Is it really worth investing in Change Management?

There is so much change and transformation at the moment (and like, pretty much always!) and it's super easy for projects and businesses to run out of cash. Especially if they're purchasing a whizz bang new system or digital platform because those technology vendors have some pretty savvy and snazzy sales teams who talk a big talk #shinyobjectsyndrome. Funding Change Management is often one of the last things to get added into a project budget and sometimes only because the change is derailed and struggling - Change is still seen as a nice-to-have and a cherry-on-the-top of the project delivery by a lot of Project Managers, Business Analysts and Business Leaders.

So is it really worth investing in Change Management?

Yes!

Here's just some of the stats as to why Change Management is worth factoring into your initiative or project budget.

They can be really useful for you to understand or if you need to influence a leader, a team, a company, an industry around the value of Change and what Change can do to help improve results.

With effective Change Management:

• 96% of people rated project objectives as met or exceeded vs 16% with “Poor” Change Management – Prosci 2016
• 160% increase in business benefits – IBM 2015
• 2x faster project completion and almost 2x under budget – IBM 2015
• 75% project success in top 20% organisations with excellent Change Management capabilities – IBM 2014
• 6x more likely to meet project objectives than those with poor Change Management – Prosci 2016

The one that I really love the most though, because I think it really helps to bring it in perspective, is this one from ChangeFirst:

• Calculated ROI on large projects = 650% vs investment in Change Management (ChangeFirst, 2010)

So what does this mean? It means if you were to spend $100,000 hiring a Change Manager to work on that change for 6 months, then the value that that Change Manager would bring to that project or that change would be $650,000. So you invest $100,000 and you get $650,000 worth of value.

How is this possible?

It’s because with Change Management often the change is designed more effectively, it’s delivered and rolled out more smoothly, people adopt the change better, there’s less change resistance or people putting up barriers or workarounds to the change, the change is sustained and embedded for longer into the future, you’re less likely to have to fix problems or to fix things down the track. Or in the very worst case scenario: having to do the change completely again from scratch!

And you might be thinking to yourself: “That’s not possible. You would never have to start a change again in the future!” But I've worked on changes that have been like that.

There was one organisation that I worked with and 2 years prior they had rolled out a technology and a system. And by the time I got there, only about 10% of the technology was still working, and the system got terrible feedback, it was not fit-for-purpose, people couldn’t use it in their day-to-day work, it didn’t even work half the time.

And so 2 years later they were having to buy all the technology hardware again brand new and also having to recreate a whole new system as well. Because the previous one didn’t work and didn’t last. So they were pretty much having to start from scratch.

But this time, I was there. And I was helping them with their Change Management. And they did things they’d never even experienced before, they got support they had never had before. And so 6 months later after launching that new technology and system, we had users/team members asking for more features in the system – they wanted to do more with it. Which really shows that they weren’t only just using it and able to use it, they were so happy with it they wanted it to do more for them because they wanted to keep using it in the future.

So you can really see how… yes obviously the system was better and the technology was better, but also the approach we took was better. We actually opened up the conversation so people could request those things. And we supported them so people actually jumped on board right from the outset. And that’s the power of Change Management.

If you need support with your transformation or change, get in touch with me about my Change services, workshops, and team capability programs.

And if you're a Changie (or want to be a Changie) and you want to build confidence to prove your worth and earn your seat at the table - come join Leading Successful Change. 

CLICK HERE to join my Leading Successful Change program

Lata xx