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Build a Change Sustainment Plan

Prevent your change from washing away by creating a plan to sustain the benefits of your change beyond go-live.

  • Leaders often are not actively involved in sustaining the change, signaling to employees that the change isn’t important.
  • Lack of planning for sustainment impacts the ability to obtain the appropriate support and resources needed to sustain the change on an ongoing basis.

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  • Get advice, coaching, and insight at key project milestones
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Our Advice

Critical Insight

Sustainment cannot be done well ad hoc. The creation and implementation of a targeted sustainment plan is an integral part of the change process and key to long-term change adoption.

Impact and Result

  • Don’t leave sustainment to chance.
  • Involve key leaders in planning to build ownership from the start.
  • Create a plan to sustain the change until the change becomes business as usual.
  • Review and incorporate the appropriate sustainment components into your sustainment plan.

Build a Change Sustainment Plan Research & Tools

1. Gather a sustainment planning team

Review the project and change plans with the sustainment planning team in preparation for plan design.

Build a Change Sustainment Plan Storyboard
Build a Change Sustainment Plan Executive Briefing
Sustainment Plan Workbook
Change Assessment Tool
Case Studies: Build a Change Sustainment Plan

2. Identify where sustainment is needed

Prioritize actions and identify the current status of the core and supplementary sustainment components.

Sustainment Components Catalog

3. Build the sustainment plan

Create a plan for each sustainment component, including implementation owners, required resources, budget, and timeline.

Sustainment Owner Planning Template
Standard Focus Group Guide

About McLean & Company

McLean & Company is an HR research and advisory firm providing practical solutions to human resources challenges via executable research, tools, diagnostics, and advisory services that have a clear and measurable impact on your business.

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your HR problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 3-phase advisory process. You'll receive 7 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

Guided Implementation 1: Gather a sustainment planning team
  • Call 1: Discuss sustainment planning team composition and roles.
  • Call 2: Identify sustainment targets for project and change metrics.

Guided Implementation 2: Identify where sustainment is needed
  • Call 1: Review plan to engage planning team in discussing sustainment components.
  • Call 2: Review proposed supplementary sustainment components.

Guided Implementation 3: Build the sustainment plan
  • Call 1: Review draft plan for all sustainment components.
  • Call 2: Identify the right owners of sustainment plan implementation.
  • Call 3: Determine key dates for sustainment plan implementation.

Contributors

  • Melody Barnett, Managing Partner, Pivot
  • Julia Cartwright, Head of People & Culture, GroupBy Inc.
  • Tim Creasey, Chief Innovation Officer, Prosci
  • Scott Farley, Group Director, Talent Management, Komatsu
  • Donna Gray, General Manager, Service Innovation & Performance Department, City of Ottawa
  • Susan Howard, Management Consultant
  • Delphia L. Howze, HR Director, Employee Relations & Development, Ithaca College
  • Amira Hossain, Senior Director, Global Change Management, McCormick
  • Anna Hrapkova, former Head of HR & Change Management, Tangerine
  • Jeff Kargus, Learning and Development Consultant
  • Suzan Khatcherian, Director, Workshops and Training Programs, McLean & Company
  • Diana Laufenberg, Executive Director, Inquiry Schools
  • Beverley Patwell, Founder and Principal, Patwell Consulting
  • Alexandra Rizzuto, VP, Talent Management, McCormick

Related Content: Change Management