Week 7 Assignment: Write-Ups

As we near the completion of the course, we have to step away from the fun topics, and get into the practical application of the hard stuff. When you think of organizational change, what comes to your mind?

Our textbook describes change as everything that we must do differently in the future. And if you think about it, there are many instances in which change is difficult or uncomfortable. Growing pains are real, and not just for a 10-year-old. Growing pains can be experienced in our workplace as well. You may see things like decreased morale, frustration, and a dip in employee performance. These negative outcomes are partly why it's vital for leaders to know how to effectively manage the change that their organization is undergoing. But what does organizational change look like? Is it a change in how you cash-out customers, or perhaps these is an adoption of a new method for recruiting and training new personnel? Or maybe the director of social services is retiring and the hospital is on the lookout for a replacement? Change is all of these things. Our text outlines four major types of change that an organization may experience.

As you can imagine change can cause stress in employees. It can be very difficult for middle management because they are squeezed between the isolated top management, and the resistant frontline employees. Take a look at the infographic to better understand isolation, feelings of being squeezed, and resistance to change.

The above image shows us why it's important to have someone orchestrating the change management process. But as a change manager, how are you supposed to guide the process to keep morale from plummeting, and people from becoming angry? Do you remember what morale is? It's the level of enjoyment and organizational commitment that your employees feel. 

Guiding Change

Our textbook outline provides us with 7 steps to effectively manage change in an organization. Manning and Curtis suggest that we should do the following:

1. Have a good reason for making the change.

2. Personalize the change that you are implementing.

3. Implement the changes thoughtfully.

4. Put a respected person in charge of coordinating the change.

5. Tell the truth.

6. Wait patiently for the results.

7. Acknowledge and reward people.

The 8-Stage Process for Creating Change:

1. Establish a sense of urgency.

2. Create the coalition that will guide the change.

3. Develop a vision and strategy.

4. Communicate the Change Vision.

5. Empower broad-based action.

6. Generate short-term wins.

7. Consolidate gains and produce more change.

8. Anchor the new approach in the culture.

Briefings: These briefings are breaks in your weekly reading, and your responses to them will be turned in as a final "Briefing Portfolio" in the last week of the course for a grade. Download the Briefings document from the Files section of the course and read over the briefing questions for the week. While I encourage you to think about all of the questions, you will only need to record your responses to two questions per week for your final Briefing Portfolio submission. You can write your responses to these questions on the template provided. After responding each week, save your answers (and the document) to your computer as you will need to turn this completed document in at the end of the course.

Briefing:

1. What are some things that a leader can do to encourage their employees to adopt structural change?

2. What is the best way to "Create a coalition" to guide the changes that you want to implement?

3. What are some practical ways to communicate with employees when you need to implement  change?

Managing Your Team

Let's assume that your employees have adopted the change. Let's assume that you are moving forward with your organizational changes and then you start experiencing difficulties with worker performance. This section of the lesson reiterates information from your textbook teaching you how to plan performance development and evaluation, how to coach your employees, and how to correct substandard performance.

Click through the below to further your understanding of managing performance.

Amy was a mental health assistant at one of the largest private hospital in the country. Amy was trained by a mental health assistant who had been with the hospital for 20 years. Amy got to work 10-15 minutes before her shift for 2 years. She clocked in before her shift started. She received one performance review in her two years there. Around the end of Amy's tenure, a charge nurse passive-aggressively stated that everyone, each shift, was supposed to be there 30 minutes before the reported clock-in time. Amy was mortified. Ultimately, Amy's director scolded her for her lack of dedication to her job. For many years, Amy assumed that she was performing above her work requirements. In fact, Amy had received service excellence awards, and was used as an example to incoming employee orientations.

What went wrong in this situation? Here are a few things:

1. Amy's behavior, that was inconsistent with the organization's vision and goals, was not properly evaluated.

2. Amy wasn't properly trained on when to clock in.

3. Amy didn't receive consistent performance reviews that outlined the deficiencies in her performance.

4. Amy was never coached on how to meet her performance expectations.

This scenario may ring true of some of your own experiences.

Can you imagine working for a leader who never assessed your performance? How would that make you feel? Do you think that you would  be relaxed, or anxious about your job performance? Now imagine that one day your boss pulls you aside and presents you with a long list of grievances about your performance over the past year! Would this catch you off guard? Would you feel confused that these issues weren't addressed sooner?

Or how about this example: you learn that your dry sarcasm has been rubbing your coworkers the wrong way. We can assume that this would be upsetting for most of us. Did you feel that you could have saved everyone a lot of grief if you had been told and coached sooner?

Briefings: These briefings are breaks in your weekly reading, and your responses to them will be turned in as a final "Briefing Portfolio" in the last week of the course for a grade. Download the Briefings document from the Files section of the course and read over the briefing questions for the week. While I encourage you to think about all of the questions, you will only need to record your responses to two questions per week for your final Briefing Portfolio submission. You can write your responses to these questions on the template provided. After responding each week, save your answers (and the document) to your computer as you will need to turn this completed document in at the end of the course.

Briefing:

1. When managing performance, which area do you struggle with the most: planning, coaching or correcting?

2. Why do you believe that you struggle with this area of performance the most?

3. Which area of performance do you believe is most critical for success?

Improving and Sustaining Performance

The last chapter of this section focuses on improving and sustaining performance that meets and/or exceeds the standards the organization/group/program is expecting. But as a leader, how do you practically maintain above par performance? We must first improve performance that is lackluster.

Our assigned textbook makes a very important case for how to manage performance. The authors suggest that the leader must know the difference between statesmanship, entrepreneurship and innovation. To learn more about these three important areas of performance click the tabs below:

Our text says that in order to improve your performance, you have to do the following:

1. You have to want to perform at your best!

2. You have to know which behaviors represent statesmanship, entrepreneurship and innovation.

3. You have to apply principles and practices to perform those behaviors.

As you prepare to complete the discussion questions, be sure that you ask yourself the following questions:

· Am I willing to improve my own performance before I require increased performance from my employees?

· Do I exhibit the traits that make people comfortable when I seek to correct problem behavior?