A change management practitioner can be one of a project manager's best allies. Why? Because connecting the people AND technical sides of a major system change helps to ensure that the goal of 100% user adoption of the new technology is realized. Prosci, the world leader in change management research, calls this the Unified Value Proposition model.
As discussed in our e-book, project managers and their teams are focused on designing, developing, and delivering a technical solution that solves a problem or addresses an opportunity. However, there are still people—the users of this technology—who will be impacted by this new solution. This is where change management practitioners and their teams come in to provide the structure, processes, and tools to support the change. The change management team works to ensure that the system users understand the changes that are coming, have a desire for the changes, and have the knowledge and ability needed to adopt and use the technology at deployment and beyond.
"A helpful analogy for understanding the Unified Value Proposition is to consider two strands of rope that are different colors," Prosci explains. "One strand of rope represents the technical side of a change, and the other strand represents the people side of the change. If you intertwine the two strands of rope, you will have a stronger rope. Similarly, if the individuals involved in addressing the technical and people sides of change work together collaboratively, they will deliver a more successful change."
Ninety percent of project management involves communication, and change management practitioners possess a lot of the same skills as project managers. On technical projects, they work to provide value on a project right away. They establish relationships with project managers and sponsors/leadership to understand the end user/stakeholder awareness of the coming technology or initiative and their desire for this change. They gather requirements to develop change management plans—including plans for communications and training—that incorporate input from the project manager and sponsors/leadership. Finally, they assemble teams, oversee the execution of the change management plan, measure results, and communicate status.
Change management practitioners can be valuable allies only if they are integrated within or work closely with project managers and their teams. The advantages of this include:
• Transparent information flow between the team and the impacted groups. Think of change management practitioners and their teams as the voice of the user. Change management teams need to receive information firsthand from the project teams to help prevent end user knowledge gaps and misinformation.
• Coordinated feedback to relay questions and concerns. Change practitioners and project managers should establish and maintain open communication throughout the project to mitigate risk. For example, the project manager may decide to roll off training staff earlier in the project timeline. A change management practitioner might alert the project manager of the potential risks to user adoption that decision might pose.
• Independent point of view that reflects the users' perspective. Again, think of change management practitioners and their teams as the voice of the user. Their number one goal is 100% user adoption. For example, while a project manager deals with the timeline for user acceptance testing and who is involved, a change management practitioner can provide insight on how to engage these users so that they understand how UAT will work and what's expected of them.
