How to Prepare a Change Management Plan

The first step in every company's successful project is a change management plan. Take care of your teams so you can mobilize them and help them adapt.

You can't turn innovation into success if you don't take into account the project's impact on each stakeholder's workload. Right from the start, creating a change management plan that includes all your teams is important. This will allow you to:

• achieve the expected benefits faster;
• minimize both risk and reduced productivity during the change process;
• mobilize all the teams involved and encourage their participation;
• determine the approach required to achieve business objectives which includes the change process.

To achieve optimal results, adopt this approach from the outset of your project. If your project is already ongoing and human resources are proving challenging, take a step back and build your change management plan. This should turn things around.

How to prepare a change management plan

Below are the steps you should take on your path to transformation. Recent studies show that the success rate of change initiatives built around effective change management practices is twice as high as those without effective practices and, according to a study conducted by Prosci, these initiatives are twice as likely to meet the fixed costs.

1- Break down the project components

First, you must outline all the elements of the desired change process:

• conducting an analysis;
• developing the change management strategy;
• defining the core elements of the process and mobilizing key players to achieve your objectives.

2- Organize the workload

Once your project and its impacts have been determined, you can begin organizing the workload:

• structuring the stakeholders;
• minimizing risk;
• explaining and ensuring that all parties understand the objectives.

3- Deployment

Are you ready? Now you must ensure that you:

• follow up on meetings;
• supervise the various stakeholders;
• move forward with the actions and communications required to ensure the project's success.

4- Monitoring

During each stage of the project, you must monitor progress and assess whether you're achieving the desired results.

5- Recognition

During the final stage, you must be ready to celebrate the project completion and its success.

This way of integrating support into the change management process was developed by our team and is known as "PODER" (which means power in Spanish). This approach is inspired by DO-IT* certification.

Ten change management accelerators

Several factors must be assessed and considered during the various stages of your action plan. Based on the complexity of the proposed project, and taking into account the context and business culture, your organization may need to address several or all of these elements. An external mediator can help you determine which elements are necessary and a priority for you.

Governance

Have you designated all the necessary committees, including a strategic committee? For example, have you identified the points of contact who have enough influence to take action within the teams and move forward with the various components?

These people will act as facilitators. They will know how to engage the required resources, make the necessary decisions and resolve any issues.

Capacity

Are there issues regarding resource availability and the capacity to implement change while maintaining productivity?

For example, if half the team is focused on a new change, you will certainly need to add resources for day-to-day operations.

Training

Naturally, the people affected by this change may require training to update their skills or learn how to use new software, for example.

If training is required, it must be included in your change management plan from the outset along with the deadlines and necessary resources.

Work organization

• Which action plan should be implemented to achieve change?
• Has each resource been assigned a specific role, milestones and deadlines?
• Will the roles change? If so, this must be taken into account.

Communication

Draw up a communication plan to inform all stakeholders of the progress on the various stages of your project in a timely manner.

Alignment

• Are all stakeholders aligned with regard to the message and objectives?
• Do they fully understand the reason behind the change and the resulting benefits?

Mentoring

We must start out by providing support for first-level managers, who will then be able to contribute to supporting their teams.

Coaching

Managers and senior managers will then be able to oversee all the teams and act as the points of contact during the transition period.

Involvement

• Ask your teams for feedback;
• Ensure that everyone is on board with the change and understands the objective;
• If certain employees appear resistant to the ongoing change, find out what's holding them back so you can identify a solution as quickly as possible.

Awareness

How does this change impact each person's work? From the outset, ensure that all stakeholders are aware of the needs and consequences of the change process within other teams so that everyone understands the tangible objectives and benefits of the project and transformation.

A successful change process requires anticipating every element and supporting the teams that are the key to your success. Don't hesitate to call on a skilled external consultant to support you during this process.