Outperform competition with Enterprise Change Management (ECM)

Gone are the days when Change Management was conceived of as an emergency kit « addressing the soft and fluffy side of change » [1]. Even though CM has established itself as a discipline with dedicated practitioners, too many organizations are still lagging behind. Integrating Change Management with Project Management is not enough. To deliver the best results, CM has to be streamlined across the organization. Think of it as a strategic lens through which changes of all sorts can be anticipated, handled and sustained across time and space. Here is why and how you turn Change Management into an overarching organizational framework. Set yourself for success by injecting CM across the organization and outperform your competitors in a fast-changing world!

Because change is the new norm. 

As changes multiply, overlap and grow bigger, instability becomes the norm. Change saturation has turned into an issue of our time and translates into organizational bottlenecks and decreasing performances. The challenge, then, is to move away from one-shot actions (project-to-project application of CM) and towards a deeply engrained or « built-in » approach to dealing with change. It is one thing to deliver a project on time and on budget, it is quite another to optimize portfolio delivery. This is where ECM comes into play.

PROSCI has introduced the term « Enterprise Change Management » (ECM) to designate « the structured and intentional deployment of change management across and throughout an organization », turning CM into one of its « core competency, competitive differentiator and cultural value ».

Entreprise Change Management articulates around three main components [2] :

• a shared library : a common set of processes, skills and tools (and even language) implemented at an early stage as an integral part of the project - not as a some sort of « plug-in ».
• a broad-match : leadership and CM competencies at all levels, enabling senior executives, HR, projects managers and team members alike to be effective drivers of change.
• an all-encompassing focus : a strategic capability fostering responsiveness to market changes.

Say Project « ECM ».

To put it simply, it is not a matter of doing more CM but rather to make it the norm. Implementing ECM requires a shift in mindset that is best achieved by designing and managing it as a change project in its own right (PROSCIc).

Mirroring any kind of project conducted under the PROSCI’s method umbrella, ECM implementation requires (1) a careful assessment of the current state of Change Management, (2) a clear vision of the future state and (3) a roadmap tackling the technical and people side of the solution in order to ensure a smooth transition.

ECM takes CM to a new level by inscribing CM into the very DNA of the organization and boosting agility as a result. As an holistic approach to Change Management ECM makes true the saying that the whole is always bigger than the sum of its parts. So treat CM accordingly for faster … and bigger results.