We all know that managing change is vital skill set. The pace of change has increased in parallel with the increasing complexity of organisations which is a product of the volume of new systems and new information we use to develop products and deliver services. The scope and variety of changes that we can choose to apply to improve how we do business means that increasingly we have to filter these opportunities to ensure that only the most viable; those offering the greatest benefits for the costs involved are actually implemented

1. The purpose
of a Change
Management
Office
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2. Overview
We all know that managing change is a vital
skill set. Changes result from new systems
and new information we use to develop
products and deliver services. This innovation
is an unstoppable force, where inability to
engage leads to business failure. However,
innovation without a strong business case
can also lead to failure so it is essential that
we filter opportunities to ensure that only the
most viable i.e.those offering the greatest
benefits for the costs involved, are actually
implemented.
This decision making needs to happen within
every department and management function
and there needs to be a single, complete
picture of change taking place across the
whole organisation. This need has led many
organisations to create a central information
hub for change related information. In
some organisations this hub is aligned to
project management, and in others project
management is seen as part of the skill-set but
not the entire picture.
In this paper I explore the functions and
benefits of establishing an office that supports
the implementation of change including the
delivery of the components of change through
effective project management, and the
development of a network of skilled change
managers who guide their colleagues through
the process of changing their ways of working.
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3. The purpose of a
Change Management
Office
The purpose of a change management office The change management office answers
(CMO) is to provide the organisation with questions including:
a focal point for governing, structuring and • Are the changes planned and underway
implementing change initiatives. This office capable of achieving the strategic
provides oversight of all change initiatives objectives?
planned and underway and ensures each is
delivered effectively through the application • What other initiatives should be added to fill
of a consistent methodology and performance any gaps between strategic ambition and
metrics. current changes?
• What initiatives are failing to deliver
The CMO supports the decision making expected improvements?
associated with evaluating proposals for
• Should they be prematurely terminated?
change and supports the delivery of those
that are authorised. The users of this function • Should a task force be assigned to their
are a wide cross section of roles across the repair?
organisation including those responsible for • How can we filter initiatives at the ideas
strategic planning, project managers and stage to prevent authorisation of the
departmental managers and business leads 'wrong' initiatives
whose work is impacted by the changes.
• What steps in the decision making process
can we remove or amend to increase the
To be effective the remit of the CMO must be
speed of decision making?
organisation-wide as change is rarely confined
to one area, and even small changes to a
relatively self-contained process can have
knock on effects further in the customer journey
that must be understood and addressed.
Organisations are complex systems where
there is a high degree of interconnectivity
between components and the boundary of
ownership, especially of information, is hard to
establish. For this reason change cannot be
implemented using a silo-based approach and
co-ordination and communication are critical
to success.
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4. Benefits
Many of the benefits of an effective Change
Management Office occur as a result of
improved decision making on what changes
to commit to, as a result of senior managers
having access to a complete picture of
what change is taking place and how those
changes align to the strategic direction of the
organisation.
