I have given many different responses to this question over the years.
This time I chose to give an example:
An initiative is going to use a new tool. Much of the information that fed through the old tool will do the same with the new. The general assumption, of course, is that the vetting process for the new tool revealed its value. That will need to be illustrated and described to stakeholders. Common sense. No need for a CM here.
What really happens?
The “benefits” are stripped right off of the vendors marketing fluff and thrown on a project slide to show the “business case”. Then the first time someone actually interprets the use of the tool from the eyes of the purchasing organization it is well into the project timeline. That is the first time the tool and all its GUI functionality gets put to the real test.
At that point it becomes glaringly obvious that not only should there be a CM on the initiative, but it is months too late.
The simplest part (as in not complicated, a common theme when discussing senior CM) of change management is the “makes sense” description. In this scenario that will come from expertise with both the tool and business processes. Someone must be able to figure out what is REALLY good about this new thing. Never have I seen this done on a project. Any attempts have always been months late.
This would never happen if a senior CM was there right after the idea. This and many, many other examples big and small.
Partly because no one is responsible for it. Partly because if they were they would not know exactly how to get it to happen (that includes executives wielding lots of power). Mostly because it seems so simple that it is assumed it will just happen somewhere along the line…
This was actually our example together- client and consultant (brought in late and patiently catching the whole thing up). And so I said, “who is the person I can commandeer to give us those genuine benefit answers right now?’”.
You, or course, know the answer. Would you have to provide a similar answer on your own initiative?
PS. the answer is, “I have no idea and I am pretty sure that person does not exist….yet”.
Ah. The CM would have found them, or forced them to be created with time on the tool, very, very early in the timeline.
