We have looked at Change and the Individual, and now let us look at Change and the Organization.

It is important to think about change and the organization as just as people, organizations are not all the same. Organizations seldom change without some external reason or pressure to do so. Changes may be wide, affecting many of the organization’s functions, or narrow, having limited impact outside one department.

They may be large, requiring major investment, or small, costing relatively little in finance and people.

In this module we look at the –

- Organizational Metaphors,

- Levels of Organizational Culture,

- How Culture Develops,

- How Culture is Shaped and Communicated,

- Culture and Climate

Organizations seldom change without some external reason or pressure to do so. Changes may be wide, affecting many of the organization’s functions, or narrow, having limited impact outside the department. They may be large, requiring major investment, or small, costing relatively little in finance and people.

In this lesson we looked at some of the metaphors that people use when describing organization and change. In his book Images of Organization Garth Morgan (2006) describes how the way that we think about organizations – the metaphors we hold in our minds – affects our behavior. In particular we the way we approach change is affected by the mental model we use.

Thinking about the metaphors it helps us make a profound difference to the way we manage change in several ways.

In this lesson we discuss  ‘organizational culture’ and by this we mean established systems of accepted behaviors, values, beliefs, and assumptions that are widely shared within the organization, and which as a result no one notices. In this sense culture is ‘what everyone knows’ or ‘the way things are done around here’. The key is that because ‘everyone knows’, no one questions – or if they do, they are felt to be rocking the boat.

To help understand what we mean by ‘organizational culture’ we look at Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner and how they describe cultures of all kinds as having three levels, level one (surface), level two (deeper) and level three (deepest).

In this lesson we look  at how organizational culture develops for good reasons. At a particular period in the organization’s history particular assumptions, values and norms will have led to its success. There are often assumptions of the founder or of leaders who have been influential during a critical period. As a result, the lessons about ‘what really matters’ sink deeply into the organizational unconscious system and suffer rejection, just as the body’s immune system rejects unrecognized invaders.

To manage change in an organization requires sensitivity to these processes and the ability to bring culture to an organization consciousness. It is then possible to manage key messages across the organization in a way that supports change. But understanding culture is not a trivial task. Schein (1985) argues that is not possible for either an external person or internal person, working alone, to identify the trends of organizational culture. It requires careful collaboration between those inside the organization, well embedded in its culture, and someone extern who can see the assumptions that ‘insiders’ are making – supported by a thoughtful process.

In this lesson we lear about the importance of managing messages as a means of supporting changes of culture, we looked at Carolyn Taylor and how she described three mechanisms through which messages are communicated. Behaviors, Symbols and Systems.

When engaging in any change that touches culture, close attention to all these mechanisms is vital.

When thinking about culture and climate, we also need to think about categorizing culture. There have been many academic and commercial attempts to categorize cultures, and good familiarity with one or two of these can be a helpful shortcut for the change manager trying to understand and interpret the culture of a particular organization.

One example of these is a published model by Carolyn Taylor (2005) and her list of five positive cultural focuses that an organization might select. ECMH Chapter 1: Section E, 2.1 Pg. 63

A second example is a different approach offered by Trompenaars and Hampden-Turner (2012). They categorize cultures using two pairs of opposed ideas, each pair forming a bipolar scale.

The effects of culture are embedded in every aspect of organizational life. Changes large and small are likely to have cultural implications, whether or not this is intended. It is always wise to consider the possible impacts of change on the organization’s outward systems, norms, values, and underlying assumptions. This helps change managers to consider how to align the culture with the change, so that it does not create an obstacle.

Questions to think about:

a) What do you think are the most significant values in your organization (not necessarily the ones that it would advertise!)?

b) How would an outsider be able to see them?

c) What contradictory evidence (if any) might the outsider see?

d) Is the focus of your organization culture more task or more people? Is it more egalitarian or more hierarchical?

e) What does this mean in practice?

f) What strengths and what weaknesses result from this culture?

This brings you to the end of this module, Please take time to reflect on and consolidate your learning:

• Consider whether you have met the module learning objectives, you may repeat any or all of the lessons

• If you are confident that you have met these objectives, review the module tasks and the support materials.

• Progress to the next module in your learning.

We continue to think about change and the organization.

In this module, we are going to explore, three models of the change process, and emergent change.

In this lesson we look  at the mid-20th century, social psychologist Kurt Lewin ad how he first described the process of individual change as: unfreezing, change and refreezing. Lewin (1951) extended this deceptively simple model to describe groups in change. He recognized that the collective mindsets and practices of a group must be broken down before a change can occur – and that subsequently effort is needed to consolidate the group’s new mindset and practices.

