The Next Evolution - Enhancing And Unifying Project And Change Management

“Projects are the vehicles of change.” As such, successful initiatives require deft execution (project management) and the proactive mitigation of human, political, and organizational change issues (change management). Despite the fact that these two disciplines are critical to the overall success of any organizational initiative, these two fields are often practiced as separate disciplines. Each applies its own set of tools, techniques, and methodologies (and sometimes separate project teams as well!) to the same initiative. This inadvertently creates a schizophrenic approach to project success where critical interdependencies and joint opportunities are never fully realized. The results are unnecessary project expenses and delays, increased stakeholder frustration, and low rates of organizational adoption and business value realization. “The Next Evolution – Enhancing and Unifying Project and Change Management” bridges the gap between traditional project management and the practice of organizational/behavioral change management. Accompanying this book is “The Emergence One Method for Total Project Success”; a detailed, step-by-step methodology that integrates and enhances the most effective perspectives, approaches, and techniques of the project and change management disciplines into one sequential set of activities. This ground-breaking book and project methodology is authored by Thomas Luke Jarocki, an accomplished project manager and change leadership professional who has logged nearly 25,000 hours working on numerous projects and change initiatives around the world. With more than two decades of direct, on-the-ground experience, Thomas has gained the practical know-how and real-world insights often missed by researchers and other academic theoreticians.

The book is divided in two parts. Part One - “The Next Evolution” discusses how most project management and change management methodologies are hampered by outdated assumptions, legacy inherited deficiencies, and narrow perceptions regarding scope. It goes on to explain how both of these projects disciplines need to evolve in order to better address the ever-evolving needs of companies in the new millennium. Part One also traces the evolution of both the project management and change management disciplines, and details why well meaning attempts at integrating these two disciplines quickly become disjointed and frustratingly ineffective. It concludes by explaining why a unifying methodology is required if total project success is to be achieved, and what the main elements of a truly integrated “next evolution” approach would look like.

In Part Two, “The Emergence One Method for Total Project Success”, the complete, step-by-step, Emergence One project life cycle methodology is presented. Each chapter details the goals, objectives, key stakeholder management needs, and activities required to successfully complete each phase of the project life cycle, along with all the real-world insights and caveats necessary to execute with acumen. With this proven, practical, and flexible approach, project professionals will no longer have to rely on two separate methodologies to address all the critical project execution, organizational adoption, and business value realization challenges. The Emergence One Method captures the next evolution of the project management and change management disciplines… the emergence of one comprehensive methodology for total project success.

Whether you are a project manager looking to enhance the quality of project execution by augmenting your practices with tangible, more project-centric change management techniques; a change manager looking for a clearer path on how to best integrate and leverage opportunities within a master project plan; or a project leader trying to understand how best to manage it all, “The Next Evolution” is the definitive guide for achieving total project success.