How to effectively merge change management and project management activities in your organization

Ideally, enterprises should use change management within project management. When a project manager collaborates with a change manager, it increases the likelihood of a successful change.

Speaking at Celosphere, Kraft Heinz’s Global Business Services Process Mining Program Lead, Fiona Smith, explained how applying some of the principles of change management, such as getting stakeholders on board and celebrating small wins, can make managing a project like a Celonis implementation much easier. She says:

“If you don't drive a passion project first within the business, they can't really see the potential. You've got to really prove your worth… make them think it's their idea, and that's where you get the adoption and the change management. In all the years that I've been a project manager it was the easiest change management I've ever had to deliver.”

Before you can effectively merge change management and project management activities, it’s important to understand the differences and similarities between them, so let’s start there. Then we’ll explore the benefits of the two disciplines working together, and provide the three steps to achieving that collaboration.

Project management vs. change management

As overlapping disciplines that are focused on achieving organizational transformation, change management and project management have a number of similarities and differences.

Similarities between change management and project management

Here are examples of areas where change management and project management intersect:

• Resource planning and control: Both project management and change management involve an element of resource management and planning. Project managers might be allocating budgets and systems, while change leaders will be focussed on things like training and communication, but both will need to control resources and make adjustments as necessary.
• Employee and stakeholder engagement: Project management and change management will both involve a degree of stakeholder engagement. For project managers, the parties involved are likely to be more varied, from project sponsors to customers and end users. For change agents, on the other hand, the focus is likely to be on employees whose behavior needs to adapt to enable the proposed change.

• Clear two-way communication: Clear and consistent communication is imperative for both change management and project management to succeed. Each also needs to include a feedback loop so those involved in the transformation can share their opinions and have their issues resolved. Communication will need to promote shared understanding of the transformation initiative and its objectives, as well as progress towards milestones or targets.

• Risk management and mitigation: Identifying potential risks, prioritizing them by impact, and implementing mitigation strategies to minimize their effects is necessary in both project management and change management. While project management is most likely to be concerned with risks such as running out of budget or exceeding timelines, effective change management will consider risks like resistance to change and regressing to previous ways of working before the change is embedded.

Differences between project management and change management

Differences between change management and project management can be seen across a variety of elements, starting with scope.

Differences in scope:

• Project management is usually concerned with delivering one specific project, with pre-defined goals and objectives. It manages the timeline, budget, team, risks and deliverables associated with that project. It is time bound and aligned with the duration of the project.
• Change management can be a key part of project management, but its scope is often far broader and goes beyond individual projects. A change management team will often work on multiple projects, with a focus on organizational change across technologies, structures, and company culture. Change management is an ongoing process that extends beyond the duration of a single project.

Differences in focus:

• Project management tends to focus on delivering projects within a given budget, and to meet a specific deadline. Project managers plan and control tasks and activities to minimize risk, make best use of resources, and ensure the project plan is adhered to.
• Change management is more focussed on the people and processes impacted by the transformation. It aims to understand the emotional and psychological aspects of change, and to support people through the change process to ensure it is successful.

Differences in KPIs:

• Project management KPIs frequently include on-time project completion, budget adherence, project deliverables achievement, and stakeholder satisfaction.
• Change management KPIs tend to include things like change adoption rates, compliance or adherence rates, training completion for impacted employees, and stakeholder engagement.

Read: 7 Strategies to break down silos in your organization

Benefits of integrating change management in project management

Integrating change management and project management increases the likelihood of successful change. According to Prosci research, 47% of change practitioners and project leaders that integrate change management with project management meet or exceed their project expectations compared to just 30% that don’t.

Four benefits to change and project management integration

Here are four key benefits of integrating effective change management in project management, which contributes to a higher chance of achieving project goals.

1. Working towards a shared objective. Integrating change management with project management enables both disciplines to work towards shared project outcomes – whether that’s increasing workforce productivity, streamlining order management, or transforming the supply chain – even if they have different KPIs and milestones along the way.
2. Aligning activities in the project plan. By scheduling technical activities and people activities within the same timeline, across the project lifecycle, the right actions can be taken at the right time to ensure people are ready to adopt the change and they have the tools necessary to do so.
3. Proactive risk mitigation. Merging project management and change management makes it easier to identify potential risks, especially those that sit at the intersection of the two disciplines. Proactive steps can then be taken to mitigate those risks.
4. Improved understanding. Taking a more holistic approach that combines change management and project management, increases overall understanding. Project managers, for instance, can help change managers define the purpose of the change to get buy-in from stakeholders. And change managers can help project teams understand how stakeholders feel about the change initiative and where obstacles may occur.

Three steps to merging change management and project management

With the above benefits in mind, here are three steps to merging change management and project management:

Step one: Align your change management model with your project management framework

A change manager will often use a change management model or framework, such as The McKinsey 7-S Framework, The Satir Change Model, or Kotter’s 8 Steps for Leading Change. Equally, a project manager is likely to use a framework like PRINCE2, Six Sigma or the waterfall model.

Understand which models are being used within your organization, and bring these together in a single project plan that incorporates both frameworks. This may mean figuring out how a change management plan can be added to your existing project management software.

You can then synchronize the change management process and the project management process. In our latest Process Optimization report, 83% of business leaders said processes are their greatest lever for value and fastest lever for change. Download the report to find out how they’re using processes to create value, and navigate change.

Step two: Combine or assign responsibilities and roles across both teams

Once you have a combined project plan that incorporates both project management and change management activities, you can focus on getting the two teams working collaboratively together.

This often means rethinking how roles and tasks are assigned and giving individuals within the teams responsibilities that span both disciplines. Your project team may need some change management training while your change experts may need some project management training. Individuals should largely be focused on the discipline in which they have expertise, but with some crossover responsibilities to ensure a cohesive transformation.

Step three: Establish shared overall objectives and criteria for project success

Reinforce the synergies between project management and change management by establishing a shared project objective that everyone across both teams can work towards. In addition, try to align the KPIs and success metrics that change managers and project leaders will aim to hit along the way. Metrics such as stakeholder satisfaction, for instance, and the achievement of milestones or deliverables, can work across both disciplines.

Although there will undoubtedly be a difference in some of the metrics and KPIs the teams are working towards, keeping them aligned means project managers and change leaders are pulling in the same direction and not working against one another.