Change Management Case Studies
Case Study_Building Change Management Office
December 20, 2023
Talal I. El-Assaad: Specialized Change Management Expertise
December 20, 2023
Time to Read: 11 Min
Building Change Management Office: An Extensive Study
To support their organizational agility and boost overall project success rates, leading organizations are putting effort into developing enterprise Change Management capabilities.
The establishment of an organizational structure to support Change Management—typically in the form of a Change Management Office (CMO), a Centre of Excellence (CoE), a Community of Practice (CoP), or other Change Management-specific entity—was one of the stages taken to develop this competence.
The size, location, makeup, and role of an "organizational footprint" for Change Management might vary from one organization to another. On the enterprise path to increase Change Management Maturity, facts and experience, indicated that a functional group focused on Change Management offers value.
Operationally, the group fostered commonality and established a single point of contact, enhancing the efficacy and efficiency of Change Management. By showcasing the dedication top leaders have shown in developing this center, the group also added value and established credibility for the Change Management Capabilities journey. We examined three critical questions using the most recent benchmarking data for practitioners and leaders trying to create and motivate a Change Management Framework within their firm.
The Frequency of CMOs
A CMO/functional group was more likely to be present in larger businesses. Health Care, State Government, Other Government, Food and Beverage, and Education Services were the top five industries that reported having a CMO or functional group. As anticipated, CMO/functional groups were more prevalent in organizations with higher levels of Change Management Maturity than in those with lower levels.
Amount of CMOs
The majority of CMOs or functional groups for Change Management were not very large. The majority of research participants—nearly half—reported CMOs and functional groups with two to five employees. Functional groups with more than ten personnel were indicated by just under one-fifth of respondents. Instead of a complete bench, CMOs often consist of a small group of subject-matter experts who support Change Management.
CMOs' names
The names of their CMO or functional group were also given by study participants, including the following names that are frequently used.
A title that contains the phrase " Change Management," such as:
Management of Organizational Change
Excellence in Change Management Center
Enterprise Change Administration
Strategic Change Management by the Change Management Team
Change Management Professionals
Management of People
Change Management
Change Management Division
Change Management Network
Organization Change Management
A title that contains the word "change," such as:
Change Facilitation
Change and Culture Team
Strategic Change Unit
Change Specialists Group
Change Integration
Change Hub
Other titles contained one of the phrases transition, improvement, strategy, transformation, execution, or excellence, all of which are related to change.
Creating a CMO or a Specialized Functional Group for Change Management
Numerous creative clients were helped by ProClipse to develop their Organizational Change Management skills. While bringing a comprehensive viewpoint with a range of levers is the aim, creating a structural Change Management group is a frequent practice. To create the ideal CMO, we inquired and responded to three questions rather than offering a uniform fix:
What ought it to do?
How ought it to appear?
Where ought it to reside?
Let us understand these in detail:
What ought it to do?
What are the CMO's actual duties and responsibilities? What is within the group's purview and what is not? All too frequently, these queries go unanswered. Everyone starts moving forward with the false assumption that they are all on the same page when, in fact, they are not.
There was no one correct response regarding a CMO's or functional group's functions and responsibilities. It made it reasonable that any CMO or functional group will be unique in the contribution it offers to the organization given that each industry, organization, functional group, and collection of practitioners is distinct. Making sure that the roles and responsibilities were clearly stated was crucial.
How should it to appear / look like?
The debate was on whether or not to centralize. The functional group's structure matters. CMOs and functional groups can range from being fully decentralized to being very centralized, and anything in between.
There was no one appropriate response, just like with jobs and responsibilities. The organizational culture, geographic spread, a requirement for standardization/flexibility, and present degree of maturity variance all influenced whether you should centralize or decentralize.
The location of the organization's sponsorship and Change Management application resources, or people, also influenced the decision. Given a particular business and the path taken to build Change Management capabilities, there were better and worse options for CMO designs.
Where ought it to reside?
Where the CMO or functional group should be located within the organization is one of the most often asked questions. This topic is addressed last because the answers to the first two—about duties and responsibilities and centralized versus decentralized structures—should ultimately guide your choice of where to locate the CMO.
The Project Management Office (PMO) and Human Resources were the two departments where the CMO was most frequently found. The PMO, Strategy, Transformation, and Planning were the areas that research participants recommended as being the most helpful.
Once more, there was no one correct solution about the position of the CMO. It had both been a huge success and a total failure in a PMO. It had been both a huge success and a total failure in HR. There were better or worse options depending on the company, even though there was no single "optimal" location.
The Establishment of Your Own Change Management Office
A centralized Change Management Office (CMO) setup might be a very difficult task. When there are already certain teams or individuals involved in Change Management, this can be much more difficult. When laying the groundwork for this type of centralized capability, strong leadership and an understanding of the necessity for a Change Management Office (CMO) for the accomplishment of an organization's strategic objectives are crucial building stones. Standing up a Change Management Office can be done using a variety of strategies and step-based methods.
