Thinking about a career in Change
Tania Finn Angelo has built a fulfilling career in Change Management across New Zealand and in Australia. Her journey from business operations to becoming a respected Change Lead offers valuable insights into this growing field. We discuss Change Management then and now, the versatility and challenges of Change Management as a career, and her tips for aspiring Change Managers.
Tell me about your background and how you ended up getting into Change Management?
Tania got into change management over 15 years ago when it wasn’t highly recognised here in New Zealand, outside of central government, the Big Four and off-shore owned corporations. There was little in the way of certifications or accreditations at the time, but now, excitingly, there are career Change Managers who haven’t come in via communications, training, operations or any of the other traditional pathways.
Working on a significant business change programme within the insurance industry, Tania was supported by an accomplished change manager and the role really resonated with her. For Tania the key was that supporting the people to do things in new or different ways, whether that be systems, processes, organisational structures or culturally, was a critical success factor to achieving the desired benefits. After the programme completed, Tania took the opportunity to move her career into change management.
Following a stint as a Senior Change Advisor for the Ministry of Health in New Zealand, Tania spent almost 10 years with the University of Melbourne supporting the change delivery on various projects and programmes, and in the latter half of her tenure, lead the IT based Change Management Practice. The team, made up of change, communications, and training professionals, flexed between 8 and 20 in size to accommodate the many change initiatives being rolled out across the University.
Change Management in Australia vs NZ:
Change Management has been well established in Australia for some time so in 2010 when Tania relocated to Melbourne, there were more opportunities across large organisations and both federal & local government and greater networking and connection opportunities. The practice of change management is so well established that many of the larger organisations in industries such as financial services, have robust frameworks & processes, which means it’s built in as a mandatory activity but can somewhat reduce creativity and flexibility in how change is managed. It was a great experience being able to build capability and develop connections in that Melbourne environment.
Biggest roadblocks to the effective management of change:
A lack of understanding of what Change Management really is and what it will deliver, especially at a senior leadership level. There are organisations and people who realise they would benefit from having some change support but aren’t entirely sure what to expect in terms of deliverables for their investment. This can mean there is a focus on document production rather than on the supporting activities the documents enable.
The key is: to help people to recognise that change management is more than just comms and training, it needs to be brought in just before a project goes live. In the project environment, a strong partnership with the sponsor and Project Manager is important, along with ensuring the change support is right-sized and the right people are identified and involved.
Integrating the Change Management and Project Management lifecycles:
In Tania’s latest role as Change Practice Lead in Foodstuffs South Island (FSSI) Enterprise Programme Management Office, the change management lifecycle is integrated with the project management lifecycle. The benefit of this is that it ensures the change impacts are understood across the portfolio and strategic projects can be delivered effectively. The involvement of change support activities starts early with high level stakeholder identification and impact assessment and contributes to both, the concept brief and business case. As you follow FSSI’s project lifecycle, there are change artefacts and activities intertwined throughout.
This doesn’t make it perfect, but it has been an effective model to apply in the delivery of large strategic projects, in a fast-paced organisation, going through considerable business change.
Becoming a Change Manager:
Tania likes the variety the change management role brings to a practitioner. Delivering business change via projects or within business-as-usual is not easy, so being able to assess and adapt to situations and work with others to problem solve, is paramount to being successful.
There are several certifications/accreditations available to those wanting to know more about change management or if they like, to become a Change Analyst, Change Manager or work in change communications. Prosci is probably the more popular framework and, although expensive, is a sought-after certification. APMG offer a good practical course, as do Changefirst with their People Centred Implementation framework. The Change Management Institute have an accreditation programme which is offered in New Zealand. There are also options now for people to include it as part of their tertiary studies, which is fantastic.
Deciding to get into change is about being focussed on the role people, both leaders and those doing the work, play in the adoption and embedding of change and how that effects business performance. It’s all about ensuring people, including leaders, are supported through change, in an effective way, to achieve the organisations strategic outcomes. This might be supporting a system upgrade, physical relocation, structure change or even a merger. It could also be supporting smaller initiatives such as process change, capability uplift or new product development. There is so much scope and it’s important to design up the change approach to best suit the stakeholders you’re working with.
In addition to attending a course, it’s a great move to build networks to gain insight from those who have hands on experience supporting complex change, especially as people are first starting out.
You can join the Change Management Institute, talk to professional organisations, keep an eye out for events in the change space – the University of Canterbury have a series on now and Change is a part of that.
Learning Material:
Books:
Change Management: The People Side of Change, Jeffrey M Hyatt & Timothy J Creasey
Main theme: Introduction to Change Management from Prosci
The Project Rots from the Head, Colin D Ellis
Main theme: The role of sponsors and leaders in successfully delivering change
ADKAR: A model for change in business, government and our community, Jeffrey M Hyatt
Main theme: Introduces Prosci’s model for managing change
The Agile Change Playbook, Dr Jen Frahm & Lena Ross, Agile Change Leadership Institute
Main theme: managing change in an Agile environment
Blogs and Training Services:
Prosci has a wealth of information on their website, including access to courses. Sign up for their blog and regular information at www.prosci.com
Change Superhero is owned by Sharon Connolly, a change manager who provides great templates and courses on how to get the best out of technology when depictingcomplex concepts graphically. Her website is www.changesuperhero.com.au
The Agile Change Leadership Institute has an active, interesting and useful blog feed and there are training and resources available. Sign up at https://aclinstitute.com
For those interested in people, culture, feedback and all that good stuff, Georgia Murch writes thought provoking articles, books and blogs. Sign up for her blog at https://georgiamurch.com
Kotter Inc has their own methodology and useful research and insights: www.kotterinc.com/research-insights
Musings on the future of Change Management:
In Christchurch and nationally, the value of Change Management is becoming more recognised as people realise that focussing purely on Project Management activities, supported with some comms and training, isn’t getting the outcomes they need. By leading and supporting people through change, people are more likely ready for what’s coming and take a shorter time to adopt and embed the changes, ensuring continued business performance and the realisation of benefits. This means we need to help them understand why things need to change, what it means for them and what their role/world looks like once the change has been adopted.
What do you love about living and working in Christchurch?
Tania came back from Melbourne not thinking she would ever get a Change Practice Lead role. She was able to build something from scratch at Foodstuffs South Island and leave the organisation with something fully formed. Christchurch is a vibrant community, people are actively relocating here, there is more and more business, bringing opportunities for any professional. Her advice is to keep up your networks and talk to people. It’s a small city built on people and relationships.
Stay tuned for next month’s blog on another discipline within the tech arena!