I admit it. I’m completely on the fence about the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP). The second annual ACMP conference is coming up in April and I’m not quite sure what I think about it—yet. Let’s look at their mission.
The Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP) provides oversight and management of a professional certification program for change management professionals leading the people-side of change. With this program, change practitioners, HR and OD professionals, project managers, and other change professionals can earn their ACMP (Change Management Professional) certification.
Evidently the ACMP governance and certification standards will be presented at the conference this April. I won’t be attending this conference and I will pay close to attention to what they produce in terms of governance and standards because it will ultimately affect RIVERFORK.
Why am I on the fence about ACMP?
Are certification standards resume fodder or do they provide meaningful professional accreditation against a standard of excellence? Are certification standards meaningful in terms of identifying skilled and qualified professionals or do they create bureaucratic B.S.? Do standards provide relevant and worthwhile measures to assess a high standard of excellence? Or do standards create pointless administrative constraints?
And who should set the standards? Do we really have any ‘masters’ in the field of change management that should be setting standards? Especially given the dismal results noted in the blog post, The Insanity of Change Management. Will standards pigeonhole much needed creativity and innovation in the stagnant field of change management?
Most of the best project managers I’ve ever known never bothered with Project Management Institute (PMI) PMP certification and they didn’t get a job because they had PMP on their resume. They were hired because they had a network of people that knew the depth of their skills. I’ve also known plenty of people that are ‘certified’ in this or that change management methodology and couldn’t get a thirsty man to drink water in the desert.
I like the idea of networking and establishing community. But standards? Why? Why now? I’m more inclined to say let’s get some more time in the saddle, get more international involvement in ACMP, and then look at standards of excellence. Right now, ACMP feels like an organization used to promote a few consulting and training firms. That’s not okay. An organization in it’s second year should be learning, observing, innovating, growing—not setting standards.
Convince me otherwise readers. What are your thoughts? What do you think of ACMP communicating governance and standards in April 2010?
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Melissa,
I am on the fence as well. On the one hand, there was considerable thread about the perceived value of Prosci and the apparent devaluation of their certification. This would lead me to think the non Prosci practitioners would ask who does the ACMP think they are setting standards? Seems PMI certification is a bit different than some of the change management certifications, since PMI has a number of hours they require for the certification.
Secondly, I would have to ask why now? My sense is that there are so many derivatives and blended models out there, that to set any standard at this time could be questioned.
On the other hand, I can see why this body wants to do it. If you can garner "critical mass" and establish the momentum, why not? Who will stop it now?
Good question. I look forward to hearing from those not tied so closely to this group.
Kind regards,
Bob
Hi Bob,
Thanks for the comments. I wouldn't want to see the ACMP effort 'stopped' – I wholeheartedly support the idea of networking and building a professional community. I just question the need for setting standards right now. I also don't see any effort to use social media to engage and collaborate with a diverse, international community. That makes it feel like they're going off into a closed room and will come out and communicate the standards. That's not cool, nor is it professional.
Thanks again for your comments. Please tweet this article so we can hear from other change professionals in the global community.
~Melissa
Hello Melissa. This is a great question but I propose it is really two:
1. Would practitioners and clients benefit from a professional association?
2. Is this "it"?
On point 1 I strongly say YES:
- Standards are important. Presently, clients have no way of differentiating amateurs and 'wanna be's from legitimate practitioners – for many reasons. Not to suggest that an accreditation would be the only way but it would contribute.
- Training should be 'qualified', at least at a high level – PMP does a decent job of this
- this is a distinct and deep competency that needs to be better defined. Too many of us believe that it is only our own segment, e.g. coaching or leadership or training or project change execution. It is all and a holistic view is required.
- lots more but out of time presently. Will come back as I think of them.
Part 2 next
Gail,
1. I don't think the real question here is if they would benefit or not, I have no question they would derive some kind value. The real question is one of opportunity cost, which is to say…what else could the change management professional or company have done with the $2,700 that they spend going to conferences like these or with paying yearly dues to be a member of an association or to get ACMP certified? That could easily stack up to several thousand dollars. So what I think the question is – How much value would they get from it considering what else they could have spent it on?
For smaller consulting or change management firms the cost of several thousand dollars per CM professional is a huge one. It is cost prohibitive! So who is the certification really for? For that much I could probably attend several social media/industry events or other quality local conferences, get certified in something else or subscribe to many rich data or new services that would add value.
So you tell me what else could a CM professional have bought for that much money? Perhaps every text and essay ever written on change management that exists from amazon.com on a new kindle? What would you spend that money on? How much value would it add?
Todd, I certainly appreciate your point. I belong to another professional association where I question this every time I have to renew
The decision rests on the value to the client – if clients recognize and value the accreditation then it snowballs and creates value. Think of Chartered Accountants and Engineers – these accreditations are now so established that clients (and often legislation) use the accreditation as a bar. If clients ask for the accreditation then it begins to generate value for those that have it.
Of course the myriad of questions and concerns around "how" are also very relevant but, I feel, smarter questions and more valuable work than "whether to'.
Part 2 – I guess the blog has a limit to size of comment – cont'd
On point 2, jury is out for me – my thoughts are a bit more random:
- I'd feel better if stakeholders were more actively engaged
- I have met some pretty bright people at Prosci
- it cannot be only Prosci, nor only large providers of CM product that define or lead an organization that represents a VERY disparate collection of legitimate professionals
Waiting to see what they do, and waiting and waiting.
Let's keep this going. Thanks for posing the question – I will re-tweet.
Gail,
Thanks for your comments. I don't know who is on the ACMP committee to set the standards. You noted, " I'd feel better if stakeholders were more actively engaged." Me too.
