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Reach out to the founders, Dr Jen Frahm and Lena Ross. They're experienced at designing and building leadership capability during change and navigating agile environments.
What is Agile Change Management?
With the increase in rapid deployment of changes in business and lean resourcing, we are seeing more and more calls for change managers skilled in agile change management in recruiting process.
For those unfamiliar with the term it can be unnerving! Is it just about technology releases? Are we talking Big A or little a? Is it about product development. It can be all really…so let’s step out some definitions.
How do you define Agile Change Management?
Agile Change Management is a body of work that seeks to support people through the delivery of change at speed with lean resourcing. It applies to both business agility transformations and the context of Agile delivery of technology and product releases or projects.
The foundations of the Agile Change Management body of work are an agile mindset, agile change practices and tools, and agile change ways of working.
Who does Agile Change Management?
The key role is the Agile Change Manager. These are people with a change management background who have upskilled to be nimbler and more adaptive in their practice. There is typically not an agile change process or methodology to be used. Rather change managers favour a focus on the capabilities that help them deliver change at speed. The agile change capabilities that boost the success of the agile change manager are data informed decision making, transparent and visual communication, and continuous engagement.
The move from traditional change management
One of the things that most ‘traditional’ change managers find most challenging with agile change management is “letting go”. Success depends heavily on a test and learn / experimentation focus with feedback being your friend. The agile change manager facilitates change through an adaptive approach rather than seeks to control the success of the project through a rigid application of five step processes.
It’s not just the Agile Change Manager.
While we said ‘key role’, its important to note that agile change management is a capability that everyone can build, and should build. Increasingly we are seeing an uptick in situations where ‘Change is Everybody’s Business‘, and people are expected to use self-serve agile change frameworks and tools. This is a great development from our perspective!
Resources you may find helpful.
Here’s some resources you might find helpful:
Youtube: Dr Jen Frahm explains how to adapt your change practice to agile change management
The Agile Change Manager Certificate program
Agile Change Capability: Communication
Why we focus on agile change capabilities
