Project & change management

Organisations undertake projects and change management initiatives all the time. But how often is the decision to undertake a project—or institute a major structural change—based on a strong business case? How often are proposed projects and change management initiatives reviewed and approved by executive management? How often does management review the purpose, direction and progress of such undertakings during their respective lifecycles? How often does management end up asking itself "Why did we take on this project in the first place?" “Why did we conclude that this change was so important, so vital, to our future? The answers to these questions, respectively, would probably be: “Rarely”, "Sometimes," "Occasionally," “More often that we’d like. and "Because it seemed like a good idea at the time." In fact, many organisations have difficulty turning their business ideas into reality. But, apart from management mis-steps, another reason for failure is that employees often feel that they have been excluded from the process. As a result, they become de-motivated: unwilling (and sometimes unable) to acquire the skills and knowledge to embrace new procedures and processes. However, while the recipe for successful change or project management is seemingly simple—coordinate your management and business strategies with your individual processes, your people, and your technological assets—making that happen is actually very difficult indeed.

If this is your situation:

• You want to reconfigure your company’s “culture” so that everyone—from top management down—develops an optimistic way of thinking about change.
• You have to develop and deploy the kind of control mechanisms that are required if complex projects are to be managed successfully.
• You need to develop effective tools and templates to support projects and achieve successful outcomes.
• You must find a way of ensuring that any project undertaken by your company is driven by business objectives and advances the aims of your organisation.
• You want a process by which you can flexibly manage stakeholders who may be affected by major changes to your company’s way of doing business.
• You would like to create people development programmes that will make sure your employees acquire the skills and knowledge demanded by company-wide change projects.
• You need to create a “project charter” which will help you document a project’s possible benefits, its scope, detailed cost/benefit analysis, a calendar of deliverables, reliable metrics for tracking successes (and failures), and unforeseen consequences.