Change Community
of Practice Webinars
What makes a
good or great
change manager?
Presented by
Catherine Smithson
April 2017

Introducing Being Human
• Founded in 1993
• Our mission: develop
change-capable people and
organisations so they
achieve the benefits of
change
• Prosci Primary Affiliate
Australia and New Zealand
since 2006
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Agenda
• Recap on the role of the
Change Manager
• Qualifications vs
experience - what matters
most?
• Snapshot of Prosci Best
Practices research
• Top 5 tips from our
consulting team
• Q&A
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Where to find today’s slides and recording
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Being Human Company Linkedin
Profile
Follow us!
Being Human Pty Ltd page
Like us!
Slideshare.net/beinghumanaustralia
Slides and recording available.
Follow us!
Search for Being Human Pty Ltd.
Recorded version.
Follow us!

What’s in a name?
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Change Manager
Organisational Change
Manager
Change Analyst
Project and Change
Manager
Senior Manager, Change
Readiness and Adoption
Organisational Change
Lead
Change Management
Specialist/Co-ordinator
Manager, Strategic
Change
Change Agent
Change Communications and
Change Integration Analyst

Recap - role of the Change Manager
• Plays key role in ensuring change initiatives meet
objectives and deliver on time and on budget by
optimising employee adoption and usage.
• Responsible for creating and implementing change
management strategies and plans
• Works through many others in the organisation to
succeed.
• Acts as a coach for senior leaders and Sponsors
• Support and coaching people leaders
• Partner with project teams to integrate change management activities into
project plans
For a Job Description:
https://www.prosci.com/change-management/thought-leadership-library/change-
management-job-description
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© Prosci Inc All rights reserved

© 2016 Prosci Inc. All rights reserved.
Executives and
senior managers
Executives and
senior managers –
fulfilling the role of
sponsors of change
Employee-facing
Middle managers
and supervisors –
fulfilling the role of
coach for their direct
reports
Middle managers
and supervisors
Enabling
Change
management
resource/team
Change management
resource or team –
applying a structured
approach and enabling others
Project
team
Project team –
integrating the “people
side” of change
Project
support
functions
Support functions –
providing expertise
Key Roles in Change Management
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Influencing and coaching skills are key
• Influencing for change
• Identifying and involving the right people at the right time!
• Everyone in the organisation has a role in change
• Change Managers need to know who, when and how to leverage
involvement before, during and after change is implemented.
• Coaching for Change
• Understanding the roles in change and how to coach each group
• Coaching managers – high return on investment
• Managers have a key role in leading change with their teams
• Plus they are employees’ preferred senders
• Managers are employees first and managers second: they need to
be on board with the change first before they are coached in
leading their teams successfully through transition state.
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Dinner debating topics
1. Should Change Managers be
the “face and voice” of the
change?
2. Should Change Managers be
involved in decisions about
the need for change/what
changes are required?
3. Who owns benefit
realisation?
4. Do Project Managers make
good (or great) Change
Managers?
5. Other hot topics?
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Qualifications vs experience – what matters
most ?
• Qualifications - university, professional certifications are
valuable
• But hands on experience on change projects is critical
• Industry specific experience also essential
• Complex sectors e.g. financial services
• Unique cultures e.g. Higher education, public sector
• Diverse backgrounds of practitioners is a plus – but also
has traps!
• L&D specialists see training as the key change enabler
• Comms specialists see “comms” as the one true way
• Certified practitioners can be methodology purists
• If your only tool is a hammer, every problem is a nail!
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Best Practices Snapshot
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Top 5 attributes of a great
change practitioner (p65)
1. Change Management competency
2. Interpersonal skills
3. Communications skills
4. Business acumen
5. Flexibility
Projects supported p68
• 2 – 4 projects: 63%
• 1 project: 17%
• More than 5 projects: 20%
Permanent position
p65
1. Africa: 69%
2. Australia and
NZ: 67%
3. USA: 54%
4. Study population
average: 53%
2016 Best Practices in Change Management Report.
1120 participants in 56 countries. Prosci copyright 2015.

