Value Management: Where It Has Most Impact

Value Management will rapidly transform any situation.

All you need to get started is a situation you want to improve, a list of people that matter most in that situation, and the ambition and vision to embrace a new way of working.

However, Value Management has particularly dramatic impact where:

• The Complexity involved is significant: this is where the issues are most difficult.
• The Value at stake is high: this is where the urgency and rewards are greatest.
• The right People are on board: those needed to most effectively adopt a new way of working.

(These are also – by no coincidence – the three key aspects of why Value Management works.)

Beginning with the first two aspects – complexity and value – strategic relationships form a common entry point into Value Management:

• Relationships not only involve People, but are inherently extra-Complex: they involve not just everything going on for each of the parties separately, but the additional (and often exponential) dimension of the relationship between them.
• By definition, if the relationship is strategic, it is high-Value – especially where both parties see it that way.

Often, the starting point is where the relationship is already underway – with issues beginning to manifest or already causing severe difficulty – but Value Management can also be extremely powerful in the negotiation and pre-contract phase.

Strategic relationships are often also approached via the disciplines of contract and relationship management and/or collaborative working.

Another key Value Management entry point is change management (which could be around a relationship or internal to a particular organisation):

• Change is inherently Complex – especially where the change sought is not just at “surface” levels (processes, etc), but also/instead at the “deeper” levels of values and culture.
• Change is also difficult, so is only attempted when the Value stakes are high.

Value Management Impact Depends on People

Whatever the entry point, though, the right People need to be involved to maximise impact, and this means that three key roles need to be fulfilled:

• The change champion.
• The transformational leader.
• The change stabiliser.

The Value Management process can – and often does – begin with only one of these roles filled, but for maximum impact, all three are needed.

The good news is that the Value Management process actively helps reveal which people are most willing and able to fulfil them.