Currently my organization is undergoing some major changes. A lot of changes in leadership have
been going on, with leaders being demoted, or even let go entirely. The organization was clear about
their new initiative about making sure the right people were in the right seats but they didn't exactly
prepare us for all of the seat changes they would be making, if it was communicated it wasn't
communicated well. Communication is one thing within my organization I feel they need to work on.
There is a lot of talk happening surrounding what's going on and what their end game really is and
there is a lot of unrest considering a lot of people have been let go, people are nervous and some are
even looking into different companies. After this course I really understand the need for
communication and how it can help to appease some of the fears in a situation like the one my
organization is facing currently. They're all very hush hush and that isn't doing anything for employee
morale which is wrong. Communication in general lacks within my organization at times and I think a
communication plan such as the one we developed for our project could be helpful. I know that
communication is something I am definitely going to place an emphasis on when it comes to my plan
for professional development. I strive to always be curious and I try to ask the questions that others
might be afraid to ask or questions that others may not think to ask. My direct leaders pride me on the
way I ask questions but I know other leaders in the organization in different departments don't really
feel the same way and I think that's a problem in and of itself and I do think that's kind of what the
organization is trying to address but they're not being as open-book about it as they could be.
In general, organizational change is very important for the business and company to alter a major
component of the organization. It could include technologies, infrastructure, internal processes,
culture, and many others (Arsith & Tanase, 2020). Here, I would like to share one of my professional
life experiences that were responsible for managing change. When I was working in my previous
organization, I found that all the employees had a fear of the boss, and they were hesitant to give their
point of view in terms of achieving the organizational goal. Here, it was essential to bring changes in
the work culture. Since I was appointed as a manager in the organization, I have tried to reduce the gap
between the employer and the employees by providing enough training to the employees to encourage
and boost their confidence to talk in front of the boss. Also, it is essential to maintain a work-friendly
environment so that better productivity can be derived from the organization. For this, I have worked
hard to communicate effectively with all the employees and the employer.
In the organizational setting, it is essential for an individual to have some important change
management skills like active listening, better communication, strategic thinking, research knowledge,
measurement and analysis, and leadership quality. While working in the previous organization, I have
already developed some of my skills that am good at listening, good at communicating with others,
doing proper research before telling some changes in the organization, as well as I also have a good
quality of a leadership that has helped me a lot to bring changes in the work culture (Arsith & Tanase,
2020). I think I could have better managed the organizational change by using a different approach.
Here, I could have used measurement and analysis to provide better reasoning for the organizational
change. As organizational culture is not static and it is dynamic, it was quite helpful for me to bring
changes to the work culture.
I have found some of the change management skills are already present in me that are more relevant
to my professional as well as personal life. Usually, I used to be very good at engaging with people in
my personal as well as professional life, which has helped me a lot to bring changes in the
organizational culture. Another quality that I have acquired is an excellent communication skill that
makes people listen to my points very carefully. Further, these change management skills will be very
helpful for me in the future to grow better in managing the changes in the organizational settings.
An example of when I previously experienced change was when I was a Team Captain at a Fintech
organization in their call center. It was both personal and professional, as it was me living through a
change in my career. There were about 12 Team Captains that supported different team. We were in
charge of coaching, training, more of the growth while the Leader assisted with the performance and
areas needed to focus on, we would help the team members with those areas and increasing their
skills, not the Leader. One day without any notice, we were pulled into a meeting with our VP of the
call center and a few of our Leader (they had the Team Captains as their Team). We were advised our
roles were no longer needed and that we would go back on the phones, take a slight pay cut, changed
schedules starting that Monday. It was Thursday. No transparency was provided. It was what it was
basically.
Based on the change management skills covered in this course, there 100% should have been a
different approach. There was no transparency, there was no trust, there was no support from
leadership or them advising why it needed to be that way. The ADKAR change management model
could have been used but there was no awareness, as well as zero reinforcement. The McKinsey 7-S
model also could have been used, unfortunately I did not see either in play. These skills could have
helped us as a team navigate this change and understand more of the why, other than it was a business
decision.
It is interesting taking this course because I recently joined a new organization and was aligned with a
brand new team in Talent Development with Onboarding and Performance Management. The
organization I am with has been around for 100 years and the team members have a pretty lengthy
tenure, I spoke with someone who has been there for 32 years! That is not uncommon, you're either
new within the pandemic or have been around for at least 10 plus years. What I am getting at is, fresh
eyes do not always perceive the same things that someone with eyes on that ONE specific
organization has had for 15 years. Change management is a very tough road to navigate, and I am
living through it, and have been since starting this course. This course has helped me really understand
the dynamics of change management and provided me tools and resources I can use in my day-to-day.
I really appreciated Kotter's view and his theory that was more focused on the challenge which really
was "...changing people's beahviour and not strategy, systems or culture" (Hee & Shanmugam, 2019).
I really am learning that now, focusing on the behavioral changes and practicing the tools we have
been provided through this course to address those changes. I am really focusing on the short term
wins right now as there are a lot of directions that we are being pulled with processing change within
Performance Management and Onboarding. I think when the more tenured team members see the
short term wins, they will start to trust us as a team and help that much more throughout this process.
I hope you all have had as great of an experience as I have through this course! Good Luck to
everyone on your journey!
References:
Hee, Ong & Shanmugam, Nanthinee. (2019). A Review of Human Resource Change Management
Strategies in the Digital Era. International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social
Sciences. 9. 10.6007/IJARBSS/v9-i3/5713
Experience with Change
Working through this course provided me with a new perspective of change; instead of
dreading it, I understand now that there are different techniques that can make it more manageable.
As a former employee of an animal vaccination clinic, change was constant as new rules and
regulations about vaccines from the county and state had to be implemented, and different
veterinarians also had their personal vaccination preferences that would shift at times. As an example,
some veterinarians would change their personal requirements regarding certain dog breeds needing to
be a certain age and weight before being vaccinated because they were genetically susceptible to
respiratory problems that the vaccines could interfere with. Also, if there was a regional outbreak of a
certain disease, the state or county would require us to update our protocols and processes. So, there
were multiple layers of change being influenced by external and internal stakeholders all the time.
However, the most significant change process was when the company pushed operations to become
more automated and reliant on technology. The transition was poorly managed since there was
insufficient training on how to use the new software on the tablets and managers could not offer
support since they were overworked with other tasks, so it took weeks of independent trial and error.
Based on what I learned from this course, I feel that employing one of the change management
models, like the ADKAR process, could have created a smoother experience since it dedicates time to
learning and development. Communication and teamwork skills, along with greater technical
competence would have been helpful capabilities to develop and utilize throughout the change process
that I experienced.
Overall, the greatest change management skill that I will take away from this course and apply to my
personal and professional life is identifying key stakeholders. Whether it is in a personal or
professional setting, understanding the feelings, ideas, and interests of the people around you is the
key to several other actions, like effective communication and collaboration. As someone that is
aiming to work in the environmental side of business, my experience so far has been defined by
change because sustainability is all about being a part of a transition that is implementing “green”
modifications to operations. So moving forward, I believe being able to specifically identify key
stakeholders in this process would allow me to gather a more diverse yet relevant set of ideas for
sustainable development.
Arsith, M., & Tanase Popa, D. A. (2020). Sign, Language, Significance and Communication. Acta
Universitatis Danubius. Communicatio, 13(2).
