the future if possible.

Poll for hearing your thoughts!

Poll: How would you rate the following hot- most relevant topics for you as a person managing change? Link

It would be great if you could answer the following question in the comments section: What are the biggest challenges for you as a Change Manager/ Change Communications Manager? What topics would you like to discuss? What are your experiences, and what can we learn from each other?