“You don’t make progress by standing on the sidelines whimpering and complaining. You make progress by implementing ideas” - Shirley Chisolm. These are the words of a change leader who understood the importance of taking action. Rather than pointing out everything that’s wrong - grab a seat at the table and present your vision. As women in project management, it’s critical that we do the same and use our voices to help implement changes as we see fit. 

Luckily, working in project management affords us the opportunity to work with other business functions to bring a project to completion. With that - project managers have a unique view of organizational structures and processes that could negatively affect a project. I can think of a time a few years ago when I had the responsibility of reconciling project budgets at the end of each quarter.

The problem wasn’t reconciling the budget, it was the misallocation of funds in the same line items for almost every project. Fixing this error for every project seemed like an incredible waste of time. To my benefit and the benefit of others in the same role, I knew that I had to figure out how to solve this problem to save time. Below are three ways to effectively implement change in an organization. 

Recognize the issue. 

You already know that something is off. You feel the frustration and you know there has to be a better way. Complaining is never productive in a work environment so automatically rule that out. Instead, look deep into the issue and try to understand where the problem exists. This is where implementing change starts; having the ability to see the issue and finding its source. 

In my case, the reconciliation process always took much longer than it should have in my opinion because the same errors would arise for each project. Even though there was a fix, one error could cost my team an additional hour per project. And each of us was responsible for at least 10 projects. That was the clue for me that there was system misalignment. Before I could take further action, I had to look into our Oracle database to understand and confirm which functional codes were misaligned with these particular line items. Once I figured that out, it was go-time. 

Analyze your findings.

Next, to effectively implement change you have to analyze the factors at play. Knowing that a particular process has been in effect for years, it might seem overzealous to come in and try to change the standard. But - don’t think that way. Standards and templates are in place as a guide however, there is always room for improvement. Ask yourself who, what, and why this process currently exists and what is the impact of changing it. It’s most important to understand the “why” and speak up where you see opportunity.

After recognizing the issue in the system, I did a little research into who was responsible for setting the codes. I contacted each party to discover what the effort would be to aligning the line items to a more appropriate code on the backend. I found that the time impact was less than one month and would affect two different functional departments. But - it would be a one-time fix. That effort would reduce a significant amount of time and effort indefinitely for my team. 

Demonstrate. 

At this point, I knew I was on to something great, and following through was a no-brainer. When it’s time to implement change in an organization, demonstration is the name of the game. Take the extra step to put together a case study. Present the problem, the analysis, and the possible solution. The best and most convincing way to present a change in my opinion is to show how your solutions save either time, money, or both. 

This is exactly what I did and the change was implemented immediately. The accuracy of budgets across all projects was improved and time spent reconciling was significantly reduced. I received excellent feedback from leadership and became more confident in speaking up when I recognized areas for improvement.  

If you haven’t already, check out “How to Become a Successful Change Leader” inside the Women of Project Management Membership. Yvonne explains in detail how to position yourself for success in today’s future of work. 

By, Airess Rembert, PMP, Member of Women Of Project Management & Blogger at The Nerd Bae

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