Being an agile organisation nowadays can mean one of two things. The Project methodology you are using is 'Agile', OR your organisation is able to respond to change FAST. In this article we are focusing on the latter - the connection between enterprise change maturity and the ability to respond to change.

The Oxford definition is the 'ability to move quickly and easily'. This term has become very popular in organisations due the constant time pressure that they were under to deliver. Building change agility is an outcome of building change capability. Here are some key correlations between Change agility and enterprise change maturity and examples of where these have come to life:

1) Having cross disciplined teams delivering change on a regular basis makes the difference when urgency is needed. There was no better example of this than how well any organisation responded to the COVID-19 pandemic.  During COVID I watched team members who had worked together on a flexible working...

As organisations face efficiency and profit challenges, there are more demands being placed on teams. Of course technology plays a big part in efficient delivery of products and services by teams, and this has seen the evolution of agile ways of working. However when looking to introduce change, efficiency takes a different meaning. It is more about the effectiveness of the individuals coming together to work on delivering it. How can they be more efficient and what can they do to become a high performing team? This is where the concept of 'teaming' comes into it. In agile frameworks the result of good teaming is improved velocity, in change it is achieving the outcomes you desired in a shorter period of time. But what does this concept of 'teaming' actually involve? And how does it contribute to creating high-performing teams?

What is Teaming?

Teaming is not just about grouping people together and hoping for the best. It's a dynamic process where individuals come together, often...

I enjoy the debate about whether Change fatigue is really a thing or whether it is simply a myth. Change is a constant in business, however if it is not led well or managed well, frustration sets in. Remember what it feels like when something is just 'dumped' on you or your team without notice? Where your leader's instructions were pretty much that you had to suck it up and get on with it even though it makes no sense to anyone? So my hypothesis is that people aren't fatigued by change, but they will be fatigued by poorly led and poorly managed change.

Just imagine in an organisation where that happens over and over. Last minute briefings, poor information shared where someone presents to your team about information that isn't relevant to them and then they can't answer the questions that are sensible to ask? 

Like groundhog day - no matter who you give feedback to, the people who are delivering change aren't listening and just keep releasing poorly developed fixes that...

Enterprise Change Management practices and teams are starting to pop up now even more than ever. But what is the typical roadmap to change management having a presence in an organisation and what would the ultimate roadmap to building change maturity into an organisation? Unfortunately maturity is sometimes created by accident and the journey initiated with a poorly implemented change. 

The 'Accidental' journey

The first roadmap I want to share is one which is more the 'accidental journey'. One where it started as a 'we need to fix it' scenario, then grows into something more.

The catalyst for bringing a Change Manager into an organisation, or someone who knows about change is usually because there has been some major change taking place in an organisation and it has failed. Here are some scenarios I have experienced. There is a new IT system which no-one is using, there is a big transformation on the horizon and the program needs someone to scope out and deliver the...