Change Awards spotlight: 2024 'Large Scale Transformation lead - Private Sector' winner Catriona Toner-Johnson

Association for Project Management (APM) is sponsoring the inaugural Change and Project Partnership Award at the upcoming Change Awards 2025, an annual event honouring the best examples of global change, transformation and innovation. The Change and Project Partnership Award will recognise the collaborations and partnerships in the project profession that have led to meaningful change. As part of the award celebrations, APM is speaking to winners and finalists of previous Change Awards.

In 2024, Catriona Toner-Johnson was the recipient of the Large Scale Transformation lead - Private Sector Award. Catriona is Senior Change Lead for Asda and she is an accomplished Change Management Lead with over five years of experience guiding organisations through transformative initiatives. Catriona spoke with us about the award and what it means to her career and company.

What motivated you and your organisation to enter the Change Awards last year?

We had been through the largest financial retail change programme - my team was pivotal to its success as change is nothing without the people on the journey. I was proud of the work that we had done and wanted to showcase Asda as a centre of excellence for change management and transformation support.

Why do you feel it is important for change, transformation and innovation to be recognised through events such as the Change Awards?

This award was very important to us as a team, myself as a lead, and the business because "Change" can sometimes get a bad reputation! I am a great advocate for change management, and when the awards started, I followed them with great interest. I’ve always felt that change management is a discipline itself and should be recognised as such. The work we all do is key to success or failure of these change/ transformation programmes and the Change Awards are a great place to recognise and celebrate that. 

In a world where change is constant, what advice would you offer to project managers who are often tasked with making change happen?

Project Managers are change makers too - we are not there to slow you down; in fact we can support on a much smoother implementation. Remember it's the people side of change that matters, whether it's the process or technology you are working on, it means nothing without the people on the journey with you. - Change is all about the people, not the actual tech you are putting in, and great change management practices can help support the teams through this, increase the rate of adoption and utilisation. We don't always get it 100% right all of the time, but we do always put the people at the centre of our change

What would you say to anyone who is considering entering the Change Awards 2025?

Do it!!! It can be a bit daunting filling in the forms as no one likes talking about themselves, but the overall experience has been worth it.

The Change Awards 2025 ceremony takes place on 10 April 2025. The list of categories and key dates leading up to the event can be viewed here. Applications will be open from 1 January-31 January 2025.