Change Management - Coach

northwesternmutual; Milwaukee (WI); On-site; USD 108,000 - 162,000; Full time

Job summary

Northwestern Mutual seeks a senior Change Manager to lead large, complex efforts focusing on the people side of change. You will coach leaders, align change with strategy, and optimize adoption across stakeholders.

Responsibilities include applying NM change methodologies, mitigating risks, guiding executive teams, and building integrated deployment plans to realize business benefits.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Human Resources, Communication, or a related field.
• 8+ years of relevant professional experience, with at least 4 years leading large change management efforts.
• Specialized understanding of how people go through change and the change process.
• Experience and knowledge of change management principles and methodologies.
• Familiarity with project management approaches, tools, and phases of the project lifecycle.
• Ability to work effectively at all levels of the organization and influence others, including executive leadership, toward a common vision.
• Strategic and organizational agility, and enterprise thinking.
• Ability to lead in new and ambiguous situations.
• Must be a team player and able to work with and through others.
• Exceptional communication skills both written and verbal.
• Excellent active listening, root cause identification and interpersonal skills

Responsibilities

• Applies NM change methodology and process to deliver the people side of change that is required to achieve our desired business outcomes.
• Identify potential people-related risks and anticipated points of resistance and develop and recommend specific plans to mitigate or address the concerns.
• Provide insight to project and senior leaders about the potential impact of decisions on the effectiveness of overall change strategy.
• Develop and implement integrated change strategies that promote adoption and optimize business benefits across a broad portfolio of change initiatives that impact one or more large stakeholder groups.
• Ensure coordinated delivery to optimize the change experience for affected stakeholder groups.
• Manage and influence potential impact of changes to people, process, technology, organization, and culture.
• Partner with business leadership across multiple departments and functions to design planning and program delivery approaches that promote user centric business solutions and ensure change strategies align with the business strategy and vision.
• Create and build efficient change management structures that support an integrated delivery approach and provide direction and oversight to one or more change teams to ensure predictable execution and realization of benefits.
• Influence business sponsors and change teams to create integrated deployment strategies and plans.
• Educate, influence, align, and coach senior business leaders and project teams to create and implement effective change strategies and plans.
• Influence change execution strategy and approach.
• In partnership with the enterprise change COE, be an active member of the change community to advance change competencies of the company.
• Adopt, integrate, and promote common NM enterprise-wide change process, methodology and language.
• Create, recommend, and implement measurement systems for change success, e.g., quality of user experience, adoption, utilization, performance standards, etc.
• Promote and advocate for the practice of organization change management throughout the enterprise, including seeking and applying external perspective and benchmarking change practices.

Skills

Change management expertise

Excellent communication

Active listening

Interpersonal skills

Influence across org

Project management familiarity

Education

Bachelor's degree in Business, HR, or related field

Job description

Summary

Leads large, complex change management efforts. Focuses on the people side of change and influencing behavior, including efforts with significant people, processes, technology, culture, and/or behavior implications, to realize business outcomes and benefits. Works with leaders across the department to coach on leading through change. Architects integrated change strategies to optimize the change experience across large stakeholder groups. Partners with business leaders to ensure change strategies align with the business strategy and vision. Oversees implementation of change execution strategies in coordination with leaders, stakeholders, sponsors, and project teams. Ensures change plans and strategies achieve their objectives and benefits.

Primary Duties and Responsibilities

• Applies NM change methodology and process to deliver the people side of change that is required to achieve our desired business outcomes.
• Identify potential people-related risks and anticipated points of resistance and develop and recommend specific plans to mitigate or address the concerns.
• Provide insight to project and senior leaders about the potential impact of decisions on the effectiveness of overall change strategy.
• Develop and implement integrated change strategies that promote adoption and optimize business benefits across a broad portfolio of change initiatives that impact one or more large stakeholder groups.
• Ensure coordinated delivery to optimize the change experience for affected stakeholder groups.
• Manage and influence potential impact of changes to people, process, technology, organization, and culture.
• Partner with business leadership across multiple departments and functions to design planning and program delivery approaches that promote user centric business solutions and ensure change strategies align with the business strategy and vision.
• Create and build efficient change management structures that support an integrated delivery approach and provide direction and oversight to one or more change teams to ensure predictable execution and realization of benefits.
• Influence business sponsors and change teams to create integrated deployment strategies and plans.
• Educate, influence, align, and coach senior business leaders and project teams to create and implement effective change strategies and plans.
• Influence change execution strategy and approach.
• In partnership with the enterprise change COE, be an active member of the change community to advance change competencies of the company.
• Adopt, integrate, and promote common NM enterprise-wide change process, methodology and language.
• Create, recommend, and implement measurement systems for change success, e.g., quality of user experience, adoption, utilization, performance standards, etc.
• Promote and advocate for the practice of organization change management throughout the enterprise, including seeking and applying external perspective and benchmarking change practices.

Qualifications

• Bachelor's degree in Business, Human Resources, Communication, or a related field.
• Minimum of 8 years of relevant professional experience, with at least 4 years' experience leading large change management efforts.
• Specialized understanding of how people go through change and the change process.
• Experience and knowledge of change management principles and methodologies.
• Familiarity with project management approaches, tools, and phases of the project lifecycle.
• Ability to work effectively at all levels of the organization and influence others, including executive leadership, toward a common vision.
• Strategic and organizational agility, and enterprise thinking.
• Ability to lead in new and ambiguous situations.
• Must be a team player and able to work with and through others.
• Exceptional communication skills both written and verbal.
• Excellent active listening, root cause identification and interpersonal skills

Compensation Range

• Pay Range - Start: $108,160.00
• Pay Range - End: $162,240.00

Geographic Specific Pay Structure

• Structure 110: $118,960.00 USD - $178,440.00 USD
• Structure 115: $124,400.00 USD - $186,600.00 USD

Northwestern Mutual is an equal opportunity employer that welcomes talented individuals of all backgrounds. We are committed to creating and maintaining an environment in which each employee can contrib