As mentioned in my very first blog, I want to become a certified PROSCI® change management practitioner. 9 Years after my first change management program I’m finally certified. It was a great three days training from the People side of change in The Netherlands last week.
I was already familiar with the ADKAR model after reading the book from Jeffrey Hait. So, I was well prepared to rock the change management certification training. The training was amazing, and I learned so much more about change management and especially about the people side of change. I thought that after 9 years of change management I would know what to do but trust me that was naïve of me as I haven’t really got the full understating of the PROSCI / ADKAR methodology before.
In this blog I will share some of my key learnings from this training. I won’t go into too much detail on all the learnings because if I do, I will be writing a book J If you want to know more, please visit the PROSCI website
Summary of my key learnings.
- Organizations don’t change, people do
- Change is 50% Science and 50% art
- Change is common sense buy not always common practice
- According to the best practice survey the most resistance group are managers……
- Change is easy to say bit challenging to do
Human factor of change ROI
- Speed of adoption – How quickly are people up and running on the new systems, processes and job roles?
- Ultimate Utilization – How many employees (of the total population) are demonstrating “buy-in” and are using the new solution?
- Proficiency – How well are individuals performing compared to the level expected in the design of the change?
Change preparation:
In order to be prepared for a successful change there are great and easy assessment tools to identify strength & weakness and address key elements
- Leadership / sponsor assessment
- Project management assessment
- Change management assessment
- Risk assessment to assess the organizational attributes (is the organization ready for the change) and change characteristics (how big is the change)
Utilize the 3-phase process to plan your change
- Prepare the change
- Define your change management strategy
- Prepare your change management team
- Develop your sponsorship model
- Managing change
- Develop change management plans (Communication, Sponsor roadmap, Coaching plan, Resistance and training plan)
- Take actions and implement plans
- Reinforcing change
- Collect and analyze feedback
- Diagnose gaps and manage resistance
- Implement corrective actions and celebrate success
Sponsorship / Leaders
The #1 success factor of a change program is an active and visible sponsor (ABC)
- A: Actively and visible participation throughout the project
- B: Build a coalition of sponsorship with peers and managers
- C: Communicate directly with employees
- Sponsors and Managers are also employees and need to go through their own change (ADKAR) as well
- Role of a manager (CLARC)
- Communicate
- Liaison
- Advocate
- Resistance Manager
- Coach
- Always build a sponsorship structure and assessment diagram to identify the weakness and action plan to address the weakness
Resistance
- Resistance is a human reaction to change
- #1 reason for resistance -> Lack of Awareness why a change is needed
- There is no reason to wait for resistance, anticipate and plan accordantly
- Resistance Prevention
- Proactive Resistance management
- Reactive Resistance management
Communication
- First define the audience before you define your communication
- Repeat your message 5-7 times
- Why / business results. -> Primary sponsor / CEO
- Personal impact, What it in it for me -> Direct supervisor
- Face to face is most effective to communicate change
ADKAR
The backbone of the PROSCI change management methodology. Throughout the whole change we can rely on the preparation and assessments of the ADKAR model. It is a goal-oriented change management model to guide individual and organizational change
- Awareness: Represents a person’s understanding of the nature of the change, why the change is being made and the risk of not changing
- Desire: Represent the willingness and ultimate choice to support and engage in a change
- Knowledge: Represent the information, training and education necessary to know how to change
- Ability: Represent the realization or execution of the change – The demonstrated achievement of the change
- Reinforcement: Represent those internal and external factors that sustain a change
If I had all these learnings prior to my first change project, I really could have done a much better job. The good news is that I have these learnings now, so my next change program will definitely be a great success!
When you want to learn more about change management and you have the opportunity to participate in one of the PROSCI certification training, I would highly recommend it!
Photo by Matthew Henry from Burst