In this lesson we look at our second model of change process in planning and leading organizational change: Kotter’s eight-step model.

A number of prescriptions have been proposed for strategic, organization-level change and John Kotter and his eight-step model is one of the best known. His ideas, based on analysis of many change efforts over a 15-year period, were set out in a Harvard Business Review seminal article in (Kotter, 1995). The article identified eight common errors that organizations make when trying to undertake major changes. This was followed by his book Leading Change (2012a {1996}), in which he elaborated his eight-stage process’. Each stage was an antidote to one of the errors he identified. The whole process offers a roadmap for undertaking major organizational change, placing a strong focus on the role of effective leadership. It is ‘required reading’ for those leading or supporting change programmes, not least because many senior organizations leaders will also have read it! The delightful fable Our Iceberg Is Melting is also based on (and teaches) these eight stages.

In this lesson we look at our third model ‘Senge’s Systematic Model’. Peter Senge became known for his work on the ‘learning organization’, particularly through his book The Fifth Discipline (Senge, 1993) upon which his further writings have been built. The ‘fifth discipline’ to which the book title refers is systems thinking, which addresses some of the difficult-to-explain phenomena we see in organizations and in change processes. Senge writes about what he terms ‘profound change’ in organizations. He uses biological and ecological metaphors to describe the processes that limit organizational growth – and the implementation of proposed changes.

We look  at the ‘Realizing Potential’ diagram which helped explain Senge’s view on organic change.

We then learn  about the three change challenges Senge and hic co-authors described in clarity about the changes of initiating change, of sustaining the transformation and redesigning and rethinking the organization.

In this lesson we think about emergent change. Emergent change is best seen as a journey taken in a company with others in the organization. A direction is set, and the company of people agree to travel together. The varied observations, skills, and experience of all the fellow travellers may be essential to support the company on its journey, and to identify and deal with hazards and threats that appear along the way. The journey may have an intended – even agreed – destination, but the route must be adapted to suit the company of travellers. Even the destination may need to be reviewed in the light of new information gathered along the way. Safe arrival is a signal for celebration – and planning the next adventure.

Questions to think about:

What change have you experienced or observed that have mostly ‘emergent’ characteristics?

What actions by organizational leaders (or others) helped those changes to happen?

In this lesson we start to think about how best to approach emergent change as a leader and we looked at some key guidelines for providing effective leadership in emergent change situations.

Leaders cannot succeed in promoting deep, emergent change and transformation simply by more planning. However, leaders can be intentional about their own words, challenging existing paradigms and supporting new ones. They can be sure that their own actions model consistently the new expected behaviors.

In this module we discussed ‘Models of change process’ and recognized that not all change initiatives can be fully planned. Morgan’s (2006) ‘machine metaphor’ provides only one way to look at change. Bernard Burnes (2004), in writing a fascinating case study of organizational change, summarizes the literature about different approaches to organizational change by saying that: ‘the two dominant ones are the planned and emergent approaches.

We explored some comments on the roots of an emergent approach to change, summarized the situations most likely to require such an approach, and made some suggestions on how leadership can be effective in promoting change.

This brings you to the end of this module, Please take time to reflect on and consolidate your learning:

• Consider whether you have met the module learning objectives, you may repeat any or all of the lessons

• If you are confident that you have met these objectives, review the module tasks

• Progress to the next module in your learning.

In this section, we focus on the roles and functions performed by people, engaged in change initiatives.

These are not ‘job titles’, in an organizational sense. They are architypes, ‘typical pictures’ of these roles and functions, and are not linked (here), to the organizational roles (job titles), used to deliver change, such as change management, project and programme management.

In this lesson we look at how every change starts with an idea and that for organizational change to occur that idea needs to be spread, be formed into a proposal, and find sponsorship.

We look at Figure 1.10 Roles in Change to help us develop a clear picture of how best to fulfil these functions and so to help the change succeed.

In this lesson we think about what makes a good sponsor? Research by Prosci (2012) with 650 participants from 62 countries identified the greatest contributor to overall change management success as ‘active and visible executive sponsorship’. The greatest obstacle was said by the respondents to be ‘ineffective change management sponsorship from senior leaders’

The Prosci research supports many of the observations described in this lesson about the behavior that defines effective sponsorship of change and we reviewed 10 suggested key activities that make a sponsor effective.

In this lesson we look at ‘what makes a good change agent?’. The terms ‘change manager’ and ‘change agent’ are not synonymous. A change agent is anyone who acts intentionally but without formal line authority to facilitate change in the organization.

