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Part One is creating the conditions for change; Part Two is making the change. We are now ready to enter the final phase of the journey, the toughest part: making change stick.\u00a0 If the change agent team has made it this far, some amount of time has elapsed.\u00a0 The project office has no doubt changed many times, perhaps moving from a project control office, then to a project management center of excellence, and perhaps onto a strategic project office.<\/p>\n
The organization itself has probably also changed many times, perhaps becoming more centralized, and moving to decentralized, then maybe back to centralized again.\u00a0 A chief project officer may have been appointed with power equal to the chief operating officer, thereby defining a matrix diamond form of organization structure.\u00a0 The CEO may have changed, perhaps several times.\u00a0 Several management fads have come and gone as people have moved from zero based budgeting, been through neutron jack downsizing, tried re-engineering and maybe even a balanced approach.<\/p>\n
If the project office team has existed through all that change and has implemented the structures and processes suggested so far, they may begin to feel that these changes have become permanent, that they have made a lasting change in the organization.\u00a0 Would be that that were true.<\/p>\n
Experience indicates a far different scenario.\u00a0 Think of the organization as being like a large rubber band.\u00a0 Adopting all the project management changes has caused people in the organization to twist, turn and stretch.\u00a0 As long as the tension is maintained, the organization remains in the stretched position.\u00a0 The moment the tension is released, the organization snaps back into its original position.<\/p>\n
Most large organizational change processes become identified with one person or one group of people.\u00a0 As long as those people remain in power in the organization, massive efforts are expended to help power the change.\u00a0 Meetings are held, conferences are attended, committees are formed, announcements are made in the annual report, all done as organizational members strive to show that they support the change.\u00a0 However, on the day that the lead person leaves the organization, or perhaps the change agent team falls from power, everything stops.\u00a0 Meetings on the change process are no longer held.\u00a0 The committees are disbanded as everyone suddenly has higher priorities.\u00a0 The announcement in the annual report is forgotten.\u00a0 The visitor coming to the organization the day after the lead person has left would have difficulty finding any trace of activity indicating that the change had ever been considered.\u00a0 The organization snaps back that fast.<\/p>\n
The problem of maintaining the change after the change initiators leave means looking forward to a changed state so you start building the framework to achieve it.\u00a0 Apply leadership, learning, means, and motivation: not two or three of the factors but all four: to the components identified about creating an environment for successful projects<\/a>.\u00a0 Reach the tipping point<\/a> where key people, processes, and the environment align to support the changed state. The key to success is to maintain the pressure for so long that there is no one left in the organization who remembers doing things any other way.\u00a0 When that is the case, there is no former situation for the organization to snap back into, and so the new processes become organizational reality.\u00a0 Good luck.<\/p>\n Adapted from Creating the Project Office:\u00a0 a Manager’s Guide to Leading Organizational Change<\/a><\/em> <\/strong>by Englund, Graham, and Dinsmore. Part One is creating the conditions for change; Part Two is making the change. We are now ready to enter […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":37,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[51,17,38,89],"class_list":["post-207","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-leadership","tag-change-management","tag-lessons-learned","tag-project-management","tag-project-office"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/37"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=207"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13667,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/207\/revisions\/13667"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=207"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=207"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/svapm.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=207"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– Randy Englund, www.englundpmc.com
\n<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"