Benefits at an organisation-wide level:
• One source of reporting leads to more • Improved understanding of resource
effective communication of issues, risks and requirements and allocation across change
progress: initiatives, with the opportunity to build skills
- Information gathering, analysing and and competencies through the application
report creation takes less time as the of an organisation wide change
processes for these activities are defined management method
and understood by all those involved • Total cost of delivery of each change
- The same information is gathered from initiative is reduced as the CMO is able
each change initiative, speeding up the to achieve economies of scale across
process of comparison and identification common change activities including
of any work that falls outside of communication, implementation, planning,
acceptable parameters risk analysis and project management
• Development of a complete picture of all • By enabling true cost of delivery to be
change taking place, at a functional and visible to the business, managers can
organization wide level, enables much contribute more effectively to decisions on
quicker identification of likely ‘change which changes to endorse and which to
overload’ or destabilisation of the business put on hold
as usual environment
• An increase in the focus of how changes
Benefits specific to change management
are contributing to strategic direction initiatives:
increases the speed at which senior • Reduction in number of external consultants
managers can intervene to suspend or required to support change activities as the
terminate initiatives that are not on course organisation develops capability internally
to deliver their expected strategic benefits through the application of its change
management method, guided by the CMO
• The CMO acts as an internal consultancy
service, supporting individual change
managers, assuring the quality of their work
and continuously improving the change
management method
• Reduction in the level of stress felt by those
managing change as the CMO provides
support, guidance and advice, facilitating
solutions to issues that impede the progress
of change
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5. Success criteria
for a change
management office
 Sponsor is a board member/director responsible for strategy, change or
projects
 Sponsor demonstrates commitment and enthusiasm
 Change information is reported by the CMO to the board on a regular and
frequent basis
 The manager of the CMO has experience and knowledge of organisational
change, portfolio, programme and project management and strategic
planning
 There is a clear set of strategic objectives which is known and understood
across the organisation
 CMO staff have high degree of practical experience in running change
initiatives and have a strong skill set in project and change management
methods and techniques
 The CMO defines and owns the organisational change framework and
method and provides training in this to all relevant staff
 There are opportunities for those managing and impacting change to
influence the way that the CMO operates through forums and regular
discussions
 CMO staff build strong relationships with their stakeholders
 There is clarity over the remit of the CMO versus it's key stakeholders
including any Portfolio, Project or Programme offices (PMO), the corporate
communications function, corporate risk management and audit functions,
and the learning and development function
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6. Consideration when
building a change
management office
There is no ‘one size fits all’ solution. The model that is right for your organisation
will be a product of a number of factors including:
 The scale of change that is taking place - if your organisation plans to
undertake transformational change it is unlikely to be able to achieve its goals
without multiple change projects in the majority of business functions which will
require a higher degree of control than small scale incremental change that
takes place within individual departments and teams
 The existing level of structure for portfolio, programme and project
management - if there is already an established PMO function then consider
widening the CMO remit to include organisational change rather than
building a separate change management office that may have to compete
for similar resources
 The level of maturity that exists within your organisation in its approach
to change management – if organisation-wide change management
framework, methodology, documentation and performance metrics are
already defined, understood and successfully in use then the driving force
of the CMO will be to exploit economies of scale and drive improvements in
quality through a process of continuous improvement. If organisation wide
change management does not yet exist, then the main function of the CMO
will be to build this approach, educate users in its use and guide its application
 The level of centralised control that your organisation wishes to apply to how
changes are made in a distributed organisation, whilst change cannot be
effected in a silo based approach, a great deal of decision making will be
delegated across the business units so the role of the CMO will be information
provision and co-ordination. In organisations where decision making is
concentrated at board level or equivalent then the CMO will take the lead
on information gathering from individual change managers and providing
summary reports across all of the change initiatives
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7. Responsibilities of a
change management
office
Organisation-wide change management method
comprising core elements of best management practice:
• Portfolio, programme and project management
• Change management
• Risk management
• Benefits management
Services
• Quality assurance
• Resource management and capacity planning
• Financial planning and budgeting
• Performance monitoring
• Stakeholder engagement and communications
• Definition of processes, tools and techniques
• Support for individual change managers
• Reporting to decision makers
• Ownership, maintenance and dissemination of the
organisation wide change plan
• Risk and issue management across all change
initiatives
Central repository of information from all change managers
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8. Organisation
As stated earlier in this paper there is no ‘one size fits all’ structure for CMOs, and this is
reflected in the roles set out below which highlight the key responsibilities that a typical
office would include, and is based on the example governance structure set out below:
Change Management Office structure
Board of Directors
CMO Sponsor / Owner
Change Management Office • IT
Sharing specialist • Corporate
• Process expert Communications
knowledge
• Risk and issues expert • Facilities Management
CMO on the scope
• Communications and impact of • Legal and Regulatory
Manager
expert change Service
• Planning expert • Audit
• Finance expert • Human Resources
Change management Change information
methodology, reported against
documentation, pre-agreed
guidance performance
metrics
Change managers and change teams located in departments
and functions across the organisation
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9. Sponsor/Owner of the Change
Management Office
This role may be known as Director of Change CMO manager
or Strategy, or Head of Organisational Change.
