Why Project Managers should care about Change Management and Change Leadership?

• Businesses must change to survive
• Change is Hard! Only 30% of projects involving IT and Organisational Change will be successful
• Leaders cannot dictate the Change only guide it and create the best conditions for success

A project manager must understand Change Management, their own role and how they need to guide the team and the project sponsor. For example, they should be building all of the Change Management actions into their Gantt charts, the same as any other project tasks.

Key things a project manager should expect from the project’s sponsor: leaders MUST mobilise the organisation to want to change, define a clear and inspirational vision for the future. Then they must lead their people to the new reality – they must clearly and visibly sponsor the change.

It is also critical that the team empower the people impacted and ensure they feel involved in the process and decision making, otherwise resistance will be far greater. Lastly, it is important to anchor the change into the organisation, for example by removing old ways of doing things, changing policies, bonus structures etc.

Lastly, the presentation provides a set of useful hints and tips for success with IT Change Management.