Making your changes stick
The path to implementing changes doesn’t always run smooth, but the new Principles for Delivering Change could help you.
If you’ve ever tried to establish a new way of working, or launch a new initiative, you’ve probably come up against some challenges along the way. You may have struggled to ascertain how your piece of work fits into the big picture, or which direction to take when decisions are needed.
A newly launched set of principles could help. The Principles for Delivering Change is a single page summary of the way we want to implement changes at the University.
The Principles are already being widely adopted by project managers and process specialists across the University. But they could help you too.
How could the Principles help you?
The Principles can act as a check list when you are leading or involved in making a change at the University, whether that’s a small change in your team or a broader change across departments or the whole institution.
The idea behind the principles is to share with everyone a common view of how change across the University should be designed and managed. If everyone works with these principles in mind, we’ll start to see greater consistency overall, which will bring benefits to the University as a whole.
If you’re leading a change and follow these principles, they’ll help you to:
- deliver on time, cost and quality,
- ensure all solutions are efficient, interoperable and sustainable,
- make decisions in line with the University’s target future state (the way we want to operate), and
- reduce friction, challenge or re-work during your initiative, by highlighting the University’s preferred approaches.
The principles are grouped into six logical categories: delivery and benefits realisation; people and organisation; processes; data, information and technology; governance; and communication and engagement.
Anyone involved in a change has the potential to play a part in any or all of the categories, regardless of their job or role in the change. On the face of it, some principles may appear more pertinent to your change than others, but it’s important to consider each area carefully and understand what guidance it offers for your change.
Your next step
So, if you have a change planned, be it big or small, take some time to use the Principles for Delivering Change to:
- ensure the right considerations are taken into account,
- inform key decisions within your initiative, and
- align your change with University strategy.
If you’re leading a change initiative and would like more guidance, take a look at the Delivering Results toolkit which has tools, guidance and templates to keep you on the road to success!