When you launch a larger implementation or organisational-development project, it is often taken for granted that you’ll have a project manager. But why add a dedicated change leader? What use is the change leader that the project manager doesn’t already cover?
A good combination is often a change leader working side by side with the technical project manager.
The project manager is often responsible for a clear deliverable — for example developing and rolling out the new IT system, the sales organisation, or the merger of two organisations. Project managers tend to focus on:
- The quality of the project deliverable (how well will the new system, or the processes / roles / staffing of the new organisation, actually work?)
- Project budget (how are we doing against the total budget — for example investment, development, consultancy and overhead costs?)
- Timeline (will we make the intended Go-Live date?)
- Project risks (what are the risks to the overall project deliverable, and how do we prevent them?)
The change leader has primary responsibility for identifying and carrying out the activities needed to bring all managers and employees along, so that they genuinely want to, are able to, and start to act in the new system or organisation once it launches. The change leader therefore asks somewhat different questions:
- What does it take for us to succeed with the change? (what efforts can we make to bring enough people along in the change?)
- How do we work smartest with the anchoring effort? (how little can we do and still succeed with the change? which efforts help us bring enough people along fastest/most effectively?)
- When is the organisation ready for Go-Live? (how mature / ready must the organisation be for us to launch the change, and when do we get there?)
If the project manager is also given the change-leader role, unwanted things often happen.
A different competence
Many project managers are hired because they can get others to deliver against a tight timeline or project budget. Understanding and handling resistance to change, and shifting an entire unit’s attitude to its work, is a completely different discipline. Psychology and process facilitation are better allies than planning and follow-up.
Project deliverable or successful implementation?
The project manager’s work with sponsors, the steering group, suppliers and sub-project managers involves a constant balancing act. When the focus is on the project deliverable, the budget and the timeline, there is a real risk that the project manager has too little time and focus to see the project from the employees’ perspective. We end up with a good product — but nobody understands why, or cares.
We have all experienced projects that crashed or ran into the sand — not because the systems were wrong or the organisational design was wrong, but because the resistance was too great and managers and employees never really accepted the new way of working.
In my world it often comes down to insufficient change management — or to launching the change before the organisation was ready. Don’t make that mistake.
Take change management seriously and appoint a dedicated, competent change leader in your change project. You will be glad you did…