Change is hard. We humans are creatures of habit and we don’t like it when someone upsets the apple cart. That being said, projects often react like living, changing creatures. Sometimes it only takes a few hours for a successful project to morph into something spiraling down the vortex to disaster. With that in mind, project management might sound like a counter instinctual career choice, but I tend to look at it the same way some cultures look at their dream-lives. By overcoming their fears in their dreams, it makes them stronger in their waking lives. Change might be hard for us to face, but the more often we face our fear (of change), the better we get at adapting and overcoming.
Because projects change, knowing (and then educating everyone involved with the change) what to expect can make changes a little easier to deal with. When the change involves something more than minor project changes, the "fear of change" in most cases is simply a fear of the unknown. Here are some of the most common fears that organizations face as they try to change or implement new project management methodologies:
- It’s Different: Realizing that there are some people who thrive on change, but most people don’t, is important. You may get some push-back simply because it’s a change.
- Some Managers are Uncomfortable with Additional Scrutiny: Projects that might be important to one senior manager may not be as important to others. This could make some managers a little nervous that their projects might not stand up to peer review.
- Some Projects are More Important than Others: Implementing a sound work management methodology will mean that only those projects that provided the most value will get pushed forward—not the "pet" projects of influential stakeholders. Because this might negatively impact some projects, those stakeholders may try to block the process.
- There are Tough Decisions to be Made: Best practice requires that some projects will get funded and others will not. It’s important that senior managers understand that they have a responsibility to the organization—not just their individual departments. There will be managers who don’t like this fact.
- Implementation Takes Time: Implementing a new methodology for project-based work takes time. Because it doesn’t happen overnight, there will be those who will say they don’t have time for this, but it’s necessary to take the time to be successful.
Like any organizational culture change, there will be those who embrace the change and others who don’t. Be prepared for both, and your efforts will be a success. What are some of the challenges you have successfully faced when implementing a major change like a new project management methodology?
The thought of change in the article brings important challenge that PMs mostly go through. OCM challenges have different root cause and one is human nature. Root cause for push back to such changes primarily depends on the nature, environment, setup, overall business model and positioning within the organization. Most of such risk cannot be avoided. I think we need to talk more about this when we talk about changes and aspects of it.