Creative team brainstorming with colorful sticky notes and charts on floor showing teamwork and project planning.

Change Management Strategy in Projects

By: Hajime Estanislao, PMP, CSM; Editor: Dr. Michael J. Shick, MSPM, PMP, CSM

Are you struggling to keep your projects on track amidst constant change? You’re not alone. Change is inevitable in businesses and organizations and requires a strategic approach.

Change management strategies in projects are now an expectation and a relevant skill for the project and non-project professionals alike. It’s the art of steering teams and organizations through new processes and systems. Without an effective approach, projects can quickly derail, budgets will overrun, or fail to meet their objectives.

Imagine a scenario where every change in your project aligns perfectly with your team’s capabilities and your organization’s goals. Where every transition is smooth, with key performance indicators relevant, and every stakeholder is prepared and proactive about the new directions. These scenarios are achievable through change management. It ensures the implementation of changes, enhancing overall project effectiveness.

Start transforming the way you manage projects by integrating change management skills into your project management toolkit. Dive deep into understanding how to prepare, support, and empower individuals through change. Make your next project your best by ensuring the integration of change management. 

Open notebook with drawings symbolizing change management concepts including light bulb and gears, creative brainstorming. Management?

Change management, particularly within projects, refers to the structured approach for transitioning individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. It is to effectively manage the people side of change to achieve a required business outcome. Effective change management involves preparing, supporting, and helping individuals to adopt change to drive significant organizational change success and outcomes. In project management, this means ensuring that any changes to the project scope, schedule, resources, or objectives contribute to less resistance and enhance the project’s overall success and adoption.

How Does Your Change Management Strategy Affect Projects?

Every project inherently involves change, whether introducing new healthcare systems, new software development practices or processes, or altering existing operational methods. Effective change management within projects ensures that these changes are smoothly implemented and well-received by all stakeholders. It focuses on preparing, equipping, and supporting individuals to successfully embrace and manage change, which is relevant for achieving project objectives and benefits.

Change management in projects involves meticulous planning, communication, and stakeholder engagement. Change managers work alongside project managers to assess the change impact, develop communication strategies, and provide training and support to those affected. This collaborative effort helps to align the project goals with individual transitions and organizational requirements, ensuring that changes are understood, accepted, and adopted. Such synergy between change and project management can significantly enhance the project’s efficiency and effectiveness.

Change management contributes to the sustainability of project benefits. By embedding new approaches into the organization’s culture, change management ensures that the benefits of a project continue beyond its formal closure. Reinforcement strategies like ongoing training and support, feedback mechanisms, and adapting organizational norms to implement desired skills are needed. 

African American woman leading a strategic business presentation with a team in a bright office setting.

Reasons You Need to Know Change Management

Change management is indispensable in project management as it bridges the gap between the operational, technical, and people aspects of projects and the affected people. The skill ensures that the transitions required by a project are implemented efficiently and embraced by the organization. This alignment is for achieving the outcomes of any project and for the overall success and competitive edge of the organization.

Here are specific reasons why change management is vital:

Enhances Adoption and Usage

Change management strategies ensure that all stakeholders understand, accept, and adopt the changes introduced, increasing the overall project effectiveness and successful implementation.

Minimizes Resistance

Effective change management anticipates and addresses employees’ resistance to smoothing the transition and continuity and gives the affected people a strategic vision of why change projects are performed within their working environments.

Red and natural wood game pieces on a tic-tac-toe board symbolizing strategic planning and decision making.

Aligns Organizational Change to Strategic Objectives

It ensures that the changes made through projects align with the organizational strategic goals, supporting long-term success.

Improves Risk Management

By predicting and mitigating the risks associated with the human side of project changes, change management increases the likelihood of project success.

Secures Investment in Change

Change management helps realize and sustain the benefits of a project, ensuring that the time, effort, and resources invested in the project deliver lasting value.

Corporate executives discussing in a dark-toned boardroom emphasizing serious business strategy and leadership.

The Change Control Board

The Change Control Board (CCB) is a project management component specifically designed to oversee and regulate changes to the project scope, ensuring that all modifications are transparent and efficient. This board consists of key project stakeholders, such as project managers, technical experts, business leaders, unit leaders, and sometimes customer representatives, depending on the nature and impact of the projects.

Functions of the Change Control Board:

Evaluation and Approval

Their primary responsibility is to evaluate all proposed changes to the project. This evaluation includes analyzing the impact of each change on the project budget, schedule, resources, and overall objectives. The board uses this information to approve, reject, or request modifications to the proposed changes, ensuring the implementation of beneficial modifications.

