Building Large-Scale Change Management Capabilities

Challenge

Grand Hôpital de Charleroi had a vision to transform five separate healthcare facilities into a unified, patient-centric organisation. The hospital wanted to launch four key initiatives affecting 4,500 staff that would centralise five locations, establish a patient-centric culture, unify a fragmented process, and implement new technology. With a total of 150 concurrent changes requiring rapid adoption, and healthcare systems already vulnerable from COVID-19, the organisation faced significant challenges in achieving their goals.

Further, when the organisation first embarked on their ambitious plan, they did not have an existing culture of change management or any formal structure around change. Recognising the critical importance of the people side of change, the steering committee leading the initiative engaged Prosci to be Grand Hôpital de Charleroi’s partner for change.

Solution

Grow enterprise change capability
Build change management office (CMO)
Implement integrated governance structure
Develop comprehensive cultural transformation programme
Design and deliver targeted training

Enterprise Change Management

Prosci established a CMO and certified 25 staff members from various disciplines. This influential Change Community then supported implementation and reinforcement throughout the organisation.

Cultural Transformation

To unite the five sites culturally, every staff member participated in a survey that collected data to help inform the creation of the hospital’s core values. Four core values were then defined and communicated based on employee input allowing for smoother integration.

Project Prioritisation

With such a large volume of projects to be completed, several projects across various business areas were identified as priority projects. This brought focus and helped align sponsors, project managers, and change managers at both organisational and project levels.

Results

Strategic Integration

Organisational agility and change-readiness has increased thanks to the creation of an internal change management governance structure. Additionally, throughout the engagement, change management has evolved from an add-on to become a strategic function driving milestones, KPIs, and goals alongside project management.

Cultural Transformation

A collaborative, bottom-up approach to defining core values ensured commitment organically throughout the organisation. Rather than feeling like change was happening to them, employees could see themselves in the initiatives, which made adopting new behaviours and daily routines easier.

Sponsor and manager engagement

Sponsors bring an identity to projects that strengthens team cohesion, while managers serve as field-level catalysts—gathering feedback and helping teams adjust to new routines.

Sponsor and Manager Engagement

Building change management capabilities at all levels of the organisation ensured a strong foundation for success. Executive sponsors helped bring an identity to projects and strengthened team cohesion, while managers served as field-level catalysts gathering feedback and helping teams adjust to new routines. Together, this approach ensured long-term success.