Managing change during uncertainty can cause us to feel overwhelmed and powerless. But grounding our thoughts in what we already know about effective change can unlock creativity and the ability to problem-solve in our brains. Grounding our thinking is also a powerful, psychological way to direct our thoughts away from stress and create a sense of calm and control. This paves the way for more thoughtful actions and better results from change. What You Know About Change Management Whenever you face a stressful and uncertain change, it can be easy to focus too much on the difficulties ahead and lose confidence in your ability to deliver change management effectively. To reframe the situation and set yourself up for success, try to ground your thoughts in these three fundamental “Change Is, People Do” declarations about people and change: 1. Change is challenging, and people do resist change Change is often challenging because of uncertainty, risk and fear. Going from a comfortable current state to something new and different causes discomfort in social structures, our established habits, working norms, and even our psychological safety. This naturally leads to resistant behaviors, which are normal and expected during change. People resist change in many ways, ranging from quiet indifference and workarounds to recruiting dissenters and intentionally sabotaging projects. 2. Change is a process, and people do need to understand why We can’t flip a switch and expect people to know what is changing and how to change. We need to help them through the transition from their current state to their future state. When you tell people their job will be impacted by a change, you must also explain how all of the aspects of their job will be impacted. You must explain the current-state process and future-state process, current-state location and future-state location, and so on. This is what people need. And they need to know the why behind the change. Why are we changing? Why this? Why now? What happens if we don’t change? Prosci's 10 Aspects of Change Impact 3. Change is individual, and people do need change leadership We can’t talk about individual change without talking about ADKAR, which is an acronym for the process we know everyone goes through during change: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. To effectively build Awareness and Desire, we need specific individuals and roles in our organization to act so we can achieve critical individual process milestones. Who are the change leaders? Prosci Best Practices in Change Management research tells us that senior leaders are the preferred senders of organizational messages, and people managers (direct supervisors) are the preferred senders of personal impact messages. Preferred Senders of Messages Adaptive Action Framework in Change Management Another thing we know about people and change is that successful change can be unlocked. This is where an elegantly simple framework called Adaptive Action can help. Detailed in Adaptive Action: Leveraging Uncertainty in Your Organization, by Glenda H. Eoyang and Royce J. Holladay, the Adaptive Action framework can be applied to these “change is, people do” declarations to help us identify precisely what our next, best steps should be. The Adaptive Action model comprises three basic questions: What? So what? Now what? "What" asks about the current situation. What are you observing? What’s happening? "So What?" asks what meaning or conclusions we can draw. What's our reflective thinking on what's happening? "Now what?" is the action part. What actions can we take to address the implications? In addition to being easy to understand, the Adaptive Action framework enables us to use change management processes, structures and plans to reassess, course-correct, and adapt as needed very quickly. Consider our statement, “Change is challenging, and people do resist change.” How might we take Adaptive Action? 1. First ask, “What?” What about this change is so challenging? Maybe the challenge has nothing to do with the people side of change. It could be the solution itself—the technical side of what we’re designing, developing and delivering. Or the way the change is being brought to life, such as the Agile or another iterative approach. 2. Now let’s reflect on that by asking, “So what?” What are the implications of your observations about the “What” you observed? Why is change so challenging? Why do people resist it? Maybe the problem is that Agile and iterative approaches are new to your organization. People exhibit resistance behaviors because they’re unsure about the iterative impact to their day-to-day work and how they will be supported through the change process. 3. Finally, ask, “Now what?” What actions can you take immediately to address what’s going on? For our Agile example, we might share visuals that help impacted groups understand the eventual end state beyond incremental releases. We can also reinforce key messages and benefits. And we can engage sponsors and people managers to advocate for the change, setting clear expectations for their teams. Change Management in Times of Uncertainty As change leaders, we can address nearly any change challenge when we have the right knowledge, skills and tools. Combining what we already know about people and change with the Adaptive Action framework helps us adopt an action-oriented mindset, unlock problem-solving and creative areas of our brains, and make grounding connections. This helps us feel more comfortable, calm and in control while effectively leading others during complex and uncertain times of change.

