Why project and change management continue to fail

According to research, around 70% of change management programs tend to fail. Amongst the numerous reasons for failure, there is the lack of integration between project management and change management. Adopting an integrated approach will have a dramatic impact on quality, speed, effectiveness and sustainability of the overall change. We'll provide you with 5 simple rules that will dramatically reduce the risks and uncertainties of your transformation projects.

Recognise two disciplines, one objective

Project management and change management have the same objective: increase the probability that projects or initiatives deliver the intended results and outcomes. But their focus is different. Project management mostly focuses on the technical side to ensure that the solution will be developed, designed and delivered effectively. Change management focuses on the people side to ensure that the solution will be embraced, adopted and sustainably used by the co-workers who will have to work differently. It seems quite obvious that both should act in an integrated, coordinated way to produce the desired results. However, we to often see situations where change management is being seen as a sub track of the overall project management.

Don't mess it up with a shoehorn approach

Too often change management tracks are considered as simple sub tracks of the larger project plan, mostly situated in the lower half or near the end of the project plan. When the project or the solution is getting its final forms, change managers start to think about how they are going to sell it to the organisation. Change management programs are being put in place, but there is not much room for change left. The change program is already tied into the boundaries of all the irreversible decisions that have been taken since the early beginning of the project. So room for manoeuvres, for creating acceptance and adoption, is extremely limited. It’s called “change”, but in fact it’s not much more than a “take it or leave it” game. As a result, adaptation and sustainable change will often be extremely low. It's a bit like getting your feet into a too small pair of shoes. Even if you manage to get them in, you will probably not wear them very often.

Get the benefits of an integrated approach

In an integrated approach, the change management tracks are moved to the upper left corner of the project plan, and then deployed in an interwoven way with the project planning. In this approach, change management is being taken into account as from the first day of the project. Project management and change management will interact during the whole duration of the project as two equal forces aiming at the same objective. To achieve this stakeholders and impacted populations will be highly involved from the beginning of the project. Their role changes from "subject" to "participant", from "client / provider" to "co-creator". Considered either from the technical or from the people perspective, this integrated and participative approach will have dramatic benefits on the quality, speed, effectiveness and sustainability of your project.

Benefit #1: quality of deliverables

Classic, waterfall based project management approaches are based on the assumption that all previous steps are the golden standard for the next steps. After functional analysis (which is often a private party between business analysts and IT), end users don't hear about the project anymore until it goes into user acceptance. The reality is that, all along the development process, small distortions will have appeared. Altogether they will have created a huge gap between what the end user was looking for and what will finally have been developed. By integrating change management from the beginning of the project, you make sure that these small distortions are intercepted and corrected on time, thus leading to a higher quality of deliverables.

Benefit #2: speed

It might seem contradictory that you can gain speed by doubling the project management tracks with parallel change management tracks. However, the fact that change will have been integrated from the beginning saves a lot of time for change once the project is being delivered. You don't start from a "take it or leave it" situation, most of the change will already have been accomplished during the project development.

Benefit #3: effectiveness

As the project has not been developed "for", but "in strong collaboration with", stakeholders and impacted populations, the chances that the developed solution is the right answer to what the project was aiming at are much higher. The integrated approach increases your chances of being right from the first time.

Benefit #4: sustainability

Finally, because of the strong integration of project management and change management, the better quality and increased effectiveness, the change will be embraced and adopted in a much more sustainable way on the long term.

5 simple rules to get there

Rule #1: Organise your project and change management differently

As described above, make sure that your project management and change management are integrated in methods, tools and processes, both for progress steering and monitoring. If you are using a project management tool, make sure that both the project management and the change management tracks are integrated and shared in the same tool.

Rule #2: Create the right environment

Over the years most companies, because of the complexity of their processes, have built thick walls between their different departments. Sales, marketing, IT, operations, HR have been used to do things on their own, reducing dialogue with the other disciplines to a strict minimum, based on a kind of naïve belief that this would lead to better performance. But your business performance, the added value for clients and shareholders, is the result of the way these disciplines interact as a whole. The importance of these interdependencies even increases with the growing influence of digital evolution and of customer expectations on your business. So it is of utmost importance that people from different disciplines are in permanent dialogue with each other during the project, far beyond the sparse moments of dialogue that checkpoint meetings and other steering committees pretend to be. It is only in an environment where there is a permanent concern for the business as a whole (and not only for the own discipline) that project management and change management can naturally act together and achieve a common goal.

Rule #3: Recognise the importance of sustainable adoption

A technical development or a new process is never a solution on its own; it is only a part of it. Without sustainable adoption of the solution or process, the only place where you will see the impact of your project will be in the depreciation section of your balance sheet. You will never get an increase in effectiveness, speed, customer satisfaction or cost efficiency without sustainable adoption by the employees who will have to use the technical solution or follow the new process. One simple way to do this is to request that all project induction documents address the approach for sustainable adoption as from the very beginning.

