Shared Change Purpose
Best Practice Area 01

Shared Change Purpose: a framework for transformation.

A change management strategy should be compelling and consistent with a vision of the future business environment, and the implications for the future state of the organization. The processes here aid clarity of thinking in this respect and define measurable targets for the change project or programme.

The Key Question
"What do we think the future business environment will look like and how do we want to be as an organization in advance of reaching it?"
Best Practice 01

It also offers an opportunity to collaborate with employees across the organization so that vision and strategy of the future state of the organization is a collective one. The visioning activity shouldn't be undervalued as lightweight or unnecessary. At some point in the future, as the change programme progresses and we get into the nitty-gritty, you will be glad to have captured this reference point.

01

Define Future State

Purpose
  • Define clear and compelling picture of future organization
  • Evaluate gap between current and future organization
  • Develop high-level road-map for change
Step 1

Identify change imperatives

Step 2

Agree change vision

Step 3

Define future state

Step 4

Identify key change interventions

Benefits
  • Identify capability requirements to drive change organization
  • Unite around clear understanding of what's driving the change and a shared vision of the future
Risks If Ignored
  • Absence of shared purpose, no clear target or forward direction
  • People and organizational capability lag behind imperative for change
02

Define Change Governance

Purpose
  • Specify decision rights and accountability framework for change program.
  • Align with existing project and organization governance structures.
Step 1

Understand existing governance structures

Step 2

Define change team and governance structure

Step 3

Define change network

Step 4

Validate and communicate change governance

Benefits
  • Supports decisive change leadership.
  • Enables clear accountability for change program.
  • Provides quality assurance and path to escalate issues and risks.
Risks If Ignored
  • Lack of 'joined-up' change management strategy and plan.
  • Change solution disconnected from wider organization and/or end user needs.
  • Resistance to change builds, progress towards future state obstructed.
03

Develop Change Strategy

Purpose
  • Describe reasons for changing, what you want to achieve and how you will get there.
  • Change Management Strategy underpins plan and all subsequent activity.
Step 1

Review existing business analysis

Step 2

Evaluate against future state definition

Step 3

Develop change business case

Step 4

Agree change management strategy

Benefits
  • Compile a concrete business case describing both the financial and non-financial benefits of the change effort.
  • Describe the overall approach to managing the impact of change.
Risks If Ignored
  • Disconnect between change vision and best path to building new capabilities.
  • No clear alignment of financial and non-financial benefits and risks of change program.
04

Change Impact Assessment

Purpose
  • Capture people and organizational impacts arising from the change being introduced.
  • Critical input into change management strategy and plan.
Step 1

Define assessment approach

Step 2

Conduct impact assessment

Step 3

Analyze and report impact assessment

Step 4

Agree key change interventions

Benefits
  • Rank the type and magnitude of change impacts for each stakeholder group.
  • Support change leadership with clear insights into challenges and reduce risk.
Risks If Ignored
  • No clear understanding of people and change impacts, no basis for strategy and plan, significantly higher risk of project failure.
05

Change Management Plan

Purpose
  • Define sequence of tasks, activities, deliverables and resources required to execute change strategy.
  • Apply project management discipline through phases, workstreams, decision points and milestones.
Step 1

Review change impact assessment

Step 2

Define workstreams, tasks and timeline

Step 3

Calculate resource requirements

Step 4

Define assumptions and risks

Benefits
  • Describe in concrete terms how change strategy will be executed.
  • Facilitate successful transition of people and organization elements of the program from current to future state.
Risks If Ignored
  • Lack of alignment between strategy and solution, stakeholders become disengaged, increased costs of higher risk of project failure.

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