The Change Formula Portfolio

Author
David Williams
The Change Formula Portfolio©
Showing The Way … not in the way!
An Introduction

Copyright © Senija Group
Showing The Way … not in the way!
© 2018 DAVID WILLIAMS
All rights reserved. No part of this booklet may be reproduced in
any form or by any means without the written permission of the
publisher (except by a reviewer, who may quote brief passages
and/or show brief video clips in a review).
Edition 1.0
ISBN: 978-1-64570-183-5
Published in Australia by Senija Group Publishing

Change is not a single event,
it is a process. Successful
change is a science and the
DNA of that science is within
the process of
The Change Formula©

Introduction
page 4
The Evolution of Change
page 7
page 18
page 26
Contents

Introduction

This is an introduction to The Change Formula© – An Introduction.
After many years of implementing change in the public and private sector in such diverse organisations from
Education to Financial Services I have experienced many change models, frameworks and approaches. Each
project had its unique characteristics and challenges, whether they be people, budget, time or culture. I have
undertaken assignments at various stages of a project, from the initiation, mid way through and sometimes
near the end when the project realised that they need change management assistance to get stakeholders
across the line … so late in the journey that much coaching and adjustment was required post “Go Live” to
achieve the benefits of the desired change.
As a Change Practitioner I have been welcomed, seen as a mystery and sometimes resented in the name of
the business as stakeholders and executive struggle to understand what I actually do and in many cases
what value I add.
I have had many discussions with Project Managers and other Change Practitioners about this subject.
Change can be a hard profession. Often there is a sense of ingratitude in the stakeholder population. We
are mistrusted because we now represent the change. We deal with peoples fears and sometimes
aggression. I have had to council many junior and senior Change Practitioners who simply just want to walk
away from hostile environments. I understand, particularly with so much noise in the new age world of being
happy at work. But to walk away leaving the very people you were meant to help shows a lack of
credibility and courage. The simple truth is that as professionals we are engaged to help organisations for
the very reason of the negativity and push back. A Doctor cannot walk away from a sick patient and a
professional Change Practitioner cannot walk away from a sick organisation!
Introduction

So we need a solution that can be found in the science of change. The Change Formula© is the approach
that works time and time again. No matter what future technology or innovations are created The Change
Formula© will always be the DNA for change, no matter the organisation, no matter the project.
So what is the The Change Formula© ?
Well first, lets explore a bit more about the evolution of change for context.
Introduction

The Evolution of Change
Management

It Started With Project Management
The Great Pyramid of Giza was completed in 2570 BC, the Great Wall of China 208 BC. Perhaps these
grand monuments of history were possible through trial and error, or even just through stealth. There is no
doubt that the engineering required incredible feats of courage, huge numbers of labourers and death.
Regardless, something akin to planning took place to transition the vision to reality. At the least, for
example , labour would have been split into groups such as soldiers, the general population and criminals.
There would be focus on the what, but very little on the how and when. For hundreds of years that would
have been the common approach to projects, large and small.
Despite the lack of modern day planning the construction and engineering projects over the decades have
been great achievements. Things were simply built, then used or admired, whether great monuments,
bridges or manufacturing plants.
It was only during the industrial revolution construction and engineering started to demand a disciplined set
of activities through planning. There was a consciousness that set in, of equating time, resource and money.
Henry Gantt created his schedule in 1917 and introduced it during the building of the Hoover Dam in
1931, perhaps the birth of modern project management.
In 1957 the Critical Path method was invented by the Dupont Corporation.
1965 and The International Project Management Association was founded and 4 years later in 1969 the
Project Management Institute was launched to promote the profession.
Since then the profession has matured and introduced methods and tools such as PRINCE, Earned Value,
The Evolution of Change Management

