Organize your change initiative around purpose and benefits (2023)

A dramatic shift is taking place around the world: we have left behind a century dominated by increased productivity and now live in an environment of constant change. Doing business in such an environment means a huge scatter of change projects.

Wquestionnaireout of 1,284 managers and project management professionals, the majority of senior management respondents indicated that the number of change projects in their organization had exploded over the past five years. About 85% of respondents saw an increase in the number of projects, and 56% of them saw an increase of more than 25%. As many as 25% of respondents said that the number of projects increased by over 50%. This rapid development of projects affects not only organizations, but also our professional lives and the nature of work.

Change management can no longer be ignored, downplayed or misunderstood. These fundamental changes have led to great fear in the workplace and a natural reluctance to change designs. However, continuous transformation is now at the heart of any organization's strategy, whether small, medium or large. Everyone at all levels of the organization—employees, managers, project managers, senior executives, and CEOs—need to understand and adapt to this change.

Welcome to the project economy and a world driven by change

While the number of change projects continues to grow, the failure rate remains staggering:So says the group Standishonly 31% of projects are considered successful. The idea that 69% of change projects result in wasted resources and budgets and unrealized benefits is astounding. It requires a radically different approach to change management, not only from a methodological perspective, but also from an organizational, cultural and purely human perspective.

In fact, most of today's change management methods were designed for a stable world where change projects were temporary and parallel to day-to-day operations that always took priority.

New concepts and tools for dealing with change are emerging. I present two andHBR Project Management Handbook: the importance of the purpose behind each change project and the focus on the benefits.

Goal: A user-friendly engagement building tool

All methods of change and project management require that projects have a well-defined business case with often long-term technical and execution-oriented goals: for example, a new software implementation, a new platform, an expansion program, a new business value set, a reorganization or digital transformation project. Most change projects have financial goals, such as a 10% return on investment (ROI). However, these goals do not inspire people to be fully committed to a change initiative.

In addition to the business case, the project must be linked to a higher purpose. People have tremendous strengths, and the best leaders know they can be harnessed with heart and mind. When the project people work on aligns with their inner purpose and passions, they can achieve extraordinary things.

According toEY Beacon Institute, target companies are 2.5 times better at innovating and transforming than other companies. At the same time,says Deloittethat target companies report on average 30% more innovation and 40% more employees than their competitors. These statistics confirm my own experience: change initiatives with a higher purpose are much more likely to succeed than initiatives that do not inspire people. Understanding the purpose and how it relates to the overall strategy is not only critical to whether to invest and whether the transformation makes strategic sense; it is also an important incentive to engage team members and the entire organization, motivating them to support the change initiative.

Remember that people don't have to be good at something to be passionate about it. Steve Jobs was not the world's greatest engineer, salesman, designer or businessman. But he was exceptionally good at all these things, driven by his purpose and passion to do something much bigger. Conversely, a lack of purpose or belief in a change project can spread quickly from one team member to the rest of the team.

A notable example of setting a compelling goal for organizational transformation comes from Sony co-founder Akio Morita. Morita noted that at a time when Japan was seen as an imitator of cheap productsCel Sonyshould make Japan known for the quality of its products. Japan -not sony. Sony's goals were aimed at a higher dimension than its own company - which was bold but inspiring for its employees.

A simple method of finding the purpose of a change project is to keep asking yourself, "Why are we doing this project?" Usually you need to ask this question three to four times to achieve the main goal. For example, consider introducing a new customer relationship management (CRM) software system. Most change managers will say that the project is about implementing a new CRM system, but this is not the caseWhywe are making a project. Instead, ask, "Why do we need a CRM system?" The answer could be "managing our data more efficiently by providing a single source of truthful information about our customers." Look - you just moved to a higher level goal. Then ask yourself again why you want this score, and you might come up with "providing a more personal and flexible service." You just moved up again to a higher level and a higher priority of thinking based on what is more important to your business. Then ask again: "Why do we want to provide a more personalized service?" "Because we want our customers to be happy with our services and retain them in the long run, which will lead to revenue growth."

We changed the goal of our project from installing a new CRM system to one that will increase customer satisfaction and improve sales results. what a difference. Now we have a project whose goal is in line with the organization's strategy and will motivate members of the project team.

Once you discover the real reason for your change project, ask "When?" how much?”, which I call a SMART goal.

Every successful change project requires at least one clearly defined SMART goal.

Advantage:The key to gaining stakeholder support

Traditional change management practices have focused on inputs and outputs – things like plans, schedules, budgets, results, teams, etc. A change initiative is considered successful if it is delivered on time, within budget, and within scope. But the most important are the results and benefits, such as happy employees, returning customers, more sustainable practices, etc.

A good example of a focus on benefits is the sustainability transformation. Sustainability has become one of the greatest challenges of our time and a priority topic on the agenda of most CEOs. Consider an example from Procter & Gamble (P&G): Marc Pritchard, chief marketing officer at P&G, recently described how the world's largest consumer goods company is using sustainability to transform its brands. Or, as he put it, making P&G "a force for good and a force for growth." As part of his newAmbitionsPlan 2030,P&G has committed to making all of its packaging fully recyclable or recyclable by 2030. The company also plans to use 100% renewable energy and zero net waste by then.

While the benefits may be easy to obtain, they are much more difficult to verify and measure, especially when they accumulate over time. Since the success of a change project must be measured by the benefits achieved, the process used to identify and map benefits should be open and transparent.

Each project will bring different benefits to different stakeholders. Change managers and project managers need to identify the most important expected benefits for each key stakeholder early in the transformation. Here's a simple approach to identifying the key benefits of change projects:

• Develop a benefits map, a checklist of potential benefits from change projects. Here is an example of the potential benefits of a digital transformation project:

• Instead of defining the expected benefits of the project, meet with key stakeholders and ask them what benefits they would like to get from the change project using the benefits map. For example, a sales manager on a digital transformation project would like to see revenue growth from top clients.
• Ask key stakeholders to tell you how you can measure the benefits and when they want to see them. For example, you can benefit from improved customer service by increasing your Net Promoter Score from 50 to 80 in five months.
• Show the connection between the change initiative, its benefits and the organization's strategy to convince stakeholders of the credibility of the project - for example, how digital transformation will help your organization to increase its competitive advantage.
• Map benefits to a benefits plan to show progress when communicating with key stakeholders.

Using this approach, you will notice a significant increase in the level of engagement and support for your initiative.

Today, organizations need to change, whether they are successful or not. They cannot wait years to receive benefits; leaders need to create value faster than ever before. Permanent transformation has become a priority. Therefore, change management is now an important business priority that should not be overlooked or underestimated; managers need to start embracing new concepts such as purpose and benefits. They also have an urgent need to develop change and project management skills at all levels of the organization, from employees and managers to senior staff. Some visionary leaders have already begun this transformation, and if you hesitate or wait too long, you risk seriously jeopardizing your organization's future. If there's one thing that's certain about the future, it's change forever.