Change agents may be coaches or consultants (internal or external), HR, OD specialists, trainers, or other support people. But they may also be supervisors, front-line staff, line managers or others.

Whoever they are, when they are functioning as change agents they do so without direct line authority and therefore they need to be very good influencers and embody the comments of O’Neill and Senge which we summarized in the functions of what makes a good change manager.

Things to think about:

- Does your organization have change agents?

- What do they do and how does it work?

In this lesson we look at the roles of Change Agents and Line Managers. Many of the activities in these roles require the change agent to act in a consulting role, getting their expertise and insights used by other people over whom they have no authority. Change managers frequently face the same issue, even when they are not acting as change agents. The single most important skill required to be effective in this situation is that of establishing effective working relationships with line managers, colleagues, and others.

The term often used for this is ‘contracting’. This does not mean entering a legal agreement. It refers to the process of getting real clarity with the line manager about what each expects from the other in the work they will do together.

In addition to getting clarity about hat each wants or expects of the other in a social contract like this, we looked at the four aspects addressed by Block: Mixed motivation, Concerns about exposure, Concerns about loss of control and Clarity about who is involved.

This completes the lessons within this module.

You should take the opportunity to reflect against the module objectives.

Consider whether these objectives have been met and whether you need to review any of the lessons.

When you are comfortable with having completed the module learning, you can progress to the next module/level.

When you are comfortable with having completed the module learning objectives, attempt the module test and the module tasks before progressing to the next module.

In this module, we think about preparing an organization for change, there are six key questions for organizations to consider:

1. Why is change needed?

2. What change do we need to make?

3. How will the change affect us, both positively or negatively?

4. When do we need to change?

5. Who will lead and facilitate the change?

6. How will we make change a success?

Many people from across the organization, together with expert and specialist advisers, will play a part in answering these key questions. This will involve:

• A diagnosis and analysis of needs, issues, the environment, and priorities for change.

• Detailed definition and design of the changes that reflects the diverse needs, expectations and aspirations of the organization, and its people.

• Creation of a viable and achievable change management plan, and supporting business case, aligned to the organization’s corporate strategic goals.

A clear and concise definition of change is essential, to ensure that the change effort is both focused and sustained.

Moreover, change must be benefit driven, with a clear end goal, or vision to work towards.

In this lesson we start  to think about identifying the drivers for change, the factors driving the need to change, includes the use of information to maintain strategic focus and energy throughout the change process. It provides answers to the fundamental questions ‘Why change?’ and ‘Why now?’.

We explore  some of the approaches, tools, techniques, and insights that will enable an organization to get started on the change journey towards its desired future.

In this lesson we start to think about the change drivers and how they are part of a strategic process to both create an organizations strategy and implement it through change and how this meant there are a number of feed-back loops and cascading decisions and designs in the process, all of which identify drivers for change.

All change in an organization should be in support of the strategy either to maintain a competitive advantage or seek a new advantage. In a government organization the change should improve the efficiency of the organization or provide a new function. In both cases the strategic objectives provide the change drivers.

The culture in an organization is crucial to understanding the drivers for change and the impact of the change. It will contribute to the analysis if the change as it is included in tools such as five forces, SWOT, and force field analysis, together with a soft systems approach. The analysis tools will be sued and refined as the change cascades through the organization. Emergent change must also be considered, so that the organization resources remain focused on achievement of strategic objectives.

In this lesson we learn that a clear vision for change is essential as it enables an organization’s leaders, managers, and change sponsors to identify and communicate the desired end goal, scope, and boundaries of a change initiative. Furthermore, it enables all those engaged in or affected by the change to understand its purpose and commit to the steps needed to make change work. A clear vision for change also helps people to focus on the wider organizational implications and opportunities.

There is a clear distinction between an organization’s strategic mission, goals, objectives, and targets on the one hand, and the creation of a vision and narrative for a change initiative on the other.

In this lesson we explore, viewpoints and perspectives of change, capturing viewpoints, selecting viewpoints, and developing a vision for change.

In this lesson we learn how to write a vision statement and the pitfalls to avoid.

: This brings us to the end of this module, now you’ve completed the lessons within this module, you should take the opportunity to reflect back against the module objectives.

Consider whether these objectives have been met, and whether you need to review any of the lessons.

When you are comfortable with having completed the module learning objectives, look over the Support Materials, and then progress to the next module.

Stakeholder engagement is pivotal to the whole process of effective change.

