How to Build an Effective Change Management Workflow

Why are some organizations keeping up with their goals while others are struggling? What sets companies apart from the competition and enables them to meet their targets? Excellent change management.

In fact, Prosci research found that 88% of participants with excellent change management met or exceeded objectives compared to 13% of participants with poor change management.

As your organization grows, you need to find ways to stay on top. Implementing a structured change management workflow can really help.

In this article, we’ll explore how planning and following a change management workflow can bring about change, including how to create an effective workflow for your organization to succeed.

How Will Change Management Be Important in 2025

Change management is and will continue to be a cornerstone for organizational success. Organizations are facing rapid technological advancements driving a 183% increase in the pace of change over the last four years. Eighty-eight percent of executives even predict that the rate of change will continue to increase over the next year. And 42% say they have a shortage of people with the skills to manage those changes, which highlights the people-centered challenges at the heart of change. 

That’s why organizations that prioritize the people side of change management are more likely to meet objectives, enhance employee engagement and reduce resistance. A proactive strategy also mitigates the risks inherent to change, enabling firms to adapt quickly while maintaining productivity. Embracing change management embeds resilience into your organization’s DNA.

What Is a Change Management Workflow?

A change management workflow is a structured process that helps organizations navigate change efficiently. It ensures that all the key steps in the process are followed. It also helps minimize confusion and resistance, maximizing the likelihood of change success.

Key stages of a change management workflow:

1. Preparation – Understand the need for change, assess readiness, and align leadership.
2. Planning – Develop strategies, including communication, training and implementation plans tailored to your organization.
3. Implementation – Execute plans and provide support to employees during the transition.
4. Monitoring – Track progress, gather feedback, and address challenges promptly.
5. Sustainment – Reinforce the change to ensure it becomes part of the organization’s culture.

By adopting a structured workflow, organizations can ensure smoother transitions, better communication, and long-term success in managing change initiatives. Our research-backed methodology uses the Prosci 3-Phase Process to integrate both individual and organizational change management.

This ensures that change initiatives are grounded in proven practices and lays the foundation for exploring the broader benefits of building a comprehensive change management workflow.

Benefits of Building a Change Management Workflow

Implementing a change management workflow can transform your change management initiatives and offers critical benefits:

Meet project objectives

Organizations with strong change management are up to seven times more likely to meet or exceed their project goals. A structured workflow ensures alignment between project deliverables and business outcomes, reducing the risk of failure.

How Change Management Correlates With Success

Communicate clearly

Clear communication is essential during change. A change management workflow provides a roadmap for delivering consistent messages. It also helps keep employees informed and engaged through the implementation process. 

This transparency helps reduce uncertainty and build trust. Change practitioners can use a Communications Checklist to start developing a change Communications Plan and align with best practices.

Increase efficiency

Change initiatives can be resource-intensive. A structured workflow streamlines processes by defining roles and responsibilities, clarifying expectations, and creating repeatable workflows. This saves time and reduces costs by avoiding unnecessary steps or duplication of efforts.

Engage stakeholders

Engaging all the impacted people early and often is crucial for success. A change management workflow identifies key stakeholders and outlines how to involve them, ensuring their commitment and support throughout the change.

Mitigate risk

Change brings risks that can lead to operational disruptions. Resistance can also be a risk when organizations fail to manage change with a people-focused approach. A well-structured workflow helps identify and address potential issues early, minimizing and even avoiding their impact.

Set up for long-term success

Change isn’t just about short-term adjustments; it’s about building lasting improvements. A structured workflow includes sustainment strategies to ensure changes are embedded and continue delivering value over time.

A Step-By-Step Guide to Creating a Workflow

Developing an effective change management workflow is essential for guiding your organization through transitions. The Prosci 3-Phase Process offers a structured framework to navigate change successfully. 

Prosci 3-Phase Process

Here's an overview:

 Phase 1 – Prepare Approach

The preparation phase lays the groundwork for a successful change initiative. It ensures that the organization is ready to embark on the change journey with a clear vision and actionable, detailed plan. This phase is divided into three stages:

1. Define Success

Practitioners start by clarifying what success looks like for their change initiatives. This involves setting specific, measurable objectives and identifying the outcomes they aim to achieve. Clear goals provide a focus for all subsequent activities and create a benchmark against which you can measure progress.

