The Role of Program Management in an Organisational Change
Organisations generally understand that they need to embrace change in order to remain competitive and achieve strategic goals. However, many struggle to manage all aspects of the change process missing key components as smooth implementation and solid support throughout[1]. To become a master in managing your change management program is a key factor to the success of your organisational change. The simple fact is change have both negative and positive effects in any organisation. Managed poorly, the process creates major problems for the culture and people. Managed well, it provides the platform for growth and success.
Abstract:Organisational change is a huge alteration for any company and can be a dawning task if not managed properly. An organisational change usually consist of a wide range of related change projects and other activities, which align with the overall strategic goal for the future of the company. Program management is a great method to cope with an organisational change, as it consist of a toolbox that evaluate each potential change project. Program management will support managers by providing overview, efficient execution of projects, project alignment, evaluated risks, stakeholder map and create the highest amount of benefits. All which point toward a more effective and efficient change management process. This article focus on how an organisation can manage their change projects through a change management program. Research papers and books regarding change management will form the bases of the change management approach. In addition, program management methods and tools will structure the approach, guarding the overall change process. The result are to be found in the Application of Program Management where the overall subject is discussed. This article is a application-oriented overview and summary.
Contents |
Change Management
There is not a single recipe for Change Management that can be applied to all organisations at all times. The subject is simply too complex. The most simplified way of viewing the change process is through Lewin´s three-step change process [J. Hayes, 2010];
All types of change initiatives have to start the change process by unfreezing from their current status quo. When talking about change unfreezing is the first and the most essential change of the whole change process. Unfreezing creates the conditions that facilitate transitioning, moving the organisation to a new state. Viewing at organisational change compared to other change initiatives, organisational change is the most intensive; hence, it got the capability of re-orientate or re-crate parts of or the entire organisation [J. Hayes, 2010].
Egan (1996) have further developed Lewin´s three stages, with emphasis on unfreezing and change (which is also known as moving) stage. Here the focus is; assessment of the current scenario (diagnose), the creation of preferred scenarios (vision) and the design of plans that move the system from the current too the preferred scenario (planning for change). The most essential in each of these area is; Current state: assessing problems and opportunities, developing new perspectives, and choosing high impact problems or opportunities for attention. The preferred scenarios: Developing a range of possible futures, evaluation alternative possibilities to establish a viable agenda for change, and gaining commitment to the new agenda. Strategies and plans: for moving to the preferred scenario; brainstorming strategies for getting there, choosing the best strategy or best-fit package of strategies and tuning these strategies into a viable plan.
Change is often managed less effectively than it might be because those responsible for managing it fails to attend to some of the critical factors and aspects of the change process. This issue have already had its impact on organisations whose employees had bad experience with change initiatives, and are more reluctant to change than others. To enable managers to cope with change, the Key Steps In the Change Process are presented.
At first glance, it seems like change is a rational and linear process. Nevertheless, this is rarely how it unfolds in practice. The model is a systematic process that guide managers through all the relevant stages that a change initiative have to take into account from planning to implementation. One of the key aspects in the change process is Reviewing and Managing people issues throughout the entire process. Which are the most important factors for the managers to contemplate and manage when initiating in an organisational change, due to the fact that employees are the one whom are able to make the organisational change possible.
Survival of the fittest We all know Darwin´s evolutionary theory[2], including the theory of natural selection. In 1864, Herbert Spence interpreted Darwin´s theory into the financial world, and came up the more popular phrase Survival of the fittest[3]. This might seem fare fetched from organisational change. Nevertheless, organisations have a huge range of operations and systems, which interconnect, but also operate independently - much like the animal kingdom.
The point here is that when an organisation develops a re-orientation or a re-creation of the company, it is time to kill your darlings and manage the change to ensure survival of the fittest operations and systems. A less impactful change can be adopted on strong operations to ensure their survival in the future. Thus making the company future-proof. Another important aspect - previously stated - is managing people issues. If a manager cut an operation of the agenda, the employees feels dumped. Why it is important for the whole organisation to understand that, the overall system gets stronger when some components destroyed or replaced by others Nassim Nicholas Taleb. Here, managers should strive for social coherence and acceptance throughout the entire organisation, to ensure that all parts of the organisation is as ready as possible for the change ahead. Further investigation on the change process will not be conducted in this article. Relevant literature for managing change are presented here;
2010, The Theory and Practice of Change Management, John Hayes. - 2011, Facilitation Change, Lauge Baungaard Rasmussen. - 1996, Leading Change, John P. Kotter.
When talking about selection of operations and change initiative. A change manager will benefit from evaluating the effect, risk, the amount of resources and a general overview of the different change initiatives ahead. All these aspects can be drawn towards Program Management, which will be explained in the next section.
Program Management
Programs provide benefits
- Definition of projects to generate deliverables that together will provide the desired benefit - Active coordination of project execution - Effecient execution (common governance and processes)
