Hello all! I am working through the 6 meta trends in the change management data section of Prosci Chief Innovation Officer Tim Creasey’s post titled Change Management Trends Outlook 2024 and Beyond. The post is based off of Prosci’s Best Practices in Change Management – 12th Edition research.

As Tim’s post points out, the organization started conducting specific research on change management trends in 2013. From 2013-2023, six meta trends materialized in the data.

• Converging people, culture, and strategy
• Adopting Agile
• Increasing Awareness of the need for change management
• Leveraging technology
• Building organizational change capability
• Integrating change management and project management

So far, I’ve looked at increasing awareness of the need for change management and building organizational change capability. This week’s trend is…

Integrating change management and project management

Tim’s post mentions that this trend peaked in 2015 and now, although still meriting focus, has almost become an expectation. He says, “The technical side of the change is executed by project management and the people side of change is executed by change management, and they work together to achieve a common objective of successful outcomes. The two disciplines are inextricably linked to how change comes to life in the organization.”

On the surface, this sounds about right. Project management and change management working in tandem, side by side right from the beginning of a change initiative to simultaneously ensure technical and human success. Wait, what? When I reflect on change work I’ve been involved in, this has not been the case. Usually, lots of project management work has been done before change management is brought into the picture.

Project and change management working side by side right from the beginning of a change initiative to simultaneously ensure technical and human success. Wait, what?

I recall one project where from the project manager’s perspective (was the technical deliverable going to be delivered on time) the project was going well / on target, “green” if you will. From my change perspective (are human beings well prepared informationally, skill wise, emotionally, environmentally, etc.) the project was “yellow” if not “red”.

I really like the use of the word integrating in this trend and recommend that project management and change management do integrate their efforts. Two definitions of the word integrate from Oxford Languages highlight why:

• Combine (one thing) with another so that they become a whole.
• Bring (people or groups with particular characteristics or needs) into equal participation in or membership of a social group or institution

To summarize these two definitions, integration is the project management and change management disciplines, each with a different focus, participating equally from the beginning of a change initiative to help ensure mutual success, and thus, project success. This includes working together on:

• Defining success metrics
• Crafting a Definition of Ready and Definition of Done
• Sequencing / timing activities
• Ensuring that assessing who is impacted and how they’re impacted, what the benefits are, etc. starts right from the beginning of the initiative

How powerful would this approach be?

How powerful would this approach be, project and change management participating equally from the beginning of a change initiative to help ensure mutual success, and thus, project success?

Closing thoughts

I want to hear from you! What are your thoughts on my recommendation for project management and change management integrating their efforts from the beginning of a change initiative? What experiences have you had with this approach? Please post your thoughts and comments below. Let’s help each other become the best change management practitioners and enthusiasts we can be!

Thank you for reading. Until next time, take care and keep up the good work!

Mike