Governance and Oversight

By overseeing the change management process, the CCB helps maintain governance standards and ensures that the project adheres to its predefined objectives and company policies. This governance helps prevent scope creep, unauthorized changes, and other risks that could derail the project.

Diverse business team collaboratively working over a laptop discussing project strategies in a modern office.

Communication Coordination

The CCB facilitates communication among various project stakeholders regarding changes. This role is critical in ensuring parties are informed about proposed changes and their implications. Effective communication helps align the stakeholders’ expectations and promotes smoother implementation.

Impact of the Change Control Board on Project Management:

The presence of a CCB as a change management model helps streamline the whole change request management process by providing a structured approach to handling change requests. This structured approach ensures that changes are not made hastily or without proper consideration of their impacts. Here are a few ways in which the CCB positively impacts project management:

Maintains Project Alignment

The CCB ensures that any approved changes align with the goals and business objectives, which is essential for the project’s success.

Enhances Decision-Making

With expertise from various fields, the CCB can make well-informed decisions by considering multiple perspectives within the organization. This diverse input enhances the quality of decisions regarding changes.

Conceptual image of a hand preventing a row of wooden dominoes from falling, symbolizing risk management and intervention.

Risk Mitigation

The CCB helps mitigate risks associated with changes by rigorously evaluating their implications. This proactive approach to risk management maintains project stability and integrity.

Resource Allocation

The CCB plays a significant role in assessing the resource requirements of proposed changes and ensures the allocation of necessary resources without compromising the project’s other areas.

Team collaboratively solving puzzles over financial documents, symbolizing teamwork in business strategy planning.

The ADKAR Model for Project Managers

Managing project changes requires a structured and proactive approach to ensure smooth and beneficial transitions. ADKAR is an effective change management process that helps project teams navigate the complexities of adapting new processes, systems, or structures while ensuring stakeholder engagement and alignment with business goals. 

Below are the five steps that guide PMs in implementing change management:

Initiate Awareness

This first step involves identifying the need for change and clearly articulating why it is necessary. Communicate the reasons for the change to all stakeholders, highlighting the benefits of change and the potential consequences of not implementing it. This creates a shared understanding and sets the foundation for successful change management.

Develop Desire

Once we have established awareness, the next step is to foster a desire among stakeholders to participate in and support the change. It is achieved by engaging with stakeholders at all levels, addressing their concerns, and involving them in the change process. It’s crucial to highlight how the change aligns with their personal and professional goals.

Group of business professionals discussing data and graphs in a collaborative team meeting in a corporate environment.

Equip with Knowledge

Equip your team and stakeholders with the necessary knowledge and skills to implement the change. This includes providing training, resources, and continuous learning opportunities. Ensure that everyone understands their roles and responsibilities in implementing the new system or process and how to execute their tasks effectively.

Empower with Ability

Transitioning from knowledge to ability involves practical application. Support stakeholders as they begin to use the new business processes or systems. It might involve hands-on training, simulations, or a phased roll-out that allows individuals to gain confidence and proficiency. Monitor progress and provide additional support where needed.

Reinforce and Optimize

The final step focuses on reinforcing the change to ensure it sticks and optimizing processes based on feedback and outcomes. Implement feedback mechanisms to gather insights on how the change affects the organization. Recognize and reward compliance and improvements and ensure adjustments to address any issues or gaps.

Business team engaged in discussion while looking at a laptop in a casual office meeting room setting teamwork in action.

Key Considerations for Successfully Managing Change

In addition to the structured steps for managing change, several considerations can influence the success of change initiatives within projects. One aspect is maintaining continuous and open communication throughout the process. It involves initial announcements or training sessions and then the ongoing dialogue with key stakeholders to ensure they remain informed, engaged, and supported as the project progresses. Communication should be two-way, allowing team members and stakeholders to voice their concerns, provide feedback, and feel genuinely heard.

Another factor is the alignment of change with the organizational culture and values. Changes perceived as inconsistent with the organization’s core values or that disrupt the status quo or prevailing culture are more likely to encounter resistance. Project managers need to understand the cultural dynamics of their organization and strategize how to align the proposed changes with these elements or work to gradually shift cultural norms and values to support the new directions.

Flexibility in the change management approach is essential. No change process is entirely predictable, and unexpected challenges or opportunities will likely arise. Any project manager overseeing change must be prepared to adapt strategies and plans while still aiming for the desired outcome. This adaptability ensures that the whole project plan can respond to new information and changing conditions, thereby maintaining momentum and securing buy-in across all levels of the organization.

