How to build effective

change management
capabilities
A successful change management maturity model

www.changefirst.com
Making change your business
Boost project value by building your own organisation change capability

A typical organisation faces a significant challenge created The issue, then, is how you make change management
by the projects it runs, whether they are focused on cost happen in your organisation. Should you rely on external
reduction, process redesign, mergers, restructuring, or a consultants or interim managers? Or should you seek to
large IT implementation. It can be difficult to capture the build and embed change management as a core
value of all these activities simultaneously. organisational capability in your organisation?

However, the biggest difficulty is usually getting employees Changefirst believes that you derive the greatest benefit from
to embrace the change each project brings. This is the realm projects and programmes only if you develop your own
of change management – helping people adopt new change management capability. This paper explains why this
behaviours, accept and take ownership of change instead of is so; what stages a typical organisation must go through to
resisting it. The way you implement change is at least as assess and build its change capabilities; and how you can
important as the strategy or solution you’re trying to adapt to each stage in a way that matches what you need to
implement, if not more so. Successful project achieve.
implementations rarely come from purely technical project
plans that do not take into account the human dynamics
of change.

Changefirst helps public and private sector

organisations build effective change management
capabilities through specialist training, advice, and the
unique tools and techniques of its People-Centred
Implementation (PCI) methodology.

The PCI methodology is designed to identify and

address the implementation risks associated with
people change and their reactions to change. PCI
provides concepts, tools, planning templates and
tactics that enable people to manage six Critical
Success Factors for successful change.

PCI: Six critical success factors

1 Making change your business

The business case: why you need your
own change management capability
In a recent survey of over 50 organisations, Changefirst asked more than 2,000
change agents what they believed was the most effective way to help their
organisation implement change in the current environment. The vast majority -
86% - said that internal teams were the best way to implement change. Those
teams might be full-time or part-time, but the significant thing was that they were
part of the organisation, not external to it.
This supports the findings of numerous surveys and reports, In Changefirst’s experience this value can be broken down
including a 2002 McKinsey Quarterly article [Helping into four main categories. Together these form the business
employees embrace change, Jennifer A. LaClair and Ravi P. case for investing in building your own change management
Rao, Nov 2002] which demonstrated a direct linear capabilities:
relationship between an organisation’s change management
capabilities and the value it captures from projects. • It builds competitive advantage for your organisation.
An internal change management capability enables you to
McKinsey showed that even being effective at change on execute a greater number of changes more effectively.
one level - for example middle management – would create
significant benefits for an organisation. They found cases • It helps you implement a greater number of changes
where organisations with high change management successfully because it puts the execution of change
capabilities had collected, on average, 143% of the value management right where it should be – with sponsors and
they originally expected from their projects. change agents who work for the organisation. It is not
usually possible for external consultants or interim
managers to provide the necessary change leadership.
They tend to lack the organisational credibility to be
successful.

• It saves you money. Even fully loaded with training

costs, employment costs and so on, an organisation will
still save money by planning and executing change
themselves rather than using external consulting support.

• It gives you and your colleagues career-critical

skills. As change is the number one constant in most
organisations, these skills can be used in almost any
environment or situation, and not just on the current
project but for years to come.

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The four stages of assessing and
building change capabilities
Changefirst has developed a four stage process you can use to assess your
organisation’s change management maturity. It identifies the standards an
organisation must achieve to master each stage of maturity.
Change Management Maturity Model overview

Rudimentary Tactical Organisational Institutional

Project Change management Change management Executive sponsors

implementation is applied has been tailored to manage the overall
contains little change inconsistently across align to other change capacity of
management other projects. organisational the organisation.
than basic processes. It is
communications and applied consistently
training. on all major projects.

These stages are explained in more detail later in this paper.

3 Making change your business

Change management: from training
activity to business application
To build sustainable change capabilities into an organisation you need to do more
than simply train people. The key challenge is to move change management from
being training-led to being a consistently used business application. This does not
devalue training, which of course remains a crucial activity. It means training
becomes a key component of a change management implementation, rather than
the driver of it.

This shift from training to business application, is the major 4. Coach people who still need help to apply the skills
contributor in the move from Stage 2 Tactical to Stage 3 and processes they learn. The success of training
Organisational in the Change Management Maturity Model. improves with reinforcement and ongoing assistance.
It’s probably the most difficult shift to make, because at the You should also strive to motivate people who don’t have
tactical stage an organisation is still not committed to the the will to apply the learning. If your organisation
change management methodology. It may verbally support it designed its workshop to deal with tangible business
and be in the process of testing it, but full adoption is still issues – such as poor change management – then you
reversible. At the organisational stage, the organisation is far cannot allow people to default from application. Work
more committed to using the methodology. Commitment with them to understand the issues that are preventing
tends to be stronger and more sustainable. them using the material and help them apply the training.
Set clear goals for application.
Seven steps to help your organisation embrace
change management 5. Build change management methodology into other
processes such as project management and business
Given the significance of the third organisational stage, what reviews. Make it a part of every day work.
are the most important actions you can take to reach this
level of change management maturity? 6. Help communities of practice to form and flourish.
Part of any knowledge transfer process is people
1. Design training so that people work on real issues. beginning to take ownership of the methodology. They
If people apply what they learn to a specific project issue, need help to do this. Peer-to-peer communities can be
learning retention has been shown to increase from 25% very effective at sharing knowledge and best practice.
after 90 days to as much as 65%.
7. Train managers in change management. The
2. Only run workshops with people who have live practical application of change management needs to be
projects to work on – either projects already underway, part of every managers toolkit. In addition, every
or those starting in the next 30 days. This ‘just in time’ employee, regardless of level, needs to know how to help
approach drives commitment and real application from themselves and how to think with others in times of
employees. If you have a culture of people volunteering change.
for workshops, it’s important put a strong filter into place
to ensure that only people with current projects take part
in the workshop. Training with a sole focus on ‘tell and show’ is
notoriously ineffective in changing behaviour and
3. Build sponsorship for change management. Lack of achieving results.
sponsorship is the number one reason why
organisational capability building initiatives are not After 90 days people retain about 25% of what they
sustained. You will need strong executive sponsorship learn on an average training course, which means the
and direct management sponsorship. Direct managers most they will actually apply is a quarter of what they
should follow up on training and require change plans to were shown.
be submitted.

