Given the scope of my previous roles, I have not been able to be tasked with managing change.
Despite my lack of experience with change management, I have truly enjoyed the course, and I
have learned several concepts which I intend to use both in my personal and professional life
going forward.
Although I never been able to manage change, one of the skills this course has helped to
emphasize is the importance of leadership that is equipped with skills to effectively manage
change. The development of a new Renewable Natural Gas plant at my site is no simple feat and
involves several moving parts and numerous site changes. Being an individual contributor while
being enrolled in this course has given me the opportunity to view the actions of my superiors
through a different lens. This has allowed me to critique several traits and behaviours that I would
like to implement into my management style in the future and has given me a greater appreciation
for all of the effort and moving parts associated with change management.
our new manager began making changes after he/she joined our team, after the first few weeks as
our manager. After assessing the change management skills covered in this class, I can recognize
why our team was resistant to the suggested changes, but I can also understand from the manager's
point of view, why their suggestions caused resistance, since the manager never considered any of
the recommended skills needed to make changes. The manager neglected to inquire about input
from the team, didn't explain why the changes needed to be made, and not give us any assurance
that our jobs would not be eliminated. This manager needed to take this class. Of course, some
people transferred to another department, and some left the company. If I ever become a manager,
I plan to use the skills learned from this class to be a good leader by communicating with my
employees, instil trust, be transparent, offer training and development, and listen to my employees.
I have been responsible for change in my current role. My current role involves providing well-
being resources and support to legal and professional staff at a global law firm. In this role, I have
been working to convince people who are trained be naturally sceptical to embrace things like
mindfulness and a reduction in billable hours. This has been a challenge because the worth of the
attorney is measured in how many hours they bill. (Billable hours means the amount of time they
spend working on legal activities for their clients that requires compensation.) Our firm chair has
announced the initiative firmwide but trying to mitigate this on a global level has also been hard
with myself and the director being US-based.
Understanding change management through this course will better help in my understanding of
how we can implement these well-being initiatives across the firm. Even with the leadership buy-
in, there has been some resistance to some of our grounded programming. For instance, we
launched a firmwide meditation series and we had critics and those who believe that mindfulness
is only for those who shop at Lulu lemon and burn incense. What we are now trying to do is
present the science behind how and why mindfulness can help. This course helped me to identify
that even the sceptics are stakeholders, and I need to move forward with finding ways to help them
be less resistant to the change.
One change management skill I have applied in my personal life is to find way to mitigate
anything that can become a roadblock as I move towards success. An example, my family and I
are trying to lead a healthier lifestyle in terms of our relationships with food, but we also have to
reframe what our kids believe to be "healthy". We always had typical children's snacks: chips,
cookies, ice cream, cake. We tried to drastic change, and our kids were miserable. So instead, we
went back and slowly made incremental changes. Oven-baked chips, granola, fresh fruit to still
have something sweet. Doing it gradually overtime proved to be less of a shock, and it seems like
we are going to be able to sustain the change!
I’ve been in experiences where I’ve had to manage change. Sometimes, the change was
“negative”. Meaning, I wasn’t leading the change, and instead reacting to the decisions of others. I
was forced to “clean up” the messes of other people, which is frustrating. However, I’ve also been
fortunate enough to lead positive change in organizations, which has included implementing
various initiatives to positively change the organization (from a tech perspective). However,
nothing similar to the course scenario.
Based on the course, I’d say the biggest change I could make in my personal (professional) life is
organizing change more methodically. I tend to “do things”, and oftentimes don’t prepare enough.
The most relevant change management skills that are relevant to my personal life are building trust
and cohesion within teams, to ensure that any change initiatives are accepted and internalized.
I really enjoyed the course with all of you. I learned a lot. It’s definitely been challenging, and has
forced me to consider different approaches (honestly) for what I will need to do in the coming
months with my team (shifting operational focus). I wish you all the best going forward. Please
keep in touch.
I’ve experienced change in my most recent role in many different ways during my time with the
company. About three years ago, the company was purchased by a much larger organization and
we then began a two-year-long integration process. As part of the acquisition, my former role was
eliminated and I found an opportunity to move into a new department. At the time, the new role
felt like a great opportunity that my peers were encouraging of and every one I reached out to for
advice was very confident that it promised strong potential for growth. I moved into the new role
without a clear understanding of my expectations, no clearly defined manager, title, or pay
adjustment. At the time, there was so much going on with the integration that the team I was
placed on was not prioritized as needing attention and these things went unchanged for over a
year.
After learning the change management skills covered in this course, I would have approached this
transition much differently. It was clear that there was a good opportunity for me by staying
employed with the company and taking on a new challenge. However, it was also very clear that
the questions and expectations I thought should’ve been outlined before formally changing roles
were not important to leadership despite my persistence in asking. If I were to undergo the same
change today, I would see the red flags as something that would foreshadow my experience with
this leadership team. A lack of communication and undefined expectations were the norm for how
this team operated and I was quickly taken advantage of and overworked as someone willing to
learn and eager to grow.
The skills I found most relevant from this course that I’ll work on applying going forward are
understanding your audience's needs and communicating honestly to build trust. The course
scenario was a strong example of how employee engagement will decline when employees feel
like outsiders, disconnected from the purpose and value they provide to the organization. As I
progress in my leadership journey, I’ll prioritize working to understand my audience and
communicate according to their needs to provide a sense of awareness and inclusion.