2. Define Impact

Assess who will be impacted by the change and how. Experienced practitioners will conduct a thorough stakeholder analysis to identify individuals or groups who will be impacted by the change. This helps in understanding the nature and extent of the impact, whether it’s changes in roles, processes or technology. This step also ensures that potential resistance is anticipated and addressed early.

3. Define Approach

Finally, develop a tailored change management strategy that aligns with your organization’s unique needs and context. This strategy should detail the resources required, roles and responsibilities, and a high-level timeline for implementation. A clear approach sets the stage for a smooth transition.

Phase 2 – Manage Change

With a solid foundation in place, the next phase focuses on executing the change management plan. Practitioners must carefully coordinate activities to prepare, equip and support individuals through the transition.

1. Plan and Act

Develop comprehensive action plans that cover key areas such as communication, training and stakeholder engagement. Practitioners can develop a Master Change Management Plan that covers the entire planning and implementation of the change management strategy. 

They can also create targeted change plans to address and support different aspects during execution. For example, the Communications Plan ensures timely, transparent, and consistent messaging throughout the change. The Training Plan should define how to equip employees with the skills and knowledge they need to navigate the new environment. Implement these plans to start preparing individuals and teams for the change.

2. Track Performance

Regular monitoring is essential to ensure that the change initiative remains on track. Here, practitioners establish key performance indicators (KPIs) to measure progress against defined objectives. Use feedback mechanisms such as surveys, focus groups, and performance data to gather insights into how the change is being received and whether you need to make adjustments to the plan.

3. Adapt Actions

Change initiatives rarely go exactly as planned. Be prepared to adjust your strategies based on real-time data and feedback. Flexibility is key to addressing unforeseen challenges, overcoming resistance, and ensuring the change initiative stays aligned with its goals. This adaptive approach ensures continuous improvement throughout the process.

Phase 3 – Sustain Outcomes

The final phase focuses on ensuring that the change is fully integrated into the organization and continues to deliver value over time.

1. Review Performance

Once the change has been implemented, change practitioners conduct a comprehensive review to evaluate whether the objectives have been met. This involves analyzing performance data, gathering feedback from stakeholders, and identifying lessons learned. Understanding what worked well and what didn’t provides valuable insights for future initiatives.

2. Activate Sustainment

Embedding the change into your organization’s culture is the only way to achieve long-term success. This step involves reinforcing new behaviors, processes and systems to ensure they become the norm. 

Continuous support, such as refresher training and regular check-ins, is a best practice among change practitioners that sustains momentum and prevents regression to old ways of working.

3. Transfer Ownership

Finally, change practitioners assign responsibility for sustaining the change to the appropriate teams or individuals within the organization. This ensures ongoing accountability and continuous improvement. By transferring ownership, you empower teams to take charge of the change, maintaining its benefits and driving further enhancements as needed.

Organizations that implement change management workflows using the Prosci 3-Phase Process build a solid foundation for success. The structured approach effectively guides preparation, implementation, and sustainment of change. To enhance this workflow, integrating the Prosci ADKAR® Model and the Prosci Change Triangle (PCT) Model offers deeper insights and targeted strategies.

Integrating the Prosci ADKAR Model and Prosci Change Triangle (PCT) Model Into Your Workflow

To maximize the effectiveness of your change management process, integrating proven frameworks like the Prosci ADKAR Model and the Prosci Change Triangle (PCT) Model is essential. These models complement the 3-Phase Process by addressing both individual transitions and organizational alignment, ensuring comprehensive change management.

Our ADKAR Model is at the heart of our change management methodology and is present in every stage of the change management process. It’s composed of five key elements: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability and Reinforcement. People must achieve each element as part of their change journey:

The Prosci ADKAR Model

• Awareness – Ensures individuals understand why the change is necessary.
• Desire – Provides personal motivation to support and participate in the change.
• Knowledge – Supports individuals with the information and training they need to understand how to implement the change.
• Ability – Focuses on building the practical skills required to execute new processes or behaviors.
• Reinforcement – Solidifies new habits through ongoing support, recognition, and accountability.

By aligning the change management workflow with our ADKAR Model, you ensure that individuals receive the right support as they work to achieve every element.

