#150 | Bridging the Gap: Aligning Change Management and PMO for Optimal Performance

In this episode, we explore the dynamic relationship between change management and PMO alignment. Discover why synchronising these two functions is pivotal for successful organisational change and project outcomes. We discuss the benefits of alignment, common challenges, and proven strategies to achieve harmony between change management and the PMO. With insights from real-world case studies and personal anecdotes, this episode provides actionable advice on integrating these roles to enhance efficiency and drive innovation. Tune in to learn how to navigate the complexities of change and project management in today’s fast-paced business environment.

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Transcript

Aligning Change Management With PMO

Fatimah Abbouchi 0:00

You're listening to Agile Ideas, the podcast hosted by Fatima Rabouchi. For anyone listening out there not having a good day, please know there is help out there. Hi everyone and welcome back to another episode of Agile Ideas. I'm Fatima, ceo at Agile Management Office, mental Health Ambassador and your host. This podcast is sponsored by Agile Management Office, helping to drive high-impact delivery execution in an agile era.

Fatimah Abbouchi 0:31

In today's episode, I thought I would delve into a topic that is becoming a lot more prominent in discussions I'm having around change management, its role and alignment with project management offices. Now, normally these two I wouldn't talk about in conversation because typically, change management is more aligned to delivery, but there is seemingly a shift happening where the relationship between change management and PMO is becoming a lot more prevalent and also more useful, and so I wanted to talk a little bit about the role of change management and PMO, talk to you a little bit about the importance of aligning change management with the PMO and the benefits of doing so, strategies and ideas for achieving alignment, take you through some tools or techniques for effective alignment ongoing and then share with you some case studies or real world examples of what I'm seeing when it comes to change management and the PMO. So let's get straight into it. So, when we think about change management, so when we think about change management, change management is something that, for a really long time, is given, is given sometimes it's given the light of day, but for a really long time it's sort of been that underachiever, the the sort of sorry. Sorry, rather than underachiever. The quiet achiever is what I was meant to say. So the quiet achiever that's under the radar.

Fatimah Abbouchi 2:09

Change management itself is an integral function in any project. It helps to focus and basically provide guidance around the necessary activities that help to make those that are required to accept or adopt a change. Whether it's a change in process system, you know, relocation, anything at all, it's actually there to help the individuals and the teams, the customers, the stakeholders, to adopt that relevant change. So it's all about preparing, supporting and helping individuals. A PMO, on the other hand, is responsible for standardizing project management practices and facilitating, coordinating and supporting to ensure the successful delivery of projects. Now, both these roles are crucial and they have distinct responsibilities. I like to think of it as if you think of the, if you think of a triangle. One corner of the triangle, you've got project management or project delivery. The other corner of the triangle, you've got change management, and then the third point of the triangle, you have got the project management office. You really need all three to be successful.

Fatimah Abbouchi 3:31

Now, in a lot of companies you'll find that they don't have a distinct change management role or change management function. They'll often just have the change management skills and experience absorbed by the project managers themselves, and that's very common, particularly when companies are trying to save money, and also much smaller companies who don't really often understand the importance and integrity behind a good, solid change management function. Pmo also is probably more common and, I would say, more prevalent as a standalone function or role, but change management and PMO together are a very strong, powerful recipe for success. As I said, they're both different in terms of their responsibilities and their capabilities as well, but also they both support driving successful organizational change. For example, I was working on a large program that had already failed the first two times before I had joined, and on the third go they did something very different. Instead of aligning the change managers into project management, into delivery, where they had the change managers reporting, into the project managers themselves, they actually elevated the change management role a little bit higher and put it as a peer, directly alongside the PMO. The change management function focused on the communications and change activities for stakeholders, customers external to the project, and the PMO focused on the change management. The project and the PMO focused on the change management well more like the communications that came from change management and the changes necessary internal to the project. Having the lens of change facing out and PMO facing in meant that the change manager and the PMO manager were able to work together greatly, much more greatly and more effectively and because they were not focusing on the same audience at the same time, the messages were the same, as they synchronize what it is. They were trying to communicate, but they had different focus points.

Fatimah Abbouchi 6:02

So, as aligning change management with the PMO brings numerous benefits, it can help improve success rates, it enhances communication. It will reduce risks. But when there is misalignment which is common, it can lead to conflicting priorities and inefficient resource use. For example, you receive insights and information from the executives and then the change managers and the PMO managers each need to do something with that information. If they're not aligned on how to move forward, it can actually impact the project's ability to be successful. It can cause significant delays, because it might be that the change management team are working on different goals than that of the PMO. When we're all working on the same project or program, we should all be working towards the same goals, and this is another reason it's important to align change management and PMO. Not only is there an enhanced communication and collaboration, it also streamlines processes and reduces duplication of efforts. It also makes life easier for project management teams. Where you are not aligned, you'll likely find conflicting priorities and goals and inefficient use of resources and also, more importantly, increased resistance to change. So we want to make sure that there is a greater alignment between PMO and change, and the relationships that are better aligned are resulting in better outcomes for projects.

