It is vital, as a change agent, to stay focused on the priorities. The order that your priorities need to take go in this order. First you need to focus on your project and the world always comes in second. Your project is the particular business change management effort for which you are responsible. The world is your organization’s change environment. It takes effort not to get sidetracked on problems with a change environment. However, you cannot afford to divert attention to anything outside your project.

Resource availability will be your constant enemy. The only way to keep your resources best used is by maintaining attention on it. It really is best to be frugal with your resources. Projects with very narrow scopes have fewer problems with resource allocation. You quite simply must accomplish something tangible with your business change management project. This is why you have the job. You can do your job well by employing practical project design. This entails chasing after outcomes that have high achievability and that will have observable results. Do that and you will be a successful change agent.

Odds are very good that your job description did not include fixing the change environment. Only the executive can exert the necessary force to create that kind of change. Change of that magnitude is not a bottom-up process. By all means, encourage those changes when the opportunity presents itself. The bulk of your energy cannot be devoted to altering that change environment. Any environment is a complicated set of factors and changing it can be harder and less efficacious than theory would suggest. You need to have some patience with those issues. There is always the possibility of finding like minded people in Human Resources or Training and Development. Affecting the change environment is part of their job description. You can enact the changes you would like to see on the large scale in the microcosm of your project as a means of being a role model.

Change agents need to be proficient with the art of public relations. The best way to build good PR is by building a track record of successful change projects. If your business change management is the best in your organization, get that information out there. Be a herald for yourself. Do your best to win the hearts and minds of employees and managers alike. Those who like you will support you. Maintain focus on achievable goals with high impact will result in successful projects. Those kinds of successes will prompt resource increases, which magnifies your influence of over the change environment.

Your role, as change agent, is to manage a project. You are getting paid for business change management that gets things done. The change environment is a red herring for you. That is a problem for the company executive. Remember, only successful change projects can fuel long-term improvement in an organization’s change environment.

For more information, please see our website: Business Change Management