The Change Management Plan Template Used by Professionals

According to Prosci research, only 13%—or about 1 in 8—of organizations with poor change management met or exceeded their project objectives. This statistic highlights why change management is essential to successfully implementing a new system, process, or technology. Organizations must consistently help people adopt and use change over the long term to stay competitive.Practitioners achieve this by creating and following a change management plan that outlines the steps involved in executing and sustaining a change.

This article explains how to develop a change management plan for a project or initiative using the Prosci 3-Phase Process. We'll also provide best practices to create an effective change plan.

What is a Change Management Plan?

A change management plan is a structured document that outlines the strategies and actions necessary to guide individuals and the organization through a change process. It details the steps to prepare, equip, and support people to achieve successful adoption, including communications, training, resistance prevention, assessments, and other activities.

Change practitioners use a structured change management approach, like the Prosci Methodology, to strategize, implement and manage the people side of change. A change management plan is a key part of the approach. It contains the activities needed for the organization to prepare and equip people to move from the current state (the way things are today) to a desired future state.

To create a change management plan, change practitioners follow the Prosci 3-Phase Process. The step-by-step process maps out all the actions and activities needed to achieve a successful organizational change. At the end of the first phase (Phase 1 – Prepare Approach), you will have a Master Change Management Plan.

The Master Change Management Plan may include separate plans for recommended core activities, such as the Training Plan, People Manager Plan, and Sponsor Plan. You will also create a Communications Plan to deliver key messages effectively.

But sometimes it doesn't make sense to create all the separate plans. The Prosci Methodology is unique in that it's scalable for any size of change. If your change is small, low-risk or less complex, or if you're new to change management, you can create a simplified change management plan called the ADKAR Blueprint. If your change is like many today—complex, high-risk and far-reaching—the ADKAR Blueprint will serve to inform your detailed plans while aligning with organizational goals for the change.

Why do you need a change management plan? In a recent study, 52% of executives said they were not fully prepared to respond to changes in their business environments. Change management plans, as part of a larger detailed change methodology, can help these organizations create a work culture that can efficiently adopt changes.

Organizational Change Management Plan Template

Use our 3-Phase Process as a template to develop detailed plans for targeted change management. Or, download our change management template to develop a simplified plan for smaller, low-risk changes.

Prosci 3-Phase Process

Phase 1 – Prepare Approach

In this phase, practitioners and the organization work to understand the scope and impact of the change, set clear objectives, and develop a change management strategy that aligns with organizational goals.

The aim is to assess the organization's readiness for change, identify key stakeholders, and develop a customized plan to guide impacted individuals through the transition.

An essential part of this stage is obtaining the necessary commitment and resources from leaders and executives. Leaders who are active and visible sponsors are the top contributors to change success.

Effective sponsors motivate employees to participate in the change, make influential decisions, and encourage their peers to be change advocates and form a sponsor coalition.

Contributors to Success Over Time

Phase 2 – Manage Change

In this phase, the focus shifts to execution as the change team implements the strategy developed in Phase 1. The change management team also works to engage stakeholders and ensure that employees are prepared to adopt the new way of working.

Phase 2 is all about ensuring that the change is successfully implemented and that the organization stays on track to meet its goals. Practitioners use four Core Plans:

• Sponsor Plan – Because sponsors are vital for success, this plan aims to activate sponsors by helping them understand their roles and providing support so they can fulfill their employee-facing responsibilities.
• People Manager Plan – Middle managers and supervisors are considered people managers during change. They directly impact how employees view and respond to change. Practitioners create the People Manager Plan to help them perform their CLARC roles.
• Communications Plan – Practitioners need a dynamic Communications Plan to identify different groups of impacted individuals, develop key messages for each of them, and deliver them through the right channels by the correct senders.
• Training Plan – Employees need training to learn new skills and adapt to new systems. To effectively do this, change teams create a Training Plan that defines the groups that need training, along with related requirements.

Core Plans are recommended during the change management process, but additional "Extend Plans" may be needed. Examples include:

• Resistance Management Plan – This plan defines the sources and forms of resistance, steps to address them, and the individuals involved in managing resistance. This plan is not mandatory when using the Prosci 3-Phase Process because proactive resistance prevention is built into the framework.
• Change Agent Network Plan – A change agent network is a group of individuals who represent the interests of specific impacted groups. Practitioners use a Change Agent Network Plan to guide the network's activities.

The change management plans you need will depend on your specific project and organizational needs. You can modify these plans to cater to impacted employees as they progress through the change.

Change professionals also leverage tools, like Kaiya™, Prosci's expert change management AI tool, to find research-based resources, insights and solutions for their change initiatives.

Phase 3 – Sustain Outcomes

In the final phase, the focus is on measuring the performance of a change and reinforcing it to ensure long-term success. Practitioners aim to embed new behaviors or systems into the organization's culture so that they become the new norm.

