4 Ways to Amplify Your Change Management Impacts in 2023

Change practitioners are typically curious, lifelong learners who look for opportunities to acquire new skills. And the past year has offered many opportunities to fill that need for growth—sometimes because we chose them and sometimes because of circumstance. 

As we move into another new year, how might we shift our mindsets to amplify lessons learned to make even greater change impacts in our organizations? 

Cultivate a Growth Mindset Around Change   

For human beings to make sense of anything, especially a new or aspirational concept, we need context and contrast. Contrast helps us see how one thing relates to and doesn’t relate to a different thing. These “from-to” mindset shifts certainly aren’t the only ways to think about amplifying our impacts, but they may help you focus on where you want to grow: 

1.  From value driven to values driven

Every organization needs to focus on the financials, i.e., the value, but it’s neither the only thing nor the most important thing needed for success. Being "values" driven means taking care of your people, if they are in fact central to your values like they are here at Prosci. How we each show up each day as part of the organization, how we engage with one another, how we engage with our clients, and ultimately how we walk out the door at the end of the day—they all will ultimately represent what employees and clients value (or don’t value) in your organization. 

How might you bring this to life in your change management practice? Get crystal clear on what your organization’s primary focus is. At Prosci, we believe in putting our employees first and the business success will follow. We then use our values as a way to onboard, connect, make decisions, and ultimately guide our organization. Where is your organization’s focus? Do you understand what comes first for you?

2.  From knowledge to ability

It has been said that humans forget much of what we learn in a single day if we don’t use it. At Prosci, we are intentionally looking at ways to help customers move from an "in-program" to "in-practice"’ mentality, putting more and more emphasis on supporting our customers well beyond completing the Change Management Certification Program. Because like any change, training is only helpful if it gets adopted and used.

What new knowledge did you acquire this year? Are you putting it into practice? Are you finding ways to apply and shape the lessons to your organization or your career aspirations? If you attended a change management  training program this year, have you sought opportunities to apply your skills, improve change outcomes, and move from knowledge to ability? 

Participants learn from an Executive Instructor at Prosci's Change Management Certification Program

3.  From doing to empowering

Prosci research on the size of change management offices (CMOs) shows that nearly half of responding organizations operate with a small CMO of between two and five people, and 13% have only one employee. If you’re a small CMO or a CMO of one, how will you support all of the people and changes around you? 

Based on your unique goals, skills and organization, you could try to do everything yourself—managing every step of the change management process, executing every task, and juggling many projects. 
But we manage organizational change far more effectively when we work with and through others. As a change enabler, the change practitioner prepares and equips the employee-facing actors on the stage to execute their roles during change. By equipping, empowering and enabling people to execute on their important changes, you make it possible to deliver more and better change without taking on all the responsibilities as “the change person.”

4. From outputs to outcomes

The data in our research study about the Top Contributors to Change Success in a Post-Pandemic World reinforce the mindset shift toward a results-and-outcomes orientation. As we step into a post-pandemic world, understanding the real interconnectedness of productivity outputs, work-life balance, flexibility and human centricity will be top of mind.

We’re already seeing this in the productivity paradox playing out with organizations adjusting to remote and hybrid workplaces. Can we get more productive and human-centric at the same time?

Amplify Your Change Impact

For Prosci, the coming year will include a healthy focus on amplifying our impact by taking what we already know to be true and making it more meaningful to the change management community. We will amplify Prosci’s body of knowledge with new opportunities to elevate practitioner success with changes in the real world. We will amplify our research and data by making it more insightful, interactive and relevant to your practice. And we will amplify our tools by continuing to implement your feedback in ways that strengthen and grow their effectiveness. 

What opportunities lay ahead for you as a change practitioner? I challenge you to shift your mindset in a way that is meaningful to you to drive even more successful change in the new year. How might you amplify your impact in 2023?