It is the essence of leading through influence. Through understanding stakeholders, prioritizing, and mobilizing them, change managers begin to gain and sustain the momentum for change.

In this lesson we start to think about how stakeholder engagement is pivotal to the whole process of effective change. It is the essence of leading through influence. Through understanding stakeholders, prioritizing, and mobilizing them, change managers begin to gain and sustain the momentum for change. We look at the seven principles of stakeholder engagement. A principle on our terms, follows Stephen Covey’s (1999) criteria.

Please note that principles, 1, 2 and 3 fit within section A of the ECMH syllabus in chapter 4 – Identifying and segmenting stakeholders and principles 4,5,6 & 7 fit with section C – Managing relationships and mobilizing stakeholders. We do not mention section B – Stakeholder mapping and strategy as the principles do not fit within section B.

In this lesson we look  at the definition of a stakeholder and agreed that what we mean by the term ‘stakeholder’ is any individual or group with an interest in the change and its outcomes.

We look at how to recognize and start to identify stakeholders.

Remember stakeholder principles one and two fit within identifying stakeholders, remind yourself what those two principles are.

Questions to think about:

1. Who could you invite to such a workshop on your change?

2. Are there representatives of the major segments?

3. What fresh perspectives might they bring?

4. Would the workshop serve to engage them better in the process?

Segmenting is common practice in marketing. Segments represent a broad group of a type of stakeholder. So, by using segments marketers gain a better understanding of their different customers and what propositions are more likely to appeal to each customer segment.

Remember principle three fits with segmenting stakeholders, remind yourself what principle three is.

In this lesson we learn about persona and empathy maps. The word ‘persona’ is defined as ‘the social role or character played by an actor’ from the Latin word meaning ‘mask’. In marketing though, it is typically used as a summary for a customer segment but written as if it were an individual.

The change manager can better empathize with a stakeholder that represents a group by creating a persona. It can offer a deeper understanding of the group’s goals and needs, and so help shape engagement strategies and messages in a way that is more likely to influence them.

It is all about seeing the world through the filter of other people.

Don't forget to check out the Tips section under resources.

Analyzing a stakeholder is important for identifying the key stakeholders, and towards assembling and maintaining a good engagement strategy, particularly when working with a change team.

There are some standard stakeholder characteristics that we can map, sometimes using techniques specific to a characteristic, such as power. A complete description of these characteristics can be assembled into a stakeholder profile. Some characteristics lend themselves to mapping the current position and the target position. These stakeholder characteristics are not independent of each other, and so the change manager might focus in influencing to change one characteristic (e.g. perceived wins) so that it changes another (e.g. attitude to the change or its outcomes).

Often mapping compares stakeholders with each other, and this can be done across tow or more characteristics. The most common of such analysis is the power/influence-interest matrix, where each quadrant in the 2x2 matrix lends itself to a different description and therefore to a different engagement strategy.

Don't forget to check the Question to think about under resources

In this lesson we learn about the importance managing relationships and mobilizing stakeholders. Gaining and maintaining the momentum of change is the challenge of change leadership and change managers need to consider and execute a range of approaches to manage the momentum. Change often falters after the first flush of enthusiasm. The ability to re-energize and mobilize stakeholders is a key success factor.

Remember stakeholder principles four, five, six and seven they fit within this lesson, remind yourselves of what these were.

Don't forget to check the Tip and Summary under resources

Change managers need to maintain the momentum of change, and re-energize engagement throughout the change initiative.

A number of influencing strategies can help here:

• Remember that some stakeholders are best engaged by others. Roger’s innovation model suggests that the early adopters are disproportionately influential. Identify and mobilize these people. Collaboration is therefore a key component of engagement.

• Listening is powerfully persuasive. It creates a culture of respect within the change initiative, respect for the stakeholders themselves.

• Empathy and rapport go hand-in-hand with listening. In the urgency of our lives it is tempting to forgo this, but demonstrating good social awareness is the foundation of successful influencing.

• Disconfirmation and urgency do have their place in overcoming inertia. Consider the change resistance, where is it? And what is causing it? Then seek to weaken that resistance rather than push against it.

• The common medium of conversations should not be underestimated in mobilizing change.

• Leading with meaning and emotion is central to effective engagement.

• Demonstrating early successes, early wins, is powerful.

In this module we learn about the importance of communication. Communication and engagement are at the heart of any successful change initiative. Thorough plans for implementing change may well be in place, but ultimately, it is the people impacted by change, who need to be prepared to accept it, and adopt new ways of doing things. If they have not received sufficient communications, or had opportunities to be actively engaged in the process, there will be much greater resistance, and change will not occur.

