Ellie N.Director of Project Management / PMO | CDPBrighton, Ma, United States
Hello,
I'm wondering if anyone in the group has experience with getting a Change Management certification? Are the potentially increased competitive edge and career opportunities worth the financial and time investment vs.those of non-certified professionals? If so, which of the leading programs would you recommend (Prosci, CMMP, ACM/CMI, any others)?
Karthik RamamurthyAuthor, Say YES to Project Success| Founder KeyResultzChennai, Tamilnadu, Tamilnadu, India
Ellie: Thanks for sharing an interesting questions.
Projects, by their very nature, bring about change.
To achieve project success, project managers certainly need to be change agents and champions of change. Change also inevitably brings conflict.
For this reason, my Ethics MAG colleage John Watson and I recently presented at the PMI Leadership Institute Meeting at Los Angeles on the topic, "Great Leaders Embrace the Two C's: Change and Conflict."
On Certifications, I did study and compare a few. Each has its own merits and demerits. However, in the end, I decided that, as with most certifications practicing the key fundamentals and fine-tuning them was as important than just a certification.
I might consider it again in the future. Saving Changes...
Tamara PiscopoProject Manager| Insurance Commission of Western AustraliaCloverdale, Wa, Australia
Hi Ellie,
My response to your questions is yes, yes and yes! When managing a PMO, our maturity path to success was first project management and getting that discipline right... but it wasn't enough. I then focused on benefits management... and still it wasn't enough. Real strategic success occurs when the strategy is defined, there is good project/program management discipline AND the people are willing and able to change. So I then pursued Change Management. I assessed the various certifications and Prosci came out on top, for a few reasons. Overall though, it seemed one of the two most respected, has a good methodology and the ADKAR model was extremely easy to train and for business users to "get". Also, when scanning Change Management positions in the market, most specified Prosci as a certification they were seeking. In my two positions since that role, I believe that my Prosci certification certainly helped me in landing the role and I've introduced change management in both organisations, even though my actual role is Project Manager.
I hope this helps! Saving Changes...
Sandrine ProvoostCEO| Vanguard Change Consulting LLCNew York, Ny, United States
It definitely helps being certified in a methodology that you can follow.
Personally throughout my career i have done a few and i would recommend Prosci for beginner in Change Management about to about on smaller projects. When it comes to managing change on larger and complex transformation, prosci training is far from being enough and i would recommend Being First for the advanced practitioner. That is the most advanced and comprehensive change methodology that encompass any type of changes. They have the Change leader Roadmap course that is a great introduction to their body of work. They have also 2 great books written about that topic. And for the super advanced change expert, they have the 4sight 9 months training. I did all of these and these are powerful tools and great investment in your development. Good luck! You can find more infos here: https://www.beingfirst.com/ Saving Changes...
