Making Change Stick: How Wallenius Wilhelmsen Built Change Management Excellence

Locating CME within the CDO was a deliberate choice. The transformation strategy is executed through the CDO portfolio, so placing change management there brought the capability close to the decisions, dependencies and delivery pressures shaping the programme. As Michael puts it, the team needed to be “close to where the changes were happening.” That position also made change management part of governance rather than a support service called in late. It created a stronger link between strategy, execution and adoption, and allowed prioritisation at portfolio level, not only within individual projects. In building the model, Wallenius Wilhelmsen also drew on flexible external expertise, including support from Deloitte, while keeping ownership and capability development firmly inside the organisation.

The CME team uses Prosci as its foundation. Ivar Ree, Head of the CME team explains that a common model brings a structured approach to stakeholder impact, readiness, leadership alignment, communications, learning and sustained adoption. The ambition is not to generate a separate set of change documents. It is to embed change milestones and deliverables into the overall project methodology, making adoption a core measure of delivery quality.

The CRM initiative offers a practical example. The CME team established a Change Ambassador network across Customer Growth and Product development, Contracting and Pricing, conducted stakeholder and impact analyses, developed communication and training plans, and supported the rollout through a super-user network and structured follow-up after go-live. Together, these activities helped strengthen organisational alignment and adoption.

The CME operating model combines a defined internal capability with flexible capacity that can move to the initiatives where it creates the greatest value. This gives the portfolio consistent methods, reusable tools and a professional community, while avoiding a rigid one-size-fits-all service. It also enables earlier identification of adoption risks and better coordination when several initiatives converge on the same audience.

The surprise was not resistance to the new capability, but demand for it. Some colleagues initially equated change management mainly with communication. Within a year, the team had become known across the executive group and projects were actively requesting support. “Now I sometimes have to tell people to hold back,” Michael says, a striking reversal from the assumption that CME would first have to prove why it was needed.  

1. Make the mandate unmistakable. Senior stakeholders, project managers, HR, Communications and the PMO must understand what CME delivers—and where responsibility remains with the business and project teams.
2. Integrate change from the start. Change activities, decisions and milestones belong in the project method and governance cycle, not on a parallel track.
3. Build domain knowledge and relationships. Effective practitioners need to understand the business, labour considerations and organisational context. Networks across the portfolio are essential for spotting demand before it becomes urgent.
4. Stay flexible. Different initiatives need different levels and types of support. A central team creates standards, but its resourcing model must adapt to portfolio priorities.
5. Measure outcomes, not activity. The goal is adoption, benefit realisation and sustained performance, not simply the completion of change deliverables.

One lesson is especially relevant when designing the team itself. Bringing in people who were not invested in the status quo proved valuable, Michael notes. Fresh perspectives, combined with internal knowledge and ownership, helped CME challenge established assumptions without becoming disconnected from the organisation it serves.

With the CME team being one year old and the CDO moving deeper into execution, the focus is shifting from building the capability to continuously improving it. Priorities include stronger portfolio-level reporting and adoption metrics, broader change capability among leaders and project teams, more robust ambassador networks and greater emphasis on benefit realisation.

AI may also make change support more accessible through on-demand deliverables and faster, more tailored guidance. But the core principle will remain human: understand who is affected, involve them early and equip them to succeed.

Michael’s advice to others starting the same journey is direct: “Be early, and construct what you want from your change management.” He also cautions against underestimating the need: “It is better to have overcapacity than undercapacity early. The need changes over time, so you have to recalibrate.”

For Wallenius Wilhelmsen, the CME team is becoming more than a team. As Chief People and Corporate Affairs Officer Wenche Agerup puts it: “Our ability to transform successfully depends on our ability to bring people with us on the journey. Transformation is not driven by processes alone, but by people who understand and lead change in their daily work. Change management capabilities help us build resilience, strengthen adoption and accelerate the realisation of business value across the organisation”. The CME team is becoming an organisational muscle: a way to connect strategy with execution, coordinate change across a complex portfolio and make sure the transformation does not merely launch—but lands.