Unfortunately, the ACMP does not provide any way for the online community to interact. With the spread of social networking, it's unfortunate that they are not taking an active role in establishing an open community and forum to discuss governance and standards. Instead, people have to pay to go to an expensive conference.
Regarding your comments about the need for a very disparate collection of legitimate professionals, I can't tell who's on the committee making decisions about governance and standards. Again, this is a missed opportunity from the sponsors on not utilizing social media to engage and collaborate with a broad, international spectrum of change professionals.
Thanks again,
Melissa
Melissa,
Hasn't Social Media/Web 2.0 been around since 2004? Isn't the year 2010? Six years huh? Here is a change question that every change manager should be asking themselves –
Q1. How long does it take for a change management organization to change?
Also, I honestly wonder what a change management strategy looks like for a change management organization?
Q2. Does that work count as hours towards training the trainer's trainer certification?
RE: "I can't tell who's on the ACMP committee making decisions about governance and standards"
Q3. What is transparency's role in change?
Q4. Am I asking too many questions?
Todd,
You're NOT asking too many questions. The question I have is –
If the ACMP comes out with "standards" next week, how much time and energy do we as change management professionals and invested stakeholders push back? And how?
~Melissa
Thanks, Melissa, Gail and Bob. Standards in the purist sense would be pretty hard to establish credibly at this time since, as noted here, there's a diverse number of change management/guidance/facilitation/org transformation applications, methodologies and theories, all of which may be necessary to address the wide range of change approaches needed now; and likely even more will emerge in these dynamic times. Many of us have become Change practitioners via different paths, so if a set of standards were to "arrive" now, they'd have to be so broad, to encompass all the valid variations, that such breadth might dilute any possible credibility unless they, too, had variations (similar to the EU's ISO series).
Along the same lines, and more to the point, I haven't seen anything approaching a clearly defined set of core competencies to distinguish CM "expert" from "hobbyist" unless it pertains to a specific methodology/certification (e.g., Kotter); again, this might refer back to the diverse paths/broad backgrounds of many of us. However, it would seem a codified body of standards, no matter how broad, should link back to a set of some basic core competencies, even if on a lowest common denominator basis of a few competencies, to establish effective metrics and benchmarking; then standards.
The PMP corollary is noteworthy (even if I exemplify Melissa's postulate of an ace PM without one!), however, it measures primarily technical skills based, again, on a core competency scenario. What kind of technical skills are required to be an effective Change Agent? What's the path for acquiring/developing them, so that we have a lockstep model that identifies core competencies; measures them; offers a CM expertise development path; and is fully branded for quality so, as Gail notes, preferred vendors/consultants are readily identifiable? And, then there needs to be a step for designing/implementing a training path for wannabe's, too.
It seems a CM body/network of professionals+ could provide a sound and effective platform for dialog to explore these set of complexities at length, with lots of socialization among practitioners, clients, industry analysts and scholars, before rolling out a fait accompli. And, if someone should do it anyway, without the many benefits of expert-based collaboration, should it be ACMP? The Change Management Institute in Australia seems to have been exploring similar things for sometime. Perhaps they have been marginalized strictly by geography….? I don't know much about either organization but it seems like the best thing a "CM group" could do now is to establish a vibrant community that starts to address and dialog around these issues instead of creating a membership to receive them passively (and "expensively"). To be continued (I hope!)…
Lucie,
You continue to amaze me with your insights. "…it seems like the best thing a "CM group" could do now is to establish a vibrant community that starts to address and dialog around these issues instead of creating a membership to receive them passively (and "expensively")."
Spot on!
Thanks again,
Melissa
Hi,
Standards as you describe them (or like the ACMP which I don't know yet seems use them) are a way to cement practices. In Lean manufacturing, standards are the best way to do something, at a given time. As such, they're a basis for improvement and everybody's supposed to find new and better way of doing things.
What certification gives is one worldview of a topic, engraved in a certificate. How am I supposed to evolve if I must pay to renew the certificate on the same foundations or follow a few courses a year to maintain my certification, on topics that align with the standards ?
Given the topic (change), I'd better see a standard that promotes change for the change practitioners, in a way that would (hopefully) improve them! ISO 9001:2000 and :2008 are an example (though rarely implemented properly IMO, but that's another story).
Thanks for the insightful comments – much appreciated. You noted, "I'd better see a standard that promotes change for the change practitioners, in a way that would (hopefully) improve them!"
Yes!
Melissa
Thanks, Melissa – too kind! And, perhaps someone's calling someone's bluff: Said Business School (Oxford University) together with HEC of Paris, now offers an Executive Master's degree in Consulting and Coaching for Change:.http://tinyurl.com/yc62mry
And I thought my six months of accreditation was rigorous! Who needs certifications when degrees are available…another topic perhaps…Here's toasting to a vibrant dialog on standards and building out the CM community like you and Holger are doing!
Wow! Very cool Lucie. I'll cheers to all of that. ; )
Melissa
Melissa this blog post has been keeping me up late at night (for the last two weeks) losing sleep, thinking over the excellent questions you are asking…that is a really good sign.
Why set the standards now? Hummm interesting timing consider the state of the economy no? $$$?
"I also don't see any effort to use SOCIAL MEDIA to engage and collaborate with a diverse, international community."
Opportunity knocking? So Melissa want to collaborate on a new social change project?
I know how to build enterprise level social networks and how to engage them. 
A closed room is not a strategy for change it is a strategy for failure. Consider the success of open networks versus closed ones. Consider what we know about openness and change from first hand experiences as change managers. What closed door ever catalyzed change?
- Todd Pitt / Zero Strategist
Hi Todd,
Welcome my friend. I'm glad to hear this post is making others question ACMP as well. I'll contact you about your proposal.
Cheers!
Melissa