The Fast Forward MBA in Project Management, 6th Edition

CHAPTER 17Change Management: Engage Your Stakeholders to Maximize Value

Tim Creasey and Karen Ball

Tim Creasey, Prosci Chief Innovation Officer, is a dynamic thought leader and speaker whose focus is enabling change teams to deliver results by driving employee adoption and usage. Prosci has researched change management for 20 years and provides holistic solutions to build organizational change competency.

Karen Ball is an energetic leader, Prosci master instructor, and advisor focused on helping organizations manage the people impact of change. She is a Certified Change Management Professional™ and industry thought leader.

INTRODUCTION

Projects come in all shapes and sizes. Some impact the entire enterprise, while others may impact a single workgroup. Some are disruptive, while others are incremental. Projects can aim to improve processes, systems, tools, and job roles. But, despite all the wonderful variety in the project world, there is one universal constant in terms of both impact and contribution to success: the people whose jobs will be affected and changed as a result of the project need to adopt the changes for project value to be realized. The people side of change sits squarely along the critical path to delivering value above and beyond specifications. And, unfortunately, the people side of change is often overlooked, underserved, under‐resourced, and underfunded.

But there is a solution. Change management is the discipline focused on that people side component ...