Prosci Change Triangle (PCT) Model

The PCT Model provides a framework for understanding the key aspects that impact a change project’s health. The four critical aspects are: 

1. Success – Clearly defining the purpose and objectives of the change initiative.
2. Leadership/Sponsorship – Providing direction and guidance from those with the authority and resources to drive the change.
3. Project Management – Managing the technical aspects of the change, including planning, executing, and monitoring project activities.
4. Change Management – Addressing the people side of change to ensure individuals adopt and utilize the new processes or systems.

Focusing on these four components and assessing them at intervals throughout the change process helps you clearly understand the change progress. It also helps identify risks and shortcomings before they become major issues, equipping you to you achieve and sustain desired outcomes.

Unified Value Proposition (UVP)

The Unified Value Proposition emphasizes that aligning project management with change management is crucial for enhancing the success of change efforts. 

Project management plays a pivotal role in addressing the technical side of change, ensuring that solutions are effectively designed, developed and delivered. 

Meanwhile, change management focuses on the people side of change, facilitating the adoption and usage of these solutions. By integrating these two core roles, organizations ensure that both the technical and human elements of change are addressed, leading to smoother transitions and more successful outcomes. 

Common Change Management Challenges to Consider in Your Workflow

Even with a well-structured workflow, organizations often encounter challenges that can make change initiatives more difficult. Being aware of these obstacles helps you proactively address them, ensuring a smoother transition.

Greatest Change Management Obstacles

Here are some of the most common challenges and how to overcome them:

Resistance to change

Change resistance is one of the biggest hurdles in any change initiative. Resistance can arise for different reasons and is a natural response to change. Our research shows that the top reason people resist change is lack of Awareness of the need for change. Employees may also fear the unknown, feel threatened by new processes, or be skeptical of the change’s benefits.

You can avoid or reduce resistance by understanding the reasons for resistance and ensuring your change management plan includes activities to remove barriers for people affected by change. Taking steps early to prevent resistance will greatly improve the chances of your change initiative being successful: 

• Involve employees early in the process
• Clearly communicate the “why” behind the change
• Provide ongoing support and address concerns promptly

By following these steps, you can reduce or avoid the need to manage resistant behaviors.

Designing a structured workflow

A lack of structure can lead to missed steps, confusion and inefficiency. Without a clear workflow, teams may struggle to align their efforts. To avoid this, use a proven framework like the Prosci 3-Phase Process. Tailor the workflow to your organization’s needs, and cover all key activities, including preparation, implementation and sustainment.

Impact of Use of a Methodology on Overall Change Management Effectiveness

As you can see from the chart above, practitioners who follow a specific methodology in their change see significantly more success than those who don’t.

Lack of executive support

Strong leadership is crucial for successful change. Leaders often play the role of primary sponsors, one of the pillars of effective change. Without visible and active support from executives, change initiatives may lack credibility or stall due to insufficient resources. To secure leadership commitment:

• Present a compelling business case for the change.
• Highlight the potential risks of inaction.
• Ensure leaders are engaged and visibly supportive throughout the process.

By following these steps, you can make change sponsors more effective, enabling change success.

Limited resources

Resource constraints, whether it’s limited budgets, personnel shortages or tight timelines, are significant challenges in the change management workflow. These constraints can hinder the ability to execute change initiatives effectively, leading to critical tasks being understaffed or overlooked.

Organizations must prioritize resource allocation by focusing on high-impact activities and utilizing structured methodologies like the Prosci Methodology to streamline processes and enhance efficiency. This helps manage resources effectively while ensuring alignment with organizational goals and delivering the intended benefits.

Lack of effective communication

Poor communication can breed confusion, misinformation and disengagement. A well-laid-out Communications Plan, guided by the Prosci Methodology, ensures consistent messaging across all levels of the organization. Use multiple channels to deliver updates, provide training and gather feedback.

Start Building Your Change Management Workflow Today

A change management workflow organizes your process stepwise, providing a structured approach to implementing change. The Prosci Methodology, with its 3-Phase Process, offers a comprehensive, research-based, and people-centered approach to change management that ensures effective transitions.

Organizations will continue to encounter ongoing challenges and a high volume of changes in the future. To remain competitive and achieve change objectives, they must implement effective change management strategies and foster an environment where change is embraced and readily accepted.

If you're ready to learn how to build a change management workflow that will empower your organization to succeed, explore our change management starter bundle.