Thames Water Change Management Framework

Thames Water is responsible for the public water supply and wastewater treatment in many parts of the South of England. It is the largest water company in the UK, with 15 million customers.

Thames Water is committed to an Asset Management Plan which will require significant change in the process, technology and culture of the organization.

The company wanted to make sure that change was managed in a way that would make it both successful and sustainable.

To meet this challenge Anthesis defined and implemented a project which involved:

• Developing a proven and pragmatic “change management framework and toolkit” suitable for use across business initiatives
• Building the internal capability of a network of around 40 change agents and supporting organizational infrastructure
• Extending the change management knowledge detailed in the toolkit to 100 frontline mangers through practical knowledge transfer
• Facilitating the side by side working of Thames change agents and the 100 frontline managers so that they “learn by doing” and pick up the skills to be self-reliant in sufficient numbers to ensure ongoing support to future initiatives and the rest of the front line managers.

The new framework now sits within the business architecture as the standard way of approaching change management. The training and coaching received positive reviews. The early phase rollout is reported to have led to improved performance by front line managers. Project design and execution now involves a thorough consideration of change management, which has improved sustainability while reducing dependency on external consultants.