To plan change successfully you need to know where you are trying to get to (your ‘desired business outcomes’), where you are starting from (your current state) and what you don’t know that you need to know.

Then you can identify the change activities required to get from your current state to deliver (and sustain) your desired business outcomes. Simple really.

We make it simple by providing you with two simple organizing frameworks — the Change Planning Framework that makes organizing a change plan simple; and the 10-Streams of Change Model that ensures you think of all of the types of change your project is likely to involved.

The result is an easy to read and understand change plan, initially oriented around the project’s desired business outcomes and then progressively decomposed using the same planning approach into detailed change action plans. Your staff only have to learn one process, one way of planning.

They can apply this single, simple process to change activity planning, benefits delivery planning, risk management and issues management.

Forget the hype about ‘resistance to change’ and ‘change strategies’ and so on; you need to know what needs to change so you can plan its execution. I’ve seen a 36 page “Change strategy” that actually talk about what needed to change in one paragraph only! This is nonsense and a waste of time (but cost a lot of consulting fees).

Our simple Change Planning approach has been used successfully by many change teams who have never changed a light bulb before.

This “How to plan change guide” takes you through the change activities identification and structuring steps to create a change plan. Then it enables you assess the change plan’s complexity and change-capability implications so you know what level of change you are taking on and can assess if you can action it successfully.

It also takes you through the process of reconciling your change plan with other change plans so that you don’t cause chaos in the business.

Importantly, our Value Delivery Management approach to change allows you to use this Change Planning approach to structure the whole program, making change the primary driving force of the project (as opposed to technology/systems). This is the fastest route to the greatest benefits and value.

Benefits

This Guide makes Change Planning simple, it equips you to

1. approach your whole project as a ‘change project’ and easily track and control all major activities through the simple change plans
2. identify all of the change activities required — what have we got to do?
3. structure these activities so that you can see what you do and don’t know — to determine how reliable the change plan is and whether you know enough to progress
4. organize these activities into 10 streams so you can see the relative workload in each stream
5. assess the size, nature and complexity of your planned change program — is it achievable?
6. use the same approach for outcomes delivery, benefits realization, risk management and issues management — one process, multiple uses
7. can be learned by anyone, no experience required
8. produces outputs that can then be scheduled using traditional project management tools and systems

Effective change management is critical to your project’s success and the realization of the expected value. It is critically important and yet is most commonly poorly performed.

Who should read

This Guide should be read and used by

1. The Project Team to equip them to identify and plan change
2. The Governance Team to equip them to assess the change plans to ensure the planned change is achievable
3. The PMO to actively manage deployment conflicts and other project interdependencies
4. Auditors to assess the nature of the project in change terms and its likelihood of success.
   
   

Contents

1. Understanding Change Planning
2. Understanding the Change Planning Framework
3. Understanding the Ten Streams of Change Model
4. The end-to-end change planning process
5. How to identify the required change activities
6. How to organize your change planning workshop
7. How to run your change planning workshop
8. Change Brainstorming Form
9. How to refine your change activities statements
10. How to populate your change planning framework
11. The Change Framework Planning form
12. How to use the ten streams of change model
13. How to assess concurrent and planned projects impacts
14. How to assess the planned change’s size, scale and complexity
15. How to plan your change projects
16. How to plan benefits realization (A benefits delivery plan)
17. How to plan risks (A risk management action plan)
18. How to manage your organization’s planned change deployment (PMO)
19. How to govern change plans
20. This Guide is supported by a full Change Plan example.
    
    

Bonus

Change Complexity Assessment Model
A simple 13-step analysis of your Change Program (the sum of your change plans) to identify the level of project management and change capability required for its successful completion. (Comes with a “Change Complexity Summary Form” to capture the resultant scores.)

Change planning workshop participant guide
Simple one-page guide for those attending the change planning workshop to ensure they understand the ‘rules’ that will generate the best results. Also includes the Change Brainstorming Form.

Change planning workshop slides
A set of slides for the change planning workshop to enable the facilitator to successfully take the participants through the process.

Changing Capability
An easy-to-read ebook by Jed Simms, describing in story form how an organization identified its poor change capability despite a climate of constant change. A problem most organizations face and that our Change Management Guides address.

T&Cs are not enough!
A Value Delivery Management article by Jed Simms on the need for change plans to go beyond just training and communications to ensure a full set of change activities are identified and planned.