Integrating OCM into Your Project Workplan

Organizational Change Management (OCM) is managing the “people side” of change, ensuring a return on investment (ROI) and meeting the organization’s objectives.  One of the challenges of OCM work is integrating into the master project work plan. As an OCM Team, it would be easy to work completely independently to the project work plan.  However, teamwork implies interdependence, which in the case of OCM, means that the OCM Team must align its work to the project plan.

A great tool for this integration of OCM work into the master project workplan is called the OCM Framework.  The OCM Framework is an infrastructure that is both a conceptual model and a planning model.

From a conceptual perspective, it allows a client to digest all of the high-level categories that could be within the scope of responsibility of the OCM team.

OCM work can seem vague and difficult to plan for; so, it is really helpful to have a visual with you during early client (sponsor) conversations. The benefit here is that you have an opportunity to explain the plan’s infrastructure, the categories, and subtasks; and, the relationships between them, including what might be optional vs. necessary on a given project.

Think of the OCM Framework as a menu of options for the client. Clients need to make informed decisions about the scope of OCM work, which enables them in their role.

At a high level, the categories that are numbered are groupings of activities. The categories are all necessary, but the sub-categories (lower-level tasks) of work can be customized to the nature and scope of the project itself.

Kris Lea originally authored this article for Visionary Integration Professionals