To test my thoughts, I uploaded a post onto LinkedIn with a view to getting a better handle on this aspect. There were some interesting replies such as “this profession has tremendous growth and opportunities in many years to come”, or “Change Management practitioners in time will abound and be much sought after, as they gain the reasonable amount of experience”. That was an interesting start.

Market Insights.

A week later, I uploaded a video which I called my “Sunday ramble” onto LinkedIn asking for specific feedback as to whether there was any merit/interest in driving an initiative to establish a professional Change Management body in Asia.

This received even more interest and engagement than the original post and many positive comments such as “Yes, culture plays a big role in change and there is a dire need to acknowledge the fact that due to the differences, the approaches need to be different”; “Emerging economies in Asia need such professional body to steer change processes within educational institutions, corporations, govt bodies and not for profit organizations for better growth and development” and “It will certainly be interesting having the insight on different implementations when you consider national/local aspects; government/state decision making styles; vendor/consulting firm implementation methods; et al.”

>> Read also: An Asian Perspective on HR and Change Management with Isabelle Michelet. 

In addition I also contacted the ACMP & CMI and asked them the following question: “how does the CMI through its Accreditation, Competency Model, CMBoK and Training capabilities and the ACMP through its Certification, Standard and Educational offerings cater for the different ways change is practiced in Asia given all of the very different cultural dynamics that impact change across the Region?”.

After a while, I eventually got replies from both the but they did not address the core question I asked which again indicated to me that there was little recognition in what they are doing for the Asian market.

The Change Management Survey.

Based on this high engagement and level of interest I decided to initiate a survey in September 2018 to get a better idea of whether proposing a new professional body for Change Management certification would make sense.

In the main, the survey was to establish whether there would be interest in Asia having its own professional Change Management body that represented change professionals in the Region similar to the ACMP or the CMI or should there be Asia Chapters created for either of these two bodies?

In addition, the point was also to try and gain an understanding of the perceived benefits of joining an Asian CM professional body. Perhaps some colleagues would be interested in being a part of a “working group” to help set-up a professional Asian Change Management body? Perhaps they would provide insights as to how to support the Asian Change Management community, by way of training, certifications, networking events, knowledge, coaching/mentoring, etc.

Feedback 1.0

The survey was sent to 232 LinkedIn first degree connections involved in some way with change and/or transformation in Asia, and the following are some of the insights obtained from the responses:

• Reply rate was 110 or 47.4% – which was extremely positive.
• Replies came from China, Hong Kong, India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam, Japan and Bangladesh.
• Only a small proportion of those who participated was either a member of the ACMP (6.4%) or the CMI (4.6%).
• In answer to the key question “Do you think there would be interest in Asia having its own CM body that represents change professionals in the Region similar to the ACMP or the CMI or should there be Asia chapters created for either of these two bodies?”, 54.5% answered that they would hope for a separate Asian body.
• In answer to the question “Would you be prepared to be part of a “working group” to help set-up an Asian CM professional body?”, 80% of respondents said they would.

This was clearly encouraging, but I didn’t feel it gave me a specific mandate to pursue the initiative. To try and get this mandate, I, therefore, sent the survey results to all participants and also published an abridged version on LinkedIn and asked for feedback to confirm or otherwise whether we should or should not go ahead.

Unfortunately, due to a number of reasons, the request for feedback mentioned above only garnered limited responses which were aligned the previous levels of feedback and support received so it was back to the drawing board.

Feedback 2.0

At the beginning of January 2019, to try and re-establish momentum, I sent out direct e-mails and LinkedIn messages to over 300 people who made up my “Asia Change Agent” database. This set was a mix of those who participated in the original survey, to which I added the new (relevant) LinkedIn connections I had made since then. And, this time, the feedback requested was an answer to one of the two following two questions:

• YES, I think you should pursue the establishment of a professional Change Management Body for Asia.
• NO, I don’t think you should pursue the establishment of a professional Change Management Body for Asia.

This had the desired effect in that I started to receive more feedback. I also set myself some aspirational targets for the feedback which were:

• Original Survey Participants: 60% feedback rate – 60% of those saying Yes.
• New LinkedIn Connections: 50% feedback rate – 40% of those saying Yes.

These targets were comfortably achieved:

• Original Survey participants = 64% – Go/No Go status = 86.3% said Go.
• New LinkedIn Connections = 72.6% – Go/No Go status = 96.7% said Go.

So, based on these original survey results and the results from the e-mail/messaging request I created a document called the ‘Case for establishing a Change & Transformation Professional Body in Asia‘ which I then sent out to in February 2019 to all interested parties. This gave me the definitive mandate to pursue this initiative which is what I was looking for.

Forthcoming challenges.

The project is only starting, but we have now established twelve Country Representatives and five Working Groups who are currently working on different aspects of how the body will shape up – think Vision & Mission, Membership Criteria, Training & Education, Funding & Sponsorship and Marketing & Promotion.

Meanwhile. We will look at associating with/establishing close collaboration with educational establishments. We will also align ourselves to those that are active in the change & transformation space in Asia ranging from some of the large Asia consultancies like TCS, HCL, Tech Mahindra, Infosys, Wipro to bespoke Training providers in the Region.

We are, also, currently in negotiation with the Asian Institute of Technology extension who have already provided us with a Letter of Association regarding them collaborating on the initiative. Further discussions have yet to be had regarding the full extent of what that collaboration will look like.

Overall, and as demonstrated by the market analysis phase, the willingness is strong to establish a body that will cater to a number of Asian countries. Interestingly, each has their specific culture which all have an impact on how change and transformation are practiced.

Ultimately, we might help tackle two sets of issues.

On the one hand, we have an opportunity to develop tailor-made solutions designed to encourage more Change Management best practices on a country basis. On the other hand, gathering data will also help us draw a big picture of what Change Management looks like in Asia – and this, I have no doubt, can make a major contribution from a very global perspective. If you are interested in contributing to the discussion, please get in touch!