Setting up an Enterprise Change Management Office: The practice leader's journey
- Lena Ross
- 2 days ago
- 5 min read
You've been asked to set up an Enterprise Change Management Office.
It's an exciting opportunity.
Finally, there's recognition that change management needs a stronger, more coordinated presence across the organisation.
But once the initial excitement wears off, another thought creeps in:
Where do I actually start?
Setting up an Enterprise Change Management Office (ECMO) is more than creating a framework, designing templates and launching a new service.
You're building something that may not have existed before.
You're creating structure where there may have been none, establishing credibility, defining what the function will offer, and influencing people you don't necessarily have authority over. Often you are doing all this while continuing to support live change initiatives.
But you don’t need to start from scratch.
That's why I created this Practice Leader's Journey Map because I know what it feels like to build the change management function from the ground up.
It captures not just what you're doing, but also what you're thinking, feeling and focusing on as you establish the function.
Because the experience of setting up an ECMO is as important as the deliverables you produce.
The journey has four stages: Design, Develop, Launch and Manage
The stages aren't necessarily linear. You'll move backwards and forwards between them as the organisation, your stakeholders and your own understanding evolve.
But they provide a useful way to think about the journey.
1. DESIGN: What are we building and why?
The first stage is about creating the foundations.
You'll be having conversations with sponsors and senior stakeholders, understanding their expectations and exploring why the organisation needs an ECMO in the first place.
You'll start to define the service model and consider the infrastructure required to support it.
What will the function actually do?
Who will it serve?
What services will it provide?
What should be centralised and what should remain with individual projects or business areas?
And then comes the inevitable list of questions running through your head:
So much to do.
Where do I begin?
What does good look like?
Who can I turn to for support?
At this point, it's easy to feel excited and overwhelmed at the same time.
That's why one of the most important things you can establish early is a roadmap and clear priorities.
You don't need to build everything.
You need to identify what matters most now.
Alignment with your sponsor and key stakeholders is critical, as is managing expectations about what can realistically be achieved.
2. DEVELOP: Turning the idea into something useful
Once the foundations are clear, the work becomes more tangible.
You begin developing the components of your service model. Typical elements include advisory services, tools, methodologies, standards, capability development, Communities of Practice (CoPs) or reporting.
This is where the temptation to build everything can become particularly strong.
There are templates to create.
Processes to document.
Governance to establish.
Capability to develop.
Measures to define.
And meanwhile, the organisation is still expecting you to support today's change.
It's easy to find yourself thinking:
What should we prioritise?
How mature is the organisation today?
How do we build capability?
How do we demonstrate value?
How do I influence people when I don't have formal authority?
How am I tracking?
The answer isn't to create more activity.
It's to focus on the things that will make a visible difference.
This is where quick wins become important.
Not quick wins for the sake of having something to report, but practical interventions that solve a real problem for the organisation and demonstrate what the ECMO can contribute.
A useful service, a better way of supporting projects, a simple tool that people actually use, or improved visibility of the change portfolio can all help build credibility.
3. LAUNCH: From building the function to being visible
At some point, the ECMO needs to move from being something you're developing behind the scenes to something the organisation can see, understand and use.
This is the launch phase.
Communication and engagement become particularly important.
People need to know:
What is the ECMO?
What does it offer?
When should I engage with it?
How will it help me?
This is also the opportunity to showcase what you've developed.
Demonstrate the services through lunch and learn sessions.
Share the tools.
Tell the stories of the early wins.
Establish your Community of Practice (CoP).
Make it easy for people to access the support available.
And perhaps most importantly, start building the visibility and relationships that will enable the ECMO to become a trusted advisor rather than simply another corporate function.
This stage can bring a well-deserved sense of accomplishment.
After the pressure of establishing the foundations, you can finally see something taking shape.
But the work isn't finished.
In many ways, it's just beginning.
4. MANAGE: Making the function sustainable
Once the ECMO is operating, the focus changes.
Now the questions become:
How do I make a difference?
How do I make this sustainable?
How do we know we're creating value?
How do we continue to improve?
Governance and reporting become important, but they should be more than compliance activities.
Reporting should help you tell the story of the value you're creating.
Continuous improvement should help the function evolve with the organisation.
And your community of practice, visibility and stakeholder relationships should continue to strengthen the capability around change.
This is where the ECMO moves from being something that was set up to becoming an established part of how the organisation approaches change.
And that is a significant shift.
The journey isn't just about what you do
One of the reasons I created this journey map was to acknowledge something that is often missing from ECMO frameworks.
The human experience of the practice lead.
You can have the right methodology and still feel overwhelmed.
You can have a good plan and still feel pressure.
You can achieve an early win and still wonder whether you're doing enough.
You can launch the function and still have to work hard to establish credibility.
These feelings aren't necessarily signs that you're doing something wrong.
They're a natural part of building something new.
The important thing is to recognise where you are on the journey and understand what you need to focus on next.
You don't need to build everything at once
Perhaps the biggest lesson I've learned from working with change management functions is that establishing an ECMO isn't about creating the perfect function on day one.
It's about creating enough structure, clarity and value to build momentum.
Start with the organisation's needs:
Understand its change maturity.
Agree the priorities.
Create useful services.
Find some early wins.
Make the value visible.
Build relationships.
Then continue to evolve.
The goal isn't simply to establish a Change Management Office.
The goal is to build a sustainable organisational capability for managing change.
And that takes time.
So if you've recently been asked to establish an ECMO and you're currently somewhere between "This is exciting!" and "Where on earth do I start?", be assured that you are where many practice leaders have been before you.
You don't need to have all the answers.
But you do need a clear sense of the journey ahead.
That's what this Practice Leader's Journey Map is designed to help with.
You can download the PDF visual
.
If you need support, we have taken most of the guesswork out of the journey with our Change Management in a Box. Check it out and email us at changehacks@lenaross.com.au if you’d like to find out more!
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