Change Management Programme Risk Register
This is a practical guide to building a risk register for a change management programme project — the living log of risks with scores, owners and responses, adapted to the realities of delivering large-scale organisational change.
What a Risk Register is
A risk register is the living log of risks with scores, owners and responses. For the full concept and how it works in general, see Risk Register. On a change management programme project it plays the same role, tuned to this kind of work.
Why it matters for a Change Management Programme project
Change Management Programme projects live or die on delivering large-scale organisational change. A well-built risk register gives the team a shared, explicit reference for exactly that — reducing ambiguity, aligning stakeholders, and making problems visible early enough to act. Skipping it, or doing it generically, is how change management programme projects drift into avoidable delay and cost.
What to include
- Risk description and category
- Probability and impact
- Risk score
- Owner
- Response and trigger
Change Management Programme-specific considerations
Tailor the risk register to the risks that most often derail change management programme projects:
- Resistance to change
- Sustaining adoption
- Leadership alignment
Example
On a real change management programme project, the risk register would be shaped by delivering large-scale organisational change. In particular, it should explicitly account for the project’s biggest risks — resistance to change, sustaining adoption, leadership alignment — rather than treating them as afterthoughts.