Respond to two (2) Colleagues W6D1

Sandra Patterson 

RE: Discussion 1 - Week 6

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Week 6 Discussion 1 - Organizational Change Plan

My organizational change plan assignments from Weeks 1–5 are detailed as follows, and they defend why I have chosen not to make major changes. In weeks 1-3, the specific plan that I had was to create an approach for creating a sense of urgency. I made an emphasis on the need to have a bank in various major communities. Then I made plans to also have an insurance agency and a social security agency in that same community too. I chose to remove barriers in the community by making sure that the appropriate officials organize different events that would help the community to stay up-to-date on those the importance of having these services. I chose to generate short-term wins in the community by encouraging community members to submit ideas for projects that would improve the community. I sustained acceleration by always encouraging the community to be proactive about change. (Kotter, 2012) Then I followed through with the plan that I formulated by sending pictures of plans for the upcoming bank, insurance agency and social security agency in the community. (Kotter, 2012) I made this change vision easy to understand. (Kotter, 2011) I would make sure that they would open and close during convenient times. The staff in these agencies will be conscientious of their customers’ needs. The pictures will be posted in areas throughout the community where the residents can see them.

In weeks 4-5 my specific plan was to sell my vision to a target audience. My target audience was to be community residents at large. When planning to open a bank, insurance agency and a social security agency in a community, I would emphasize that these services would be vital for the residents. The steps that I will take to sell the vision will be to: a) create a sense of urgency by pointing out the lack of such services, and b) pulling together a guiding coalition that is strong enough to guide a big change. Then I would c) create a simple vision by outlining how these enterprises will be an asset to the area. d) I will then communicate the vision through simple alerts. (Kotter, 2002) e) After that I would empower people by removing obstacles to the vision. I would make the guiding coalition become a positive influence in the community.  (Kotter, 2002) Then finally my change plan will empower everyone in my organization. For example, a manager might engage “disempowered” stakeholders by managing change wisely through business intelligence, emotional intelligence and spiritual intelligence. In business intelligence, the stakeholders would get empowered by researching the internal and external environments that they’re a part of, analyze the data, and execute changes. With emotional intelligence it would be displayed through independent thinking, social responsibility, and problem-solving skills. With spiritual intelligence, it would be reflected through an individual’s strong value system and their openness to sound new ideas. Then I realized that it would be important to have an individual to also act as a compass for employees who doubt the change process. I will empower my stakeholders by making sure that I help them prepare for the reality that change is coming. Finally I would review my approach by constantly reconsidering what I would do differently next time. (Cook, 2004)

As I bring together the stakeholders who would and would not buy-in to the change, a basic outline that I will follow as a change agent to accomplish this quick win, will be to prioritize that its success must be unambiguous. In addition, it must be visible throughout the organization, and it must be clearly related to the change effort. (Tanner, 2021) Therefore I will also emphasize to my team that it’s necessary for preventing the loss of momentum. I will remind my team that it takes time, so as a result, it will eliminate any organizational discouragement with the slow pace of implementing major changes. I would also develop short organizational efforts that would result in significant cost savings, increased revenue, streamlined procedures, and more effective uses of technology. (Tanner, 2021)

There is a positive relationship among leadership, management, quick wins and positive change because these relationships bring together stakeholders. In addition, there are steps to be followed to ensure success. First of all, it’s vital to lead with transparency by making sure that the process followed for each quick win is communicated and understood. Then it will be important to test quick-winning in one department. I will start with my marketing team. My third strategy will be to identify agents of change. I will identify a collaborative team who can get excited about change. My fourth step will be to create layered projects. I will make sure that each business goal that I lay out will have layers so that the staff can easily see their progress. Finally, I will use quick wins to tell a story. People love stories and they learn very well through stories, so I will make sure that my teammates can celebrate after small victories. This can help them to start building a narrative toward their goal. This can also create a momentum to lead toward the internal story as the team is propelled forward. (Saxena, 2015)

References:

Kotter, J. (2012) Leading Change. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Review Press. Chapter 8 “Generating Short-term wins”.

Saxena, (2015) “5 Ways to establish a quick win culture in your company.” www.entrepreneur.com.>article

Tanner, (2021) “Management is a journey” Leading Change, Step 6. Managementisajourney.com>leading

2nd Colleague – Kristen

Kristen Springer 

RE: Discussion 1 - Week 6

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            My major Organizational Change Plan is to implement the Web-based software called Meditech EXPANSE to the nursing staff of the Emergency Department (E.D.) at my facility.  As the Clinical Analyst for the E.D. my initial plan is to hire a temporary director to take over the stressful management of the E.D. so that I can have the official director’s undivided attention.  With this in place, I would then reignite my director’s passion for nursing since it is hiding under her pessimistic exterior. Since I already have her trust in my work, I just need her to have faith in Information Technology (I.T.) so that the nursing assessments integrate with the physician documentation, and the encrypted security enhancements protect our patient information. Keep in mind that the content alone does not make the message stick: the key is how well you tap into people’s emotions” (Kouzes & Posner, 2017, p. 138)   The change will not only speed up the processing, giving more time for hands-on care, it will also come with regular security patch updates.

             A quick win not only builds confidence in the proposed change but also provides visible evidence to reluctant users (Laureate Education (Producer). (2012g)). By stepping out of my comfort zone, I would meet with the Vice President of Nursing and the Vice President of Information Technology to request that the E.D. director gets to use two weeks of leave for rejuvenation and the approval of my plan to hire a temporary consultant to manage the E.D. “To some degree, all management is manipulation—and that includes the production of short-term performance improvements (Kotter, 2012, p.132).  This quick win is the most critical to my plan so that I could work daily to win the heart of the director.  I have confidence that getting this one win will set me up to gain an advantage of power.  I will plan out the steps to create the meeting, organize the discussion, implement the plan, and then celebrate with my director.  By enlisting this powerful leader, I feel confident the rest of my ideas will fall into place.  The director of the E.D. is a huge influence on the culture of the department.  If I can turn her attitude around, I can enlist her to not only manage the change but influence her as a leader which will turn the department around (Kotter,2011).  Since she was so negative in the past, the E.D. nurses will notice a difference and they will be inspired.  They will easily enlist and want to listen to her after celebrating this first win with her.  It will be exciting new work for her and day to day we can create new faster processes for the E.D. This will not only give her time to rally the nurses, but the reduced workload will enable her to make the computer implementation a success.  Her power is essential for my plan to work.

            In the past education was lacking, but with more dedicated time from the director, it will be much cleaner to present to staff.   I will propose the many reasons why I need this small win to the upper management stakeholders.  I will use powerful arguments to outline how the project cannot proceed without this first important goal.  More education supplies, more meaningful presentations, amply communications, and more time to run through difficult medical procedures in our TEST environment can’t be denied in such a crucial time in history.  “Without sufficient wins that are visible, timely, unambiguous, and meaningful to others, change efforts inevitably run into serious problems (Kotter & Cohen, 2002, p. 123).  My supportive role to the director and this small win gives hope for a successful implementation!