Strategic setup of chess pieces connected by lines to a central red pin, representing networked strategy and planning.

The Next Level: Integrating Change Management Skills as a Project Manager

Project managers looking to elevate their expertise beyond foundational practices and integration of advanced change management skills is becoming an expectation. To enhance these skills, project managers should focus on developing a deeper understanding of behavioral psychology and organizational dynamics. This knowledge can enable them to predict how changes affect different groups within the organization and to design tailored interventions addressing these impacts.

Advanced training in negotiation, persuasion, and emotional intelligence can also equip project managers to handle resistance more effectively and foster a more positive change environment.

Another way to enhance organizational change management capabilities is the adoption of technology and tools that facilitate change processes. Technologies such as project management software, a real-time communication platform, a digital adoption platform or collaboration canvases, and data analytics tools can provide project managers with deeper insights into the progress of change initiatives and more efficient ways to manage them. Leveraging these tools helps the collaboration of team members with the tracking of change effectiveness and making informed adjustments as needed.

As with any skill set, professional development and continuous learning are essential for project managers. Engaging with professional networks, attending seminars and workshops, and staying updated with the latest theories and methodologies in change management can provide fresh perspectives and innovative ideas.

Project managers should seek opportunities to put new skills into practice, perhaps by volunteering for complex projects or taking on roles that require significant change leadership.

This hands-on experience is invaluable in solidifying their capabilities and confidence in managing change effectively within any project context.

Professional working on a laptop with graphic interface of connected white rectangles representing digital workflow.

Alternatives Frameworks of the Change Management Process

One of the best alternative frameworks for change management is Kotter’s 8-Step Change Model, developed by Harvard Business School Professor Dr. John Kotter. This model provides a comprehensive approach to managing change with an emphasis on practicality and strategy. The steps begin with establishing a sense of urgency around the need for change, followed by forming a powerful coalition to guide the change initiative.

The process continues with creating a vision for change, communicating that vision, empowering broad-based action, generating short-term wins, consolidating gains, and anchoring new approaches in the culture. This sequential approach helps ensure that change is implemented sustainably within an organization.

Kotter’s model is particularly effective because it emphasizes the importance of leadership and vision at every step. It also focuses on maintaining momentum throughout the change process by celebrating short-term successes. These victories help to keep the team motivated and committed to the change effort, which is crucial for overcoming the fatigue that can set in during long-term change projects.

Another notable aspect of Kotter’s model is its final step of transformational change: anchoring new approaches in the organizational culture. It ensures that changes are integrated permanently into the operations and identity. This step ensures that improvements are maintained over time and that the change becomes part of the organizational structure, enhancing long-term success and adaptability.

Confident male business leader standing in front of seated colleagues in a modern office setting demonstrating leadership.

Final Thoughts and My Experience with Changes

Integrating change management within project management is essential for the success of any project that involves changes. Change management provides a structured framework for addressing the human aspects of change, ensuring that all stakeholders are engaged, prepared, and supportive of the initiative. Effective change management leads to smoother transitions, higher efficiency, and better adoption rates – critical for achieving the project goals and sustaining its benefits.

My experience with change management has reinforced the belief that proactive and strategic handling of change can enhance project outcomes. Processes like those described, like the formation of a Change Control Board or employing models like ADKAR or Kotter’s steps, create pathways through which change can be managed and monitored.

Every project manager should consider these strategies as essential tools in their toolkit to mitigate the risks associated with change and to harness the full potential of their projects, teams, and organization. By embracing change management, project managers ensure that their projects meet expectations, delivering value that persists long after the project completion.

References

Kotter, J. P. (1995, May). Leading change: Why transformation efforts fail. Harvard Business Review. Retrieved from https://hbr.org/1995/05/leading-change-why-transformation-efforts-fail-2

Tapi, C. (2024). The ADKAR model of change: The ultimate guide to leading organisational change. Human Capital Hub. Retrieved May 2024, from https://www.thehumancapitalhub.com/articles/The-Adkar-Model-Of-Change-The-Ultimate-Guide-To-Leading-Organisational-Change

Schwartz, B. (2022, June). Change Control Board: Roles, responsibilities & processes. ProjectManager.com. Retrieved May 2024, from https://www.projectmanager.com/blog/change-control-board-roles-responsibilities-processes#:~:text=A%20change%20control%20board%20is%20sometimes%20referred%20to,of%20the%20change%20request%20or%20makes%20recommendations%20accordingly.

Show Table of Contents

Get FREE, instant access to our PMP® Test Simulation – Hurry, offer ends soon!