Photo by Jez Timms

The best way to convince our decision makers to initiate any project, including Change Management, is to present them with a Business case that:

  • validates the reasoning for starting a project,
  • indicates implementation risks
  • anticipates the benefits to be gained.

Ultimately, the business case is a way to secure funding and commitment.

To build a business case for change management, you’ll need to answer four key questions:

  1. What is the Project or Task?

A business case must be specific and must describe clearly the proposed project or task. Your “project or task” is to apply a structured change management approach on a project or initiative.

  1. Why are we doing it?

A business case has to answer the questions of why are we doing it, what is the motivation for initiating the project or task. For the change management business case, we will have to demonstrate that managing the people side of change significantly increase the probability that the anticipated benefits will be realized, the outcomes will be reached and the project will create value

  1. Who are we trying to convince?

The audiences of a business case are the decision makers who can fund and support a project. For the change management business case, your likely audiences are senior leaders, project leaders and project managers.

  1. What Actions we need to secure?

A business case often is used to obtain commitment and funding for the project or task. The actions you need are:

  • A commitment to apply change management on the project or initiative
  • The resources and funding to apply change management

Conclusion

This 3-part series on the Value of Change Management has traced a process you can adopt to commence, have and ultimately quantify the benefit of focusing on the people side of change for your project. This step in the deployment of change management in an organisation is vital to building maturity in change management and ultimately sustainable value in your organisation.