The people side of change management is the work of helping each person adopt a change: building their awareness of why it is happening, their desire to take part, the knowledge and ability to work the new way, and the reinforcement that makes it stick. It sits alongside the technical or project side, and it is the part that decides whether a change is actually used once it goes live.
Every change has two sides. The technical or project side designs, builds and delivers the solution. The people side moves the humans who have to use it. Prosci, whose research underpins much of the discipline, puts it plainly: project management handles the technical side, change management handles the people side, and both are needed for a change to succeed.
What the people side covers
The most widely used model of individual change is ADKAR, developed by Prosci's founder Jeff Hiatt. It describes five things each person needs in order to move through a change:
- Awareness of why the change is happening.
- Desire to take part in and support it.
- Knowledge of how to change.
- Ability to apply the new skills and behaviours.
- Reinforcement to make the change stick.
Why it decides the outcome
A capable solution that nobody adopts delivers nothing; a modest one that everybody adopts delivers value. Prosci's benchmarking finds that initiatives with excellent change management are several times more likely to meet their objectives than those with poor change management. The people side is where that difference is made, and it is the work CCG has built its practice around.
Next step: want the people side handled properly from the start? Explore CCG Consult.