www.changefirst.com 4
Change Management Maturity Model
Stage 1: Rudimentary Stage 2: Tactical
Description Description
Project implementation contains little or no change Change management is applied inconsistently across
management other than basic communications and projects
training
Key characteristics
Key characteristics • Change management driven by a ‘coalition of the
• Projects have no standard change process willing’ – a small group of enthusiastic early adopters
• Strong focus on the technical aspects of projects working on projects
• Little time is spent planning and tracking • Change management usage is driven by problems in
implementation project delivery (for example, employee resistance)
• Resistance is the normal outcome and usually is seen rather than built into the original project plan
as ‘anti-organisation’ • Project personnel sign up for change management
• Employee engagement is seen as putting a rational programmes, but there is no ‘needs-based’ or ‘just-
case forward in-time’ approach
• Compliance is viewed as successful implementation • Senior sponsors are active in supporting change
of a change management as an idea - they are beginning to
• Workplace productivity drops more than it should understand the reasons for it and core concepts
during change • Senior sponsors tend to rely on external change
• The success of implementation is not reviewed and management consultants
lessons not learnt • Change management is mainly at the organisational
level with few attempts to localise change
Leadership attitudes
• Technical focus Leadership attitudes
• People are rational and ‘will do the right thing’ • Ideally people will become committed to the change,
• If they don’t, they have to comply but if not then we’ll move to compliance
• All this change stuff is ‘a bit soft’ and unnecessary • Change management is ‘good stuff’ but not as
important as the technical plan
Appropriateness to business situation • We’ll do change management if we have the time
This level of maturity only functions if change is slow and and money
incremental in scope
Appropriateness to business situation
Maturity Standards This level of maturity may be a strong fit if there are a
None number of significant change initiatives focused on
improving ways of operating. There will be notable
consequences if the business case is not achieved

Maturity Standards
• Standard change methodology has been agreed
• Executive support for the change methodology has
been agreed
• Change management education process has been
put in place
• Change management application on projects and
programmes is monitored
• Early use of change management is supported on a
few key projects

5 Making change your business

Change Management Maturity Model
Stage 3: Organisational Stage 4: Institutional
Description Description
Change management has been tailored to align to other Executive sponsors manage the overall change capacity
organisational processes. It is applied consistently on all of the organisation
major projects
Key characteristics
Key characteristics • Change management is adopted throughout the
• The organisation agrees on the need for a single organisation
change management methodology on major projects • Executives spend time assessing the demand for
• Project delivery communities such as IT, Six Sigma change as a whole and the level of capacity the
and HR feel a strong sense of ownership of the organisation possesses
change management methodology • Change agents build continuous improvements into
• Workshops are seen as a way to help people apply change management
change management • Case studies are produced to show the effectiveness
• The organisation focuses on value and outcomes of change management
rather than cost • Change management is built into the culture – it
• Case studies are written about early wins becomes ‘the way we do things around here’
• Sponsorship is much more visible on projects
• All project plans have a change management Leadership attitudes
component from kick-off • Managing change effectively is a core competency in
• There is an increase in the number of change this organisation
management roles and a core group of skilled change • Assessing people’s capacity and limits to changing
agents in place successfully is a core part of strategic decision-
• External consultants are no longer used for change making
management assignments
• Change agents actively integrate change Appropriateness to business situation
management into other processes This level of maturity is essential for organisations with a
• All managers and employees are trained in change transformational agenda. There are a large number of
management as appropriate changes and difficult prioritisation decisions may have to
be made
Leadership attitudes
• We will be successful if we have project plans with a Maturity Standards
strong change management component • Executives proactively manage the overall change
• Commitment and successful behaviour change are portfolio
essential for successful change • Change capacity is assessed before initiating projects
• Change management skills are seen as an integral
Appropriateness to business situation part of management development programmes
This level of maturity is essential for environments where • Change management is included in project and
there is a programme agenda with a strong vision, programme charter mandates
sufficient capacity and resources. The level of • A change management scorecard is established and
complexity is high but not unmanageable using project reviewed at all project review meetings
planning and change management methodologies

Maturity Standards
• Change management coaching and sponsor
education is underway
• Executive sponsorship and review processes are
established
• Change management checkpoints are measured in
the same way as other project checkpoints
• Change management is integrated into other
organisational processes and project methodologies
• A change management community of practice has
been established

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 Contact
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Tel: +44 (0)1444 450777

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Change and Project Management