We have a four-phase strategy recommendation for that.
Phase 1: Preliminary Execution phase
Analyze the environment as it is now
A CMO acts as a centralized department where an organization could go for help and support with change management. Various organizations had different project/change volume, kind, and complexity needs. The geographical locations of an organization, the total number of employees, and the available budget was all taken into account. In order to determine the strategy, scope, and structure of the CMO in support of the larger organizational strategic goals and objectives, a complete assessment of the organization and environment was carried out. This eventually added an extra layer of complexity, the assessment also included a detailed analysis of any existing Change Management Capabilities inside the organization.
Make a business case.
A convincing business case for the creation of a CMO was developed once a thorough analysis of the environment was completed. The expectation was that the following objectives for the business case should be met:
Explain the organization's future goals and how a centralized Change Management capability will help to achieve them.
Explain the necessity and advantages of creating a CMO.
Make a case for why not establishing the CMO could have risks, consequences, and expenses (both financial and reputational).
Show the ROI used in one or two earlier projects and how successful the adoption and usage of these project outcomes were.
Later on, when engaging business stakeholders progress to achieve commitment and buy-in to the development of the CMO, the business case becomes a useful tool.
Make sure the structure supports and facilitates strategy.
The proposed new structure must therefore be in line with the overall organizational strategy, as outlined in the business case. Where the CMO will be positioned should be taken into consideration depending on the organizational structure (centralized, decentralized, or matrix) to guarantee optimal delivery. Would it make sense for the CMO to integrate with, report into, or align with the strategy execution or Project Management offices if they exist?
Recruit leadership to win sponsorship and backing
The new CMO was positioned in relation to the organizational leadership structures in order to gain support for its creation as a business and strategic enablement function. The business case would aid in positioning the anticipated value and advantages of the CMO. These engagement sessions needed to include raising awareness of the role of Change Management in environments with low levels of change maturity. Case studies from related industries were also utilized to demonstrate the value of an organization having both a CMO and a well-respected, mature change capacity. Lastly, since the organization's executive and leadership teams will eventually play a vital role in driving the change process, it is important to talk about the value of leadership in facilitating successful transformation.
Phase 2: Carry out
Determine and pick one or more change methodologies
After a CMO was established, a Change Management approach that is supported by tools and resources was developed. This made it possible for people to experience Change Management consistently and act as a manual for delivering Change Management effectively and efficiently.
Make templates and tools
When an organization decides to develop a new or hybrid methodology, the tools, and templates that may be sourced, purchased, or generated depend on the choice of Change Management Methodology or methodologies that are mentioned above. An efficient and effective Change Management experience was once again reinforced by encouraging the constant usage of these tools and templates.
Spread the word about the CMO
When done right, Change Management made a profoundly positive effect on employees because it focused on issues that were sometimes neglected during traditional project implementations, such as engagement, resistance management, communication, readiness, and support.
Phase 3: Experiment, observe, and record
On projects, provide change management
The capability was "tested" after the CMO had been constituted and given the appropriate resources. It is strongly discouraged to include the CMO in ongoing initiatives that may be critically ill or far down the delivery chain. In reality, testing the entire end-to-end capabilities, from project ideation through project close-out, is the main objective. Then, in order to enable ongoing progress, the approach, tools, procedures, and resources were evaluated.
Employ assessment to show the outcomes and successes of Change Management.
The utilization of statistics to demonstrate successful project results is a crucial component of change management. According to Prosci's results, there are three main ways to gauge how well Change Management is working overall. Which are:
Affected employee reactions (end-user adoption, uptake, use, and compliance metrics)
Project outcomes (meeting the project objectives benefits realization, performance against KPIs, ROI, revenue, cost, customer satisfaction, and, quality improvement)
Project completion (timely achievement of deliverables, amount of disruption, productivity impact, resistance measures)
Phase 4: Put improvements into practice to fill gaps and spur innovation
The implementation of improvements based on feedback and lessons learned throughout the course of the test project(s) should be the last stage in creating a CMO. The spirit of change was embodied by a mindset of continual improvement, which assisted in addressing gaps and inefficiencies. Lack of adaptability was typically a formula for extinction. Therefore, a CMO's capacity to evaluate and react to change appropriately is key to its relevance and sustainability.
In conclusion, standing a CMO involves thorough research, meticulous planning, persistence, and execution, with a strong Change Management focus all throughout. Additionally, it needed acceptance, knowledge, and backing from all organizational levels. However, there were numerous advantages to having a centralized Change Management Office that is well-established and mature.
ProClipse Consulting – Prosci’s Partners in the Middle East conducted the case study to simplify and put forward the pros and cons of building & Standing up a CMO.