IMA Worldwide Earns ACMP QEP Designation, Boosting Credibility of AIM Change Management Programs
IMA Worldwide's three AIM methodology programs are now ACMP Qualified Education Providers, awarding CCMP credits and addressing the 70% failure rate of change initiatives.
Implementation Management Associates (IMA Worldwide) has earned the Qualified Education Provider (QEP) designation from the Association of Change Management Professionals (ACMP), validating three of its Accelerating Implementation Methodology (AIM) training programs for Certified Change Management Professional (CCMP) credits. The announcement, made May 10, 2026, positions IMA Worldwide's programs as aligned with the ACMP Standard for Change Management, the industry's competency framework for change practitioners.
The three approved programs—Introduction to AIM, ChangePro, and AIM Practitioner Certification—address a critical pain point in organizational change: McKinsey & Company research indicates that approximately 70% of change programs fail to achieve their goals, largely due to employee resistance and lack of management support. IMA Worldwide's AIM methodology directly targets these failure modes through behavioral adoption strategies, executive sponsorship accountability, and the Express-Model-Reinforce (EMR) framework.
"Having three programs approved for CCMP professional development credits under the ACMP QEP designation reflects the depth and rigor that practitioners expect from AIM-based training," said Ann Marvin, CEO of IMA Worldwide. "McKinsey's finding that 70% of transformations fail is a call to action for the industry. Our methodology is built to reverse that trend."
The QEP designation is awarded to education providers whose programs align with the ACMP Standard for Change Management, the profession's definitive competency framework. IMA Worldwide's approval reflects the methodology's rigorous, research-based approach to behavioral adoption, executive sponsorship, and reinforcement strategy—core competencies evaluated under the standard. For more than 40 years, IMA has refined AIM through field research across global enterprises in healthcare, technology, finance, and government.
The three programs span the full arc of change management practice. Introduction to AIM provides foundational grounding in the AIM framework, equipping change agents and organizational leaders with core principles of behavioral adoption, Target Readiness assessment, and structured implementation planning. ChangePro is an interactive, employee-focused workshop designed to build individual readiness and resilience during organizational disruption, shifting focus from managing projects to helping individuals self-manage the personal and emotional impacts of change. AIM Practitioner Certification is the advanced program, delivering comprehensive mastery of the AIM methodology, enabling practitioners to lead full-cycle change implementations, build internal organizational change capability, and apply diagnostic precision through the Target Readiness model to close adoption gaps before they erode ROI.
"ACMP QEP recognition validates what our clients have experienced firsthand—that behavior-focused change management, grounded in executive sponsorship and reinforcement science, consistently outperforms approaches that treat implementation as a project management exercise," Marvin added. Change management practitioners pursuing the CCMP designation can apply credits earned through IMA Worldwide's QEP-approved programs toward their certification requirements. More information about the programs and credit opportunities is available at imaworldwide.com.
IMA Worldwide delivers AIM globally through certification programs, enterprise licensing, implementation advisory services, and organizational training, building the internal change capability organizations need to implement change successfully, repeatedly, and at scale.