Westshore offers a wide array of services and combinations of these services to clients. Throughout my career, I have had the privilege of working in various capacities as project manager, change manager, and leadership development advisor. Below is my perspective on what contributes to successful fulfillment of each of these roles.
Project Management Services
Successful project management requires acknowledgement that every change project is undertaken for a business reason. Information technology (IT) projects, whether large-scale IT transformations or seemingly minor software upgrades, must be driven by the business needs of the organization. An effective project manager must communicate with business leadership and executive in order to understand the expected benefits of any given project. Project managers must rely on project management frameworks to lead a project team towards a successful implementation, while being flexible enough to meet the unique needs of each organization. To that end, I am familiar with and have worked within each of the following project management frameworks, and usually draw upon all of them to some degree in any given project:
- Project Management Institution (PMI) Project Management Body of Knowledge (PMBOK): Certified Project Management Professional (PMP) in good standing.
- California Project Management Framework (CA-PMF)
- Agile Software Development: Scrum Alliance Certified ScrumMaster
Change Management Services
While project management deals with the technical, logistical side of change, organizational change management (OCM) addresses the people side of change. Getting the people onboard and prepared for the change is usually the more difficult part of any project. Before people are willing to commit to making a change, they need to understand the business reasons for the change as well as how it will personally impact them in their job. Change managers often have to translate the project-speak of the project team to language that is easily understood by business leadership, executives, and staff members. Change managers should also use a structured set of processes and tools to ensure that everyone affected is prepared to make the change. As a Prosci Certified Advanced Instructor in the Prosci Change Management framework with its accompanying ADKAR model for individual change, I have certified more than 100 people as Prosci Change Management Practitioners and have applied the Prosci framework on many of my own projects. In addition to Prosci, one important lesson I have learned from client engagements is that a clear understanding of new business processes, roles, and responsibilities is critical for employees’ successful transition to the new environment. Without appropriate documentation and help resources, projects falter even if all of the technical details have been implemented perfectly. For change management, Westshore Management Consulting offers the following services:
- Prosci/ADKAR Overview Briefing (not training)
- Change Management Strategy
- Application of Prosci/ADKAR for Change Initiatives
- Business Process Definition
- Communication Management
- Project Branding
Leadership
Both project management and change management are essential components of project success. Nevertheless, the strongest predictor of whether a project will meet its stated objectives is effective sponsorship.¹ As a Prosci instructor and practitioner, I have worked with leadership teams of various organizations up to and including chief executives. A commonality I have observed is that people who reach positions of leadership within an organization genuinely want the organization and its projects to succeed. They are usually aware of their executive responsibilities around project governance, namely resolving issues around project scope, project resources, and managing risk and issues that cannot be addressed at the project level. They are often less likely to understand their responsibilities around change management: providing active and visible support through the life of the project, building a leadership coalition among other executives, and communicating directly with employees.² Even if they do understand their role, they are often either over-extended with other responsibilities or at a loss about what steps to take to be effective leaders. In addition to my experience with Prosci, I also draw upon my training and experience as a Certified ScrumMaster to draw upon principles of servant-leadership when coaching executives. Westshore Management Consulting offers the following services to leaders:
- Sponsorship Strategy
- Leadership Development
Policy Analysis & Strategy
Policy analysis is often a component of projects or of the activities leading up to them. Having earned a Masters in Public Policy degree with a concentration in regulatory economics, I have also conducted studies to help organizations understand the implications of policy changes they may be considering to provide recommendations based on that analysis.
¹ Prosci. Best Practices in Change Management 2016 — 9th Edition, pp. 193-5. Prosci, Inc., 2016.
² ibid, pp. 197-8.