Change Management Checklist: Important OCM Deliverables & Tasks
Below, we’ll walk you through the must-have change management deliverables that will streamline your change initiatives. Whether you’re a seasoned professional or new to organizational change management, these well proven change management steps will form the foundation of your change management planning process.
Change management and providing OCM services can often feel like a daunting task. It’s a process that requires careful planning, effective communication, and a clear understanding of the desired outcomes.
Successfully delivering change management for a project requires a structured approach and a comprehensive plan to navigate challenges and ensure buy-in from all stakeholders. Change management practitioners rely on key OCM deliverables that act as roadmaps to guide the project through its various phases. These change management deliverables help you assess risks, analyze impacts, engage stakeholders, and ultimately ensure that the transition is smooth and successful.
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What is Organizational Change Management?
Organizational Change Management (OCM) is the structured approach used to transition individuals, teams, and organizations from a current state to a desired future state. It focuses on managing the human aspects of change, ensuring that impacted target audiences (employees, customers, etc.) are well-prepared and supported throughout the transformation.
Planning change management encompasses processes, tools, and strategies designed to minimize resistance, maximize engagement, and ensure the successful adoption of changes.
Effective OCM aligns people, processes, and technology to achieve strategic goals while minimizing disruption to the business. Whether it’s a minor process adjustment or a large-scale organizational overhaul, change management plans and OCM services ensure that the transition is successful and sustainable.
An action plan for change management helps organizations reduce risks, improve efficiency, and increase the likelihood of a successful transformation, making it a critical function for any project that involves change.
Next, let’s look at the change management deliverables list to help you achieve these objectives.
Please let us know if you are still wondering, “What is organizational change management?” or have questions about how to develop change management plans.
Project & Risk Assessment
Before diving into any change initiative, it’s crucial to conduct a project assessment and risk assessment. This should be the first item on the change management checklist. This deliverable includes gaining a full understanding of the project and identifying potential risks that could derail your project. By understanding what could go wrong, you can develop strategies to mitigate those risks early in the process.
How it supports planning change management:
- Establishes project scope.
- Identifies project risks and mitigation strategies.
- Aligns risk management with project phases and deliverables.
Learn more about a project and risk assessment.
Target Audience Analysis
Target audience analysis focuses on identifying the groups and individuals affected by the change. This change management support task helps you determine who will need to adapt and who will benefit from the change, shaping your overall strategy.
Why it’s essential in change management planning:
- Defines key demographics (e.g., departments, teams, roles).
- Identifies who needs to be engaged in communication, training, and support.
- Sets the stage for personalized stakeholder engagement strategies.
Learn more about how to do change management target audience analysis.
Change Impact Assessment
A Change impact assessment is vital to understand how the change will influence various aspects of the organization. This is one of the project planning tasks and deliverables that help quantify the scope of the change and who will be affected most.
Components of a successful change impact assessment:
- Identifies changes to business processes, systems, and roles.
- Measures the level of disruption and support needed.
- Highlights high-risk areas that require immediate attention.
Key takeaway: Knowing the change impact ensures you’re not blindsided during the change management implementation plan. This assessment is integral to your organizational change management steps.
Learn more about doing a change impact assessment.
Do you have any questions or feedback about OCM project planning tasks or how to do change management for a project? Please reach out and let us know.
Stakeholder Assessment
No organizational change management checklist is complete without the stakeholder analysis. Effective change management depends on engaging the right people. A Stakeholder Assessment helps you identify all relevant stakeholders, from executives to employees, and assess their levels of influence and receptiveness to the changes.
How it helps:
- Clarifies which stakeholders need to be involved and when.
- Identifies high-impact individuals who could support or resist the change.
- Sets the stage for a comprehensive stakeholder engagement strategy.
Learn more about change management assessments for stakeholders.
Resistance Analysis
Resistance to change is inevitable. A resistance analysis helps you identify potential sources of resistance and plan interventions and change management tasks to address them. This step is crucial for preventing pushbacks that could slow down or halt the project.
Resistance analysis in action:
- Pinpoints areas where resistance is most likely to occur.
- Provides strategies for addressing resistance (e.g., engagement, communication).
- Guides the planning of training and support for reluctant stakeholders.
Bonus tip: By conducting a thorough resistance analysis, you can proactively manage challenges, ensuring smoother transitions.
Learn more about addressing change resistance.
Change Champion Assessment (Optional)
In some projects, identifying change champions—individuals who advocate for the change within the organization—can be beneficial. This deliverable isn’t always necessary but can be a game-changer in large-scale initiatives.
Why you might need change champions:
- Champions help communicate the benefits of the change to their peers.
- They provide insights on how the change is being received.
- Champions can rally teams and reduce resistance.
Learn more about setting up a change champions network.
Please let us know if you’d like to see more detailed information on providing OCM services and organizational change management steps. We have an extensive OCM knowledge base and will be happy to point you in the right direction.
Training Needs Assessment
A training needs assessment is key to understanding what skills and knowledge gaps need to be addressed for a successful change. This assessment identifies what training programs will be necessary for employees to adapt to new processes, systems, or technologies.
What it includes:
- Identifies who needs training and on what topics.
- Helps prioritize training initiatives based on employee roles.
- Ensures that employees are prepared for the change, reducing delays and errors.
Pro tip: Even if you think training may not be needed include this assessment in your project planning tasks to ensure you’ve at least explored the need for training the target audience on necessary skills to succeed post-change.
Learn more about doing a training needs analysis.
