Insights

The term was coined to describe the management of emotions, and emotional displays, in order to comply with organisational or societal rules. Change management professionals often act as cheerleaders. The emotional labour required to appear positive in the face of negativity can be huge, and when change agents, champions or super users are also impacted, the situation is compounded.

A CMO or Change CoE is often considered a nice-to-have, which means having to repetitively explain its purpose, begging for respect and budget and a pressure to prove the return for every initiative. Ultimately, we’re looking for the organisation allocate adequate resources and consider the CMO or Change CoE as a business critical discipline. How and what can we start communicating to illustrate its ROI?

Moving to more agile ways of working is not another C-level mandated reorganisation, it is a new way of thinking that needs to be introduced, lived and adjusted to by all stakeholders. What are the right conditions for scaling agile?

Whether you have a Change Community of Practice or you are out there pioneering change management, the “Change Lab” approach is a different way to attack your change priorities. We believe every change leader should adopt the use of Change Labs, here’s why…

An adequate budget is essential to any well run and successful CMO. When the budget is insufficient it is hard to add the value a CMO can. The central elements in a CMO’s budget is the costs associated with employing change managers, but it is important not to forget the CMO needs money to run its own operations and to develop capabilities and services.

There are increasing numbers of Change Management Offices (CMOs), especially in the larger global organisations. Given the value that a CMO can add to an organisation this is a great trend to see. However, performance can vary significantly. There are many factors that contribute to the success of a CMO. Here are five key factors that differentiate a successful CMO.

Change portfolio management seeks to provide information and guidance to help govern and direct the entire change portfolio – looking at areas such as alignment with strategy and consolidated risks and bottlenecks. Effective change portfolio management starts by understanding what it is that your organisation wants to know, and what data is required to achieve this.

When we survey CMO leads and change practitioners we hear quite frequently that good, effective sponsorship is rare. They are not sure ‘what else’ they can do - in addition to securing resources, mediating a conversation here and there, and delivering presentations - to help change efforts. Where can we start in driving effective sponsorship?

Sizing the Change Management Office (CMO) can be challenging, but it is essential for budgeting and headcount allocation. The process to size a CMO must start with clarity on the role of the CMO, as this varies and will impact how many people the team requires. Here is a discussion of thoughts on how to plan and budget resources for a CMO.

Agile techniques and mindsets have brought about significant alterations in the way in which change is delivered in organisations. What is the impact on traditional change management approaches of adopting Agile, and from that, what is the impact on the CMO?

Successful CMOs thrive for a number of reasons, but whatever talents and skills of the members of the CMO and the CMO leader, a senior sponsor is a proven critical success factor. In this article, I explore the role of the CMO sponsor by considering why it is needed, what typically is required of the sponsor, and who is best to perform it.

Something as significant as COVID provides us with challenges and opportunities. One of the most significant we, as change leaders, can support and champion in our respective work places is mental health. How do we support our team members’ mental health needs?

The application of artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities will only enhance CMOs abilities to derive sound objective insights. However, those CMOs that are unable to address questions around their ability to support the Executive with objective decisions making risk losing relevance.

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 Management Office (CMO) in an organization that has low change management maturity, you may be asking this question. How can you make a start?

The journey to change portfolio management is a tricky one; fraught with challenges but, when applied effectively, is ultimately part of an organization’s key competitive advantage. What problems or motivations drives CMO leaders to want to explore more effective change portfolio management?

Change management is now mainstream in many organizations and yet it feels as though change management and agile are not integrated in a way that lets new value emerge. Change management should be experienced as both a salve and an accelerant - let’s give it a try with the 12 principles of agile.

There is a significant benefit in having a structured approach to building the most effective Change Management Office. This article will help those who are just starting out on the journey of building a CMO and those who already have one to reflect on how it may be improved.

With such a profound lack of awareness and understanding of the CMO, how can we articulate and demonstrate its value at such an important time? We’ve brought together four experts who know exactly what it takes to run a successful CMO, to help communicate the answer to “What is the value of a CMO?”.

One of the constant requirements for Change Management Offices (CMOs), and particularly CMO leaders, is the need to be able to show the value of the CMO. This is particularly important in challenging times, when CMO leaders may find themselves caught between two contending pressures. It is not easy but it’s perfectly possible to indicate it and build a strong support base for the CMO.

We need change capable orgainzations, where change management is a core competence for people leaders and individual contributors. A Community of Practice is one of the best ways to achieve this. Ursula Erasmus discusses the role of the Community of Practice in change capable organizations.

The CMO is an important function in a business of any scale, helping to drive the change agenda and ensuring the desired change outcomes are achieved. This article will help those with an established CMO expand their ambitions, and those who don’t to clarify the role of CMO and help them start to map out their approach to building one.