Fatimah Abbouchi 7:34

So, now that we sort of understand the role of PMO and change and the importance of alignment, what are some of the strategies to achieve alignment? Well, first and foremost, although we've already outlined that the roles and responsibilities are different because there are change managers that have been PMO and PMO that have been change managers, it's really important to establish clear roles and responsibilities upfront and create a shared vision, and then define a regular communication cadence as well as escalation paths, integrating the change management activities into your project lifecycle and then developing unified framework can also help significantly. In that program that I mentioned recently, we developed a shared vision and framework that united both teams and it really led to great results, because project delivery was not confused or conflicted between PMO requests and change management requests. It really helped to create that strategic alignment, and doing so meant that we, for every following project or program thereon, we had clear roles and responsibilities that were continuously iterated upon as required. We created a shared vision and goals and in some cases, we defined our team agreement for how these two teams will work together. We provided a clear cadence for how we would communicate and collaborate, including how we would utilize tools such as Microsoft Teams, and we also made sure that we then integrated what change management's needs were into the project lifecycle to better support project delivery meeting those change management requirements. And then we documented all of this in a unified framework and therefore we had clarity between change project and PMO.

Fatimah Abbouchi 9:27

In change management, there are a number of different tools and techniques that you can use, and because we're trying to get alignment between the PMO and change management itself, there's no reason why we can't use different types of techniques that are common in change management frameworks to facilitate that alignment. For example, we can look at ProSize ADKAR model. We can look at Cotter's eight-step change model. These two are very effective tools. These tools are commonly used by change management in different projects and programs and they really help improve communication and collaboration. And I think why not use the same processes that are working for you already but in your PMO and change management function together? There are different ways of embedding continuous improvement to ensure that you're constantly adapting to any changes and I think, as part of developing the communication cadence, I would ask you to consider how you will also focus on continuous improvement and how often you will reflect on that, and also how you would collect information from teams who are providing feedback on how PMO and change management is performing, and then how the change manager and PMO manager provides a unified front to delivery sorry to delivery executives and sponsors. Front to delivery sorry to delivery executives and sponsors.

Fatimah Abbouchi 10:58

So when we think about the change management and PMR, I've already given you a one example, but on another example, working within a different organization in the manufacturing space, there was a necessity to restructure a brand new department that had just been acquired and was being brought into the business. It was clear that they needed to organizationally restructure. But it wasn't just the people, it was also the processes and the capabilities and the tools and the ways of working. And so the PMO and change management team worked together quite closely and supported the organizational restructuring by having clear communication and shared goals. From the outset. They made sure that they worked closely together to align the communication strategy, both internal to the project and program and external to customers and stakeholders, and also made sure that everyone was clear on how that would work within the project management lifecycle that was being used at the time.

Fatimah Abbouchi 11:59

In my experience, having change and PMO work together more closely, rather than change working just with delivery and then PMO being sort of left by the wayside, can make a big difference and benefit immensely by aligning strategically what the project or program is trying to achieve overall. This is something I've seen not only when we've organizationally restructured, when we've introduced large programs of work to implement new HRIS systems, and even with market expansion projects as well. Ultimately, the overall thinking here is for a really long time, change management has been closely aligned to delivery and project management, but I think it's about time that it gets more closely aligned to the PMO as well. So, by aligning change management with the PMO, you can successfully deliver change more effectively and communicate the necessary change within the project and externally. You'll have clearer roles and responsibilities and a shared vision, and you'll also be using the same tools to do so that you will be using to implement the change within the project and the program. So, in order to start, have a conversation with your PMO and change manager and start by looking at where you are today and the best way to move forward, to align, taking steps to improve it.

Fatimah Abbouchi 13:36

Thank you for listening and I hope you enjoyed this episode talking all things the relationship between change management and PMO alignment. I hope it's inspired you and if you have any questions, please reach out to me on LinkedIn or you can simply just reach out via our website at wwwagilemanagementofficecom. Thank you so much for listening to this podcast. Please share this with someone or rate it if you enjoyed it. Don't forget to follow us on social media and to stay up to date with all things Agile Ideas, go to our website, wwwagilemanagementofficecom. I hope you've been able to learn, feel or be inspired today. Until next time, what's your Agile Idea?