Prosci Helps Government Agency Build Change Management Capabilities

Confronted with the formidable challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Washington State Department of Health faced overwhelming burnout, turnover, and change fatigue as it sought to return to normal operations. In pursuit of resilience and readiness, the Department identified Prosci as the leader in change management and engaged us to help build their organizational change capabilities.

Challenge

In 2020, health departments across the country were activated to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Washington State Department of Health (the Department) quickly moved into emergency response mode, rapidly redeploying employees into new activities, roles and management structures. For many people, it was years before they were able to return to their original role. In 2022, as the Department was beginning their transition back to normal business, leaders identified significant burnout, employee turnover and change fatigue.

Despite having a strong Change Management Lead, department employees and leaders were very tired, and there had been massive employee turnover, restructuring, and business-role changes. Although the agency acknowledged change fatigue in employees, it was difficult to move out of an emergency-response culture and back into regular business functions and practices. Past experiences, multiple changes with low adoption rates, and skepticism from leadership on the value of dedicated change management resources made it difficult to implement change management practices and principles within leadership roles and on projects.

Solution

Hold sessions with senior leadership to educate on change management’s importance
Assess change management maturity using Prosci Change Management Maturity Model audit tool
Develop Enterprise Change Management (ECM) framework and plan
Establish steering committee with executive representation to ensure alignment
Build out workgroups to engage employees in building change management communications and role-based training plans
Coach change management team members to lead the capabilities development process

Prosci was engaged to help demonstrate the value of change management across the organization. With a focus on building executive commitment and support, creating lasting change management capabilities, and helping the department regain momentum after the COVID-19 pandemic, Prosci developed a comprehensive strategy to support the department in building change management capabilities.

Developing Internal Change Champions

Prosci worked with the Department’s internal Change Management Lead to provide extensive coaching support. We coached the Lead as they organized working groups for each of the five capability areas of change management (Leadership, Application, Competencies, Standardization, Socialization) and formed cross-functional teams that included members from the PMO, training, communications and leadership, fostering a sense of shared ownership and collaboration across the department.

Establishing Engagement and Governance

Knowing there was ground to make up in terms of executive commitment, Prosci engaged with senior leadership to encourage support for building change capabilities and establishing a steering committee comprised of members from the executive team. This ensured governance and alignment across the senior leaders. Once established, we also enabled the client to launch comprehensive communications and role-based training plans. This helped to enhance clarity around roles and responsibilities in the change management function.

Applying Prosci Methodology and Tools

Acquiring a Prosci ECM License empowered the department to leverage Prosci models, tools and the Prosci Methodology across the organization. This enabled the Department to minimize the cost of expansion. It also provided access to training and socialization materials that the deployment team could use to build awareness about change management principles, and then standardize the tools change practitioners were using. The Prosci Change Management Maturity Model audit tool allowed the Department to accurately assess both current and future desired states of change and build a plan with workstreams to achieve success.

Results

Commitment to Change Management

Prosci’s methodical, inclusive and educational approach empowered the Washington State Department of Health to build their change management capabilities and embed key practices throughout the organization. They were able to build momentum, even while navigating the lingering complexities brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. Senior leaders who were once skeptical of the change management function adopted a common language for change management, elevating their commitment and aligning roles to help drive continued change in the organization.

"We are aligning on role-based change competencies across our large and diverse organization. Change managers are now welcome into projects and seen as value-added. Adoption of sponsor roles and communication has increased. Agency supervisor competencies now include preparing and supporting employees during change. Employees are starting to understand and engage with agency changes, and we are seeing greater success in large and small projects.”
—Judy Hall, Performance Officer, Washington State Department of Health

A Change-Ready Future

Prosci engagements with leadership and supportive coaching helped the Department establish robust a governance committee and working groups to provide clear direction and sustained oversight for change initiatives moving forward. This enabled the department to embed change management principles and processes into agency decision-making, manager and supervisor competencies, employee training, and new and existing projects and initiatives—all of which improved agency culture, employee engagement and project success.