Facilitative project management : a model for integrated organisational change

D.Comm.The successful implementation of organisational change is the theme of this study. It has been found that the majority of change initiatives fail, mainly due to poor conceptualisation and planning, and the lack of proper integration of the people and business dimensions of change (which will be referred to respectively as the systematic and interactive aspects). This leads to change resistance and increases the chance of failure. Little practical guidance is available on how to overcome this and to integrate the two aspects of change across the organisation(s), throughout the entire change process, from conceptualisation through to change completion. The purpose of the study is to develop a practical model for implementing a successful change program. The model will be designed using a combination of readily available skills and techniques, and is intended to be sufficiently generic to enable its use across all change projects and types of organisations. Accordingly the objectives of the study are: • To capture the challenges faced by organisations in integrating the systematic aspect of change management (such as system design) and the interactive aspect (such as people empowerment, buy-in). • To develop and test the Facilitative Project Management Model for Integrated Change, over three case studies. The model draws upon the disciplines of project management, which provides a structured "no surprises" approach to the management of change. This mostly addresses the systematic aspect of change. To properly incorporate the critical interactive aspect of change the project management discipline is combined with the powerful techniques of neutral facilitation, which provides a psychologically safe environment for team participation and ownership. This combination forms a model which through the case studies is shown to support an integrated change effort and aid successful change outcomes