We’ve seen too many projects attempt to manage change as an agenda item entitled ‘change’ on a weekly operations meeting.

The extensive nature of the change programme requires a formal project governance structure to be implemented from the beginning of the project. Our change management structure is designed to operationalise the principles above and make change a tangible reality in any organisation.

The final design of the structure and associated roles and responsibilities will vary between organisations. However, at the very least it will be quite separate from the day to day operations structure. And it is certainly not simply a competent Project Management Office (PMO).

It is recommended that an effective change management structure should encompass all elements shown in the typical example below:

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Illustration of a Change Management structure used by Synoptic

A key point highlighted in the diagram is the relationship between the day-to-day operations and the change management environment. It is expected that the same staff will participate in both activities but it is important to keep the processes and management of each separate. The red diagonal line shows this separation.

Main elements of the structure There are 4 unique entities on the change management side of this diagram;

• the Senior Leadership Group / Steering Committee
• the Programme Office
• the Business Improvement Team
• the Action Teams.

The following text describes the roles and responsibilities of each of these how we will work with them to mitigate risk, manage change and capture and transfer and knowledge. The lists are not intended to be exhaustive.

The Senior Leadership Group / Steering Committee

The Steering Committee will provide strategic guidance to the project and address project obstacles as they arise. The Steering Committee is expected to comprise two or three senior managers and the project Sponsor.

We will support the knowledge and skills transfer by working with the Group to guide them on using our models and techniques to fully investigate and understand the strategic issues facing the organisation, as defined in the scope of work.

The Programme Office

We will work with the Programme Office to transfer skills by guiding the Programme Officer/s to fully understand the implications of translating strategic intent into tactical objectives and setting appropriate KPI’s to monitor progress. In addition we will coach them in setting up a fully functional Programme Office including providing templates as required.

The Business Improvement Team

We will coach the Business Improvement Team members to assist them to practically understand what is required to effect a change in behaviour within the day-to-day business operations, thus making change sustainable.

The Action teams

We will work with the Action Teams to guide them in what is required to change behaviours and to mentor and coach operational managers, supervisors and staff.
We will train the action team members in our methodology and approach and work with and through them to deliver the project.