09 Apr What is change management again?

What do we mean when we talk about Change Management?

I once heard an executive talking about change management. She remembered that “people said they want change management, so we set up communications and some training for them.”

What exactly is the scope of change management in your opinion? What do people in your organisation mean when they talk about change management?

For a simple example, some define change management as the people stuff, separating it from the technical stuff which is left to project managers, with the whole thing overseen by sponsors and leaders. 

Others define change management as “the full monty,” including everything required to get an organisation from one state to another – including project management for specific aspects of the overall change project. 

Both camps see the sponsor as pulling all of it together in some way, making the trade-offs and allocating resources, including air-cover. This sponsor role is significant – and I wonder what those “sponsors” see themselves doing? If not change management, what would it be? The sponsors are typically executives charged with getting something done. This could be implementing a new system or implementing a new process. They usually label it by what it is supposed to achieve. That approach would be useful for everyone in the process.

So – before we get into the work of change management, it is helpful to think about what exactly we mean by that, and (importantly), what is excluded from that definition but still needs to happen for anything to change.

What is your position? Does your organisation have a position on this? If you do – please let us know in the comments and register to join our April 2025 WorldsView Conversation Café – a free, online event for people who want to improve their organisations. 

Our April conversation is about internal change agents. Titled “Developing Change Capability,” the café asks, “What internal practitioners can and cannot do.” Change has become an industry, with global players, to whom large firms pay license fees for approaches to change management. If you can afford them, they are superb. If you cannot, what can you do? What are the kinds of things that managers anywhere, in any role, can do to lead or support change – such as the change that is needed to be a more effective organisation?

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