Project and change activities are often delivered by two different parties and using different methods.

Tangible change is created by experts, often formed into project teams, who include IT developers, software engineers, HR experts in organisation re-design, business analysts who assess the effectiveness of processes and other professionals, depending on the type of change we are trying to achieve. Whatever their role, their objective is to create the deliverables according to technical quality standards. They are often incentivized and/or performance managed on their ability to deliver on time and on budget with the minimum number of errors.

Behavioural change can only be achieved by individuals deciding that they will start doing things differently. This means those responsible for behavioural change are those required to work in a new way and incorporate the tangible changes into their ways of working. It is a conscious decision to ‘forget’ old habits and to start practising new ways of working.

Behavioural change is much harder to predict than the creation of tangible change because it is a psychological and emotional process that doesn’t follow a linear path. Everyone sees change differently, some greeting it with enthusiasm, full of opportunities and advantages, and some seeing it as a threat to their current ability and status.

This means that achieving change involves a broad range of roles, so working in change means you are at the centre of your organisation, which is one of the reasons why this job is so much fun. Every day you get to work with someone different.

There are two essential qualities that will enable you to excel as a Change Manager:

• Is personally committed to ensuring the change is a success.
• Has strong relationships and a high level of credibility with all those impacted by the change.

A recent survey from the Change Capability Community found that 37% of respondents believed their biggest challenge came from the overwhelming volume of change taking place in their organisation. The 2024 global Change Capability Survey found that only 20% of change professionals believed their organisation has enough resources to manage the volume of change that is taking place.

Example one

8.00: Answered emails
9.00: Attended project team stand-up meeting to hear the progress and issues associated with the system development, heard how the team need validation of some of the data they are inputting to the system
9.30: Spent an hour at my desk creating the agenda and activities for a process design workshop, and emailed agenda to all the attendees
10.30: Meet with team leaders whose teams are impacted by the new system - gave them an update on the system issues, shared the request for data validation, asked for volunteers to help the project team
11.00: Had a meeting with the Sponsor, agreed that the Sponsor would attend first 10 minutes of the workshop to champion the importance of creating new streamlined workflows and to get the most out of the system
11.30: Typed up the results of flipcharts from previous workshop, created visuals to capture their ideas and added notes to ensure all steps of the process are clear
13.30: Lunch and informal catch up with colleagues
14.30: Emails
15.30: Spent an hour at my desk sending emails to thank people for attending previous workshop and providing link to the materials for them to review and validate
16.30: More emails and planning for next day.

Example two

8.30: General admin, email and teams message responses
9.30: Informal catch up with team
10.00: Worked on some stakeholder communications
10.30: Attended Project Manager catch up meeting on IT projects
11.00: Focused work on strategy
12.30: Walk and lunch
1.00: Internal social media post on Change training
1.30: Preparation and technical check for Change and Engagement network meeting
2.00: Facilitation of one hour network meeting
3.00: Wrap up and followed up on issues and questions from meeting
3.30: Reviewed the work plan for the end of the quarter to ensure all things promised were delivered, or explanatory notes were made.

Change managers are essential for ensuring that the expected benefits from any change are realised. This is a good starting point, but our contribution is much greater than this.

Benefits of becoming accredited

1. Increased Employability: Gaining a qualification demonstrates competence and boosts your confidence during challenging times.
2. Confidence in Role: You have a better understanding of the context for your work, which means you are confident about what you have to achieve and the value you are creating.
3. Improved Job Performance: Better communication, increased influence, and credibility lead to more successful changes, which means you deliver on your job description and gain the respect of your colleagues.
4. Impactful Work Contribution: Being part of meaningful changes and leaving a legacy of successful projects enhances your professional profile.
5. Enhanced Leadership: Improved knowledge and experience make you more persuasive and credible, enabling better guidance for others.
6. Achievement of Personal Goals: Attending training and achieving internationally recognised accreditations helps you in reaching your personal career goals, upskilling you for future opportunities.
7. Personal Development: As an accredited change professional, you increase your credibility with those impacted by change, and you have the enjoyment of stretching yourself to learn more and do more, acquiring valuable experience that increases your employability.

8. Empathy and Understanding: Greater empathy for others' perspectives increases your ability to build trusting relationships and reduces resistance to change. This reduces the stress and friction of adopting new ways of working.
9. Future-Readiness: Developing relevant skills and knowledge prepares you for future challenges and opportunities. This is especially important as work keeps changing, and the new roles that are coming on stream as a result of the adoption of AI and increased digitisation.
10. Adaptability: Your ability to understand change and how to achieve it means you are best placed to respond quickly and effectively to the transformation taking place in your organisation.

Change Managers have to lead by example. Change means learning new ways of working, so there is a close alignment between our work and learning and development. We need to build training programmes to help those affected by change learn new procedures, systems and techniques. To be an authentic leader, we need to demonstrate that we are also willing to learn new things, so this recent survey from the Change Capability Community showing how recently Change Managers in this community updated their qualifications is not a surprise:

• 59% in the last year
• 12% in the last 2 years
• 10% in the last 3 years
• 19% more than 3 years ago.