The role is performed by a senior manager This role reports to the sponsor, and has line
who is responsible for the change agenda management authority for all those assigned to
for the organisation, which is driven by the the Change Management Office but will also
strategic objectives set by the board or senior need the confidence and support of all those
management team. The sponsor owns the change managers supported by the CMO.
blueprint for how the organisation is expected
to evolve over time, which is devised from The level of authority needed by the CMO
functional strategies and plans including the manager is dependent upon the remit of
IT architecture plan, the facilities plan, sales the function. For example, if the change
forecasts and market analysis and operational management office is responsible for ensuring
plans. The sponsor is responsible for reporting that the change management methodology
progress against the change agenda to the is applied to all initiatives irrespective of which
board or senior management team using function is funding them, then the Manager
the information provided by the Change will need the authority to insist on use of the
Management Office. method, and have the support of the Sponsor
to address those that are not applying this
This reporting means the sponsor has oversight organisation wide approach. If the CMO is
of all the change initiatives that are planned a central information hub then the Manager
and underway and provides a summary of how must have the authority to request progress, risk
the totality of change is impacting the day-to- and issue information from all those within the
day operational capability of the organisation. organisation who are running change projects,
The sponsor draws attention to the risks and programmes or other initiatives.
issues associated with the totality of change
and will require decisions to be taken about
the results to date and any re-prioritising
of initiatives that senior colleagues feel is
necessary to achieve strategic objectives.
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10. CMO staff:
Process expert – this role may be performed Planning expert – whilst individual change
by those with business analysis skills. The role managers will identify the change activities
acts as a source of information about end- relevant to their work, there is a need to collate
to-end processes across the organisation, all of this activity across the organisation and
pinpointing where change in one area can be able to understand how much is changing,
impact systems, processes, inputs, outputs and where and for how long so that the risk of
behaviours in other areas destabilising the ability of the organisation to
deliver ‘business as usual’ is understood. This
Risk and issues expert – this role is responsible role requires excellent technical estimating,
for the identification, analysis and definition scheduling and resource management skills.
of responses to risks and issues that have
the capability to prevent change being Finance expert – although many changes
implemented successfully. A key aspect of this are made at a micro level to the way in
role is information sharing as risks and issues which individuals work, there is still a need to
occurring in one change initiative might also identify the required funding for system and
apply to other initiatives of which the relevant infrastructure acquisition, loss of productivity
change managers need to be made aware. and back-filling of roles during periods of
This role has a coaching element as it is in the change. Decision makers need a clear picture
interests of the organisation to develop an of the expected budgetary impact of change
ability to analyse and situations for potential and the progress of change initiatives against
and actual impediments and have the this budget. This role requires excellent financial
confidence to define actions to address them planning and control skills.
before they harm the progress of the planned
change activities.
Communications expert – change requires
everyone to be aware of what is changing,
when and how so this role is central to
ensuring all stakeholders are fully informed
and engaged with the changes that matter
to them. This role requires creativity and
innovation to get the messages across to a
high number of individuals, often when they
are very busy and have little time for taking in
new information.
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11. Biography:
Melanie Franklin
Melanie has an impressive track record in the successful realisation of business change
programmes across private and public sector organisations. She is the founder and Chief
Executive of Maven Training and is highly experienced in the delivery of board level guidance
and mentoring.
She takes a very practical approach to change, programme and project management with
priority on the realisation of planned benefits, working closely with her client base to ensure that
the desire to implement best practice does not result in bureaucracy for its own sake. Each
solution that Melanie proposes to clients is based on sound practical advice and experience with
guidance on how it is likely to be received by staff, how resistance to change can be overcome
and how stakeholders can be engaged from the outset.
Melanie is a talented communicator and has a reputation for delivering complex information with
humour and passion. She draws on her wealth of practical experience to illustrate concepts and
to engage her audience in lively debates on advantages and disadvantages of each approach
that she outlines.
Melanie is the author of a number of books and whitepapers about project and change
management including the recently launched Managing Business Transformation: A Practical
Guide.
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12. For further information about Maven Training
please contact:
Melanie Franklin
Telephone: 020 7403 7100
e-mail: melanie.franklin@maventraining.co.uk
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