At Prosci, we talk a lot about change practitioners—individuals who are actively involved in the art and discipline of change management. But no matter where you sit in the organization or what your full-time role is, you can adopt foundational mindsets and take actions to be a leader of change. 5 Career Lessons From Geese I live in the Midwest, where we often see geese flying overhead in a familiar V formation as they head south for the winter. Science has revealed that as each bird flaps its wings, it creates an uplift for the birds flying immediately behind them. Together, the flock can fly more than 70% further than if each bird flew alone. What do geese have to do with a career in change management? Their story can help you understand five important lessons that help you fuel your ambition to be a leader of change. 1. The importance of defining goals Geese share a common sense of direction and sense of community around the outcome of reaching a warmer destination. During change, we talk about this in terms of closing the gap between requirements and results, outputs and outcomes, specifications and sustainment, installation and realization. When we manage the people side of change, we close these gaps, share a common direction and sense of community, and get where we are going faster and easier. The people you are working with often don’t know why you want to put resources, time and energy into the people side of change. To create a shared direction and goals, communicate the “why change management” story, including the value proposition. When your direction is important and accurate, others will follow. 2. The importance of teamwork Geese know that there is greater resistance or greater drag when flying alone. They fly in V formation to take advantage of the lifting power of those around them. We need to enlist others in our formation—by starting informal communities with those who are headed in the direction we want to go. It takes a whole system of people in the organization to support the transition from the current state to the desired future state. To ensure needed support, change teams need specific individuals to fulfill the formal core roles in change management below. 3. The importance of sharing the workload When a goose tires of flying up front, it drops back into the formation and another goose flies to the point position. In other words, it pays to take turns on the hard tasks. In change management, we work alongside other technical resources—such as project management, IT or L&D—and when we respect and protect each other’s unique skills and capabilities, we can accomplish more. Managing change effectively requires multiple leaders and different types of leadership at different times. What matters is stepping into that change leadership role, enabling others to step into their role, and helping share the workload. We must build and draw upon the strength of others for continued success in our projects and initiatives, as well as all of our professional careers. 4. The importance of empathy and understanding When a goose drops out of the V formation because it’s sick or injured, two geese follow it down to the ground to help and protect it. When people have personal challenges, we must also stand by each other. A foundational belief we know to be true from our research is that change is challenging, and people do resist change. People tend to "drop a pin" in the current state, and having to move in a new direction can challenge social structures, habits, working norms, and sometimes even psychological safety. It's not until I understand what it's like to walk in your shoes or for you to walk in mine that we really start developing an understanding about the true problems each of us is trying to solve. And developing this empathy is essential to your overall success as a change management professional. To speak a clear language around what is changing, change leaders can use the 10 aspects of change impact to explain the degree of impact to a particular group. Defining change impact enables you to walk in someone else’s shoes and help them see that they’re going to have a new system, tools, mindset, etc. about their work and role in the organization to drive success. This is a gift we can give to the people around us. Prosci's 10 Aspects of Change Impact 5. The importance of encouragement When a flock of geese are in formation, they honk constantly to encourage those up from to keep up their speed. In groups and teams of people, production is greater when there is encouragement. For change leaders, that might mean sending an email or writing a personal note. I received a handwritten note of encouragement from someone on my team. That was impactful. Could you do that for others? Make a call, schedule a one-on-one. It could be for a senior leader who demonstrated effective change leadership behavior or a project manager who intentionally considered the people impacted by the change in their planning activities. We just need to make sure our “honking” is encouraging. Leaders must honk with constant support, hope and confidence to those around us in change roles, technical roles, or employees affected by change on the front line. Fuel Your Career in Change Management We can learn a lot from geese when it comes to managing change. I find the story of geese an inspiring and memorable way to frame key learnings: share a common direction, don’t fly alone, take turns on hard tasks, stand by each other, and honk with constant support. Regardless of whether you’re a sponsor or supervisor or project manager, we are all change leaders when we support, equip and enable others through change.

