Strayer University Change Leadership Discussion

Hi Class

When I reflect back on my personal change management history, I believe the critical skill of Active Listening within change communication is probably the area that I still find challenging. It is obviously important to have good two-way communication in change management to solicit feedback and apply it going forward from people at all levels of the project.

I believe this is still tricky for me because most of the change projects I have been involved with so far involve designing and implementing new processes across multiple countries that require some standardization to be effective. In most cases, the design of the changes involved a small core of business users and experts and once the design was approved, the implementation cascade was more “directive” then “interactive”. Mechanisms to discuss and train the employees on new processes were put in place, including “Fit-Gap” design workshops, but I found more times than not we changed them to “design impact” workshops which were meant to talk about how to mitigate the effects of the changes on the local process more than gathering feedback on how they could be improved. This tendency to design from up top and then implement without the Active Listening and feedback loops in place during implementation is something I think I need to take more advantage of to both gain commitment and empower the employees to adopt quicker.

If I had to pick an area that I need to focus on for immediate growth, it would the political “skill” of creating a guiding coalition to support my next change project. I feel that coming up with a strategy and vision is in my comfort zone but understanding who and how to get on-board first to build up the support at the senior management level is still tricky for me. I would think I am much more action oriented, but no piloting or resource funding will come my way if I can not first sell the idea to senior management. I think getting a change leadership coach or a mentor in this area would be of great benefit to me in order to improve.

Thanks

Matt

References:

Kotter, J. (2012) Leading Change

Hicks, K. (2020) 6 Essential Skills for Successful Change Management. Retrieved from https://www.zendesk.com/blog/skills-change-management/

Professor Gary Bodam

Thank you Professor Gary Bodam for a great experience.

Hello Classmates it was a joy of knowing each and every one of you this semester.

• Which of the change leadership skills or behaviors have you found to be the most challenging to date? Why?

Change Leadership is the capability to motivate and influence others through vision, advocacy, personal advocacy, and accessing resources in building a strong platform for change. One of the change leadership skills I found to be most challenging to date is the need in responding to the opportunities and threats we encounter regularly forces us into abrupt action which is not conceived well. We attempt to do too much at one time without any clear meaning or plan. There is so much on our plates for the past year but sometimes we can’t manage it at all. During the Covid-19 many organizations and businesses around the globe failed to survive because they did not have a culture that could handle major changes within the workplace for example working from home. Various small scale businesses left the required infrastructure to facilitate online work because the culture of these businesses were not prepared to deal with any major changes.

• Where do you see your most immediate area for growth?

My most immediate area for growth will be on stepping a bit far from the table because the more careful thinking I do, the more I change how I approach opportunities and challenges and hence encouraging growth. I will adopt distinct mindsets, tools, and structures which will enable me to achieve repeatable achievement in leading continuous, complex change.

References:

1. Gill, R. (2002). Change management–or change leadership? Journal of change management, 3(4), 307-318.
2. Wagner, T., Kegan, R., Lahey, L. L., Lemons, R. W., Garnier, J., Helsing, D., & Rasmussen, H.T. (2012). Change leadership: A practical guide to transforming our schools. John Wiley & Sons
3. Week 10 Lecture Notes: Change as the New Normal
4. Kotter, Chapter 11: The Organization of the Future
5. Kotter, Chapter 12: Leadership and Lifelong Learning