Leading Change from the Middle

  Change Management   ProjectsAtWork  

Projects require people and organizations to change ... sometimes during execution, inevitably upon completion. Right in the middle is the project manager, who must communicate up, down and sideways to overcome resistance, gather influence and develop a sense of ownership among those affected.

Badly managed change initiatives during a large-scale implementation are where many program plans can go awry. Knowing which teams to involve early on, and more tightly aligning those teams to the program, can increase the rate of acceptance and successful execution.

Leading change from the middle is an approach thatequips project, program and portfolio managers with the skills, tools and techniques that reflect the complexity of rolling out these projects while accounting for inevitable change. After all, project professionals are the ones working on the day-to-day tasks that lead to the change itself.

Project-based work such as a new IT system that enables swifter payroll operations or better workflow management can result in significant organizational change. Such projects affect organizational design, culture, processes and individuals. Smart managers ask themselves if the existing culture supports the actual change they are asking people to embrace and take corrective action to ensure a match between the change required and the culture.

Not all change is created equal. …

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