Applying intelligent change readiness to achieve better change webinar

At the “Applying intelligent change readiness to achieve better change” webinar on Thursday 14 July 2022, the panel, formed of members of the APM Enabling Change SIG shared their thoughts with an audience of over 150 on how to get the greatest benefits from change readiness and their view on what good change readiness looks like.

The sizeable audience logged in from all corners of the UK. From Inverness to the Isle of Wight and from Plymouth to Belfast! When asked about their experience in change readiness, the majority of the audience had little to no experience giving the committee opportunity to deliver follow up introductory sessions on different change topics. This we are very happy to do, given the volume of questions we received and the enthusiasm of the participants in the webinar.

The panel was made up of Mark Vincent, Donna Unitt, Ian Pickard and David Appleyard, all current committee members of the APM Enabling Change SIG. The session was hosted by Rebecca Collings who led the event preparation and is also a current member of the committee. The panel were ably supported in the event preparation by Matthew Lawrence.

The discussion delved into what change readiness assessments are and how best to use them, before looking at the potential benefits and what good change readiness looks like. During the lively debate that followed, the panel were quizzed on several aspects. Mark opened the discussion addressing questions on when change readiness assessments can best be used and is it ever too early to do them, concluding that they should be started as early as possible once the change is adequately defined to unearth potential issues earlier and hence open the possibility to address them.

The panel was also challenged on whether organisations regularly use change readiness assessments as part of their change initiatives. David was tasked with starting the discussion saying that this is quite mixed, but in his experience change readiness assessments are critical to understand whether there is adequate commitment from Leadership and also to understand the variability in readiness between different parts of the organisation undergoing change.

The following question was targeted at Ian, who was asked to answer the question on how data is best gathered and effectively used. During a thorough answer Ian explained the value in repeatability of data gathering to understand how readiness can both grow and diminish during a change.

The question of the day concerned how to deal with change apathy. Donna drew the short straw and was asked to open the discussion. With participation from all the panel, the conclusion was reached that to overcome apathy, resistive forces need to be overcome to make the change visibly realistic and the change team need to understand the reason behind the apathy of individuals through targeted discussions.

The whole session was highly participative with questions continuing to be received as the allotted time ran out. The panel committed to respond to all questions received and thanks must go to Rebecca and Donna who led the drafting of the responses that are currently being shared with participants.

Overall, a very successful event that was well received and gives us plenty of food for thought on what topics we can discuss next! There will be more events and information to follow.

Webinar resources

The panel have very kindly allowed their presented material to be made available for viewing. The slides on Slideshare and the webinar recording on YouTube are now available in our APM resources area and also embedded below for reference.

The questions submitted from attendees during the webinar have been reviewed and answered by the panel.

This webinar content is suitable for professionals with any level of experience.

Presented by panel members

Rebecca Collings is Director of Collaboration & Change at The Nichols Group. She has 25 years experience of senior roles, running both large customer-facing operations as well as delivery of transformation programmes. She successfully led many programmes within central government resulting in the implementation of new systems, including new technology and commercial models. Stakeholder management and people leadership were core features of these roles and Rebecca has real expertise in developing strategies to both engage and then manage relationships with diverse stakeholders including politicians, local authorities, community interest groups and the private sector, as well as taking internal partners and staff through change. Rebecca is passionate about effective collaboration and change management to secure the benefits of projects and programmes. She is an active member of the Enabling Change Specific Interest Group committee and enjoys working across the SIG and APM to share good practice and continue to develop ways of making change a better experience for those involved and impacted.

Mark Vincent has been involved with business change for over 25 years. A common thread throughout that time has been his work in the music and publishing sector, supporting the major music labels (EMI, Warner Music and Universal) and others through a period of major upheaval.

Mark’s keen interest in human behaviour in fast paced change situations stemmed from the reactions of many of his peers and clients at the time. The common approach was to resist at all costs until it was too late. He became increasingly curious as to why we all tend to resist change in some circumstances whilst embracing it in others.

He co-founded Applied Change with a clear purpose to push the thinking on change and human behaviour whilst also helping his clients to get changes done, often in highly complex and political situations. Most recently he’s been working closely with the University of the West of England (UWE) Psychological Sciences Research Group to develop simple, practical models and tools that re-orientate our approach to business change, starting from the human perspective.

David Appleyard is a Senior Principal Consultant with Migso | Pcubed and a Chartered Project Professional. He has over 30 years of experience primarily in the upstream oil and gas industry where he has focussed on driving change initiatives and improvements in business performance.

David’s interest in change management stems from involvement in mergers and acquisitions where he observed first hand the challenges faced by executives and middle management on both sides of deals in overcoming resistance amongst their peers and the difficulties experienced in collaborating to establish a common vision and way of working for the future.

David is a member of the APM Enabling Change SIG committee and the Migso | Pcubed Change Management community of practice. He is currently supporting a major packaging organisation with their merger, acquisition and divestment pipeline.

Donna Unitt is a Head of Delivery with experience in managing business relationships across an array of levels and cultures through large IT, organisation and process change projects and programmes. She has a proven track record of successful project delivery and management in large multi- million pound projects. Donna is actively growing the change management capability within Rocket Consulting Ltd, based on her experience of rolling out a similar programme at her previous company and brings over 25 years of IT solutions implementation experience including multi-implementation lifecycles across the supply chain industry to the SIG.

Donna is the APM Enabling Change Specific Interest Group Chair.

Ian Pickard is Head of Project Management for BMT Group. He has over 30 years’ experience of project management in the defence and maritime industry, including a range of key roles in business change and transformation. Ian’s interest in change management stems from first-hand experience of the challenges in delivering the objectives and benefits of change programmes, especially the need to successfully engage people across an organisation looking to achieve change. Ian has a growing interest in change management, especially around stakeholder management and the behavioural aspects of achieving alignment with the vision and objectives of change programmes. This is Ian’s first year as a member of the Enabling Change Specific Interest Group committee, and he is looking forward to continuing to support the SIG and APM as part of the APM volunteer community.