To function effectively as an HPI practitioner, you must be able to enact the role of change manager. But what is that role? What competencies and work outputs are associated with it? With what approaches for managing change should the change manager be familiar? How is the role of change manager enacted? This chapter addresses these questions.

According to ASTD Models for Human Performance Improvement (Rothwell, 1996), the change manager is the role that "ensures that interventions are implemented in ways consistent with desired results and that they help individuals and groups achieve results." Think of this role as akin to that of project manager who follows through on performance improvement interventions to ensure that they are implemented in ways intended to achieve the desired results and impact. The change manager's role is thus key to successful implementation. Without effective implementation, of course, grand designs falter in crude procedures.

Competencies Associated with the Role of Change Manager

According to ASTD Models for Human Performance Improvement (Rothwell, 1996), the following competencies are linked to the change manager role:

• Change implementation skills: Understanding the nature of individual and organizational change and applying that knowledge to effectively lead organizations successfully through change.

• Change impetus skills: Determining what the organization should do to address the cause(s) of a human performance gap at present and in the future.

• Communication channel, informal network, and alliance understanding: Knowing how communication moves through an organization by various channels, networks, and alliances; building such...