What is Change Management?

Folks offered their various perspectives:

Documentation — changing and updating documentation?
Need to establish goals?
Why, how, get buy in, help people get to a place with goals in mind?
Definitional vs specific context. Can't just "build it and they will come."

Technology projects are people organizing projects

The term "intrapreneur" was offered as a type of way to think about how one needs to act as an entrepreneur within an organization to champion and promote a project.

Speed and Trust

If too much happens too quickly people may be afraid -- we need to work to introduce change at a pace that people are comfortable with.
What is in the org's "change portfolio" -- is there too much change happening.
"Moving at the speed of trust" -- being "disruptive" doesn't always work/ have positive outcomes.
Sometimes introducing change reintroduces bad experiences from the past when similar attempts were made to introduce change. Need to build trust, encourage conversation, ask about past experiences that went well.
Change is emotional labor + labor
**Institutional memory** -- orgs typically have poor memory. Change management uncovers (in)tolerance for change in orgs.

Org politics -- Buy In

There's a political dimension to change. Change can disrupt existing power relationships in an organization.

Organizational capacity building and continuity is wrapped in change management

Need to get buy in from both those at the top and those at the bottom. Need to connect project to goals, mission and values of org.

How do you get buy in?
- **Discovery process** is critical -- like a first date. Opportunity for both you and client get a sense of each other and whether you are compatible.
- By making client also do some work, you get to know how your relationship will work out. You're as much as a stakeholder as other people.
- Love is blind... Marriage (and working with a new client) is with eyes wide open.

Accounting for (and getting paid for) change management

How to scope projects, and include change management?
- How do you justify in taking so long?
- Power analysis -- looking at how relationships in the org actually work
- Padding estimates to account for horus spent on change analysis

Is change management a role or part of an existing role?
- Is this the realm of project or product manager?
- One can be a "change management consultant"

Resources and References

Prosci -- prosci.com more from for-profit business perspective, pioneer in research into change management.
- ADKAR: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement

Success spectrum Eugene Eric Kim-- fasterthan20.com
- Results, process, relationships. How do we define success? Need to pre-scope -- is it from the right perspectives, with goal in mind?

Switch -- How to change things when change is hard, Chip and Dan Heath

Asana Academy

Change management

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