Change Management & Project Management Reporting Integration using Inverted Pyramid
Introduction
Reporting is one of the crucial tasks for a project manager where the relevant project’s details are assessed. Scope situation, time management, and cost management are usually most important information required for all stakeholders.
The project reporting needs to stick with basic rules in order to show project status and at the same time be comprehensive to the particular details. For better stakeholder communication as well as to explain the project status, tested templates should be used then reinforce them with excellent graphs and diagram.
Comparison between change management & project management
Change management is a “set of processes that ensure the significant changes are implemented in a controlled fashion to effect organizational change. The goal of change management with respect to human aspect is to overcome the resistance to change.and achieve the organizational goal of an orderly and effective transformation”
Project management is “the discipline of applying scientific principles to initiate the plan and manage the way that new changes are implemented within an organization”. Key components of project management are Time, Scope and Quality.
Project management and change management are two disciplines which are separate but integrated.
Management Reporting and Presentation Requirements
During change management, there will be a need to combine all activities using a proven methodology to execute and monitor tasks in order to achieve expected output. Therefore, it will be necessary to manage reporting activities based on stakeholders’ behavior during the change process.
In international projects, other factors have to be considered such as language barriers and cultural differences that require much effort in the communication process. Reporting and presentations then become more strategic in engaging stakeholders.
How to combine Change and Project Reporting
Following questions arise in combining change and project reporting:
How to simplify the combination?
How to avoid overlapping, saving time in reporting?
How to make stakeholder’s management simpler than ever?
During an international change management project, then came my eureka moment, to use the inverted pyramid structure and approach in reporting and presentations.
Applications of the inverted pyramid, symbolism, and impact of its visual representation
Some applications for reverse pyramid are mentioned as
Organization
Writing
Copywriting
Persuasive communication
Fitness
Bodybuilding
All the above applications show different goals and pros and cons of the application principles.
Logic:
The upper level of pyramid depicts most significant tasks requires a major effort.
The intermediate levels decline in significance leading the bottom level to be least significant with least effort.
The RAG status which rates different critical levels in the projects can ideally be combined with the reverse pyramid design
The reverse of inverted pyramid has been used by me in various phases
Kick off meeting
High-level process analysis
Monthly project reporting
Stakeholders meeting
The above steps are very useful and logical to share with you how and why this has been successful reporting for this project.
1# How to use Reverse Pyramid in Change Management Project kick off
Three essential elements of change process need to be focused on
Set of processes to implement the change
Manage the human aspects of change
Overcome the resistance to change
The effort expected for a change management project is invariably higher in project initiation and it is expected decreasing during the project phases.
Be honest: tell stakeholders what the likely expected reactions in the project are and, when they should change.
2# How Inverted Pyramid can be used to engage Stakeholders
Two risks that should be managed very carefully since the beginning are
Resistance from managers
Unrealistic expectations
Employees could readily accept change when they are involved in change design. It is important to invest energy to present some of the project’s aspects of stakeholders.
Followings points should be considered:
Show them when, where and how things will happen.
Make clear about expected effort
Primary feedback and questioning need to be encouraged.
According to different changes required in the scope, various actions with relative effort are required.
This is the message: ”Expect to find more difficulties in some steps but look forward to the descending effort before celebrating success”
3# How to use Inverted Pyramid when reporting Plan Status
The inverted pyramid helps to keep track of starting ending date of phase, tasks and highlighting the status of each phase without forgetting descending effort left.
Combine project’s positive elements and issues reminding where and when the effort is left
4# How to use Inverted Pyramids when reporting to team members
Team members engagement is the most crucial indicator in change management process. This involves reporting to the teams the project phases with the goal to analyze them. Indeed, it will be necessary to integrate details if requested about variances in acceptance status of the departments keeping the details at the minimum level in the report.
Encourage positive competition between departments and ask for progressive cross-functional effort and solutions, manage conflicts and CTA
