When we first embarked on the CMI journey, we conducted a series of focus groups with practitioners and business users. The message came through loud and clear that accreditation was seen as a major benefit from a professional body. The main issue identified by business users in our more recent research is that they find it hard to know what to look for in a Change Manager as the variety of CVs they receive when recruiting is enormous.
Feedback from experienced Change Managers indicates frustration with comments like "everyone thinks they are a Change Manager". Practitioners felt that the profession is being discredited by a lack of definition and poor quality practitioners.
We researched over 30 similar organisations, in Australia and overseas, and consulted a range of practitioners, academics and business users during the development of our accreditation model.
The CMI accreditation model has two elements:
The CMI Accreditation stream worked with a group of practitioners, business users and academics to develop the Change Practitioner Competency Model. The model was then open for a 6 month period of public review. It was launched in early 2008 and has been welcomed by practitioners and their managers as an independent benchmark of change management practitioner performance.
Click here to download the latest Change Management Institute Change Practitioner Competency Model.
Feel free to send your questions and feedback on the model to: info@change-management-institute.com
It's really easy. The model was designed with practical use in mind and is in plain English. The content is intended to guide your thinking on the demonstration of specific behaviours i.e it is an assessment of what you 'do' rather than what you 'know'.
This model is free and accessible to anyone with an interest in change management. All we ask is that you protect the integrity of the model and credit CMI as the copyright owner.
Download a copy of our competency model frequently asked questions to find out how the model can be used.
The Change Practitioner Assessment Process is currently being piloted and is expected to be available in mid 2010. Our research told us that this had to be a rigorous process against a high standard so we have had a team of practitioners and assessors working on this for nearly a year.
The proposed accreditation process is in two parts:
Part 1 - The practitioner will be asked to provide written evidence of their demonstration of the competencies. A range of evidence will be submitted including a CV, an outline of a variety of change roles, references and a case study.
Part 2 - The practitioner will attend a face to face assessment. This will involve one or more interviews and the presentation of a case study.
Practitioners have told us that they would like to a Strategic Practitioner model to benchmark the more senior role and a Master Practitioner accreditation to recognise people who have made a significant contribution to the change management profession. We have also spoken to business users about a company accreditation to be awarded to companies with a successful track record in implementing change. We intend to develop these following successful implementation and embedding of the Change Practitioner in the first half of 2010.