People
Issue No. 29 - June/July 2006
Leading the change
by Dr Elizabeth Short
You and your team have spent several years designing a new information management process.
The roll out across the state to all of your satellite branches has begun. The new system is being met with considerable resistance and the implementation is not going particularly well.
To compound the problem your biggest advocate, the CEO, has resigned. The chief financial officer is caretaking the CEO’s role until the new appointment is made. Unfortunately the CFO was never committed to the project and both the project and your job seem to be in jeopardy.
How did you get into this difficult situation? And how could you have prevented it from occurring?
Part of the answer is quite simple, but the remedy at this late stage is not easy.
A project should not be liable to collapse because one person leaves the team. One sponsor is insufficient for a significant project and sustaining budget approval ability is critical to long-term viability.
Active and visible sponsorship is cited three times more frequently as the most important contributor to successful change in a recent international benchmarking report*.
There are initiating and sustaining sponsors. The CEO legitimised the change project and is therefore the initiating sponsor.
In some instances, the initiating sponsor may not fully understand the change he or she is approving. What is more important is that this sponsor has the power to sanction the change, allocate people, approve the budget and provide other resources. Without this legitimisation, substantive, durable change does not occur.
Many change agents allow their enthusiasm to progress the project quickly take over and neglect to get the buy-in of other relevant stakeholders. Having the executive sponsor on board is essential but so is gaining the commitment of the sustaining sponsors.
Sustaining sponsors are usually senior to mid-level managers with the power to legitimise the change ...
