Change management failures are project failures
A lack of understanding of what is required to successfully undertake change projects is leading to high project failure rates worldwide, according to Edward Kashmere PMP, a globally recognised Lean Six Sigma Master Black Belt consultant and senior project management professional.
“There is indeed a ‘fear’ of change in people and organisations. There is a lack of urgency to change. This slow pace of change significantly harms organisations in fast-moving markets,” he stated. “Many organisations and managers do not have any understanding or experience with effective change management methodologies, and are therefore ill-equipped to manage transformational change in their operations.”
Kashmere said Harvard University’s John Kotter, often regarded as the ‘father’ of change management, had it right when he denoted the difference between management and leadership, with leadership providing the success factor.
In Leading Change (Harvard Business Review Press, 2012), Kotter wrote: “Management makes a system work. It helps you do what you know how to do. Leadership builds systems or transforms old ones. It takes you into territory that is new and less well known, or even completely unknown to you. This point has huge implications in an ever-faster-moving world.”
Kashmere said the key to successful projects for organisations today is therefore to build change management leaders and combine that with the ability to change quickly. He will assist organisations to achieve this in his forthcoming role as trainer at Executing Project and Operational Change, a program delivered by conference producer Marcus Evans in Sydney and Melbourne in July.
The program will cover ‘best of breed’ practices in transformational change management as well as the step-by-step process, with templates, “to actually implement and sustain performance improvements and technical innovations”. By the end of the course, delegates will have a framework, tools and a recipe for achieving successful change.
“Few people are really proficient at transformational change management, but most business people will admit that they do understand that it is valuable to know and utilise,” said Kashmere.
Executing Project and Operational Change
ProjectManager.com.au readers receive a 10% discount. Email Stefanie Gee for details or quote EPOCSM2 upon registration.
