5 Questions to Ask to Get Buy-In for Change Management

“Priority is the function of context,” says Stephen Covey. So how do you position the value of change management in the right context so that it gets the priority it needs?

Think about what you describe when you make the case for change management. How is change management viewed by your project leaders? Is it seen as an optional add-on rather than a vital contributor to the project’s success? Do you spend the conversation talking about change management activities, like communication and training, or do you focus on change management’s contribution to overall project results and outcomes?

Gina Zielinski is a Talent Management Consultant for MGIC, Mortgage Guaranty Insurance Company. Her focus is on designing and facilitating initiatives for leadership and coworkers that support MGIC’s business strategies.

Human Resources leadership at a global manufacturing company recognized that to achieve the long-term goals of their department and the organization as a whole, they needed to proactively pursue a focus on the people side of change.

While the organization had a history of project management success , growing success led to significant growth goals with very big people implications. The leadership team within Human Resources knew that a change management capability would be necessary to accomplish the organization’s overall goals, yet they also knew that much of the organization was not yet ready to begin building this capability. In light of this, the department focused first on building an internal department change capability while also preparing for an eventual enterprise-wide capability build.

As urban gardening continues to grow in popularity, people have become increasingly creative in how they leverage outdoor spaces. I've attempted to grow vegetable gardens for the better part of the last decade and I’ve learned many lessons the hard way. Each new growing season provides a unique set of challenges and countless opportunities to further cultivate my skills. As I’ve dug deeper into the disciplines of both gardening and organizational change, the parallels seem more apparent with each passing year. 

Want to know how to engage your sponsors and increase their change management awareness? Below is a 10-minute overview of change management for executives, which provides the what, why and how of change management. Use this overview to help sponsors understand their role in change and become invested in making change management succeed.

Crowley Maritime Corporation is a U.S.-owned-and-operated marine solutions, transportation and logistics company providing services in domestic and international markets. Crowley is a complex organization made up of six business units with approximately 6,000 employees. It operates in over seven countries for over two billion dollars in annual revenue.

In today’s global marketplace, organizations that can change more effectively domestically and abroad will increase their competitive viability, making a global strategy for change management a strategic imperative. Here are three keys to implementing change management on a global scale:

Over the last few decades, the discipline of change management has emerged and evolved. What was once an ad hoc approach consisting of perhaps a communication plan and training plan has grown into a discipline driven by structure, rigor, process and deliverables.