Change Management is vague, frequently misunderstood term in business today.  I spend a lot of my time helping clients understand what we’re talking about when we talk about Change Management, and more importantly, imparting its value and the criticality of this discipline on projects today.  I heard a great metaphor this morning for describing Change Management from Prosci, one of the world’s premier Change Management thought leadership organizations, and it goes like this.
One day, the king commissioned his shipbuilding team to build a bigger, better, and faster ship.  The new ship could transport much more cargo each month, increasing the revenues for the kingdom, and would require 100 men to row.  The king invested a significant amount of money from the royal treasury, and the ship was ready to sail at the prescribed time. 
However, no one had recruited a crew, nor had anyone been trained how to operate the new vessel.  After all, that wasn’t the job of the shipbuilder.  So the ship sat in the harbor, moored to the pier, for more than three months.  The ship, with it’s promised huge financial returns, was currently producing nothing, and actually, the overall return was negative when building costs were included.
Finally, a skeleton crew was a assembled, and the ship made it’s maiden voyage 90 days after construction was completed.  Unfortunately, with less than half of the crew required to operate the ship at it’s designed specification, the ship sailed at a much less than optimal speed and could only make half of the “promised” voyages each month.  Work continued on recruiting and training the new crew, and nine months later, a full year after construction completed, the desired returns were beginning to be realized.
When we implement systems, we face the same risks as the king.  Studies have shown that for most projects, the technology is usually delivered on time and on budget (or close to it), and that failure results from a lack of user readiness.  In the metaphor above, it took the king a year to begin operating at optimal capacity, and the lost productivity further eroded his target ROI.  When we implement a system, it is critical that our users are ready on Day 1, or thus, we face the same challenges of an eroding ROI.  Change Management is the discipline that helps ensure that our target audiences are ready, willing and able to perform at go-live.  Can we afford not to invest in these practices?  Our investment depends on it!