Analysis
Changing change management

The thinking behind change management and what constitutes best practice is being revised, ready for a new set of change management qualifications.

by Bob Little, Senior Partner - Bob Little Press & PR

 

Times, we’re told, are constantly changing – and the pace of that change is probably faster than ever before. That change can be externally imposed or internally generated; evolutionary or revolutionary; routine or one-off; mundane or transformative; about expansion or contraction.

 

Uncertainty about the future poses problems for those charged with introducing or maintaining change within their organizations and ensuring that it’s successful. This is a key argument for training people – especially managers – in the principles of change management and their practical application.

 

For many years, change managers have been important catalysts in facilitating all sorts of change within their organizations. Oddly enough, major change is also now affecting the change management profession – with the publication of a body of knowledge for change management (CMBoK), which has a worldwide relevance and application.

 

The CMBoK is the product of work by the Australia-based Change Management Institute (CMI) in association with APMG-International, a leading Examination Institute which accredits training and consulting organizations and manages certification schemes for professionals.

 

A body of knowledge is a document produced by a professional association to describe and define the knowledge that underpins effective practice in a trade or profession. This CMBoK identifies the knowledge areas required in order to operate as a change manager in a range of situations. It also shows how these knowledge areas relate to each other and outlines their practical application, within the CMI competence model. The CMBoK supports the project level of the CMI Organizational Change Management Maturity Model. This model, introduced in 2012, outlines what a mature organization does. In particular, it identifies three levels of maturity in change management: project change management; business change readiness and organizational change leadership.

 

Entitled ‘The effective change manager’ (ISBN 9780992362409; price £57), the CMBoK represents a new global standard in change management. It’s based on research, by the CMI, into what change managers actually do - including the procedural aspects of their jobs as well as the ‘human side’ of change management.

 

Richard Smith, APMG’s Chief Examiner for Change Management and the Lead Author for the CMBoK, said: “Opinions on what constitutes the relatively recently established field of ‘change management’ have varied over the years, with a consensus only slowly emerging. In the UK, one of the seminal works in this discipline is ‘Making Sense of Change Management’ (ISBN 978-0-7494-6435-6) by Esther Cameron and Mike Green. First published in 2004, it examines the human side of change management - from the perspectives of individuals, teams and leaders.

 

“Cameron and Green’s book is an excellent introduction to change management, setting out what it is and why it matters. It addresses the critical area of the human side of change but – from the CMI’s research – we know that other things affect what professional change managers do. While Cameron and Green’s book provides an excellent general management perspective on change management, professional change managers need a more specialized, deeper text to help them perform to the best of their abilities. The CMBoK can seed the emergent consensus on what constitutes change management and help this consensus to form more quickly and productively.”

 

CMI’s research dates from 2008 and involves over 600 change management practitioners in 30 countries. The results of the research form the basis for the CMI competence model for change management – which, incidentally, is available, free, from the CMI. From this model, the CMI has developed an accreditation process and a qualification which is based on the competence model and also includes a behavioural assessment of candidates.

 

According to Richard Smith, the CMBoK provides a benchmark about what you should expect a change manager to know. Starting with the competence model – setting out what change managers do – the CMBoK goes on to explore the underpinning knowledge relating to each of these competencies. From this comes a framework for providing would-be change managers with the correct information and other inputs to enable them to do their job.

 

As CMI and the authors of ‘The effective change manager’ agree, this first edition is a work in progress at a time when the change management profession is, itself, in a state of rapid change and growth.

 

For one thing, while the CMBoK describes and defines the knowledge that change managers need, it contains no suggestions on how to impart that knowledge. That is due to come this autumn, with ‘the Book of the BoK’ - the publication of a text which will form the basis for exams leading to change management qualifications. Already plans are in hand for a second edition of the CMBoK – based on new data about and insights into the global change management community. In this way the book’s producers aim to maintain a clear, current, convenient, coherent and valuable reference to what organizations require of an effective change manager.

 

During the rest of this year, APMG – which aims to support organizations to develop change leaders and managers who can help make change happen in a constructive and effective way - will be working with the CMI to refine the CMBoK and update the APMG change management syllabus, examinations and examinable text. A new change management syllabus is due to be launched in 2015. Those people who achieve APMG’s Change Management certification have shown a practical grasp of the world’s best-respected and most up-to-date thinking about change management. So those who already have a recognised change management qualification through APMG will, subject to evidence of practical application, now be eligible for CMI accreditation.

 

Melanie Franklin, the well-known author and speaker on change management who is also Director of the London-based consultancy, Agile Change Management, said: “Change Management is developing rapidly as a professional discipline. The publication of the first edition of the CMBoK is generating wide debate about the scope of knowledge required by effective change managers and the depth of knowledge needed in various related disciplines.”

 

The CMI already has a high-level professional accreditation scheme for those with a minimum of three to five years’ high quality experience in change management. The scheme leads to the status of Accredited Change Manager – and details of this scheme are available on the CMI website.

 

The CMI is also planning to introduce a new grade of accreditation for those with less experience of change management. Achieving this grade would require evidence of appropriate education or training as part of the admission/assessment process, in addition to evidence of workplace performance. The new APMG change management examinations will fully address the education and training requirements for this new grade of CMI accreditation, providing additional value to candidates who undertake training and exams via the APMG scheme.

 

As a transitional arrangement - and until the new examinations are established – the CMI will accept successful candidates from the existing APMG change management Foundation and Practitioner examinations as having fulfilled the education and training requirements for the new grade of institute membership. So existing candidates need not wait for the new examinations in order to take advantage of APMG’s alignment with the CMI’s professional accreditation.

 

Melanie Franklin said: “The current CMBoK contains an excellent summary of the change management profession to date, including commentary on change management as an emerging profession; an inter-disciplinary profession, and a developing profession. The CMBoK is a fantastically helpful reference guide for anyone interested in managing change and business transformation initiatives – even though it acknowledges that the knowledge and competence required for effective change managers still needs to evolve.

 

“Having worked within the project community for over 20 years  - specifically, within change management for the past ten years – and, as a registered Change Management Professional accredited by the CMI, I believe that having a reference guide of this calibre can only help with the wider adoption of consistent change management practices in years to come.

 

“In the CMBoK and the change management education, training and resulting qualifications that will follow from it, our profession can augment the important ‘human aspects’ of our job with rigorous, objectively gathered and continually monitored underpinning knowledge related to change management competencies.”

 

At present, the number of explicitly change management related jobs is growing and more organizations are seeking to build specific capacity and capability in change management – as opposed to its parent disciplines of organizational development and project management. New ideas and innovative approaches to change management – spread by online forums faster than printed literature can keep up – are encompassing the globe and driving behaviour which varies from the thoughtful and sophisticated to reflexive and faddish.

 

APMG’s Gavin Webb said: “As change management grows in importance as a key business skill, the APMG Change Management qualification scheme is well respected and valued by candidates. We’re building on this reputation by working with the CMI and will develop stronger, more robust qualifications. The updated syllabus and qualifications will have the professional recognition of the Institute, providing independent authority. In addition, candidates will be able to apply for professional accreditation by the Institute, using the APMG qualifications to demonstrate proof of learning.”

 

 

For over 20 years, Bob Little has specialised in writing about, and commentating on, corporate learning and related subjects. His work has been published in the UK, Continental Europe, the USA, South America and Australia. You can contact Bob via This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it