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Tip 1: Get out from behind your desk
• You have to build relationships and
trust with a wide range of people:
• Managers/supervisors
• Project managers and teams
• HR, L&D, OD specialists
• Sponsors, Executives,
• This takes time, effort and lots of
conversations.
• These relationships will result in
better quality data for your
assessments and plans, better
quality Change Management
Plans, more effective influencing
and coaching and more….
• Get out of HQ – meet people on
their turf

Tip 2: Have the frank and fearless conversations
• Be prepared to have courageous (ie tough) conversations.
• Telling senior leaders things that they may not be happy to hear,
but need to know.
• If you know there are risks and issues, you should be ready to
call them out.
• Make their case for resources and inform the business about the
benefits of investing and the risks of underinvesting,.
• Diplomatic - knowing how heavy or light a hand to apply can
make the difference to being 'heard’
• This is how you start to develop the relationship of a trusted
advisor.
• Be prepared to say “no” to things you know will take your focus
of what you should be doing (or being able to say that “If I do
that, what do you want me to not do?”).
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The trusted advisor - Daryl Conner
“The key key function of the change agent is to
serve the Sponsor.”
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Opinion providers
Subject Matter Experts
Valued sources
Influential resources
Trusted Advisors
http://www.connerpartners.com/roles-and-responsibilities/how-
influential-can-a-change-agent-be

The trusted advisor – from Daryl Conner
• Isn’t usually quick to materialise…it typically takes some time to
unfold.
• It’s possible to have a fast “connection” but developing deep
trust is another matter.
• Sometimes, however, it just doesn’t materialize.
• How does a Trusted Advisor act: (top 3)
• Assess and work with whatever predispositions the sponsor shows.
(That means stretch, but don’t overly exceed, the capability of the
sponsor.)
• Help the sponsor establish goals slightly beyond what he or she
currently expects to achieve.
• Understand, diagnose, formulate a prognosis for, and develop actions
related to, the sponsor’s challenges.
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http://www.connerpartners.com/roles-and-responsibilities/how-
influential-can-a-change-agent-be
The Trusted Advisor Series by Darryl Conner

Tip 3: Be pragmatic!
• Being flexible and be willing to let go of perfection!
• Like a 'cross trainer' - flexible and adaptable, depending on what is
needed.
• You can be proactive and put together great plans, but you have to
be prepared to change them and react if/when the situation
changes.
• As 19th century Prussian military leader, Field Marshall Helmuth von
Moltke said “No plan survives first contact with the enemy.”
• Learn to adapt to different cultures
• The best CMs can quickly identify the "burning issue” for a group
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• Having a thick skin – not taking
everything personally, particularly
on a hard change where everyone
you engage with seems to be
lacking in Desire.
• More importantly, don’t let the
change kill you!
• Build your resilience - know how to
'power down' when needed and
how to fills up your tank.
• Great Change Managers do the
best they can, but always know
they need to live to fight another
day.
• How do you deal with criticism,
setbacks and the other challenges
of being a change practitioner?
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Tip 4: Build your resilience

Tip 5: How to move from good to great
• Never stop learning - don’t ever
think you know everything!
• Keep learning with:
• Practitioners across all disciplines
• Articles on LinkedIn
• Prosci webinars
• Newsletters e.g. Change
Management Review
• CMI events
• Choosing diverse roles, cultures,
projects
• Your recommendations?
One of the things that I love
about CM is that I am always
learning – whether it’s other
methodologies, from the
experiences of other
practitioners, new tools (such
as apps like Prosci Change
Maturity Audit). There is
always something to learn to
add to your “craft” and make
you a better practitioner.
Max Knobel, Senior
Consultant

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Other useful resources
• Raising Your Game - Workshop with Daryl Conner
• Change Management Institute – Change Manager
Competency Framework
• Association of Change Management Professionals –
Change Management Standard (practices, processes,
tasks and activities used by change practitioners)
http://www.acmpglobal.org/?TheStandard
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Where to find today’s slides and recording
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Being Human Company Linked in
Profile – Follow us!
Being Human Pty Ltd
page - Like us!
Search for Being Human Pty Ltd.
Recorded version.
Follow us!
Slideshare.net/beinghumanaustralia
Slides and recording available.
Follow us!

More info
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beinghuman.com.au
• Free Prosci Webinars
• Free Change Community of
Practice Webinars
Prosci
• prosci.com
• portal.prosci.com