Introduction
So, you want to be a change manager? Change management is often a natural career path progression that grows from a pre-existing role. Knowledge of how a particular industry works is essential for one to be able to guide change within said industry.
If you believe you have a good understanding of the roles, costs, tools and techniques used in your industry and are set on making the move to change management, you might be asking: “Well, what’s next?”
Change management qualifications
There is a choice of change manager certification on the market today. These range from entry-level, beginner courses to intermediate and advanced courses for those with experience in change management.
Change management training courses help change managers contextualize their understanding of an industry in relation to change initiatives and apply what they know to aid successful transformation.
At Knowledge Train, we offer both entry-level and intermediate change management courses. Our APMG change management courses are developed in collaboration with the Change Management Institute and are designed to help change managers effectively plan and implement successful transformation initiatives.
Based on the Effective Change Manager’s Handbook and the Institute’s Change Management Body of Knowledge (CMBoK)®. These courses explore how change affects individuals, teams, organizations and leaders, while equipping you with the knowledge, tools and techniques to implement change smoothly and effectively.
APMG Change Management Foundation
This Change Management Foundation course is aimed at those who want to work as change managers or whose existing role intersects with change projects and initiatives. This training is applicable to all industries and sectors and will equip participants to act more effectively within a change team.
APMG Change Management Practitioner
This Change Management Practitioner course builds upon the knowledge taught in the Change Management Foundation course. It equips students with the skills to successfully manage change and put techniques from the Change Management Body of Knowledge (CMBoK) into practice.
Change management skills
It goes without saying that, as change management is an involved and complex role, professional certification is only half the puzzle. Successful change managers will also require a repertoire of hard and soft skills to complement their existing industry knowledge and professional training. Here are just a few of the skills you’d expect to find in a change manager:
Critical thinking
Change managers must be visionaries, capable of predicting change and planning ahead accordingly. To so you, you’ll need to take advantage of the man change management methods, tools and strategies, tailoring them to suit your unique context, goals, projects or change initiatives.
Long-term change management strategies require a pro-active approach to ensure that any planned initiative does not become obsolete, stagnant or otherwise unproductive before desired results are achieved. Change managers must draw on external resources and all available opportunities to ensure they are continuously working towards new and improved ways of managing change.
Communication
As with many middle-management roles, effective communication is key. Change managers often work alongside roles at various levels of seniority in different functions within and across the organization.
You’ll need to understand the need and requirements of different audiences, how to contextualize information and how to relay information in a way that is relevant to the specific roles or tasks you seek to address.
It is rare that change within a business will be unopposed. Change of any magnitude is difficult, often frustrating and above all, time-consuming. Success in a change management role often comes down to earning the trust and respect of those who are most readily affected by change. Change managers must communicate with others honestly while also being open to criticism of their own methods.
Project management
Effective change managers need to assess change in terms of personal repercussions and technical issues to ensure change is accepted and then supported. Change initiatives are projects in their own right, so having knowledge of project management tools, methods, strategies and approaches is essential.
Change management involves the outlining of dependencies, accountability, channels of communication and available resources. Knowing how each piece of the puzzle fits together will allow you to predict possible outcomes, costs and timeframes, while simultaneously charting what still needs to be done to affect successful change.
Mentoring
As we’ve hinted at, part of the role of a change manager is to encourage, develop and support the ability of others to fulfil their role in any specific change management initiative. Often the best way to achieve this is through individual and group exercises, workshops, and tutoring.
Often, you’ll find yourself working with line-managers and middle management, helping them understand change so that they can then aid transition in their respective departments.
Change management general tips
If you’re satisfied you have the necessary qualifications, hard and soft skills to adequately fulfil the role of change manager, here are just a few tips to remind you that there’s far more to the role than what’s listed here:
Know yourself
It’s important to first understand your own motivations before encouraging others to follow you. Do you want to be seen as a leader or do you just want to help your co-workers enjoy a stress-free work environment? Are you open to criticism and self-reflection or can you be a bit hard-headed? Knowing what you are and are not capable of as a change manager should inform your own personal strategy when tackling the issue of change.
Change management is such a varied and complex discipline that there’s simply no such thing as “being fully prepared.” Change is not linear, there’s never just one way of achieving the goals of a change initiative, and as such, you can never learn enough. Change managers need to be willing to spend their own personal time to enrol in workshops and additional training.
As we’ve mentioned, understanding the ins-and-outs of project management is all but mandatory for change managers. You don’t need to have experience working as a project manager but being able to “speak the same language” as project managers can help align change deliverables, improve transparency and generally make your life much, much easier.
