Enterprise Change Management and why it's a NO BRAINER!

Change Management professionals have been saying for a few years now that change is no longer an unplanned event which organisations organically deal with. Change is not going away, and in fact, the pace of change will only continue to increase. The only way for organisations to thrive during these times of constant change is to build enterprise-wide change capability. Allegra Consulting has increasingly been asked to help organisations develop organisational change capability and individual competency. For organisations to remain competitive in the continually changing landscape, it is imperative to build enterprise change management capability.

 What is Enterprise Change Management (ECM)?

Enterprise change management means providing direction and oversight to planned change. It develops organisational capability and individual competency through standards, tools and processes. ECM is effectively managing the people side of change and embedding capability, so it becomes a core competency and a standard business practice. It means that organisations who act now and develop the capability embed it as a cultural value. In doing so, they put themselves in a position of competitive differentiation and ahead of the game. To ensure this competitive advantage, ECM must be structured and strategically planned across and throughout all of an organisation.

Many organisations find implementing change, whether large scale or project-based, challenging. As change is more and more a ‘business as usual’ activity, ECM, offers a solution. Twenty years of Prosci and in the field research demonstrates a correlation between project success and change management effectiveness. Projects with excellent change management are said by many to be six times more likely to meet or exceed project objectives than those with poor change management.

So, is there a choice here, and why would you not implement change management initiatives if it will significantly improve your chances of success? Surely it is a no brainer! This is why Enterprise Change Management is so important.

Why invest in an Enterprise Change Management?

Investment in ECM in the workplace is rewarded in several ways and will prevent the pain organisations could potentially experience down the track. Here are some of the compelling reasons to invest in building ECM:

• Many Change Management organisations say that Projects are much more likely to succeed at the organisational level and drive a much more significant benefits realisation and higher achievement of success; the faster speed of adoption, a higher ultimate utilisation rate, and a greater level of proficiency resulting in a higher Return on Investment (ROI).
• Building organisational capability in today's business climate creates an environment and culture that is more efficient and effective at implementing the frequent, large and more imperative changes which inevitably occur. An organisations enterprise change management approach creates a straightforward solution which builds capacity for constant change, ensuring you never fall behind.
• Organisations face inevitable change saturation, meaning there are so many changes going on that organisations find it challenging to adapt and evolve as necessary. By adopting Enterprise Change Management, you can implement a process and an enterprise view to effectively manage each of the efforts across the change portfolio, rather than focusing on each change initiative individually.
• If an ECM effort is adopted across the whole business, change is managed more effectively and efficiently. Advantages include common language; common tools; consistent application; ability to draw on shared resources; shorter learning curves; and the ability to monitor, tools and continuous improvement and best practice. Change management is arguably more efficient when organisations have governance and an organisational standard in place.
• If ECM is practiced well organisational culture and engagement organically improve. Many organisations will start their ECM journey based solely on a single project that went exceptionally well with a good application of change management activities.

 As a result of the implementation of strong ECM, you can identify the need to apply change management and be much more confident about the outcome of the initiative. In other words, you will want to apply ECM because it achieves impressive project results and you will realise the benefits across the enterprise and the organisation, not just across single projects.

Becoming a leading organisation at managing Change does not ever happen by chance. It takes an organised intentional, and concerted effort to build change management capability throughout your organisation treating the effort to adopt and institutionalise change management like an initiative and project increases the likelihood that you will be successful and adds credibility to the work you are doing.

Allegra Consulting has the expertise and capability as leaders of best practice Change Management to help your organisation get started on this change maturity journey. You can't afford NOT to get on the move, it really is a NO BRAINER!