What Change Management is Not

A few months ago, my project manager said to me, "Many users are not happy with the training schedule, from a change management perspective." This statement is so full of misconceptions, I was struck dumb and did not even know where to begin to respond to it. The one response I did manage to eek out was "PM, training IS change management", which she still did not understand because she simply repeated her previous statement to me. (Reminder: We are working on a large, complex transformation project involving installation of new systems, the creation of a department within the organization, and a radical change in processes.)

Let me itemize here for my own piece of mind, all the misconceptions contained in the PM's statement:

1. Change management is NOT about how happy users are with the training schedule
2. The training program is a product of several variables; survey results on how users would like to be trained is not one of them
3. Success of a training program is not judged by how much users do or do not like the program. It is judged by how well KSAs (knowledge, skills, and abilities) are transferred to users.
4. Change management is about increasing a user's awareness, desire (or buy-in), knowledge, and ability to make a change; it is NOT about increasing their happiness.
5. Training is a major pillar of a CM plan. User happiness is not.

One could also interpret the PM's statement as saying that trainee happiness is more important than KSA transfer. For example, the CM team has scheduled a particular training class based on room availability, trainer availability and downstream project tasks that rely on the outputs of the class. When asked to register for this class, trainees contact the team to express their displeasure at some aspect of logistics.

I find project staff, especially PMs, have a tendency to change their definition of CM to whatever suits them in a particular moment. This often results in comments about how the CM team or plan must be failing because users/trainees are not feeling "all warm and fuzzy". I think this tendency is fed by the perception that Change Managers are "Drs. Feelgood" that come into an organization, make everyone stand in a circle, hold hands, and sing "Kumbaya".

Let me spell this concept out clearly for all current and future project team members:

CHANGE MANAGEMENT IS NOT ABOUT MAKING PEOPLE FEEL GOOD, NOR CATERING TO THEIR INDIVIDUAL PREFERENCES. IT IS ABOUT ENABLING THEM TO SUCCEED IN A NEW WORK ENVIRONMENT.

Well, you may argue that trainee happiness with the training program would contribute to an increase in their desire/buy-in to the change. This is pure polly-ana. The causal relationship between the two is slim-to-none. Desire/buy-in is most impacted by WIIFM - "what's in it for me" where the "it" refers to the coming changes, not the CM plan. A training class that suits one user's preferences does nothing to answer that crucial question. Desire/buy-in does not equal happiness.