Given the scope of my previous roles, I have not been in a position 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 behaviors 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.
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, instill trust, be transparent,
offer training and development, and listen to my employees.
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
skeptical 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 skeptics 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 have been in experiences where I’ve had to manage change. Sometimes, the change was “negative”.
Meaning, I was not 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 have 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 like the course
scenario.
Based on the course, I would 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 has 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 have 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.
