Benefits realisation - is organisational change management the key?

What is Change Management?

The use of the term “change management” can be very confusing because it is often used to describe different activities, depending on the context.

For example, within projects, the process of change requests and control is sometimes referred to as change management, and to make matters more confusing, in large construction projects the term change management is sometimes used interchangeably with “stakeholder engagement”.

This article refers to organisational change management (OCM) which is defined as the application of a structured process and set of tools for leading the people side of change to achieve a desired outcome.

The history of Change Management

Decades ago, when organisations were relatively smaller and less complex in nature, when changes were made, middle management within the organisation both championed and communicated the changes to their teams. The value of this was that middle management have both a strong relationship with those in their teams, but also have the technical knowledge to understand what the impacts of the change would mean.

Because of these 2 factors, they were trusted and respected when communicating the impacts of change, and they were also able to work with their teams to support implementation activities.

However, the modern organisation has become complex. Middle managers are often highly technical and time poor, lacking the deep relationships and communication skills of their predecessors.

As the amount of time middle management had to dedicate to help support change initiatives decreased, the concept of a “change manager” was introduced. The purpose of these change managers was to carve out the “people” aspect of the change, and to work with project managers and sponsors to communicate, train, mentor and coach staff to influence them to ultimately embrace and adopt the change(s).

How does TBH do OCM differently?

1) Our change managers have a background in a variety of project disciplines, which means they understand the technical aspect of the change and how these impact individuals and teams. This ensures meaningful dialogue with clients which builds trust and removes change resistance.

2) We integrate the Prosci and ADKAR change methodology into our engagements, ensuring the project outputs are in step with change activities.

We have seen this approach deliver real and measurable success for our clients.

Melanie Becker, a Principal at TBH, has been working in the project and change areas for over 22 years and has seen several step change successes in her clients by adopting this approach.

Melanie comments, “one of our clients, a large government organisation with a 4-year, AUD$16.5bn portfolio of work, reported that they had tried (and failed) for over 10 years to develop and implement a consistent framework and approach to integrated project controls (IPC).

Our change team, together with our IPC team, were able to develop and implement the framework in less than 6 months across 500 staff in 7 locations.

Melanie adds, “The feedback has been phenomenal, some of the biggest blockers of change became change champions. I attribute this success to both our methodology as well as our exceptional change team”.

Bio info:

Melanie Becker is an experienced management consultant who specialises in the development and implementation of Project Management, Reporting and Governance frameworks for medium to large organisations.

She uses her change management and stakeholder engagement skills to work with senior leadership to educate and elevate best practice, helping to reduce conflict and ensure teams work optimally together so that project outcomes can be achieved, and benefits realised.

Get in touch:

Melanie Becker

[email protected]

Level 12, 15 Blue Street, North Sydney

+61 2 9922 2511

Projects we have worked on in the Middle East

Qiddiya

Download our Capability Statement.

“Congrats team, well done, this is awesome what you have produced in such a tight time frame. Look forward to the weeks / months ahead planning this out in detail with you.”

Greg Whiteside, Head of Development, Uptown District - Qiddiya

Dubai International Airport.

Download our Capability Statement.

“TBH was first engaged by ALEC on the Dubai International Airport in 2012, since then we've engaged them on numerous different projects. We engaged TBH to help us with coming up with the overall strategy and initial baseline for the project.”

Sean McQue, Director of Construction - ALEC

TBH prepared, presented and obtained

consent from Dubai Airports Engineering Projects for the Main Contractor’s Baseline Program, including design, fabrication, deliveries, installation, commissioning, construction works, operational readiness and integration with existing works and operations.