Change at the project level vs. organisation level

It’s important to understand the distinction between an organisational change and a project change. Despite there being a difference, project changes are ultimately part of an organisational change to a certain degree.

When we talk about change management (or change control) in a project management context, this has more to do with the scope of the project and taking this through a process of review and updating the scope and subsequent delivery that takes place. In some cases this change can be significant, but in many cases it’s simply a matter of ensuring the project delivers the best possible outcomes based on shifting factors (technology, approach to implementation, people etc).

Change management for an organisation is about shifting or improving a process, system or mindset the business has. Sometimes confusingly, the instrument of change at the organisation level is a programme or project. But considering the impact of the change at the organisational level vs. project level is to think about the change felt by the entire business vs. just the project delivery and sponsors.

Organisational change happens much slower usually, as the process it goes through to be embedded has many more considerations and needs broad consultation. It will impact the day to day operations of the business, even if subtly. Since everyone experiences change differently, organisational change requires more business-wide communications and involvement from everyone.

Project change can largely occur between those responsible for the direction and delivery of the project’s outcomes. That change could be something like the addition of a few elements of functionality in a customer portal, or the use of a particular database system over another. Ultimately the project and its parent programme will still be designed to achieve a certain strategic outcome, so the change likely won’t be felt far and wide through the organisation immediately.

Getting support for change

Support for a change is a complicated process. Many times the resistance to change in a business is less about the change itself and more about the way in which it is communicated. We’ve seen first hand reasonably soft changes be met with strong resistance, and significant evolutionary changes be adopted and celebrated by staff. The communication and support around the change must be prioritised.

There’s a number of things that organisations do to manage change well. These include:

• Making sure everyone in the business understands the strategic direction of the organisation they’re working for. This removes surprises or helps contextualise decisions that are made.
• Providing ample communications at every stage of the change, as far back as possible including the assessment of the change and qualifying what’s required. This takes the people in the business on the journey, so when decisions are made they know why.
• Ensuring the change and its impacts are made relevant to each team through their own leader, but through relevant senior leaders as well. The same people attached to organisation-wide comms speaking to individual teams about their role and impact can help to reinforce their importance to and understanding of the change. It also shows a degree of respect and consideration to each team and specific concerns or thoughts they may have.
• Having an effective feedback loop for people to voice thoughts or questions. Some changes may undergo further refinements once rolled out en masse. An organisation who can remain faithful to their strategic objective but nimble to fine tuning the change after roll out will garner more respect from its people who ultimately will see their feedback manifest in visible changes.
• Involve stakeholders in things they’ll be responsible for managing going forward. The change management personnel and the stakeholders in the business (including leaders of business units) need to be working side by side. As soon as there’s an ‘us vs. them’ dynamic, the change is on shaky ground.