UNIVERSITY OF NAIROBI

FACULTY OF BUSINESS AND MANAGEMENT SCIENCES

DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT SCIENCE AND PROJECT PLANNING

Maselin Apondi Mala

L46/137795/2019
Semester 8
Mombasa Campus
LPM 411: Contemporary issues in project planning and management
Group 5 assignment
Lecturer: Dr. Moses Otieno
Question
Project change management in the modern context
Introduction
Project change management is about ensuring that a project achieves its intended results and
outcomes by supporting the individual transitions required by that project. When you install a
new technology, employees must adopt and use it to deliver value. When you implement a new
process, employees must adopt and use it to deliver value. Project-level change management
provides the specific strategies, plans, actions and steps that focus on impacted employees and
work in alignment with a project deployment.
Change management, at the project level, can be applied on any project or initiative that impacts
how employees do their jobs. Changes can be driven by external factors, internal factors or some
combination of both. Changes can impact processes, systems, tools, organization structures or
job roles. If a change requires employees to do their jobs differently (by exhibiting new
behaviors, following new processes, using new tools), then there is a role for project-level
change management.

Strategies for project change management in the modern world

1. Plan Carefully

Before you bring proposed change to your project team, make sure you have a clear plan in place
that covers, at a minimum, when, how, and why the change is taking place.

2. Be as Transparent as Possible

One of the tricky parts about change is that it will often arrive in phases, or will involve a level
of confidentiality on the part of the management team or certain individuals. However, especially
when the change will be a major one, it's helpful to be as transparent as possible with your
project team - even if you can't give them all of the details, being upfront about the pieces you
can share (and clearly explaining their impact) will go a long way towards helping your project
team members feel more comfortable.

3. Tell the Truth

This is an easy rule to follow when the change in question is positive; when the change is in
response to challenging circumstances or will result in short-term negative outcomes, this
becomes trickier. However, being honest with your project team members is usually the best
route: sugarcoating, presenting things in an overly optimistic way, and promising unrealistic
outcomes will just make your team suspicious and distrustful of your motives. While it's
important, as a project manager, to present an optimistic front to your team, do so in a way that
acknowledges potential challenges and drawbacks.
4. Communicate

Keep the lines of communication open between you and your project team. Take the time to
explain why the change is happening, and what it will look like in practice. Make yourself open
to questions, hold team meetings, and invite your reports to come see you and talk through their
concerns or thoughts in a neutral atmosphere.

5. Create a Roadmap

Help your team to understand where the project is, where it's been, and where it's going. How is
the change going to shape the project future? Laying this out clearly will demonstrate the thought
and strategy behind the change, and will help the team see how it fits into, or is evolving from,
the model they've become accustomed to.

6. Provide Training

When the change involves shifts in technologies or processes, provide adequate training for your
project team to help them master the new way of doing things. And make sure that you convey
that this training will be available when the change is announced, so as to avoid employees
feeling like they'll be left behind due to lack of skill or experience.

7. Invite Participation

Giving the team members an opportunity to participate in, or give feedback on, decisions can be
a really positive strategy. Project team members will be grateful for the chance to make their
voices heard, and it can also be a great way to get different perspectives and understand impacts
you might not have thought of otherwise.

8. Don't Expect to Implement Change Overnight

A longer, more strategic rollout is almost always the best option, rather than a hasty shift in
direction. Not only will you give your team a chance to adjust to the change, you'll be able to
answer questions and address any issues well in advance of the change going into place.
Additionally, people are generally slow to adopt new habits, so this will give your team a chance
to familiarize themselves with the new way of doing things and gradually phase out old practices
in a more natural way.

9. Monitor and Measure

Once the change process is in motion, it's important to maintain consistent oversight over
implementation and rollout to ensure that things go smoothly and that you'll ultimately be
successful. Keep a close eye on potential problems, and address any issues in a timely manner.
Define metrics to measure success, and continually monitor them to make sure that you're
staying on track. And continually touch base with key stakeholders to gauge their perceptions
and get any relevant feedback.
10. Demonstrate Strong Leadership

Inspire your team; demonstrate strategic thinking; be open-minded and flexible; and show your
team that they can depend on you to have their best interests at heart. A strong leader can help
their team weather the storms of change with confidence and clear-sightedness, no matter how
challenging they might be.

Change management tools and techniques

Flowcharts/ Process Maps

In the preparation stage of the change management cycle, flowcharts can help you map out the
current state of organizational processes.Any change that will be discussed and implemented can
be added to the flowchart, in which way it can be preserved for future reference.

ADKAR Analysis

The ADKAR model in change management is used as a coaching tool to make sure that the
people or employees involved in the process support and believe in the change. ADKAR stands
for,

Awareness

Desire

Knowledge

Ability

Reinforcement

How to use it

The ADKAR model presents a set of goals that team leaders should try to achieve, and being
able to do so is the key to earning the support of the employees to successfully implement the
change strategy.

