In nearly every aspect of launching, operating, expanding, and transforming a business, there’s no overstating the importance of speed. It’s what puts us ahead of our competition and helps us lead in a quickly-changing marketplace. Speed is also fundamental to the execution of strategic imperatives, even more so when change impacts people and/or requires behavioral shifts across an organization, such as the change inherent in post-merger integration cost-efficiency efforts, leadership turnover due to poor performance, process reengineering, or the decommissioning and upgrading of IT.
The Benefit of Accelerated Change Implementation
Assuming leadership’s upfront approval of and commitment to the change – along with their ongoing resourcing of that change – paybacks include:
- Change is taken seriously. Constituents across the organization will see that the business is determined to make the change, and will more often avoid second-guessing what was previously agreed to and committed to by leadership.
- Quicker resolution of roadblocks. Accelerating change decisions reduces lower-level disagreement from functional stakeholders by pushing any roadblocks to a prominent executive forum for quick resolution.
- Boost to employee morale. For difficult decisions like those in the wake of a merger (e.g. cost reduction or integrations), speed actually helps sidestep employee stress and rumor-mongering. This, in turn, will mitigate breakdowns in productivity.
- Faith in company leadership. Rapidly actioning change brings greater confidence in a management team’s ability to make hard decisions and deliver. An executive who is unable to make change happen quickly will lose credibility over time.
The role of the PMO in executing rapid, meaningful change.
Getting maximum results out of your change implementation in a short amount of time is (should be) the work of an effective, high-value PMO, one that’s led by a well-respected change agent who speeds things along without adding to the bureaucracy. Failure to activate a PMO may threaten commitment to the change effort among key stakeholders. You can read more about getting value out of your PMO in a recent thought piece by Senior HighPoint Associate, Alex Nesbitt.
Turn strategic goals into strategic success.
Is your business seeking change that sticks? HighPoint’s top-tier consulting team will set up and support a highly transparent, visible, and results-centric PMO, allowing your business to execute rapid, meaningful outcomes against strategic imperatives with effective change communications, resourcing, and pace. Contact HighPoint to start the conversation.
