BUS4802 Change Management

Intermediate Draft

Stacey Schultz

BUS4802

Change Management

Capella University

Purpose of Team Development Meeting

Our wellness program has previously been referred to as the Achieving Better Health Wellness Program. With the launch of our new wellness program, we are rebranding our program. The new name of this program should reflect the values of the wellness committee as well as those of the company as it promotes the education of employees about wellness objectives and opportunities.

This team has been assembled to become champions for the new and improved wellness program. This committee has been established to promote a culture of safety and wellness among the company’s employees and their families. Safety is a top priority, and we recognize the direct connection between health and safety.

Responsibilities will include, but not be limited to the following:

· Brainstorm and collaborate with peers to create and promote wellness and safety opportunities within Air Liquide.

· Assist/facilitate wellness challenge administration

· Identify opportunities to encourage and support well-being among coworkers to promote preventative care, well-checks and disease management

Participants

Team Leader –

· Stacey Schultz is a buyer in our Chanhassen office and her favorite activity is yoga.

Team Members –

· Becky Riesgraf works in human resources in our Chanhassen office and her favorite activity is walking

· Amanda Whalen is a Business Analysis in our Dallas office and her favorite activity is running.

· Matt Anderson is in the Dallas office and is a Mechanical Engineer with his favorite activity as softball.

· Nicole Feist is a marketing coordinator in the Chanhassen office with boxing as her favorite activity.

· Mark Stang is a Project Manager in our Chanhassen office and his favorite activity is weight lifting.

Change Management

Change is scary; there is no doubt about it. We were scared to leave our parents homes for the real world. We are scared to leave relationships and jobs or start new ones for fear of the unknown. Sometimes you just need to jump in with both feet and face the unexpected; it might be the next best thing.

Change is endless and constant. We have no choice in the matter except for one aspect; mastering our ability to adapt and to learn. In short, the single most important reason for change mastery is survival. Nature has provided us with many examples of species that have adapted over millions of years in order to survive and thrive until this day. Modern man is one of those examples of adaptation and survival. We as a species did not become the pinnacle of creation by waiting for mutations or relying on physical strength. We mastered our ability to apply what we learned and adapt accordingly.

The first part of each change management is to shift a negative view, a resistance to the change. The second part is to create more positive spin, looking at the change with open eyes. By shifting your focus, you’ll see the silver lining in change and find a way to successfully incorporate the changes into your everyday life. You’ll see that change isn’t so scary when presented in a format that will drive you to welcome the change, as well as promote with your fellow team members.

Five Disciplines

Personal Mastery - Mastery is defined as the capacity not only to produce results, but also to “master” the principles underlying the way you produce results. (Senge, 1994) Put Personal in front of that and Personal Mastery is the way to master yourself, make your own personal vision and strive to be the best to achieve the goals you have set for yourself. A way to set a guidebook for your life.

Mental Models - These are the images, assumptions and stories which we carry in our minds of ourselves, other people, institutions, and every aspect of the world. (Senge, 1994) This is how you see the world with your own eyes and how you process it with your own mind. These are the memories that you hold onto.

Shared Vision - This is essentially focused around building shared meaning, potentially where none existed before. Not all visions are created equal and not all visions get carried out. Creating a vision together is a great way to connect with the other team members and let your vision be seen by all.

Team Learning – A way to collective share ideas and open discussion to enhance a team’s way of thinking. Our team is able to grow together by learning about the current program and taking what we learned and incorporate into our shared vision of where we want the program to go.

Systems Thinking - With this mode of thinking you’re able to see and process everything around you rather than focusing on one single point. Our goal as a team is to improve an existing program and make it something the employees will want to use. Seeing the whole picture and thinking outside of our team is a way to achieve this goal.

Chosen Disciplines

The Wellness Committee focused on the Shared Vision mastery. We bounce around ideas and created a space that we can feel proud of and pass on the other employees of the company. This is a chance for this carefully selected committee to share how they live a healthy life and what we can do as a team to reach out the other employees for everyone to live a long and healthy life.

What I learned about this discipline from our first meeting is that my team is all on board with the revised Wellness Committee. After our second meeting, we are still all on that page and have started to form our visions into one shared vision. We’ve talked openly about how we individually wanted the wellness program to look and collectively we’ve turned those single visions into one, focusing on what we all thought was the top priorities.

I feel that while team learning is important and a key factor in any successful team, that systems thinking served us better. With this mode of thinking you’re able to see and process everything around you rather than focusing on one single point. Our goal as a team is to improve an existing program and make it something the employees will want to use. Seeing the whole picture and thinking outside of our team is a way to achieve this goal.

In order to be successful in any team setting we need to have adaptability and change management, collaborate rather than be a hero, take risks, build meaningful relationships and participate.