Readiness Assessment
A Readiness Assessment evaluates whether the organization is prepared to implement the change. This deliverable assesses the psychological, operational, and technical readiness of impacted audiences to make the change and feeds into your change management plans for engagement.
How it helps in planning change management:
- Gauges employee awareness and readiness for change.
- Highlights any remaining gaps in training or communication.
- Informs leadership of any final adjustments needed before going live.
Learn more about conducting a readiness assessment for change management.
Communication Plan
Your communication plan is one of the most important components of organizational change management steps. Clear, consistent communication ensures that all stakeholders understand the change and their roles in it.
Key elements of a Communication Plan:
- Defines messaging for different stakeholder groups.
- Outlines the timing and frequency of communications.
- Specifies communication channels (e.g., email, meetings, intranet).
Pro tip: Your communication plan should be aligned with the change management team responsibilities and high level tasks to ensure that all messaging is consistent and clear across all platforms.
Learn more about building a successful OCM communication plan.
Change Management Strategy & Plan
The change management strategy and change management implementation plan outline how the change will be implemented and managed across the organization. This document serves as the blueprint for the entire change initiative.
What it should include:
- Project timelines and milestones.
- A detailed change management approach, including key OCM deliverables.
- Roles and responsibilities for everyone involved in the change.
Key takeaway: This strategy aligns all project phases and deliverables to ensure everyone knows their part in the overall process.
Learn more about OCM planning for your organizational change management deliverables.
Training Plan (Optional)
Depending on the project scope, a detailed training plan may be required. This plan lays out how the organization will execute the training required for employees to adapt to the change.
Components of an effective training plan:
- Specifies who will be trained and when.
- Outlines the format of the training (e.g., workshops, e-learning).
- Defines metrics for assessing the success of the training.
Bonus tip: If your change includes a significant shift in tools or processes, this change management checklist step is essential to minimize productivity dips post-launch.
Learn more about effective training delivery for OCM.
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Delivery of Stakeholder Engagement (Communications, Training, etc.)
Delivering on your stakeholder engagement plan is critical to ensure that communications and training efforts are successful. This deliverable focuses on the execution of your planned engagement activities, from sending out emails to conducting training sessions.
How to deliver effective stakeholder engagement:
- Follow through on your communication and training schedules.
- Gather feedback to adjust future communications or training.
- Ensure that all stakeholders are engaged and supported throughout the process.
Learn more about stakeholder engagement.
Go-Live Adoption Assessment
This is one of the change management assessments that helps you evaluate how well the organization is adapting to the change once it’s been implemented. This is a critical step to identify if additional support or adjustments are needed post-launch.
How it helps:
- Tracks employee adoption rates and system usage.
- Identifies any lingering resistance or challenges.
- Provides insights for future improvements in the change management process.
Pro tip: Use this data to adjust your final training sessions or communications for groups that are lagging in adoption.
Learn more about how do you implement change management adoption.
Final Change Management Report
The final change management report serves as a summary of the entire change initiative and action plan for change management, outlining successes, challenges, and lessons learned. It should include key metrics, outcomes, and recommendations for future projects.
What to include in the final OCM report:
- Project successes and areas for improvement.
- Detailed metrics on stakeholder engagement, training completion, and adoption rates.
- Feedback from employees and leadership on the change process.
Learn more about what is organizational change management in the final phases.
Transition Plan
The transition plan ensures that the organization can sustain the change after the change management team exits. This deliverable outlines how the change will be maintained, including who will take over responsibility for any ongoing support or monitoring.
Key elements of a transition plan:
- Defines who will own the change post-go-live.
- Outlines any ongoing training or support needed.
- Establishes a framework for continuous improvement.
Bonus tip: Your OCM transition plan should be the final component in your change management checklist to guarantee ongoing success.
Do you have any questions about change management planning or creating change management plans that haven’t been answered yet? Please reach out and let us know!
Conclusion: Simplify Change with the Right OCM Deliverables
By incorporating these project planning tasks and change management deliverables into your projects, you create a structured and organized approach to managing change. From the initial Project & Risk Assessment to the final Transition Plan, each deliverable plays a crucial role in ensuring that your change initiative is executed smoothly and successfully.
With these tools in hand, you can master the art of planning change management and ensure that your organization is well-prepared for whatever changes lie ahead.
Change Management Support for all Your Tasks
OCMS Portal is an all-in-one change management platform that makes change management planning easy and efficient. It includes tools for all these important change management assessments, plus it will automatically generate your change management plans based on your project’s data.
How do you approach change management most effectively? Find out by signing up for a free trial of OCMS Portal below.
FAQ: Change Management Tasks & Deliverables
What is organizational change management?
Organizational Change Management (OCM) is the structured approach used to transition individuals, teams, and organizations. It focuses on managing the human aspects of change, ensuring that individuals are well-prepared and supported throughout the transformation.
How do you implement change management?
How to do change management begins with understanding a project and its impact on individuals in an organization through a series of change management assessments. It’s important to follow a good organizational change management checklist that includes tasks and a change management deliverables list.
How do you approach change management?
When planning change management support for a project, it’s best to start with an OCM framework or methodology that helps guide you through the organizational change management deliverables. If you use the OCMS Portal change management software, you’ll get a pre-populated list of change management team responsibilities and high level tasks, as well as a by-phase walkthrough of all key organizational change management steps.
Note: Content on OCM Solution's ocmsolution.com website is protected by copyright. Should you have any questions or comments regarding this OCM Solutions page, please reach out to Ogbe Airiodion (Change Management Lead) or the OCM Solutions Team today. OCM Solution was previously known as Airiodion Global Services (AGS).
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