PMBOK, Scrum, Six Sigma and Agile. This is just the tip of the iceberg as various iterations and versions of
these are still developing today as new technology improves efficiency to satisfy the need for speed.
In addition, as corporations matured, frameworks became popular introducing Program Management, the
Enterprise Program Office and Portfolio Management to bring together all the initiatives into a single view.
The overarching philosophy was to ensure the company was aligning strategy with projects, doing the right
things and then doing the right things right.
However, the technology revolution and the introduction of computers that could perform the traditional
transactional work and compute at faster rates than humans, meant that the workplace would change for
ever. In the accounting world for example. The move from handwritten ledgers to SAP (Oracle, NetSuite
etc) systems revolutionised how people worked. Data became King and massive databases such as Oracle
transformed information capability beyond the wildest dreams. And the change didn't stop.
But there were many failures because these particular projects required one particular ingredient if they
were to be successful once the project was complete. It was the Human Factor. People to operate the new
systems, work with new processes and behave in a new way.
Most projects were largely either unaware, not focused or just refused to acknowledged this need of
effective training and changes in behaviour. The naive assumption was that a new computer system would
automatically change behaviours and culture. The result was more failure. There were some crashing
failures and disappointments, but the failure wasn’t a big black hole. Often you will hear that 70% of
projects fail. To an extent true, but failure though, has to be defined.

The truth is that the projects didn’t completely fail, they simply just didn’t succeed as much as they could
have. Return on investment was achieved, but not maximised.
The biggest failure was really the opportunity lost through a lack of formal Change Management.
Change Management
In comparison to the profession of Project Management, Change Management is still fairly young and in
many quarters still not fully adopted. It is often the area dropped or reduced in resource if budgetary
constraints arise. There is a lot of cynicism about change management. It often gets confused with the ITIL
technology change control role or is just seen as another word for communications. Many people don’t
understand it and are scared for ever by poorly executed change management they have experienced in
previous implementations.
So how did Change Management as a practice ever come about?
Human behaviour has always been a fascinating subject. We have asked ourselves since the beginning of
time why people do what they do, act like they act and surprise us with the most humble or aggressive
responses to life. It is particularly interesting when people do what they do when they know what they
know. In other words, as humans we often act in the total opposite to the way we should based on the
information that we are provided with. A simple example is diet. We eat more and expect to become
thinner even though there is a library of evidence that tells us the opposite. Since Aristotle and Socrates the
philosophy of behaviour has been documented and discussed time and again. Simply, human behaviour
was a mystery. Perhaps still is.

From the mid 1800s’s psychology became the topical subject as scientists began to understand the brain,
just a little bit more. Stephen Coveys seminal work “The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People”, first published
in 1989 was based on his expansive research into self-development in an in-depth study of success
literature since 1776. By the 1900’s psychologists and consultants were writing foundational papers.
People like Van Gennep, Lewin, and Bridges were creating Behavioural Models and aligning them with
change.
Most of the work was around psychology and the models that could help change poor behaviour or
deeper still, mental health problems. This has been a foundation of change management and life coaching.
The term “Interventions”, … methods to help patients, is still, unfortunately. used in change management to
this day.
There were many works such as the ground breaking “On Death and Dying” by Elisabeth Kubler-Ross that
assisted in coping with the five stages of grief. Many such works became the foundations for Behavioural
Change and the beginnings of the Life Coaching industry.
By the 1990’s it was clear that projects were becoming unsustainable because there was little focus on a
key element, the people factor. Modern management gurus sprung up and started to make the link. Kotter,
LeMarsh and of course Spencer Johnsons “Who Moved My Cheese?” that became a best seller, influencing
many organisations in the late 90’s.
Change Management was now on the radar.
But how did it evolve to a practice?