Rule #4: Have a relevant and shared definition of results for accountability

It is common to define results and accountability in a very restrictive way. Project managers will often focus on deadlines, milestones, go-live dates. They are important, but they are not relevant as such for your business. The same goes for the indicators on which change managers will be accountable: is it really the number of communications they issued or the number of people that got training that will be relevant? Quality, effectiveness and sustainable integration of the solution are much more relevant to the organisation and should be the main indicators for which both project managers and change managers should be held accountable. For this rule as well, create à PID template which contains the right and relevant KPI's that will foster this shared accountability.

Rule #5: Hire the right profiles

Project managers tend to be selected on their certifications in a number of methodologies or on their knowledge of specific technical environments. Change managers are expected to be good at interviews and presentations, transforming the business reality into an appealing story. But as demonstrated above, there is a need for project managers and change managers willing to focus, not on a go-live date or on the number of training sessions, but on maximizing the chances that projects or initiatives will deliver the intended results and outcomes for the business as a whole.

Where will this get you?

Integrating change management into your project management from the early start will dramatically reduce the risks and uncertainties of your transformation projects. But you will have to create the right conditions for it to happen: ensure real dialogue between all the stakeholders, define relevant indicators for accountability and get the right profiles on board for both project and change management. If you pay enough attention to these critical success factors, you will maximize the chances that your transformation projects will lead to an effective change and to tangible and sustainable results for your organisation.

On what kind of diet is your organisation?

Consider the paradox. On one side there is this obsessive focus on efficiency and cost reduction. On the other side there is a growing awareness that many of these efficiency efforts are leading to unhealthy situations where co-workers are suffering from paralysing stress, burn outs, ... Well intentioned concepts like "lean management" are perceived as a must and as a threat at the same time, even though not always by the same people...

Couldn't you compare this with going on a diet?

You can rush into a crash diet at any time, some of you are probably considering this very seriously after the excesses of last weeks. In some cases you will really notice spectacular results, at least on one part of the scorecard. But what about your other KPIs? Are you still feeling physically well? How sustainable is your loss of weight? We all know that these crash diets don't work and even can be dangerous. We know that it is not about wildly cutting on food, but about adopting a healthier nutrition pattern and life style. It is the only way to sustainably lose weight, keep in shape and feel great.

Isn't it the same for our companies and organisations?

Aren't they rushing too often into crash diets? Finding themselves after a few months with a skinny but low performing organisation? Putting their human capital, their commercial attractiveness and their sustainability at stake? Instead of looking for healthy patterns of costs and benefits. Cutting on fats and sugars, but within the framework of a healthy organisation, powered by engaged employees, aiming for sustainable performance.

Aiming for sustainable effectiveness

Of course pressure on management is more compelling than ever. Managers' panic when receiving the e-mail with the latest monthly report is the same as the panic of naked men and women just before stepping on their bathroom scale. But it shouldn't keep them from looking at the scoreboard as a whole. Where striving for effectiveness is like striving for a healthy nutrition pattern. Where nourishing human capital and feeding the connections between employees are at the base of the performance pyramid.

How resilient is your team against sudden sick leaves?

Roles, responsibilities and processes are crucial for your effectiveness

They allow each team member to know where he fits into the organisation, where at the same time the team as a whole knows what they can expect from each individual team member. It's not about squeezing people into boxes, it's about having clear agreements on who does what. Processes are not mended as barriers. They are intended to give confidence to all people who are concerned by the process and to structure their communications.

How resilient is your team?

The only nice thing about flu epidemics is that they reveal how resilient your processes are regarding sudden sick leaves. What happens if one or more employees suddenly call in sick? To what extent does this affect your running operations?

Assess your resilience

Here are some simple things you would like to check with a quick assessment of your situation. Don't make it too complicated and focus on the most essential processes and roles.

Establish a matrix, with the main roles on one axis, the main steps of the critical process on the other axis. Now fill in the names of your team members on the grid. Keep it simple! Something like this.

Navigate through your grid and at each critical step, ask yourself:

• If this person falls out, is there someone else who can immediately take over (part of) his or here role?

• If this is not the case, how critical is this fall out for the process?

• How much time can we do without the role being fulfilled? After how many days does it starts to get critical?

Make an action plan

Having made this assessment, you will have a good overview of the hot spots you will have to tackle. Again, don't try to fix them all, but concentrate on those which are really critical. Identify the kind of measures you could take to fall back on for the most critical steps. Take timing into account and work with timeframes of one day, two days, one week, one month. Or use any other granularity of timeframe which would be relevant for your activity.

Participation and communication!

Having made this plan will not help you as such. Make sure that all your team members are aligned on the solutions you have developed. Share your draft with your team at the next team meeting, let them challenge it, take into account their input before finalising it. Make it available to all, easy to find and retrieve. Make sure you will reassess your plan on a regular basis.

One more thing...

Don't forget to include yourself as a team manager and as the person who has to ensure the smooth running of these processes. And if you do forget, don't get sick!

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