Team Development Summary – First Session

The first Team Development meeting went off without a hitch. The team members were happy to be a part of the vision to revamp the wellness committee. We started off the meeting by stating our name, location, position, and what our favorite activity is. After the round of introductions we reviewed the purpose of the meeting and created the following mission statement: Provide support and encouragement for wellness programs to our employees and their families through leadership, education and communication. Promote increased productivity and enhance the quality of life of our employees and their families. Expand our culture of safety to one of safety and health.

The new vision will reflect the values of this carefully chosen committee as well as the company. We’ll all become wellness champions to promote better health and living throughout the company. We briefly covered what responsibilities might come up over the next year and what we as champions can do to support these events.

Our vision is to take this new committee from focusing just on health and wellness and extend it to include safety, financials and continuing education, how to live a healthy life in all areas. There are so many programs and incentives that we offer that many employees don’t know about. We want to get the word out to have employees take advantage of these programs to improve the value of their life.

For the first session we use the checklist for personal values as our team exercise. I opted for this exercise because I selected Shared Vision as one of our selected disciplines. I feel that by sharing your personal values, you’re able to open up and expose yourself to the other members of the team. It’s a great tool to get to know each other and let everyone explain why they picked these values.

This exercise was perfect for our team, everyone was willing to open up and share their personal values. When everyone had shared, it was interesting to see how many of us had the same values and it created a space for open discussion.

Team Development Summary – Second Session

The purpose of the second session was to share our ideas for ways to make the wellness program better along with ways to get the word out to have our employees utilize the programs to achieve better health. We revisited the purpose of the team along with the mission statement. We took a look at the current programs and to see what’s working, if there’s room for change as well as what’s not working and how to change it or replace it with something new. We had some great ideas and it was a successful meeting.

One of the programs that we currently have in place is a $500 incentive to have your yearly physical. We all take advantage of this, it’s something that we would do without the incentive but surprisingly only 60% of employees use this. That’s 40% of our employees either not getting their yearly physical, which our insurance covers 100%, or they aren’t aware of the program and/or where to retrieve the forms.

To promote this, we’re going to work with the editors of our weekly newsletter that is emailed to each employee and then posted as a link on our intranet. We’re also going to work with the owners of the intranet to have this show as the main story when you first log on. We’ll have a link set up to download the form that needs to be completed by your doctor along with the submittal directions.

By having a yearly physical, you’re taking steps to prevent serious diseases, lower your chances of high cholesterol, certain types of cancers and high blood pressure. In addition, you’re providing your doctor a baseline to be used for comparison at futures visits. As the Center for Disease Control and Prevention notes, treating and curing health problems is easier and more likely to be successful the sooner you discover their presence. (Lohrey)

The fishbowl was the chosen exercise for this meeting and it didn’t go quite as well as the checklist for personal values. We split into two groups, set the timer for 20 minutes and let the discussion begin with the topic of what changes can we bring to the wellness program. The conversation flowed smoothly between the three talkers while the rest of us observed. At the end of the 20 minutes we broke into smaller groups and gave constructive criticism, which wasn’t easy to do.

The team members bounced ideas off of each other and everyone was so passionate about the topic, that nobody was really out of line. According to The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook, the timer should be set for another 20 minutes, discussion should resume taking into consideration the critique they were given. I didn’t feel a need for the second round to take place because there wasn’t really any critique in the first place.

Because of this we were now faced with an unplanned journey. Which surprisingly worked out well for our team. So often when we are faced with the unplanned we fall flat on our face trying to find a way to fill the time. We were able to chat about our shared vision and how to make this shared vision become a reality.

Recommendations

The disciplines are tools that can help any team leader host a successful meeting. I found the personal vision to be the best discipline for my selected group and agenda. We are creating something new and exciting and I wanted everyone to be on the same page and share the same vision. I feel that leaders should closely look at these disciplines and find the one that best fits with them. It might be a different discipline for different groups and that’s fine, no two groups are the same.

Conclusion

Getting the team together to promote the changes was the easiest part. Trying to get the rest of the organization onboard to accept this change is going to be the difficult part of this committee. People are set in their ways and used to doing things one way. We need to be the pioneers and the champions to help these people see the reason for the change and the positive benefits that will come as a result for this new wellness program.

The hand selected committee has the shared vision and the passion along with the drive to make this re-branding of the wellness program come to fruition. We have great ideas and new and exciting programs that we’re excited to roll out to the rest of the organization. To quote Gandhi, “Be the change you wish to see in the world.” This team is ready to make that change and get the rest of the employees on board.

References:

Senge, P., Kleiner, A., Roberts, C. Ross, R., & Smith, B. (1994) The Fifth Discipline Fieldbook Doubleday Publishers New York NY