Managing Change for Change Management

OK, before you read any further, I want you to stop and establish a mental picture of Change Management.

Got that in your frontal lobe? Now slip it back into the deck, right there on top, taking care to let me see it, and I bet you I still can't get it right. Here's why.

Now, did you put on your PMI hat and think about scope control? Or, were you wearing your service management glasses and think of configuration control? Those in app development were probably thinking code control or versioning. Perhaps you are currently undergoing a revamp of processes and visualized controlling organizational change. Finally, any new parent undoubtedly conjured up how big of a stack of Huggies is needed to make it through a family visit.

To all the various standards and methodology organizations and committees of the world, PLEASE quit laying claim to such common terms and declaring myopic and unflinching definitions for them. Hardly anyone is printing stuff out any more, so the cost of a adding a modifier word is so low as to be immeasurable. Given that the PMO must deal with all those examples above (perhaps the Huggies not withstanding), it surely must be as frustrating to you as it is to me.

So, I want to start a movement, a grammatical revolution, a veritable forced march towards effective communications. I want to suggest to PMO staff that any time someone mentions Change Management, immediately ask the following:

Oh, are you talking about scope management, configuration management, code control, or application version management? Or, do you just need to change your pull-ups as a result of the new process we unveiled?

Perhaps after hearing that a few times, folks will start being a little more descriptive in their language, and recognize there are equally valid interpretations of terminology. And, just maybe those various standards committees will quit trying to hijack common business lexicon by twisting them up for their own nefarious purposes and pitting brother against brother in an uncivil war of definitions.

By the way, it was the Three of Spades — now how on earth did I do that?!