7.1 Key Roles in the Change Process

All change begins with an idea. An individual, or sometimes a group, conceives of a way in which things could be different. For organisational change to occur, that original idea must spread, be formed into a proposal and find sponsorship. It must develop alongside the pressures of business as usual for the line leaders, and become accepted by those whose jobs and lives it will affect. Each of the people involved will leave their mark on the success of the original idea.

The five roles

Idea generator

• Develops the idea for change
• Promotes ideas to potential sponsors
• May emerge from a learning organisation

CM3 adds a note worth remembering: ideas are often assumed to be the result of senior strategic intent — and that assumption is frequently wrong. Many of the best change ideas originate with front-line staff who see a problem daily. An organisation that only recognises ideas arriving from the top loses most of them.

Sponsor

This describes the organisational position and functions of an appropriate change sponsor:

• Executive leadership with overall line authority
• Has strategic oversight, legitimises and approves change
• Control over necessary people and resources, including training
• Identifies objectives, outcomes and measures
• Creates an environment to inspire and support new approaches

That last responsibility — creating an environment to inspire and support new approaches — is a common exam item and is specific to the sponsor.

Line leaders

• Facilitate in their own areas a change initiated at executive level
• Create and implement plans to deliver strategy
• Convert plans into financial budgets
• Act as role models
• Ensure effective two-way communication
• Provide local leadership of the change
• Confront those who are blocking change

Line leaders occupy the pivotal position between the executive intent and the people doing the work. They are the layer that most often determines whether a change lands.

Implementers

• The people who receive the change and will have to make it work on the ground
• Listen, enquire, clarify concerns with sponsor and line leaders
• Provide feedback to the sponsor on how things are working out

Implementers are frequently treated as a passive audience. CM3's definition makes them active: they enquire, clarify and feed back. A change that gives implementers no route to raise concerns or report reality has disabled one of its five roles.

Change agent

This describes the position and purposes of an individual from any organisational role who is acting as a change agent:

• Has no formal line authority over the change
• Works to facilitate a change initiative
• Helps groups identify and access resources
• Acts as a data gatherer, educator, adviser, meeting facilitator or coach

The phrase "data gatherer, educator, adviser, meeting facilitator or coach" is quoted directly in exam questions, so learn it.

Change agent is not the same as change manager

CM3 is explicit: the change agent role is not the same as a change manager, although change managers often fulfil this role. A change agent is anyone who, through intentional contact with the wider change team, provides an objective and supportive communication channel, facilitating the development and implementation of the change.

The defining feature is no formal line authority. A change agent influences through credibility, relationships and information rather than instruction, which is why the personal sources of power matter far more to them than the positional ones.

People occupy multiple roles

It is possible for an individual to function in more than one role. A line leader can also be a change agent for a neighbouring team. A change manager is often simultaneously an adviser to the sponsor and a change agent within a business area.

However, CM3 stresses that it is important for anyone involved in change to know what their role is at a particular time and in a particular situation. The reason is practical: the roles carry different authority and different obligations. A line leader speaking as a line leader is issuing direction; the same person speaking as a change agent is offering facilitation. If the audience cannot tell which is happening, the facilitation reads as instruction and the honest feedback dries up.

Recognising roles in exam questions