change management consulting

We work with a wide variety of clients, as change management is a crucial part of a project or transformation. This is why our change management offer is often included into our transformation support proposals, even if a company sometimes requests Akeance Consulting to lead this specific aspect inside a transformation program.

Whether or not it is integrated into a larger program, change management deserves to be carried out as a project in its own right, with its own planning, identified contributors, specific management and adjustments needed during the program progression.

This change management project is built around four activities which are major in any change management program, but their importance and modalities can vary greatly between different programs, corporate cultures or group entities.

Program communication is a major element in change management. Beyond the concrete communication medium (Intranet, face-to-face meeting, etc.), the frequency of information is a key element for success.

The training of teams in the new professions, new operating methods and new tools is major.

A third activity implies to listen to the fears and hopes that the program raises, by setting up dedicated tools and monitoring. The objective is both to reassure and to avoid future disappointments due to a lack of understanding about the program.

Finally, the fourth activity is special, it covers all the information and explanation actions outside the company: with regard to customers, suppliers, and partners.
Obviously, this part is very sensitive, because it puts the company in the position of opening up access to information about its program to all its relations. Of course, the content of the program itself will make this activity more or less relevant.

Under the pretext of providing access to information for all, projects are often clogged with various meetings that are more or less well organized. It is crucial to manage change management as a project that is just as structured as any other project: neither too many nor too few meetings.

Change management is not of the same nature as project management itself, which generates its part of project committees, steering committees and other intermediate points. For most of the company's stakeholders, the project is relatively far from their day-to-day concerns. This is why the materials and even the speakers must be made educational: simple slides, texts and speech, clear answers to questions. This pedagogy is a profession in itself.

Too often, project communication is based on positive events, on the successes of the project. This benevolence hides two flaws: the absence (or reduction of information) of communication on difficulties, backtracking or failures, as well as the breaking of a regular rhythm of communication, which is necessary for teams that are sometimes far from the project.