Modern Change Management
Jeff Hiatt was working at Bell Labs when he undertook a study into the better performing projects and
realised that the common denominator was a focus on the people side of change.
This work inspired Jeff to form Prosci … short for Professional Sciences… and develop a Change Management
approach that included the now popular ADKAR Model (Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, Reinforcement). Since
those days back in the late 90’s, early 2000, Change Management has grown and been widely accepted
as the key to project success, particularly in the larger American and European corporations. Change
Management has developed in Australia with the major financial institutions adopting change as a practice.
For this reason the banking world tends to be at a high level of change management capability maturity.
On the Prosci Maturity Scale with 5 as high, the big banks are between 4 to 5.
Prosci and ADKAR are well known in the change world with the methodology growing significantly over the
last 20 years, now offering formal Accreditations and courses for budding Change Practitioners. Prosci
created a centre of excellence and were the pioneers for the new Association of Change Management
Professionals that has a global stage.
In Australia the Change Management Institute has also grown quickly with its own accreditation and
international presence, particularly in the UK.
But why is it that we still have to sell change management as though it is an unnecessary additional project
cost when history has proven to us that without change management project sustainability is at risk? It is
possible that the way change as a practice has been introduced and applied creates a perceived
additional and unnecessary level of resource.

This may be partly due to the poor selling job on change management and the intrusion that it created
within existing corporate practices that already supported projects. The problem was that in the early days
these departments were forced to assist projects by utilising their already small operating budget and
were not seen as a formal part of the project. As the project portfolios grew and grew, HR, Training and
Communications had to support project deliverables thinly in order to give any sort of support. For HR
involvement was limited to working through retrenchment strategies, statutory requirements or job
assessments for re-grading levels. Training was focused on delivering very specific skills at a predetermined
time and communications just became a cluster of when, who, how memo’s with very little true engagement.
This is not a criticism, but an observation. I lived through it in the mid 1990’s so I experienced the problem
first hand. If we analyse what happened we can understand that the change management movement
basically attempted to take away elements of the HR, Training, Communications and Project Management
role from these streams to create something new called … Change Management. The objective being to
create an assemblance of order and give recognition to the importance of these functions during change.
The problem was that the inexperienced Change Manager (CM) …and we were all inexperienced at some
point…would take these functions and impose a control over them, thus creating more friction. As we have
evolved a respect has grown between these functions and the new world Change Manager is more
collaborative, particularly around working with all streams on behaviour to enable more positive cultures.
However, in the past people in HR etc. were upset and still there are battles today as to who owns change
management and where it sits in an organisation. Some say HR, some IT and others in an EPMO (Enterprise
Program Management Office).

Roles and accountabilities are diverse with some Change Practitioners deeply involved in processes and
organisational design, sometimes drawing away from the real people issues. As an executive moving from
one business to another you will find most companies manage the practice of change very differently. And
this has been the Achilles heel of change as mini wars and struggles battle out every day. Change
Management can be seen as an extra layer of methodology bureaucracy on projects creating additional
cost and slowing them down. This often happens when Change Management Offices (CMO) and Change
Portfolio roles demand more reporting and over engineering of change interventions. I have seen many
CMO’s dismantled because of the lack of added-value. Project Managers and sponsors are not happy.
Despite it all Change Management became the next best thing as executives looked for ways to mitigate
risk and many people wanted to get on the band wagon. Inexperienced people from HR and
communications all of a sudden became Change Managers. They would attend a 3 day Prosci
Accreditation and then consider themselves Change Managers.
The inexperience has lead to poor implementations, poor application of the enabling tools and the
credibility of the profession has suffered. As a result people experience poor change management and see
it as ineffective and weak. So why bother with it?
Inexperienced people tend to over utilise methods, using them as a crutch for their own capability gaps.
Rather than ease change enablers they crash down on the project with extra reporting analysis and in some
areas over bearing new speak that just confuses everyone. Largely, change management has become a
mystery and it is killing the profession.
Over the past few years many, some very large corporations, have disbanded their change practice and

