4 most interesting findings about change management maturity in Danish companies

Nexum has conducted a unique survey to measure and analyse change management maturity in Danish companies, to be able to better understand how companies use change management to ensure project success. Additionally, we wanted to identify patterns with those doing it the best which would enable us to pass on advice and best practice on how to best reach change management maturity.

The rate of change is expected to continue to rise. Thus, change management is as relevant as ever. Five and three year strategies are being replaced by one and two year must-win battles as the external environment is simply too unpredictable for the longer perspective. Companies will therefore launch even more projects with even tighter deadlines and which are even more business critical.

Change management is the process, tools and techniques to manage the people side of change to help projects succeed and achieve required objectives. The more effective and mature an organisation’s change management capabilities are, the more probable it is that business critical projects will succeed. All evidence shows an undeniable link between an organisation’s change management maturity and ability to succeed with change projects.

Nexum has conducted a survey of large Danish companies to understand at what maturity level their change management capabilities are and to understand, through a range of interviews, what works and what doesn’t when doing successful change management.

Through the research, we have reached four conclusions:

1. Danish companies score on average just above 2.6 on a 5-point scale on Change Management maturity which is at par with the best countries in the world. The score also shows that there still is plenty of room for improvement.

    

2. There is significant value in having a structured approach to Change Management. The companies with a structured approach score on average 3.3 vs. 2.4 for the ones without.

    

3. Having a Change Management Office (CMO) speeds up the maturity process. A CMO can take many shapes and forms and be positioned in many parts of the organisation. Our findings suggest that regardless of where it is positioned, a CMO improves maturity in any type of organisation. In our survey the companies with a CMO scored on average 3.4 vs. 2.3 for the ones without a CMO.

    

4. The Change Management Maturity Model Audit (CMMMA) is an effective tool to improve maturity. An audit does not in itself improve effectiveness, but it helps companies identify gaps and quick wins and provides inspiration to improvement.

We have described a case in which a large Danish transportation company has improved their change management maturity and effectiveness through a dedicated effort over the last three years.

The learning points from their story are:

1. Treat improving change management as a project,
2. Establish a CMO, and
3. Use CMMMA to measure where you are, to set goals and to measure progress.

You can download the report here