Women in Transformation - Christy Iverson, Metcash Group Transformation

To celebrate International Women's Day on March 8th, this week we will be bringing you a series of guest blogs from leading senior females in Transformation. They will be discussing their success, career defining moments and what advice they would give to another female looking to pursue a similar career. This is what Christy Iverson, Business Transformation Program Manager at Metcash Group Transformation, had to say.

What factors do you think have been critical to the success you have achieved in your career?

There have been two key factors which have been critical to the success I’ve achieved. When I first started in business transformation I was in a department which had the structure, support and business sponsorship behind it to ensure I was successful. These early beginnings gave me a good base of experience and seeing what ‘good looks like’ in practice. I’ve been able to take this knowledge and experience to an array of industries, recognise what level of maturity they are at and how best to introduce or develop capabilities into the transformation space.

The 2nd key factor of success has been Stakeholder Management. I’ve been able to develop relationships with people from all levels, backgrounds and positions. These engagements have helped me to understand Stakeholder expectations, develop a level of trust and get the best out of them.

What initiatives have you experienced within an organisation that you believe have helped you?

The initiatives which I’ve experienced have included coaching Project & Change Management Fundamentals to business units across several companies.  So many people these days are either involved or impacted by projects that these sessions give teams an understanding of the importance of Project & Change methodologies, governance, and access to the tools for developing, planning and executing projects of their own.

Can you highlight any career defining moments?

The career defining moment was a transformation program I was on which ran for 2 years.  After the first year and working with 5 different project managers from a partner company, change in business owner and major difficulties with the program, I was at a cross road as to whether I could continue or should continue.  My manager at the time gave me the support I needed to continue into the 2nd year and see the program through to the end.  Not only did this really test my resilience, but ability to keep stakeholders and team members motivated.  Even to this day I still reference back to the documents I produced and keep in contact with team members I worked with which was over 10 years ago.

What advice would you share with females on how to progress their careers within Projects & Change?

The best advice I can give to progress a career in Project & Change Management is to make sure you work across an array of different projects and if possible, industries.  The learnings you can take away from all these different experiences help build a knowledge base and working with stakeholder to get the best out of them.  Project & Change Management is really tough work requiring resilience, stamina and drive but the satisfaction and relationships which result from this work makes it all worth it.