rebuilt their portfolios. Interestingly enough though, they rarely totally ditch change and mostly start the
rebuilding process learning from the mistakes of the past. The difference is that Project Managers recruit
directly without reference to a CMO that is always looking over their shoulder … well that’s how Project
Managers feel.
Bizarrely change management remains strong because it’s the one ingredient that can guarantee success …
if implemented professionally. So much so that confusion reigns all over as Project Managers now want to
be Change Managers and some Change Managers wanting to be Project Managers.
A recent trend has seen Project Management roles advertised as Project Change Management that
incorporates the traditional project role and the change role.
For this reason I think that the role of Project Manager and Change Manager may evolve further into one
role that is growing in popularity … the Transformation Manager.
Transformation Manager
Of course there are already roles with such titles, but they often reflect a process the organisation is going
through rather than a practitioner role of its own accord. Change Management may loose its identity, but it
only has itself to blame. The world of change has now caught up with change management and it is fast
becoming out-dated.
Organisations and their people are changing constantly and learning more about change. Organisations
need to adopt “Change-as-a skill”. By enabling change each and every day as part of what they do,
employees can transform and secure their futures.

Transformation then will be the big ticket projects that literally transform the way things are done and the
way people think … change will be the day to day stuff that we do just to keep the status quo. Just like a
ship or plane keeping on course with minor adjustments here and there.
As an example, Bain & Co have referred to change management in their practice as Results Delivery.
The trend will be, for what we know as change management, to morph into “Enablement” working
alongside delivery streams such as IT and being lead by a Transformation Manager.
The truth is that change is not such a surprise to the average employee these days. In fact they expect it.
What they do concern themselves with is how things will change.
Change is happening at a significant pace particularly within the digital change space and it will get
faster. While companies are going backwards and forwards discussing change, other organisations are
implementing it.
The competitive gap just becomes wider. Companies often talk about catching up, but if the leading
companies take another leap forward you still end up with the dust they make in your face. I have been on
3 year programs where the organisation believes that they will catch up with the competition … not
overtake, but catchup. It’s a strange mentality to think that their competitors will just sit and watch
them do so. Its not a change that is required, but a transformation … not a jump, but a leap, a grand
leap!
The pressure is on and the speed to change couldn’t be any more critical.
But the faster and more you change, the better the framework you need.

The history of change therefore tells us that we need to stick to some basic tenants. Rules that are just
fundamentally intrinsic to any change in any organisation. Although I write about transformation, change is
still the key. Small consistent amounts of change over a period of time will lead to transformation. And that
is why we need to treat change as a science. In change science, change has a DNA for success, but you
need to follow a formula, The Change Formula©. Within The Change Formula© are strategies, tactics and
concepts that have stood the test of time and will never become outdated or stop working. The Change
Formula© and its components that form The Change Formula Portfolio© are the key to unlocking project
success, sustainability and growth

I know you want the guts of The Change Formula©, but I’m also guessing you flicked through the document
and already know the formula so I am going to explain how it came about.
Although I have been a professional Change Practitioner for many years, immediately prior to that I was a
Business Coach to small and medium enterprises (SME’s). The value I offered was simply the utilisation of my
corporate knowledge implementing lite versions of corporate strategy to business owners who may be
subject matter experts in their field, but not necessarily good at operations and business development.
Michael E Gerber writes extensively about this very issue in his book The E Myth. Based on my success and
coaching expertise I was invited by a UK based company to represent them in Australia. They also had
offices in India and Ireland, with a global customer base.
The company, “The Core Asset” is focused on helping SME’s grow their business using a proven
methodology, The Formula, which is supported through an online set of resources and a team of Business
Growth Experts as Coaches/Consultants.
With Steve Hackney, the founder of The
Core Asset, I co-authored “The Business
Growth Discovery” which is a step by step
blueprint to business growth using The
Formula which has been implemented by
26,000 business owners across the globe.

The concept has been incredibly successful with a 26,000 user base globally. Such is the success that some
small business owners are experiencing growth taking them from a meagre $200k turnover to join the
$Million plus club! Of course these are the people who implement the Formula to the letter and usually
work with a business coach from The Core Asset. If you want to learn more about business growth simply go
to my website www.SenijaGroup.com and under The Change Formula© drop down menu select The
Growth Formula.
It quickly occurred to me that the focus of the FORMULA on growing a business missed a critical factor of
the impact of business growth on an organisation. For example, more customers, more sales requiring more
staff, bigger premises, more efficient assets and software. The growing pains of creating the right culture
and moving from a small business to a medium and then the potential to be a large organisation. It takes
things like letting go and passing responsibilities to new staff. Being responsible for the future of more and
more people, while perhaps balancing the needs of investors.
The missing link? How to cope with that business growth … how to change! I realised that all of my
experience in change over the years, no matter what industry, size or type of change, always came back to
the key fundamentals that never change … they were The Change Formula© .