Crafting a compelling why for your change is more important than ever. As a change practitioner, you know that clear and concise messages are essential for helping people through any change. But it takes a clear, concise message with a compelling why to inspire your people to act. People Need to Understand Why In change management, people are generally good at explaining the what of a project or initiative. These are the characteristics of the change, as well as the behaviors associated with performing and optimizing the change. Take remote work, for example. People generally understand what it means to work from home when you explain all that is involved and ways to do it effectively. But is that why people were motivated to adopt the change to virtual working during the early days of the pandemic? Of course not. People were inspired to come together to adopt difficult changes that required sacrifice. The what—staying home—did not motivate people. The reason for the change—the health risk to loved ones—is what really brought the changes to life. The same is true for any organizational change that depends on people adopting and using your new manufacturing process, DEI initiative, enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, etc. How well do you focus on delivering a message of why? When you consider the changes going on in your organization now, is the why behind them strong? Does it bring your change to life? Does your why inspire people to action? Change Management and the Why Behind the Change The Prosci ADKAR Model guides individuals through the process of change in phases: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. A compelling why helps people get through Awareness quickly and easily, and enables them to move on to Desire. This is also true for leaders and sponsors of change, who often communicate the what and how of the change itself without sharing the most important information—why the change is happening. If you want people to change their behaviors, think differently, and embrace and use the solution, you must communicate a compelling why. Create and Communicate Your Why in Change Management Building a compelling why for a change is a worthwhile effort that will lead your team to action. Using the model below along with our downloadable worksheet, you can work through each element in numerical order. Start with Logic, then move to Emotion, and so on. Be sure to build on each element, expanding on the content to arrive at your compelling why for change. 1. Logic – facts, figures, features and lists Start by understanding the rational, data-driven, business case for your change. These are the objective reasons and empirical evidence that support the change. Although it is essential to understand the elements in this quadrant, logic does not inspire people to action because it comes from the head instead of the heart. For example, the logic quadrant can come to life in terms ROI, invested capital, interest potential of money, solution success, and the time it will take to deliver the solution. 2. Emotion – Principles, values, beliefs and ego The emotion quadrant represents the intuitive and subjective components of change, where the head meets the heart. This is the personal connection and it always comes first during a change. These are the answers to WIIFM or “What’s in it for me?” “How does this impact me?” “How do I feel about this change?” We can’t overlook how people feel about a change, so communicating openly and authentically is essential to creating a compelling why. It is simply human nature. Connecting the logic behind your why to emotion might include the values that anchor and drive your business, issues around psychological safety, or building relationships. 3. Visual – Destination, steps, progress and benefits Pictures and imagery help you clarify and simplify change. People think in pictures. Our brains are always converting information into a visual why. In pictures, we look for people places and things. To convey your complex idea as a single image, try using visualization prompts. Where do you want to go? What are the steps you will take to get there? What does progress look like? What are the benefits? 4. Story – Imagination, context, action and result The ultimate result of completing this exercise is a compelling story for your why, which you can then use to elevate your change management approach. Story is about synthesizing the essence of something in a narrative, along with characters and a plot. Brains are wired for story. We all enjoy hearing them, see ourselves as the characters, and relate with the plots. If someone gives you facts and figures, you may forget what they told you. But when they say, “Let me tell you a story,” your brain locks it away so you can draw on it again. Story resonates so much that people listen, link them to their own stories, and share them with others. You can create a memorable story about why you or your organization must change. Building on the visual element you conceived above, think of your story in terms of, “Once upon a time … your change happened … and they lived happily ever after.” Albert Einstein said, “If you can’t explain it simply, you don’t know it well enough.” With that in mind, be sure to keep shaping and editing your story until it is clear and concise, and no more than one page in length. Effective Change Management Communicating a compelling why connects the dots for everyone in your organization who will feel the impacts of a change. Whether you are rolling out a new manufacturing process, DEI initiative or ERP system, telling a clear, concise and inspiring story will move your change forward and help your people along the way.

