The Next Evolution - Enhancing and Unifying Project and Change Management: The Emergence One Method for Total Project Success - Hardcover

Jarocki, Thomas Luke

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0983667802 ISBN 13: 9780983667803

Publisher: Brown & Williams Publishing, 2011

Synopsis

Just about every project professional agrees that "success" today is not just about being "on time, within budget, and according to scope" but one in which there is successful organizational change and the broad organizational adoption of project outputs and deliverables.  However, because the project management and organizational/behavioral change management disciplines are often practiced as seperate entities, the road to success often becomes divided, leading to poor outcomes for both the project manager and stakeholders throughout the organization.

"The Next Evolution" details a better way.  By integrating, enhancing, and unifying the latest, most effective practices from both the project management andchange management fields, project professionals will no longer have to rely on the ineffective practice of employing two separate methodologies to address the two most critical elements of project success:  task execution and successful stakeholder/change management (also known as the "people side").

It offers real-world insights and pratical solutions for:

• Business leaders trying to understand how best to achieve true business value, stakeholder satisfaction, and complete organizational adoption of their initiatives;
• Project managers looking to enhance the quality of project execution by augmenting their practices with tangible, more effective organizational change/stakeholder management techniques;  
• Change management professionals looking for updated approaches to facilitating change or need a clearer path on how best to integrate and leverage opportunities within a master project plan;
• Project professionals who need a detailed, comprehensive project life cycle methodology to deftly plan and execute a variety of initiatives;

Overview:

"Projects are the vehicles of change." As such, successful initiatives require deft execution (project management) and the proactive mitigation of human, political, and organizational change issues (change management).

Despite the fact that these two disciplines are critical to the overall success of any organizational initiative, these two fields are often practiced as separate disciplines. Each applies its own set of tools, techniques, and methodologies (and sometimes separate project teams as well!) to the same initiative. This inadvertently creates a schizophrenic approach to project success where critical interdependencies and joint opportunities are never fully realized. The results are unnecessary project expenses and delays, increased stakeholder frustration, and low rates of organizational adoption and business value realization.

"The Next Evolution - Enhancing and Unifying Project and Change Management" bridges the gap between project management and the practice of organizational/behavioral change management. Accompanying the book is "The Emergence One Method for Total Project Success"; a detailed, step-by-step methodology that integrates and enhances the most effective perspectives, approaches, and techniques of the project management and change management disciplines into one sequential set of activities. 

The book is divided in two parts. Part One - "The Next Evolution" discusses how most project and change management methodologies are hampered by outdated assumptions, legacy inherited deficiencies, and narrow perceptions regarding scope.  It also details why well-meaning attempts at integrating these two disciplines quickly become disjointed and frustratingly ineffective. It concludes by explaining why a unifying methodology is required if total project success is to be achieved.  In Part Two, "The Emergence One Method for Total Project Success", the complete, step-by-step, Emergence One project life cycle methodology is presented. Each chapter details the goals, objectives, key stakeholder management needs, and activities required to successfully complete each phase of the project life cycle, along with all the real-world insights and caveats necessary to execute with acumen.

About this title

About the Author

Thomas Luke Jarocki is an accomplished project manager and change leadership professional who has logged nearly 25,000 hours working on numerous projects and change initiatives in the United States, Latin America, and Europe. With more than two decades of direct, on-the-ground experience, Thomas has gained the practical know-how and real-world insights often missed by researchers and other academic theoreticians.

Prior to becoming the Managing Director of Emergence One International, Thomas was the Managing Principal of organizational change for Oracle's ERP consulting practice before advancing to another prominent position at a Big Five consulting firm.  Originally from New York, he has a Master's degree in Organizational Behavior from Columbia University and was later a faculty member for the University of Maryland European Division.  He is also an active member of the Project Management Institute.

From the Back Cover

Total project success is more than just achieving the typical project management success criteria of "on time, within budget, and according to specifications." It also means having the resulting change adopted and decisively used by the organization to create business value and a positive return on investment (ROI).

To achieve this, organizations have typically relied on applying various practices from the fields of both project management and organizational/behavioral change management. But with no unifying methodology, these disjointed efforts have only further contributed to poor project success rates.

The Next Evolution -Enhancing and Unifying Project and Change Management provides the much needed bridge between project and change management. Among other things, it details:

• How to enhance the quality of project management by augmenting its practices with stronger, more project-centric change management techniques.
• How project and organizational change success are inextricably linked throughout the entire project life cycle, and why having a unified project methodology is critical.
• What the most important stakeholder management needs are for each project phase, and how to effectively address them without sacrificing project momentum.
• Why many popular change management approaches fail to add measurable value due to their narrow focus, outdated assumptions, and inability to integrate with project plans... and how best to correct these deficiencies.
• What the necessary activities, steps, and real-world insights are that optimize both people and process, and how that can enhance and accelerate project success.

The Next Evolution also includes the complete, step-by-step, Emergence One methodology. The Emergence One Method is fast becoming the definitive project methodology that integrates and enhances the most effective practices of both project and change management. This proven, project life cycle approach has improved the way various organizational initiatives are managed and executed in numerous Fortune 500 companies in the United States and abroad.

From the Inside Flap

Up until now, most project management methodologies paid scant attention to the numerous stakeholder management and organizational change issues that can make or break project success. While the field of change management offered some promise by focusing more on the "people side," it often lacked the necessary rigor and business-focus required by project leaders.

Despite the increased prominence and best intentions of both these disciplines, project success rates have stagnated at around 35%.* Clearly, something is amiss.

One essential problem is that the project and change management fields are often practiced as separate disciplines. Each applies its own set of tools, techniques, and methodologies (and sometimes separate project teams as well) to the same initiative. This inadvertently creates a schizophrenic approach to project success where critical interdependencies and joint opportunities are never fully realized. The results are unnecessary project expenses and delays, increased stakeholder frustration, and low rates of organizational adoption and business value realization.

"The Next Evolution" details a better way with the Emergence One Method... a unifying methodology that integrates and enhances the perspectives, approaches, and techniques of the project and change management disciplines. By having one sequential set of activities, project requirements, as well as project stakeholders, are managed in a seamless fashion. This helps to ensure that projects are better scoped, managed, and supported; efficiently executed; reliably deployed; and effectively adopted and sustained by all stakeholders.

The Emergence One Method is a proven, flexible approach that can be used either as a standalone porject methodology, or utilized to enhance existing approaches. It is fully scalable for use on projects of any size, even when minor organizational changes or end-user impacts are expected.


*The Standish Group CHAOS Summary Reports, 2003 thru 2011

Edition details

• Publisher: Brown & Williams Publishing
• Publication date: 2011
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0983667802
• ISBN 13: 9780983667803
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 326