Sustainment helps organizations realize the full intended benefits of a change initiative rather than settling for the partial results they get during the initial implementation process. Practitioners use reinforcement activities so that employees actually change the way they work.

Reinforcement can include celebrations and rewards for employees who adopt the change, recognition from senior-level sponsors, or visible performance scoreboards to show positive compliance with the change.

Planning for reinforcement and sustainment also increases the success rates of projects. According to Prosci research, 81% of participants who planned for reinforcement met or exceeded their objectives. This rate plummeted to 15% for those without strategies for reinforcement.

Impact of Planning for Reinforcement on Project Success

Once the project is considered complete, change practitioners transfer ownership of long-term sustainment activities to the relevant teams within the organization.

Best Practices for Writing a Change Management Plan

Here are five best practices for creating a comprehensive and effective change management plan:

1. Set clear goals

Setting clear and measurable goals is the foundation of any successful change management plan. Defining the objectives helps to align everyone involved and provides a roadmap for achieving the desired outcomes.

The Prosci Change Triangle (PCT) Model and the PCT Assessment are great tools to kick off a change project. They are used in the first phase of the 3-Phase Process to create a shared definition of success.

The model also highlights how the 4 crucial aspects (success, leadership/sponsorship, project management and change management) of successful change are linked.

Prosci Change Triangle (PCT) Model

Clearly articulated goals help people at all levels of the organization understand the "why" behind the change and what the change aims to achieve.

You can use the PCT Model and PCT Assessment throughout the change management process to help people stay aligned, accurately assess project health, and increase the likelihood of success.

2. Involve all stakeholders

Engaging all relevant stakeholders in the change process is critical to its success. Stakeholders are anyone impacted by the change, including employees, customers, vendors and leadership teams.

In a recent survey, 29% of participants said that they do not feel included when change is happening in their organization.

By involving stakeholders early and often, you can engage employees, collect valuable input, address concerns, and build support for the change. It also ensures that communication channels are open and that feedback is integrated into the process.

Engagement can be done through effective communication strategies, surveys, focus groups and other tactics. Employees who feel involved are more likely to support the change and offer insights that enhance the change process.

3. Support your sponsors

Despite sponsorship being critical to project success, many organizations fail to adequately guide and support leaders in their role. For example, Prosci research found that only 50% of leaders adequately or completely understood their role as change sponsors.

Sponsor Role Understanding

Sponsors also struggle with a lack of time or resources and with misunderstanding or underestimating the people side of change. To keep sponsors active and help them overcome these challenges during change initiatives, change practitioners can:

• Establish clear agreements about roles and expectations.
• Ensure open and transparent communication.
• Tailor their approach to fit sponsors’ preferred working style.
• Create a Sponsor Plan to provide clear, concise guidance on what they need to do. 
• Help sponsors complete the required tasks by simplifying them and removing roadblocks.
• Provide regular coaching and feedback to keep them aligned.

These tactics ensure that the change initiative remains a priority for executives and leaders with packed schedules and that they can perform well as change leaders.

4. Focus on employee support

A major factor in ensuring the smooth adoption is properly supporting impacted people as they learn about the change and gain the skills, knowledge, and confidence to adopt it.

Change can be stressful, so ensuring that employees feel prepared and supported will help prevent resistance and boost their confidence in adapting to new ways of working.

Many organizations make the mistake of jumping right to training without preparing the people first. This hinders change initiatives and reduces the chance of success.

In our ADKAR Model for individual change, employees must first be aware of the reason for the change and motivated to participate in it before they can be trained. Once employees have moved through the Awareness and Desire stages of the ADKAR Model, they are ready to learn about what they need to change and the skills they need to do it.

To support employees during training, practitioners must build a training plan that matches different roles and deliver training through appropriate channels. This can include in-person workshops, online modules or coaching sessions.

Employees must also be given adequate time to learn and practice new skills, systems and processes. Practitioners must monitor employee progress and adjust the change plan as needed. Rushing through training will only create barriers that cause resistance behaviors, poor skill development and failed reinforcement.

5. Create a change-ready culture

A change-ready culture is one where employees are prepared, equipped and supported to embrace continuous improvement and innovation. This helps people adapt to changes more effectively, leading to an agile and flexible workforce.

Strong leadership helps cultivate this mindset, but organizations must implement specific reinforcement strategies to solidify and maintain this culture and help employees become more resilient and adaptable to future transformations​.

For example, implementing mechanisms for ongoing feedback from employees and stakeholders can enable continuous improvement while helping address any challenges in achieving positive change outcomes.

Drive Success With the Prosci Change Management Plan Template

A change management plan is a vital resource that guides the change process. Practitioners must create a detailed change management plan that reflects their organization's culture and goals.

Use all the phases of the Prosci 3-Process as your template to create a flexible yet organized Master Change Management Plan. Or, you can use our ADKAR Blueprint as a simplified change management plan template to drive smaller, low-risk changes. Either approach can help you align your change management activities to Prosci best practices and achieve change success.