Redeploying workers into new roles is an increasingly common challenge for change practitioners, and it often happens during a crisis. But no matter how urgently a change is needed, designing and implementing solutions without understanding the people they impact will ultimately diminish their desire to adopt and use those solutions, which is essential to your success. Empathy helps you balance the technical and people sides of change while gaining valuable insights about impacted people and their personal struggles. Empathy and Wearing Another’s Shoes Empathy is the ability to understand what another person is experiencing―to try to see the issues from their unique perspective. Unlike sympathy, empathy is about trying to feel what others are feeling. The extreme nature of urgent changes, such as those brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic, makes it easy to see why empathy is so important. Aside from risks associated with the illness itself, people were concerned about the well-being of loved ones, the effects of social isolation, a volatile economy, and an uncertain future. Ongoing change was already becoming the norm in organizations, but it has since become an overpowering force in our personal lives. And the impacts have a profound effect on an individual’s Desire to adopt a critical change like moving to a new job role. How Empathy Mapping Helps During Change Empathy mapping is a collaborative visualization technique used to better understand people (or users or customers) to create a shared understanding of their needs and aid in decision making. A foundational step in the discipline of design thinking, empathy mapping enables you to put yourself in the shoes of the people for whom you are designing the solution. The idea is that immersing yourself directly into their experience will evoke empathy for those people. Empathy maps are a quick way to “get inside a person’s head.” Each quadrant of the map represents the individual or group and how they relate to a particular change. Working through each quadrant helps you connect with the individual or group, distill critical information, and promote widespread understanding. Many online resources exist if you want to learn more about empathy maps and empathy mapping techniques. The technique you choose is less important than understanding the ways empathy mapping can help you as change practitioners and organizational leaders during crisis-related change: 1. Appropriately balancing the technical side and people side of change This is the user-centered design of the solution. At Prosci, we talk about change along two value streams. The first is the technical-side or what is being designed, developed and delivered. It’s the actual solution to a change challenge. The second is the people side or who must engage, adopt and use the solution so you can realize the desired benefits. Of course, the change management discipline focuses on the people side of change, but that doesn’t mean you should shy away from engaging on the technical side, especially during crisis-related change. Designing solutions expediently may be the top priority today. But if you don’t focus on the impacted people who must adopt and use the solution, the quickly designed solution may not be adopted and never achieve the desired outcome. Conducting an empathy mapping exercise during solution design can help you look beyond your assumptions and enable you to see things from the perspective of impacted individuals and groups, which results in more adoptable solutions. Empathy mapping can also aid decision making. Imagine the current challenge of redeploying workers into new roles. From an organizational perspective, you can move the boxes around on an organization chart, but an empathy mapping exercise may highlight the best way to optimize the way people work if you first understand their needs. 2. Involving people in the solution design and implementation challenges Senior leaders often feel like they must have all the answers but involving people who represent impacted groups will introduce a unique perspective. Having a seat at the table gives them a voice and unites everyone around a common goal. Empathy mapping their needs, and those of the impacted groups they represent, helps proactively address resistance to change before the behaviors emerge. You can take this a step further by involving those people directly impacted by crisis-related change in the solution design and implementation. In Prosci’s Best Practices in Change Management research, employee engagement and participation is the number three greatest contributor to change success behind active and visible sponsorship, using a structured change management approach, and communication. When redeploying workers into new roles, people who represent the impacted groups can provide ideas and feedback. They can become change champions, even though there may be little or no “what’s in it for me (WIIFM).” Their engagement can help promote a new mindset around “what’s in it for us (WIIFU).” And this team of change champions can carry the message to others in an honest and transparent way. 3. Recognizing that crisis-related change is often very personal No matter how proactive you are at empathy mapping to support user-centered design and participation when designing and implementing solutions, change is individual. Resistance to change is natural. In a crisis, change can be very personal, which heightens resistant behaviors. Being mindful of organizational concerns is difficult while being consumed with individual concerns such as family impact, job loss or health concerns. The technical solution brought forward for the organization’s benefit may be the only way out of the challenge, even though it impacts individuals and teams negatively. Empathy mapping gives individuals a way to organize, visualize and perhaps vocalize what they are thinking and feeling, so they can move past the personal impacts and toward collective change success. Helping everyone identify their own resistance response puts control in their hands at a time when they may feel like everything else is out of their control. For example, I may not be able to control how I am redeployed within my organization, but I can control how I respond to that change. Feeling like I am heard and understood by my manager and senior leaders in the organization may soften the fear and discomfort of the change and allow me some psychological safety amid crisis-related change. The ADKAR Model and Empathy Mapping Prosci’s ADKAR Model comprises five sequential building blocks: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. To build Desire and reduce change-resistant behaviors when redeploying employees into new roles, empathy mapping can help you make a positive impact. That’s important. Some rules go out the window during crisis-related change but treating people with empathy doesn’t have to be one of them.

