Introduction
Jumoke Ogunbekun is a Change Management trainer at Knowledge Train. In this interview, Jumoke explains what change management means for an organization, who manages change, and the benefits gained from change management training.
Read on to learn how effective change management techniques will help you and your organization.
Interview with Jumoke Ogunbekun
Please introduce yourself
My name is Jumoke and I am one of the trainers at Knowledge Train.
What is change management?
Change management helps you overcome the challenges posed when introducing change into an organisation. This can include any sort of change, from moving offices to the adoption of a new piece of software. Basically, anything that differs from the status quo. Change managers must be able to understand why and how change happens and how to overcome resistance to change.
Please give examples of organizational change
The practice of change management includes:
- Moving offices
- Adopting some new software
- Company re-organisation
- Improving company processes
- Merging organizations together
- Plus many more.
What are common change management practices?
One typical change management practice is to identify the organizational drivers of a change initiative and to understand how they link with any governance structures within the organization. Change managers need to use a range of organization paradigms to understand, support and sustain the change processes.
There also needs to be effective preparation for the change initiative. This includes building a change team and offering insights to improve the effectiveness of the team. Another thing is to establish a clear framework of roles, skills and activities through which leaders can support and sustain the change process.
Is it only change managers who implement change?
No. Project managers, programme managers and business change managers can implement change management in an organization. The key staff involved in the design, development and delivery of change programmes include senior responsible owners, business change managers, programme managers and operational line managers.
What are the responsibilities of a change manager?
Change managers act as a coach for senior leaders and executives in helping them fulfil the change role. Change managers also support project teams in integrating change management activities into their project plans. They define the benefits and measure the progress being made towards realization thereby achieving measured improvements in business operations.
What key skills do change managers need?
Coaching, training and organisation skills.
What is the Change Management qualification?
The Change Management Foundation & Practitioner course is accredited by APMG and is designed for people who need to understand the challenges of introducing change. This includes understanding why change happens, how change happens and how to overcome resistance to change.
Who should take a Change Management qualification?
The Change Management qualification will suit anyone who is involved in change. This includes senior managers, project and programme managers and change champions. Anyone who needs to understand how to approach change, the processes involved and how to help ease the impact of change would benefit from this course.
What are the benefits of Change Management certification?
By getting staff certified in Change Management, there are several benefits for an organization:
- The change management initiative is likely to be more effective because the people involved in leading the change will be drawing on a range of professional approaches
- Staff will be better able to adjust to organizational change
- Stakeholder engagement is likely to be more effective during change initiatives
- It will minimize the risks associated failed change initiatives because the change leaders are following best practices
- More effective change teams can be established
- Team resistance to change can be addressed throughout the initiatives
- There’s an increased probability of successful business change or transformation.
Are there any prerequisites for the Change Management course?
No previous experience is required.
What’s the difference between Foundation and Practitioner?
The APMG change management certification scheme awards certification at 2 levels: Foundation and Practitioner.
The difference is the level of understanding. The Change Management Foundation course helps people understand change management concepts whilst the Change Management Practitioner helps people to apply their knowledge of the concepts.
Who should take Change Management Foundation?
Anyone involved in change initiatives, who requires a working knowledge of the key principles of change management. Or, professionals pursuing the Change Management Practitioner certification because the Foundation certificate is a prerequisite for the Practitioner certification.
Who should take Change Management Practitioner?
Anyone involved in project management or programme management. Project sponsors, change champions within organisations, such as heads of department and business change managers who are responsible for managing change in an organisation. Anyone working in a programme office who is responsible for teams that are undergoing change in their businesses.
Which other qualifications are useful alongside Change Management?
PRINCE2 and project, programme and portfolio management courses all go well with Change Management because they all address change initiatives.
Will Change Management training help people work more efficiently?
Yes, it will. This is because it helps you to better understand who is impacted by change. This will give change managers a better chance of managing the change successfully.
Can Change Management training help someone’s career?
Yes, I believe so. This is because it helps you understand the attitude of people when it comes to any type of organisational change and how to better communicate with people. This will certainly help you when applying for jobs in this field.
What’s it like as a trainer in Change Management?
I find the Change Management courses very interesting because it really relates to the understanding of people. There are two aspects to the training. One is the theory, which is based upon on any change theory. The other is technical, which is based on processes used when handling change.
Both aspects offer different areas to the qualification. This helps students understand different types of people and organisations, and how to handle them. Both are needed for change to be successful.
After Change Management training, what’s the next step?
Students can get a job as a change agent or assisting a program office in stakeholder engagement. The Change Management qualification goes well alongside other certificates in programme or portfolio management and sets you apart to get a better paid job. So far, there’s not a huge number of change professionals with qualifications, so to get a qualification now will put you ahead of the queue.
