Ask Jess: How Do I Convince My Leadership to Centralize Change Management?

Dear Jess,

I lead enterprise change for my company. I have one direct report. We provide project-based support and serve as internal consultants for the “change agents” across the organization. These are employees we have trained on how to lead change initiatives. Unfortunately, they don’t always follow our methods, which has impacted adoption and the employee experience. A dedicated team would solve these issues, but I have been unable to secure budget for full-time resources. How do I convince my leadership to invest in my vision for a centralized function?

Sincerely, 

Ready for Change

Dear Ready for Change, 

Convincing your leadership team to invest in your vision for a centralized team requires a strong business case that clearly outlines the problem, solution, and benefits for making the change, as well as the trade-offs and costs. Bottom line, you need to explain how dedicated resources will produce better results and the value of those outcomes.

Apogy’s “Triple A” measurement approach – Acquire, Analyze, Address – reminds us that the first step is to collect data. In your case, start with assessing your network of change agents to better understand what the issues are, as well as the opportunities. Use a variety of information gathering methods to ensure you have both quantitative and qualitative insights.

Questions to consider include: 

• Do their supervisor(s) and team support their role as change agents?
• What percent of their time do they allocate to change-related activities?
• What supports prevent them from being successful as a change agent?
• Do they follow the A.R.T model for individual change success?
• How are they measuring performance, and what were the outcomes?

The next step is to analyze the information. Are there any themes? What is and is not working? Can you compare their outcomes with projects your team has supported? This information can be used to inform your strategy for addressing the issues you surface and to support your recommendation for a dedicated team.

Proving your case can also include proving improvement. Identify a change agent who could benefit from one-on-one coaching on their next initiative, and work with them hand-in-hand to define the change, design the plans, and deploy. Be sure to establish baseline metrics so you can measure the difference in project outcomes and the employee experience thanks to more focused support. 

You can also leverage external sources to help build the case for a centralized team. Here’s a good article from BCG that explains several different models and how they function. If you belong to a community of practitioners, consider asking them for real-life examples to help build your case. An example from my own experience includes connecting a client to a former colleague of mine who had successfully formed a CMO for a large healthcare organization so she could include recent, relevant data points in her pitch.

Ultimately, you may find through your research and analysis that alternative models may also support your goal to design a consistent approach to change leadership so impacted stakeholders can readily accept, adopt, and sustain the changes. Whether it is through a centralized team, a hybrid model, or part time change agents spread across the enterprise, your renewed focus on measuring performance will strengthen your brand, boost the bottom line, and make it easier for decision-makers to approve your strategic recommendations.