Change management is the discipline that guides how we prepare, equip and support individuals to successfully adopt change in order to drive organizational results and outcomes. Change management provides a structured approach to support the transition from the current state to the future state in the context of each unique change. What happens, however, when numerous projects or initiatives introduce multiple, often simultaneous changes? The increased volume, velocity, and complexity of changes that we see across industries and organizations is resulting in: Change saturation – individuals and organizations experience more change than can be absorbed Change collision – too much change is happening at once, resulting in conflicts in timeframe, resources and mindshare At the individual level, the consequences of change saturation and collision are disengagement, anxiety, confusion, stress and fatigue. At the group level, the consequences are lack of necessary resources, poor project delivery, and little direction from senior leaders. And, at the organization level, the consequences are lack of focus, turnover, and low morale. In the most recent Prosci Best Practices in Change Management study, 78% of respondents said their organizations were nearing, at, or past the point of change saturation. In other words, "change turbulence" and the negative consequences have become the norm. Change Portfolio Management Change Portfolio Management is a structured approach and set of tools for managing the cumulative and collective impact of a portfolio of change. Change Portfolio Management introduces a new perspective—like getting above the forest canopy so you can see the forest for the trees. This perspective is necessary to see the situation more holistically, introducing a new opportunity and a new set of challenges. The Scope, Influence and Resource Challenge The first inclination when considering the scope of the change portfolio is to draw your boundary around the whole forest – every project or change initiative that is happening organization-wide. In some cases, that may be the right answer. In many cases, however, the broader your scope, the more difficult it is to see what is happening, influence key decisions, and have the available resources to contribute to the desired outcomes. Prosci recommends giving consideration to each of these factors before taking action to manage the change portfolio: Scope Decide on the magnitude of the scope of the change portfolio; is it workgroup, department, function, cross functional, or enterprise? What does the portfolio contain? Does it contain similar changes or types of impact such as the strategic projects or IT change initiatives? Or does the portfolio contain a view from the impacted group or project team (i.e. all changes impacting a specific group or all changes being led by a project or program team)? Once you decide on the scope, now you should give consideration to the level of influence and available resources for the change portfolio. Influence Start by considering how much you can influence the outcome of the change portfolio. Can you influence: The entry or exit of projects in the portfolio? The investment in them? Resource assignment and adjustment? Impact group adjustments – by timing, degree of impact or sequencing? Other areas of influence include milestone timing, stopping or pausing a project, sponsor assignment and strategic alignment. Resources Next, give consideration to the amount and types of resources available. Are you a team of one or 10 or 50? What other organizational resources do you have available to you in your project management office (PMO) or change portfolio resources? What level of sponsorship do you have and how engaged are they in addressing the change portfolio challenges you are identifying? The Path Forward: Visualize, Manage, Optimize Once you select the change portfolio scope, consideration is given to the key factors of influence and resources. These factors have been incorporated into the Prosci Portfolio Scaling Plot (an Excel-based tool), which can be used to define where you uniquely find yourself in regard to the types and number of changes in your organization, your level of influence, and your available resources to guide your recommended change portfolio management approach: Visualize, Manage, Optimize. Visualize – The primary focus is on seeing change saturation and collision; we can see the forest Manage – The primary focus is to inform key decisions with the view of change saturation and collision; we take action in context of the forest Optimize – The primary focus is on actively influencing business activities to minimize change saturation and collision; we can change the forest Each of these outcomes are depicted in the three-by-three scaling plot below, representing different change portfolio management approaches. Scenario 1: Low Change Portfolio Resources – Across all levels of influence (low, moderate or high), the optimal path is Visualize Scenario 2: Low Change Portfolio Influence - Across all levels of resources (low, moderate or high), the optimal path is Visualize Scenario 3: With moderate or high resources aligned with moderate or high influence, the optimal path is Manage Scenario 4: With high resources and high influence, the optimal path is Optimize The output of the Prosci Portfolio Scaling Plot is a visual that defines the recommended approach for change portfolio management at your organization. A sample output of this plot is shown below: The Visualize Path Having the ability to see change saturation and change collision is the starting point for