How can you prove the value of something, if no one has the budget to pay for it in the first place? 

If you lead a Change Practice in an organization that has low change management maturity, you may be asking this question.  

We often hear change practice leaders say that they need to demonstrate the value of change management.  The hope is that, by doing so, Program Leaders will realize that they need change management support right from the outset and begin factoring this into the initial budgeting process. 

However, until the value of change management has been demonstrated, the change practice is often called upon too late in the day.  They are engaged to sort out messes, when many of the opportunities to manage change effectively have been missed.  To compound the problem, Programs haven’t budgeted for change management resource and now cannot afford to pay for experienced practitioners.  All in all, a situation that does not lend itself well to proving the value of change management. 

Herein lies the systemic issue. We regularly speak to change practice leaders who are pulling their hair out trying to resolve it. 

Where to start proving the value

You may have seen that we’ve already tackled key questions such as “What is the value of a Change Practice?” and we’ve even delved into the best practice of proving the value of a Change Practice. These insights will help you get to grip with the value of a change practice and help you on your journey to fundamentally changing how those within the organization view the change practice.

However, we’ve built a quick fix tool for tackling one of the biggest obstacles to change practices in proving value - being involved early on in scoping change.

Influence change from the outset

If your change practice, like many we speak to, is not invited to support the process of change from the outset, and cannot yet get a seat at that table, a quick fix can be to provide Program Leaders with their own objective way of scoping change management resourcing requirements.  

This is where our Change Calculator tool* comes into it’s own.

The Change Calculator provides results that estimate the number of change management resources that are required for a change initiative. It’s simple and straightforward to use but will give Program Leaders a better understanding of the level of resources needed. This will positively impact the change practice if this is used at the budgeting stage and ahead of any detailed change impact analysis.

Influencing from the outset not the issue?

If you are a change practice that is sometimes engaged early by Program leaders but still struggling to prove your value, then it may be that you’re having issues tracking data to show the different results that are achieved. Can you show that, if Programs engage you early and budget for change effectively, they measurably outperform those that do not? If the answer is no then take a look at our Adoption & Benefit trackers.

For sponsors of Change Practices

Start with the end in mind.

Change Practices must: 

• Deliver visibly improved change outcomes for their business.   

• Increase their organization’s overall change capability and capacity. 

• Improve the value that their organization receives from change management services.   

All these tasks are eminently achievable IF the business understands what a Change Practice needs in order to achieve them. 

For a Change Practice to be truly effective, it must have: 

• The trust of the leadership community, their understanding of their own role in change, and their support for the activities and value of the change practice. 

• Powerful partnerships with others involved in delivery, such as project and program managers, so change managers are respected and have early involvement in change initiatives. 

• Engagement with a business wide community to create an understanding of the role of the CMO. A community who are willing to work with the change practice to deliver change outcomes. 

 If the change practice must demonstrate its value before it can have any of what it needs, it is often set up to fail.