Hey, welcome back.
In the previous video, we talked about the process of change management.
Change management is actually a huge undertaking and a project in itself.
As mentioned, you may not always be responsible for leading and
planning the entire end-to-end change management process.
Instead, you may ask a member of the project team, your manager, or
another senior leader to help take on that transition.
If you are participating in change management,
then someone else is responsible for successfully implementing the changes.
Let's say you just completed the project of creating the new check-in system.
The project is now at the point where it needs to be installed and
adopted by the organization, but you don't have the formal authority or
influence to enact this change.
Your role as a project manager then doesn't include getting employees
to use the new system, that's someone else's job.
But just because you're not the one directly calling for, or
leading the change, there's still ways in which you can and
should participate. And that's what this section is about,
the process of handing off the project, and the ways in which you, as
the project manager who created the new system, can stay involved.
Being empathetic to the challenges of change management can help you support
the process in subtle ways.
In this case, participating in change management might mean communicating with
employees throughout the project about how the system will
provide a better experience for their customers.
You support the process by providing employees with information so
they feel prepared to adjust to changes once the system is ready to launch.
Since participating in change management is such a big part
of being a successful project manager, I want to take you through a few examples
so you can see how this might play out in different types of organizations.
You'll see how to combine your knowledge of organizational structure and
culture to make decisions about planning for the change management process.
Let's explore the same pharmacy check-in project in two different organizational
structures and
with different team cultures to understand how these ideas are applied.
Say the pharmacy chain is a Classic organizational structure and
has an informal corporate culture.
The final project requires a name change from the old check-in system
called "Speedy Care" to the new system called "Speedy Check-in."
Getting this change implemented, is an example of change management.
As the project manager, you need to participate in the change management
process by communicating the project needs through the appropriate channels.
In this case, the chief executive officer or CEO, sends an email to the C-suite,
now these are all the chief level officers in an organization.
The CEO lets them know that the name must be changed and
to please inform their teams to implement the name change.
Since this is a Classic structure within a hierarchical organization,
the budgets are managed separately,
and the marketing department needs to request an extra $10,000 to
change all of their printed posters for the stores.
This request goes back up to the Chief Financial Officer or CFO.
There may be other cost adjustments and process changes that need to happen
across the organization to ensure a successful system name change.
In this instance, you may need to have multiple meetings with others
to help them understand what is changing, and why.
Now suppose that the pharmacy chain is a Matrix organization structure and
has a formal corporate culture.
What does change management look like in this scenario?
Well, you might meet with representatives from marketing and
technology to explain the overall budget impact for all the necessary changes.
With the formal culture, you might write a document that describes all budget,
timeline, and training impacted by the name change.
Then you might circulate that document to get feedback and
alignment from all the stakeholders
and share that feedback with the CEO so
they can understand the full scope of the name change.
The feedback and alignment from the stakeholders will tell the CEO how
the change management process went.
Did everyone agree on the implications?
Was the feedback positive, or was there resistance?
Then, when the CEO needs to communicate the name change to the entire organization,
she may have someone on her team write up a formal memo that describes why the name
change needs to happen and share out the memo to her staff and their teams.
Keep in mind these are just examples and every organization's structure,
team culture, and change management processes are going to be different.
But understanding this framework can help you navigate how to effectively
participate in and support change management.
This understanding can allow you to ask yourself questions that will inform
change management, such as how will the organization react to change?
Which influencers can affect change?
What are the best means of communication?
What change management practices will lead to the successful
implementation of my project and so on?
The answers to these questions will help you prepare for
a variety of possible scenarios, and
craft solutions to effectively support the adoption of your project.
They will also help you navigate possible challenges along the way and
lead your project through a successful change management process.
I know this is a lot, but you're doing a great job.
We'll continue to talk about these concepts throughout the course.
So no sweat if you're still processing all this new information. See you in a bit.
Comments