Prepare
the
change
Enable
the
change
Sustain
the
change
Maximise
stakeholder
experience
Systemise to
the power of
Change
Management
Return
on
Change
to an
unlimited
benefit

Okay. So there it is. I said earlier change is a science, but it isn’t rocket science. The key is that you just need
to do it and that’s where most organisations fail because they think they can miss bits or they go the other
way and apply every element in the formula which simply over cooks the change initiative and it burns.
That’s the value of a professional Change Practitioner who can navigate the right way to change and
customise the enablers to suit the organisation.
For example, although I have got to a stage where I have an intuition about change. Its like a gut feeling. I
can gauge what the appetite for change is and what enablers I will likely need. Not everyone can do that
and sometimes I fall down because executives think I’m fluffy or too lite in my approach. What they don’t
understand is that a project is often like a patient in surgery. You can only plan so far. You think you know
what you are about to fix, but when you open up the patient there are all sorts of issues that tests and x-
rays just didn’t reveal. In many ways change is about managing the unknown based on how people will
respond and what the disruption of change brings into the light.
Almost without fail the projects I have worked on place a spotlight on other issues out of the scope of the
project. (scope creep is a topic that I will discuss in a later document)
In essence the value of The Change Formula© is that it assists in maintaining alignment and ensures that key
enablers are not missed. It brings us back to base zero so that as Practitioners we deliver a consistent
approach.

This is The Change Formula©. (Ptc x Etc x Stc x Mse) SyCM = RoCn. A process driven solution that provides
successful change and a return on the investment on change. It reads like this:
Ptc – Prepare the change
compounded by
Etc – Enable the change
compounded by
Stc – Sustain the change
compounded by
Mse – Maximise Stakeholder Experience
the sum of these components compounded by
Sy – Systemise the components for maximum impact …
… to the power of CM
Change Management
Equals a Return on Change to an infinite potential.
Ptc – Prepare the change
Any project from implementing a global ERP to painting the lounge requires preparation. Measure twice,
cut once. In the end it saves many a sleepless night. It is at this stage that the Change Practitioner will
become involved in an idea and contributing to a business case. The Change Synopsis may be completed to
determine high level impacts and an estimate of change resource required. Most of the planning documents
and team set-up are undertaken at this stage.

Etc – Enable the change
During the enable stage the activities within the strategy documents are implemented and enablers
delivered to align with stakeholder requirements. This is the engine room of the change program and there
are many enabling tools that can be used. I will be constantly updating my own toolkit and sharing that
with you. A taster for the tools is profiled in Component 12. The Change Facilitators Handbook. Coaching
for change is critical and I have created a Change as a Skill Program© that includes The Smart Change
Program© and the chaNge by Design Series©.
Stc – Sustain the change
Sustaining the change is critical to maximise benefits and achieve the return on Investment. Post
implementation is critical for on the job coaching and making improvements. It is at this point that
stakeholders in their new world need to manage the outcomes of their activity and align with the desired
vision.
Mse – Maximise stakeholder experience
From the very beginning it is important to understand the touch points for every stakeholder group and
define how the change experience can be maximised. Ensuring the right communication, learning and
engagement to the right people at the right time.
Sy – Systemise the change
Systemisation includes the use of systems, efficient processes and methodologies but also automation. An
example is in the undertaking of surveys whereby applications such as Survey Monkey can be used. The

overarching element though is the actual resourcing of Change Management principles and a professional
Change Practitioner. Even if this is in an advisory capacity the benefit will compound overall success.
RoC – Return on Change
The extent of the Return on Change is determined by the level of adherence to The Change Formula©
components. For example if one of the 9 Core Elements is missing (see Component 12. The Change
Facilitators Handbook) then the RoC will not be so great. Speed of uptake, utilisation and performance may
suffer.

