L'équipe des Entretiens 2008 et le chapitre du PMI Paris Ile-de-France remercient tous ceux qui ont participé à cette journée.

Voici une petite synthèse rédigée pour le PMI EMEA e-link. Elle devrait être publiée dans le n° du mois de mai 2008.

Lesson learnt

The purpose of the event was to understand, through returns on experience and best practice, how changes occur within organizations and how project managers may facilitate changes.

Organizations are made of people: managing change in organization is managing people's change

Change involves employees beyond the project team and impacts the organization itself in the way that a few decide and many are involved.

Change management is not only designing new processes but also making people adopt a new way. It includes changing beliefs. So far, employees have done their job in a certain way. They have been encouraged to do so. They have sometimes met success. They have handled relations with their colleagues, business partners or boss. They haven't experienced the new way yet. They ignore whether they have the appropriate skills. How long will take before they take on their new position? Sometimes they imagine the worst impacts and finally become reluctant to change.

10 PM skills to help change

1. make sure the project has a real, strong sponsor
2. make sure the objectives are clearly set
3. train but don't rely only on training
4. have strong leadership skills and set employees' mind at a rest about their future
5. encourage commitment and let people buy in change
6. communicate clearly about the future situation and take time to meet involved people
7. rely on the early adopters of change within the organization
8. early cut off the project opponents
9. don't underestimate the project timeline
10. be aware of the "j" curve: performance may slightly decrease before increasing