To Change or Not to Change: It Is No Longer a Question

Change management is often treated as a checklist or a communications plan. Yet it is one of the most critical and most underestimated factors in higher education IT project success. Drawing on real-world experience leading change for large-scale institutional transformations, this session will explore what it actually looks like to get started with change management in IT; how to influence leaders to intentionally invest in the people side of projects; and how to balance technical delivery with adoption, readiness, and organizational impact. Attendees will gain practical insights, candid lessons learned, and approachable tools they can apply immediately to embed change management into their projects, reduce resistance, and turn technical implementations into sustainable outcomes (even without a formal change management role).