- November 20, 2013
- Posted by: Curve Group
- Category: Case Studies
Recognising that ‘change is here to stay’, the challenge for this national health services provider was to build and embed a discipline to manage organisational change that was more than just a ‘process’.
Challenge
After developing a ‘fit for purpose’ change management model, methodology and supporting tools, this national health organisation sought a strategic partner to develop and deliver a capability program for project managers of large-scale, national business projects.
With the tools and processes already taken care of, the focus of the capability program was to build understanding of change and the impact it has on people and performance. The importance of planning, managing, and embedding change throughout the project lifecycle was recognized as integral to the success of the strategic initiatives these project managers were overseeing.
Approach
Curve Group partnered with the Organisational Development team to design and facilitate a Change Management Capability Program that was:
- Capability focused – the change capabilities relevant to project managers in this business were identified up front and used to guide the program design and content. These included capabilities such as ‘Stakeholder Management’, ‘Understanding Impact and Influences of Change’ and ‘Problem Solving & Issue Resolution’.
- Blended learning orientation – the program combined a number of learning modes including self-paced pre-work, a briefing webinar to prepare participants for learning, a one day face-to-face workshop, project application activities to put the change management tools in to practice and a reconnect session to share project learnings and refocus participant for ongoing development.
- Highly practical – real project case studies were used throughout the face-to-face workshop to provide a relevant context to practice change management planning. Groups applied specific change tools such as a ‘high level business impact assessment’ in the workshop, with coaching support from the facilitators.
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Suited different levels of change/project experience – the activities were designed to allow for peer sharing of ‘war stories’, change challenges and advice to ensure the wealth of experience in the room was capitalised. Group work and ‘buddying’ enabled participants to work with other project managers to maximize learning and foster peer networking.
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Grounded by the existing tools and process – whilst the program was focused on building capability to manage all types of organisational change, it was geared around the processes and methodologies that already existed (rather than building / introducing new methodologies)
Outcome
The Change Management Capability Program was delivered to two cohorts of project managers, ensuring they had the understanding, skills and tools to apply change management processes effectively across the organisation – shortly before the use of the change methodology was mandated for all strategic projects.
The program helped to foster a peer network for these ‘change’ practitioners ‘ to share and support one another as they deal with the challenges of managing change, and take the change processes to the wider business. It also helped to uncover the alignment between change management and project management practices, prompting further opportunities to combine these two critical business processes.
The most recent development within this engagement was the subsequent design and delivery of a webinar for the cohorts. A 90 minute webinar provided a practical, low cost solution to enable further coaching, knowledge sharing and calibration of participant’s development.
The feedback received from the business and the participants has been extremely high, with all strategic projects now using the change management methodology.
Like to learn more about Curve Group’s offering in change management? We’d love to hear from you: contactus@www.curvegroup.com or visit www.curvegroup.com
