Respond to two (2) Colleagues D2 Wk7

Read a selection of your colleagues' postings see listed below.

Respond to at least to (2) two of your colleagues in one or more of the following ways:

· Share an insight about what you learned about change from having read your colleagues’ postings and discuss how and why your colleague’s posting resonated with you professionally and personally.

· Offer an example, from your experience or observation, which validates or differs from what your colleague discussed.

· 3-4 paragraph responses

· No Plagiarism

· APA citing

1st Colleagues - Natasha Mills 

Week 7 Discussion 2: Balancing Important Tasks

Initiating cultural change continues to be challenging due to complexities in the nature of contemporary organizations. For instance, organizations today comprise subcultures that are both aligned and different in the accomplishment of organizational goals (Schein, 2010b). It is important for an individual looking to initiate change in such environments to consider this sophistication for effectiveness purposes. In other words, it is possible for one person to influence cultural change within an organization. However, this is bound to be a daunting process for such an individual because of the overly complex organizational cultures of the present day.

Further, the aspect of collaboration is the foundation of contemporary organizations. As a result, it would be incredibly challenging for an individual to single-handedly initiate cultural change and see to its internalization without incorporating the help of others. People’s survival in any endeavour has always depended on the ability to cooperate and trust those around them (Sinek, 2017). This sentiment can be supported by another that initiating cultural change is a large-scale undertaking that calls for the application of all mind-changing tools within an organization (Denning, 2011). Hence, an individual can only go so far in influencing cultural change without needing the help of others for the completion of the change process.

An assessment of the argument presented above shows that a group of individuals have more influence in initiating cultural change than an individual. A committed group of individuals can have an immense influence on cultural change because the concept of culture involves people and not an individual. Therefore, since culture change affects groups of people, the same people have the power to influence such changes either positively or negatively. From this perspective, it is critical for any form of cultural change to appeal to the groups involved for the change to be fully internalized. This aspect applies whether the initiator of change uses a coercive approach or the approach that states the clear behavioral goals to be achieved and lets them develop preferred solutions (Schein, 2009).

For effectiveness in initiating cultural change and achieving its full internalization, it is vital first to attain buy-in from key stakeholders. As already mentioned, cultural change often affects groups of people or the entire organization as a unit. Therefore, convincing the stakeholders of the organization to embrace the change requires a buy-in. Some of the most efficient ways of achieving the buy-in include the introduction of a compelling positive vision and cognitive redefinition (Schein, 2009). Using these strategies requires the change manager to be clear about the ultimate goals to be achieved through the proposed cultural change.

Besides achieving a buy-in, it is also important to consider the level of the organization when initiating cultural change. Cultural change is rare at the startup level of a company. A startup organization is usually at the growth period characterized by institutionalization, stabilization, consolidation, and evolution (Schein, 2009). On the other hand, cultural change is necessary when a company reaches the maturity level. “As organizations reach maturity, a wholly different set of issues arise because if change is needed, we are now dealing with unlearning and replacing assumptions and values in a system of highly differentiated subcultures that are likely to be both functional in some parts and dysfunctional in other parts” (Schein, 2009, p.147). Thus, it matters that an organization is a startup or mature company when it comes to initiating change.

An example of a personal experience that illustrates an earlier point is when an organization I was working for initiated a cultural change of partly working from home. The change manager began by achieving the buy-in of the stakeholders of the company using a compelling vision that made everybody see the need for the change (Schein, 2009). The change manager also relied on the coercion technique during the initiation of the change and deployed all organizational tools available, which hastened the change process. In the end, the whole group became committed to internalizing the change.

 

Denning, S. (2011). How do you change an organizational culture? Forbes Magazine, 23.

Schein, E. (2010b). Creating corporate cultures: Prof. Edgar Schein: Keynote speech part 2.

Retrieved from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=03GcjrIKRrs

Schein, E. H. (2009). The corporate culture survival guide. San Francisco, CA: Jossey-Bass.

Sinek, S. (2017). How to get people to follow your inside quest.

Retrievedfrom  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFr_-oFmPRE&ab_channel=DEVINSCHOENING

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2nd Colleagues - Ryan Sharratt 

RE: Discussion 2 - Week 7

 Denning (2011) states that changing a culture is one of the most difficult leadership challenges (Denning, 2011) which in my own experiences is the most accurate statement within this entire program at Walden University. Culture is not developed overnight and is often build upon generations of statements like this is the way we do it, and do not do it that way, it will never work. I find these two statements at the forefront of struggling cultural change when it comes to health and safety.

     As a Certified Safety Professional (CSP), I had to take a Board examination which focused on the complexities of health and safety within organizations.  Complacency  and  Culture  are the two C’s that impact the success or failure of a safety program. In my experience, one key person is the trigger to start the cultural change and it always starts with why. Simon Sinek (2017) commences his Defining Leadership discussion with an entire conversation about why, why is important and how good people can influence the environment (Sinek, 2017).

     In my own experiences, cultural dynamics are heavily influenced by the internal clicks of employees. One specific example was a utility company that had an experience modifier rate (EMR) of 5.3 which illustrates accidents within the organization of 4.3 times others in the industry (one is the standard average for EMR regardless of the industry). Many safety training professionals attempted to conduct training and help lower the EMR but were unsuccessful. I found key members who influences the entire labor force based upon the positions they held within the union. I was able to convince buy-in to these three key players which led to successful implementation of a new culture of safety. We are eleven years into the cultural change and celebrating our fifth year without a single lost-time accident and an EMR of .83. This savings is over $1 million dollars per year in worker compensation costs. This is the power of cultural change.

     Sinek (2017) states that in well led companies you find very little politics (Sinek, 2017) which is normally true, but when variables like union and collective bargaining agreements (CBA) come into play, theses add additional layers of complexity which must be accounted for. Denning (2011) illustrates do’s that are tied with the leaders of world bank. In the lessons for the next president, these do’s are very powerful and apply to how organizational change should happen (Denning, 2011). These examples are fruitful in theory and in context, however, it all begins with a single person or a click of employees (tight group) in order for change to really be successful and minimal bumps in the road of the inevitable change.

References: 

Denning, S. (2011, July 23). How do you change an organizational culture? Forbes. Retrieved from  https://www.forbes.com/sites/stevedenning/2011/07/23/how-do-you-change-an-organizational-culture/#94d68cf39dc5

Sinek, S. (2017, January 5). Simon Sinek on how to get people to follow you Inside Quest. Retrieved from  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zFr_-oFmPR

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