Analysing change

What is change analysis? 

The ability to understand, evaluate and assess the impact of change, at a project, programme, and portfolio level.  

Change analysis is a foundation that enables effective planning and co-ordination of change council-wide and helps to mitigate risks to the achievement of outcomes and benefits.   

Knowledge 

• Knowledge of change management principles and practice.
• Understanding of behavioural psychology.  
• Understanding of HR requirements, including the legal framework for structural changes. 
• Contextual awareness. 
• Knowledge of learning theories and models. 

Skills  

Able to:  

• Identify and analyse stakeholders: To ensure there is understanding of who the change impacts, when and how to support planning of changes across the council.
• Assess learning needs: To enable the planning, and development of appropriate learning programmes to support the desired knowledge, skills and behaviours aligned to the outcomes the change is seeking to achieve.
• Evaluate change impacts: to ensure the impacts of changes are understood, and actions planned and implemented to support individuals, teams, and services to adopt to the future state.
• Think strategically: When analysing change impacts across the council, ensuring any dependencies are understood and managed and change is prioritised based on strategic outcomes and benefits. 
• Manage risks: Associated with the delivery of the future state as defined in the transformation design, and documented in the impact assessment ensuring appropriate mitigations are in place and tracked. 
• Collaborate: With colleagues and stakeholders to ensure change impacts and risks are understood.  
• Communicate: Both verbally and in written form. 
• Prioritise: Change activities at a portfolio, programme, and project level to maximise value against the overall strategic objectives to be achieved. 
• Create and maintain effective documentation: To define, monitor and track change impacts, including reporting impacts of change across the council portfolio.
• Resolve problems: Consider change challenges and pinch points, adapt plans accordingly.
• Be emotionally intelligent: Recognise, understand, and use emotional responses effectively in the achievement of outcomes when working with stakeholders impacted by and leading change. 

Business analysis – maturity index 

A related business analysis maturity index has been created to enable councils to understand their current maturity and to set, and work towards, a target state. This can be downloaded below.