Offering role clarity in change management?

Role clarity is so important. Earlier this month an article appeared in Forbes magazine provocatively titled “Don’t be a change agent, and don’t hire one”, by Liz Ryan. I wrote about it at the time on LinkedIn, and one of the things I noted was the author appeared very confused about the difference between a change leader, a change sponsor, a change agent and a change manager.And while I have posted previously on “Who are your change communities" and covered SMEs, Super Users, Change Enablers, Change Champions and Change Leaders; this post offers some clarity on how I define the different roles that have a key role in the success of an organizational change.

Change leader

These are line managers and senior managers who are prepared to actively and vocally sponsor, support and role model the changes associated with the system or process or behaviours you are introducing. Ideally, they should work alongside a change champion to ensure that the change champion is supported. In many companies, change leaders end up having the key success criteria of the change project built into their performance review. They are also integral in determining consequence management of the change – e.g. what happens when people work around the change or deliberately subvert the change.

Change sponsor

The change sponsor is a formal role assigned to  a steering committee (often known as a ‘steerco’). If your organization is using a formal project methodology you will most likely have a project sponsor (and in this case, this person is also the sponsor of the change). The change sponsor is ultimately accountable for change and keeps a close eye on the issues at hand and what it will take to remove barriers. A change sponsor should not be particularly involved in the day to day running of the change, but their attention will ramp up when things are getting tricky or challenging. A change sponsor should be seen as support and a facilitator, not some-one to please. Sometimes there is a lot of overlap between change sponsors and change leaders, but it is not uncommon to have one change sponsor and multiple change leaders in the business.

Change agent

If you have stuck your hand up to initiate, lead and execute change, there is a fair chance that you are indeed a Change Agent. The change agent is often the person who introduces and champions the new idea. Additionally, the change agent is responsible for taking the activity into Business as Usual (e.g. post change activity). Everett Rogers in his change bible The Diffusion of Innovations (1962) describes a change agent, as ‘an individual who influences client’s innovation –decisions in a direction deemed desirable by a change agency’. Critically, ‘the change agent not only seeks to obtain the adoption of new ideas, but may also attempt to slow down diffusion and prevent the adoption of undesirable innovations’. (p. 28). Further, in contrast to the ideas above of the change agent as part of the business, Rogers saw the change agent as being different to the client (e.g. by experience, education and social system). There is an argument for external change agents – when your organization is so wound up in inertia that it is impossible for anyone to initiate and champion change, you do want to hire in an external change agent (possibly a change consultant or a new leader who knows they are coming in to drive change).

Change champion

I’ve noted before that term “change champion” is getting increasingly out of favour. It’s often viewed as the kiss of death, or associated with previous initiatives where they were not used so well. These employees are identified as having strong influencing and communication skills and a passion for new ways of doing things. This community will be identified, recruited, inducted and provided early education and opportunity to “play” with the technology (e.g. sandpit). They will be equipped with three domains of knowledge – project timing and activity, technical knowledge of the system or process, and change management knowledge to encourage user adoption. In some cases, the change champions may be used to conduct local briefings and training. Ideally you want geographically located champions – although with more companies becoming comfortable with Enterprise Social Networks we are starting to see more e-change champions. More contemporary views of organizational change favour developing change agents across the business and building change capability at an enterprise level so that “everyone” is a change agent / champion and we do not need to take people out of the business to specifically fill that role. But regardless of what we call the role, if you do not have people prepared to champion your change, you will be struggling.

Change consultant

A change consultant is usually some-one who is external to the organization who can come in perform a diagnostic phase and produce recommendations on the way forward. They usually keep themselves to the high level activity – diagnosis, strategy, planning, and evaluation. In general, they don’t tend to do the “doing” side of change, although they may have team associated who can go in and execute the change (e.g. change managers, change communicators, change analysts, training people). Ideally, they have a background in strategic and operational change in organisations (so can provide examples and cases of past experience), deep knowledge of organizational change, and a consulting background. They establish rapport quickly and can draw upon a wide and varied network for solutions when they themselves do not know the way forward. Change consultants usually have a dedicated change methodology that they use – either one they have developed themselves or one of the commercial methodologies.

Change manager

A change manager is the role assigned to the person who has responsibility for “managing” the successful implementation of a change and accelerating the benefits realization of the initiative. It can be project based or organizational in scope. They will most probably use a change methodology to inform their approach. A change manager develops a strategy (if one is not done), develops a change plan, designs the implementation of change and then executes on this design. They usually have a team to direct on this which consists of other change managers, change analysts, change communication consultants, and training managers and analysts, although you will find change managers who are very “hands on” and can do all of the work associated with a team. You get your best value when you bring them in at the beginning of the thinking about the change as it is much cheaper to design for a successful change than remediate a project that did not consider change management. A change manager is not the one who comes up with the change, nor are they expected to lead it. They make it happen and enlist the support of change leaders, change agents, change champions. They will often challenge and coach the leadership in what they intend doing on behalf of the people in the organization. It is a formal career path – and for more details on the attributes of a change manager see here.

What of the overlaps?

Where it can get confusing is when there are overlaps. Many people fill multiple roles – so if I think about my work at the moment and what I do with clients, I am 30% change consultant, 60% change manager and 10% change agent. And this mix changes depending on context and client work.  Other consultants may have a mix of change leader (from their past), change agent and change consultant. Change leaders can be change agents. Change agents can be change leaders. Change leaders, change agents and change champions may get so energized by change management they chose to pursue a career as a change manager or a change consultant.What do you think ? Would you define these roles differently? I’m keen to hear how you see these roles. What’s missing?Related reading:Help! I've been made a change manager - where do I start? Reverse Engineering a Change Manager Change Agents v Change Managers Change Agents, Best Practice and Next PracticeWritten by Dr Jen Frahm, Chief Conversation Starter - Conversations of Change