Culture Mapping

A culture map is a tool that is used to visualize the company culture, which is influenced
by values, norms, employee behavior etc. It helps you discover information that is crucial
to your change initiative, such as who are the positive enablers and how you can
minimize risks during a project.
 Force Field Analysis

It helps you identify and analyze forces for and against change

Stakeholder Analysis

In the stakeholder analysis, you identify stakeholders and categorize them based on different
factors such as geography, income groups, occupation, legal requirements etc.At the end of the
analysis, you’ll have found out who your project’s stakeholders are and why the project is
important to them.

Kotter’s 8 Step Change Model

Step1: Create a sense of urgency

Creating a sense of urgency among everyone will help spark that motivation in them to embrace
the change that you are about to bring about.You can use a SWOT analysis to emphasize the
threats and opportunities that lurk in the marketplace or the industry.

Step 2: Build a guiding coalition

Build a strong team made up of influential people from all statuses and expertise and who can
convince others that change is necessary.

Step 3: Form a strategic vision and initiatives

Create a clear vision as to why change is necessary. Determine the values that are linked to the
change and create a strategy to get to your vision.

Step 4: Clearly communicate the said vision

Communicate your vision frequently so that it will be fixed within everything your team does.

Step 5: Enable action by removing any obstacles

Identify barriers that are blocking the implementation of change. Help those who are resisting
change see what’s needed. Reward people to support change.

Step 6: Generate short-term wins

Create short-term targets so you can celebrate quick wins.

Step 7: Build on the change

If something worked, identify what went right and improve it. Set goals and continue to work on
it.

Step 8: Make it part of the culture

Make sure that any change you gain, you make it part of your culture.

The importance of project change management

 Increase project success   

 Support clear messages about the change and improve communication with teams   
 Make changes happen in a faster, more cost-effective way  
 Make people’s work lives better by prioritizing human beings   
 Empower employees to embrace and be comfortable with the change  
 Create a feedback loop for managers and employees to talk through opportunities 
 Provide a system or methodology for the change, increasing the likelihood of change
readiness 
 Change management supports financial and strategic goals  

The only certainty in project management is change. Our core assumptions change over time.
Our stakeholders change their minds, leading to changes in our requirements. Even if we do
everything right upfront, no plan ever survives the realities of execution. And in fact, the primary
purpose of any project is to deliver change in some form. No matter what cost, schedule, or
project scope a project manager sets, in the beginning, a project is not done until they deliver an
acceptable product or service to their stakeholders. The definition of “acceptable” is often a
moving target, despite our best efforts to establish precise requirements during project initiation
and planning. That’s why change management is such an essential skill for project managers and
critical expertise for organizations that manage projects. 

Project change management helps to identify those points of resistance in the project and uses
tools and techniques to address them for the best possible adoption.   

Why Change Management is Difficult

For even experienced project managers and project teams, change management is a challenge.
Delivering on large-scale projects can be like herding cats, with end-users, influential
stakeholders and sponsors, and outside forces in the market or industry introducing change and
uncertainty at inopportune times. It’s pretty common for the priorities of these forces to be
different or even conflicting. Various stakeholders have different levels of influence and interest
in the project, with each potentially holding their unique viewpoints and resistance or openness
to change. Project managers, change managers, and the project team as a whole must be well-
trained and highly experienced to manage the sensitivities and complexities of these relationships
because they can make or break a project.
Reasons why it is hard for organizations to internally manage change on their projects

Organizations seeking to improve or build their change management competencies from scratch
face significant challenges. Customer expectations are higher than ever. Organizations don’t
have time to wait until they establish mature, repeatable change management processes.
Attempting to build up organizational processes and skills mid-project is also tricky.
Organizations new to the discipline usually lack the tools, training, and experience to pull it off. 
Change management requires specialized tools, repositories, and training even beyond those
used for project tracking. Tracking change means providing linkages back to sponsoring
stakeholders and the resources needed to execute the work. Specialized toolsets require
specialized training, and organizations need to hire skilled labor to operate the technology and
processes required.

Conclusion

Project change management ensures that a project achieves its intended results by supporting the
individual transitions required by the project. We have strategies that can be used in project
change management like inviting participation, communicating, providing training.There are
tools and techniques that can be used in change management for example the stakeholder
analysis, culture mapping, force field analysis etc. Change management is an essential skill for
project managers and critical expertise for organizations that manage projects. Managing change
can be difficult since people often resist change for many reasons. They prefer the current state
of affairs; they fear losing their job; they may think they will be unable to learn something new.

References
By thought leadership articles, change management at the project level
https://www.prosci.com/resources/articles/change-management-at-the-project-level
By Sonya Krakoff, the 10 best organizational change management strategies,
https://online.champlain.edu/blog/best-organizational-change-management-strategies
By Kelly Smith, PMSC with Kolme Group, December 23, 2021, The Importance of Change
Management in Project Implementation
By Vanja Stojiljković Cakić, March 17th, 2022,change management and its importance to
project success