A local company has responded to the Island’s productivity challenges by utilising over 100 years of knowledge to deliver a free framework thought to be the first of its kind in the British Isles.
Local project and change management firm Marbral Advisory has designed and launched a free Change and Project Management Framework to help Channel Island and Isle of Man businesses navigate change internally and drive productivity.
The Framework provides a roadmap for managing change and projects systematically, reducing risks, engaging stakeholders, and ensuring that resources are used effectively.
The Framework is believed to be the first of its kind to be developed in the British Isles as it brings together the disciplines of Project and Change. Traditional approaches often treat project management and change management separately. Marbral’s unique approach integrates both aspects, recognising that successful project delivery inherently involves the management of change. This holistic integration ensures that both technical and people factors are considered throughout the project lifecycle.
Last year, the Jersey Minister for Sustainable Economic Development, Kirsten Morel, announced that workers would have to increase their productivity by at least 7.5% over the next 17 years to allow the island to support its increasing number of pensioners without significant population growth. Last month, the then Isle of Man Chamber of Commerce president, Kristan McDonald, told a Tynwald committee that a drive to boost the Manx economy should focus on ‘improving productivity’ within the workforce rather than population growth. Marbral Advisory echoes these sentiments and believes that employees need to increase their economic value, not by working more hours but by making the output of hours worked more valuable. This has led Marbral Advisory to embark on a social value mission to guide businesses on how to do this effectively.
Leonie McCrann, CEO, Marbral Advisory, said: “When the directive for businesses to become more productive was raised, we found that many local businesses struggled to understand how to achieve it. We know that the more productive an economy is, the greater the level of output that can be produced for a given level of inputs, which benefits the whole economy. We also know that increasing productivity requires change and this can be achieved by applying a repeatable and simple framework.
“With the expertise that we have in-house at Marbral Advisory, we identified that we could help businesses achieve this and in turn, support our island economy. The Framework is now available to everyone for free and we believe it is the first of its kind to be developed in the British Isles.”
The Framework has been designed for any person responsible for leading project and change initiatives in small to medium sized companies. The intention is to make effective project and change management accessible to a wider range of organisations, which will in turn increase productivity through skills enhancement, efficiency, and positive change.
The Change and Project Management Framework is divided into three stages:
- Plan and Imagine It – Create and communicate the vision and the plan and build awareness of the need for change.
- Develop and Learn It – Design how the change will happen and engage the people in the change.
- Deliver and Live It – Deliver the change and transition to new ways of working.
Each stage includes a checklist for businesses before embarking on the stage, key questions to ask internally, and then key documents that will need to be created. It also explains who should be involved in the project, what their role is, and where gateway decisions should be made.
A sample of the questions included in the Framework that businesses need to be asking themselves when embarking on change:
- Have we identified impacted stakeholders and captured their voice?
- Do we have defined benefits to the change that are measurable?
- Have we identified risks and assigned mitigating actions where possible?
- Do we have a plan for people to adopt new ways of working?
Stuart Ingledew, Principal Change Architect, Marbral Advisory, said: “Our Change and Project Management Framework provides a structured approach to project and change and project management that is easy to understand and use. We recognise that not everyone has knowledge and experience in project and change management, and our Framework is designed to bridge this gap. It brings together over 100 years of project knowledge from our Principal team and we are very proud to offer it for free to local businesses as part of our social value contribution to the islands in which we operate.”
You can download the Change and Project Management Framework from the Marbral Advisory website here.
