At CMC Partnership Global we love hearing about our client's success stories. We understand that change is a journey, and for many organisations, certifying as Prosci Change Management Practitioners on the 3-day programme is just the beginning.
Building enterprise change capability is a long-term investment that needs to be managed like a change project. It enables organisations to manage change more effectively, at a faster pace and at a lower cost. When an organisation embarks on the journey to build enterprise change capability, the end goal is to build lasting capabilities within the organisation, so that the reliance on external services is decreased.
It's no wonder that there's an award for Best Capability Builder then!
On that note, we're delighted to recognise the commitment and drive that Anglian Water Services' (AWS) Head of Change Rachel Butler showed throughout her organisations change journey, leading to her receiving the Change Awards Best Capability Builder Europe Award 2023.
CMC have partnered with Anglian Water to support their Enterprise Change Management project and we continue to support them in their change journey. If you are interested in reading more about how we worked together take a look at our case study.
Building Enterprise Change Management Capability - A Journey
Anglian Water's change journey began when it became very clear that there was a requirement for building change capability, in order for employees to absorb and adopt changes more effectively, with the understanding that thousands of customers may be impacted by these changes eventually.
The changes that were being rolled out would impact more than 10,000 employees/partners, and despite the initial perception that Change Management was a low priority, Rachel championed the development of Anglian Water's change management strategy. By activating and training the right roles during the change journey, assessing the change maturity of the organisation and developing an enterprise change management plan, Rachel and Change Capability Manager, Kate Allenby, have gained support and enthusiasm for change management from all levels of the business.
All great initiatives are nothing without a plan. Rachel began by developing an enterprise-wide change management deployment plan to ensure successful delivery of change. This was the first essential element in an ambitious 5-year business plan that she and her small team of change experts designed. Rachel and her team utilised a key tool for measuring the maturity of change management within their organisation in the present, enabling them to develop their plans for the future state of the organisation. AWS understand that enterprise change management capability is a journey that will continue to positively impact the organisation and will help support the successful delivery of business strategy and performance.
Rachel's initial focus was putting the right people into the right training programs at the right time; from project delivery teams, sponsors, events, IT and HR, she ensured that they developed the knowledge and skills to adopt and reinforce the change. By having this core change network, Rachel was able to achieve the adoption of a consistent change framework, language and approach across AWS.
Adoption didn't stop there however; AWS relies on the expertise of partner organisations to help them deliver their services and support their customers. Key individuals from these partner organisations participated in training alongside AWS, benefitting from a consistent approach to change across both AWS and their partner organisations. Developing a common approach and a language for change allowed AWS to cement the collective change management approach and capabilities throughout their change community.
Since the initial discussions with CMC, AWS now have a small change centre of excellence, which supports a network of change practitioners in a range of departments and have also developed the AWS Community, which provides the common language of change and supports change leads. As a result of Rachel's excellent work, internally led holistic change workshops are being run for key roles in order to spread awareness and understanding of the role of change management and capability across the business.
Want to build enterprise change management capability in your organisation?
It's clear to see how Rachel and her colleagues, have successfully championed change management within AWS and have built a clear pathway to achieving enterprise change capability. Congratulations to Rachel and AWS on their success.
If you're interested in learning more about building change capability in your organisation, you can take a look at our range of on-demand webinars on the topic or look into becoming a Certified Prosci Change Management Practitioner which will give you the tools and knowledge to start your organisations change journey.
Interested in learning how to grow your organisations change management maturity? Consider attending our 1-day Enterprise Change Management Bootcamp.
Rachel will be joining CMC at the World of Learning Conference this year. Held at the NEC in Birmingham from the 10th - 11th October, don't miss out on the opportunity to meet our change management experts! You can find more details on the conference here.
About Rachel Butler
Rachel Butler is Head of Change at Anglian Water and has over 20 years experience in change, working her way up from a graduate to a Change Analyst. From there she moved through Project Manager and Change Manager, before moving into leading large transformation programmes in Digital, Data and Operations.
Rachel is an energetic, highly motivated and effective senior leader. Her strengths include people management and strategic transformation, alongside extensive experience in managing change from concept to inspirational vision through to realisation Over the last 3 years she has championed Anglian Water's enterprise change management capability, building up from nothing to a buzzing change community with over 200 members across the organisation.