Change Portfolio Management. In many cases, the first visual we think of is a heat map. A heat map is a visual representation of the change portfolio through the lens of a target group (or groups). It is one of the primary visualization tools that show what changes are happening, who they will impact, the degree of impact, and when they will be impacted through color-coded display (cooler and hotter). A heat map is very helpful, but there are lots of elements of the change portfolio we can visualize. To begin, ask yourself the question, “What decisions do I need to inform with the visualizations?” You may discover that you need to make resource decisions based on project health, decide how to address sponsor saturation concerns, make impact group adjustments, or change project and milestone sequencing and timing. There is a different set of data required to inform those decisions than what is required to build a heat map. If you land in the Visualize area of the plot, you most likely do not have the influence or resources to force the organization to do something based on your visualizations. Your best approach is to influence decisions and behaviors and build the business case for structured change portfolio management by creating useful and impactful change saturation and change collision visuals. The Manage Path We don’t want to just see change saturation and collision; we need to take action to manage saturation and collision. With the appropriate level of influence and resources, we can work in partnership with project, program and portfolio managers and the associated senior-level sponsors to ensure alignment, realize economies of scale in project delivery, and improve benefit realization. On the Manage path, we spend time building decision models to guide and direct the data we need to collect and the visualizations we need to provide. We focus on establishing common data about each change—types of change, normalized impact groups, and degree of impact. It is time-consuming and expensive to collect, analyze, report and sustain the data and information needed to inform decisions. By taking this approach, we consider the decisions we need to inform first and then collect the required data. The Optimize Path On this path, we are considering what needs to change in order to minimize change saturation and change collision. The purpose of the Optimize path is to make changes to business activities like: The project intake process; project identification, assessment, selection, and timing from the change portfolio perspective Sponsor engagement and leadership support aligned with and in support of our efforts Integration with the strategy formation process to participate at the source, where projects and initiatives are considered before they enter the project portfolio and the resulting change portfolio All of these are completed with the intent of achieving operational effectiveness and ensuring strategic alignment of the in-scope projects and change initiatives and the resulting portfolio of change. Extending the Prosci Methodology and Tools to the Change Portfolio For organizations that are familiar with and utilizing the Prosci 3-Phase Process, the tools and diagnostics that are utilized in the context of an individual project or change initiative have natural extensions to the change portfolio. Each of these has an aspect of Visualize, Manage, and Optimize depending on how they are leveraged to deliver successful projects, realize portfolio benefits, and optimize portfolio composition: Change Portfolio Management Dashboard All of this data can be collected and summarized in a way that sheds light on the impacts of each individual project or change initiative and the change portfolio as a whole. Prosci is developing new tools in this area, including a Change Portfolio Management Dashboard (currently a prototype for future development) to provide this view of the change portfolio. The objective is to ensure the data collected and output produced can be aligned with existing project portfolio management (PPM) or change portfolio management activities already underway in your organization. Change Portfolio Management X Factor Change Portfolio Management at its core is about managing the cumulative and collective impact of change to achieve the desired outcome, ROI or benefit realization. Our view above the forest canopy—at the portfolio level —offers significant benefits to our change management efforts, but it requires influence and resources to get there. There is an interesting effect that occurs when you follow the approach outlined in this article; let’s call it the “Change Portfolio Management X Factor.” Consider for a moment what happens when your organization’s overall change management capabilities and competencies increase (on an individual project or change initiative) - change capacity increases, and change disruption decreases. Similarly, when you focus your change portfolio management efforts, as guided by the Prosci Portfolio Scaling Plot, it is likely you will begin to increase your influence and resources because of the value you bring to the table. Take the Change Portfolio Management Challenge What actions are you going to take as a result of reading this article? Take the challenge of stepping into Change Portfolio Management armed with a new perspective. Let us know what insights you gained as a result and we will share them with other change practitioners embarking on the Change Portfolio Management challenge. Together, we will create an approach that is actionable and attainable led by Prosci research and world-class Prosci Methodology.