Project Professionals are a Unique Breed
Project management professionals are a unique breed. Organized, focused and process driven, project professionals have tremendous impact on their organizations and the people who make up the organization. The goal of organizational change management is to reap the benefits of the change through stakeholder adoption. In other words, if people accept and use the change the project implements, the benefit expected from change is realized.
Change management used to be considered a “nice-to-have” addition to a project, but as the need for an organized approach to change has been recognized, it’s become a “must-have” in this constantly changing world. My goal in writing Ready, Set, Change! Simplify and Accelerate Organizational Change was to provide a simple framework which can be applied to most projects to address the people side of change.
An important pillar of this framework is to Engage Leaders. We need leaders to share vision, provide direction and reassure when times are tough. If leaders are not engaged, they cannot lead change effectively. If leaders do not engage because they lack the ability to prioritize and communicate essential action, they lose the leverage and loyalty of those around them.
In our current state of unexpected, unorganized and unpredictable change we need engaged leaders to lead through the unknown. As each news cycle seems to cascade despair it’s imperative for us to step forward, engage and lead.
If you want to enhance your skills, there are many resources available. The Association of Change Management Professionals and PMI are two organizations which support “enhanced” change management skills for project professionals and while there are 1.5 million PMP’s and 1020 CCMP’s there are less than 500 people who are “enhanced” by holding both the PMP and CCMP certifications – true differentiation.
As we move to the still unknown future state, consider using this time to enhance your skills and become expert at leading the people side of change in addition to your project management expertise to differentiate and enhance your career.
If you’d like to learn more visit www.acmpglobal.org, go to www.changemastery101.com, and you may also download a free book summary of READY, Set, Change! Simplify and Accelerate Organizational Change here.