The phases of The Change Formula© are made up of components that together create The Change
Formula Portfolio© and these are listed on page 29.
The theory is that the template documents are completed, certainly started, during the prepare for change
stage and are executed during the enable the change stage. Some, such as Reporting and SPC (Sponsor,
Project, Change) Audits are undertaken throughout the whole journey and Managing Outcomes can be
prepared midway through. There is no firm rule other than all components should be considered. For
example, a small project still needs a strategy and plan even if it is only on one page.
Experience will determine what components are required and when. Often expedience is the key and a
very experienced Change Practitioner can begin several documents out of sequence. It can be a bit like
building a puzzle by starting with several clusters of the picture rather than immediately doing the edges
first.
The The Change Formula© philosophy is that change is implemented as a legacy. Rather than just contract
a Change Practitioner for the project period and then lose that knowledge once the project has closed
down, what I like to do is create Change as a Skill ©. This means embedding the principles of change into
the organisation and this is enabled through The Change Coaching Strategy and delivered as part of The
Smart Change Program © which is a series of tools and workshops.
In Component 12. The Change Facilitators Handbook I have created a tri-part model as a feature. The
Change Formula© aligns with the Change Management Leadership Model IDEAL© (Influence, Decide,
Engage, Achieve, Lead) and has a control mechanism known as the 9 elements of perfect change.

Please be aware that the portfolio is not exhaustive and new components will be added over time. For example,
there are inputs and activities that the Change Practitioner undertakes from time to time as a contributor such
as in the preparation of the business case and sometimes responsibility for overseeing process re-engineering.
In addition there is the integration of change management into the business and how a Change Management
Office can be implemented and/or align with an Enterprise Program Management Office. A program plan,
systemisation of processes and automation will also be covered in a briefing document.
These and other components will be added later and I will update the Portfolio index.
I will also issue the periodic “The Change Formula© Brief” for topics of interest. Look out for these and don’t
be afraid to simply ask for them.
The Change Formula© is my creation, but I stand on the shoulders of giants hence this is currently a public
domain methodology which I am happy to share at no cost.

Component 01. Change Management Synopsis
Component 02. Change Management Strategy and Plan
Component 03. Stakeholder Analysis
Component 04. Change Impact Analysis
Component 05. Business Readiness Strategy
Component 06. Leadership Alignment Strategy
Component 07. Communication Strategy
Component 08. Stakeholder Engagement Strategy
Component 09. Operational Learning Strategy
Component 10. Collaboration Management Strategy
Component 11. Change Coaching strategy
Component 12. The Change Facilitator's Handbook
Component 13. Managing Outcomes Strategy
Component 14. Reporting and SPC Audit
The Smart Change Program©
• 09.01. Start with Why?
• 09.02. The Change Diamond
• 09.03. Change Management Overview
• 09.04. Change Readiness
• 09.05. Change Tools for Leaders
• 09.06. Thriving and Surviving Change
• 09.07. Managing Outcomes
• 09.08. Being a Transformer
• 09.09. the chaNge by Design © series
• 09.09.01. shared vision
• 09.09.02. Continuity
• 09.09.03. Commitment
• 09.09.04. Engagement
• 09.09.05. Connectedness
• 09.09.06. Learning
• 09.10. Time Management
ChangeasaSkill©
Formula Components

To learn more about how The Change Formula Portfolio© can
help you or your organisation, visit www.SenijaGroup.com or
contact David directly at David@SenijaGroup.com.
The Author
David Williams is an international Change Management Advisor and Master
Professional Coach. He leads the coaching division at Senija Group and is the
co-author of “The Business Growth Discovery”. With his life and business partner,
Sarah Williams, a C-Level Executive Assistant and Master Personal Trainer, they
make sense of the complex science of behaviour and wellbeing related to
change, then translate that into easy-to-understand practical coaching tutorials.

The Change Formula Portfolio

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