What is Change Management?
Change management is the intentional process of guiding individuals and organizations through a transition—from the current state to a future state. It includes planning, communication, training, and support strategies to help people adapt to changes in projects, systems, roles, or culture.
In higher education, change is constant—whether it’s implementing a new learning management system, revising a general education curriculum, or launching a campus-wide retention initiative. Change management ensures that these transitions are not only operationally successful but also embraced by the people involved.
While change is often a natural part of project evolution (see other posts on scope creep & change logs), change management is about how we support people through that evolution.
What are the benefits of change management?
When integrated thoughtfully into your project approach, change management provides key benefits:
- Increased Adoption: Helps people understand the why behind the change and engage with it positively.
- Reduced Resistance: Addresses fears, frustrations, and misinformation before they become barriers.
- Stronger Engagement: Gives stakeholders a voice and a role in shaping the transition.
- Greater Equity: Ensures that communication and support reach all affected groups, not just the most vocal or visible.
- Sustained Success: Supports long-term impact by embedding the change into culture, workflows, and practice.
For example, a registrar’s office implementing a new scheduling tool could use change management to train staff, engage faculty, and ensure students know how to use the system—leading to a smoother rollout and fewer support issues.
Where might you see change management in higher education?
You’ll encounter change management practices (formal or informal) in a variety of institutional initiatives, including:
- Technology implementations, such as new advising, LMS, or CRM systems
- Policy changes, like academic integrity revisions or new grading systems
- Organizational restructuring, such as departmental mergers or leadership transitions
- Strategic plan roll outs, where new goals and processes need broad buy-in
- Student success initiatives, like advising redesign or early alert programs
A step-by-step guide to change management
- Be specific about what is changing, why, and for whom. This clarity should be reflected in your charter, scope, and communication materials.
- Use stakeholder identification and stakeholder analysis to map who is impacted and how, and consider each stakeholder’s power, perspective, and potential influence.
- Clearly outline what messages need to be shared, with whom, how often, and through what channels.
- Create opportunities for people to build the skills and confidence they need to navigate the change such as workshops, office hours, or written guides.
- Offer ways for people to ask questions, raise concerns, and share ideas, and then show how their feedback shapes the process.
- Use tools like a dashboard, change log, or lessons learned review to monitor how the change is going and make adjustments as needed.
Reflective questions
- How do you currently support your team or community through change?
- Where in your current projects could a more intentional change management strategy improve success?
- What has been your experience with well-managed (or poorly managed) change?
- How can change management practices help ensure equity and inclusion in your initiatives?
- What’s one small change you could apply change management principles to this month?