Tell us about yourself.
My name is Sarfraz Khan. I’m a Vancouver native currently practicing change management at BC Hydro. I’ve been fortunate enough to have travelled extensively and lived in different places including Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto, and as far away as Spain, Zambia and Ghana. I’ve always been drawn back home though because of my family and my love for nature and the mild weather (minus the rain!). I still love to travel and am planning on doing so a lot more in the future. My next destination is Taiwan and Thailand this November.
How did you get into Change Management?
Like most people, I fell into change management by accident. I actually studied Aerospace Engineering at Carleton University due to my love for Star Trek growing upJ. As I finished the program though, I realized that Engineering wasn’t actually my calling. I was fortunate enough to get hired into management consulting at Accenture, and by chance the first project I was assigned to was in change management. After that I was branded a change management consultant, and that was that! I’ve now been practicing change management for about 11 years.
Why did you decide to join ACMP Vancouver?
At BC Hydro I’m part of the Enterprise Change Management team. My manager is a strong believer in his team being an active part of the change management community in Vancouver and keeping up with the latest skills and developments in the practice. I joined the ACMP so that I could take advantage of the community and resources that membership offers. I will also be writing the CCMP exam in the next month.
What are you working on?
Since starting in my position at BC Hydro I’ve had a lot of exposure to the organization, having worked on over ten different projects over the past year. I’m currently working on a number of technology implementations to roll-out new services to employees. My most interesting project so far has probably been one up at Site C in Fort St. John where we rolled out iPads and new apps to the Environmental Inspectors so that they could carry-out their environmental assessments in the field using technology rather than paper and pen.  
Do you have any recommended change management books / resources to share?
I personally like Prosci’s change management assets because they are simple and easy to use and can be applied broadly to different projects. I also really like the ADKAR framework as an education tool because it’s intuitive and makes it easy for people to understand the basics of change management. Another framework I like is by Tony Robbins called the 6 core human needs (Certainty, Variety, Significance, Love/Connection, Growth, and Contribution) – I like to use these as a lens to better understand how people may be impacted when they’re undergoing a change.
How do you like to spend your time outside of work?
I love to travel, which is probably my favorite thing to do. Other than that, I also really enjoy downhill mountain biking and movies (including movies about downhill mountain biking). I spend a lot of time with my fiancé, family and friends as well. This winter I’m also going to continue to learn skiing (which I just took up last winter).