Responses

Kristen Discussion:

After completing the activity, I scored a 58.  The feedback I received was to “concentrate on developing a process that allows you to work on each of the elements of change one after the other” (Mind Tools Content Team, n.d., p.3).  The results have specified that I understand and can plan change, but still need to strengthen managing resistance to change.  I find these results to be very true about my strengths and weakness to change.  Being a Department Chair in higher education, I can accept, plan, and implement for change within my department.  I do lack the comfortableness in resistance of change from the department.  I feel this is caused from previous resistance from change and morale decreasing because the change was very sudden. 

The Thinking Style Tool can evaluate the team’s willingness for change and allow for training on change.  Not everyone will be the same with data and the tool activity permits the change agent to handle appropriately.  The tool informs the person on areas to work towards in accepting, planning, and managing change.  By assessing the data from the activity, the team’s abilities to work towards change is strengthened overall.              

A key point from the activity to apply to the team is “talk about why change is necessary, and share your vision of change with everyone” (Mind Tools Content Team, n.d., p. 5).  This includes my staff, college higher ups, and external stakeholders that support the program.  By incorporating information gained from the activity, effective communication and involvement assist in implementing the change and creates a positive situation for the team to accept change. 

 

Reference:

Mind Tools Content Team. (n.d.). How good are your change management skills. Retrieved from https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_56.htm

Michael Discussion:

I took the quiz and scored a 49.  The feedback I received was to “Concentrate on developing a process that allows you to work on each of the elements of change one after the other” (MTCT, 2021).  The results indicate that I am able to administrate change but I often have just as many successes as I have failures.  If I were to apply the lesson learned here moving forward, I would think about the individual processes that make up change and the engagement of the individual stakeholders.  I need to focus more on the details of each step; who is involved, what they need, what their hesitations might be, how they determine success.  Going over each of these steps in detail would form a more successful plan.

As an administrator, a tool such as this would be extremely helpful in preparing a team that will oversee change. Author Tim Creasey points out that at the beginning of a project, two assessments are needed: one of the change itself, and one of the team that will be administering the change (Creasey, n.d.).  Using an assessment for the team allows you to understand each person’s strengths, and any potential obstacles.  For example, those that are less detail oriented might be best suited to the larger picture while those very detail oriented would be better at administering the detail level information.  Also, those with excellent social skills would help with the “politics” of the change, while those less skilled would be more suitable for the data analysis.  Assessing and utilizing a team’s abilities works to provide a more successful rate of change.

References

Creasey, T. (n.d.). When should you use a change management readiness assessment? Blog. Retrieved from: https://blog.prosci.com/when-should-you-use-a-change-management-readiness-assessment

Mind Tools Content Team (MTCT). (2021). How good are your change management skills? Change Management. Retrieved from: https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/newPPM_56.htm