Many potential barriers can get in the way of successful communication. Organizations include diverse groups of people with different perceptions, interests, and expectations. Add into the mix high levels of anxiety, due to fear of the unknown, which is inevitable during change, and it is easy to see how any meaningful exchange of information and ideas can be hindered. Different levels of engagement, and commitment are required, depending where people are along the change journey. This calls for a mix of approaches, and levels of communication, along the way. A well-thought-out structured approach to communication, and engagement ensures that the right level of interaction occurs with the right people, at the right time, in an efficient way

In this lesson we start to think about communication and engagement. Ever since human interaction began, ways of communication have evolved from making sounds, such as grunting and using body language, into using symbols to record stories, which developed into language, writing, printing, telecommunications and the more sophisticated multimedia we have today. Through the years, the aims of communication have always been to share information, to allow an exchange if ideas, and to influence the behavior or actions of others. To achieve successful communication, we need to understand the complexities of what is involved in communicating.

We begin by looking at cognitive biases – the human dimension in communication and we explored the four common biases when people ‘filter’ information.

Have you come across cognitive bias training?

Having learnt about these biases, we need to remember that we all have them and by being able to recognize and understand them, we will be better placed to effectively plan the right communication.

Feedback is essential for letting the sender know how the message has been received and to turn communication into a two-way process. This allows a more meaningful exchange to take place and enables the receiver to be equally involved in the process.

Do not forget often people do not hear what we are saying or receiving the message we have communicated as they are hearing it through their own filter.

In this lesson we look at communication approaches and one-way versus two-way communication. We learnt about the differences and when it is appropriate to use one way versus two way. Before we get the point, it is important to understand the difference between interpersonal and mass communication. A typical example of interpersonal communication would be a meeting where individuals are involved in direct face-to-face interactions within a small group. Mass communication refers to communicating with large numbers of people, for example sending organization wide announcements about change within a newsletter, or a video on an intranet. Mass communication tends to be a one-way flow of information and works on the assumption that communication is primarily a mechanical process and all the people receiving the message will give it the same meaning in a rational way.

In this lesson we familiarized ourselves with AIDA, Awareness (Attention), Interest, Desire and Action and how it helps communicating to achieve engagement.

The advantage of a marketing approach to communication such as AIDA is that it focuses on the people ate the receiving end. Designing communications in this way will help people to travel along the change journey and make shifts in their attitude and ultimately behaviors.

We cannot avoid communicating, we do it instinctively. There are many ways of communicating and an understanding of the basic principles of communication opens the opportunity to make considered choices that can make communication more focused and effective.

If we think back to when we looked at what makes a good sponsor and leader, you may remember we said visible support from the sponsor and involvement from leaders at the top is critical for any change initiative. Using a top-down, one-way approach to convey information, such as the reasons and vision for change, are very useful in getting the information out quickly to large numbers of people. However, to achieve fuller engagement, this and should then be balanced by a genuine invitation for people to participate within an environment of trust and openness, they will feel more involved and committed and become more engaged with the change initiative.

A consistent and thorough approach to communicating change is essential to:

- Build awareness of the need for change.

- Achieve a shared understanding of what is required across stakeholder groups

- Gain people’s commitment and get them actively engaged in making change happen.

To accommodate the needs of diverse groups, different types of communication activities and interventions should be considered. People have different preferences for the way they process information, so the same messages need to be conveyed using different formats and styles. Equally it is important to appeal to ‘hearts and minds’ as making the emotional connection helps achieve fuller engagement during change.

In this lesson we learnt about the emotional impact of change, where people are on the change journey and the importance of maintaining a people-focused approach to communication. We looked at 6 factors to encourage engagement and potential barriers to effective communication.

In this lesson we are encouraged to think about how engaging by appealing to hearts and minds leads to successful engagement and is a key communication approach. This means not only using logical reasoning to explain the drivers and approach to the change, but also appealing to their emotions. This emotional connection in necessary to achieve fuller engagement. We looked at three effective ways in which this can be done, and they are: symbolic actions and symbolism, use of metaphors and use of narrative and storytelling.

Consider when Nelson Mandela walked out on the field in the 1995 Rugby World Cup wearing the South African Springbok team’s rugby shirt. Following decades of apartheid rule, rugby had been the sport solely for the elite in a racially segregated and deeply divided nation. Yet, in that moment, the act of Nelson Mandela wearing the green and gold rugby shirt was a powerful symbol of a nation uniting as ‘one team, one country.’

During any change initiative there will be a diverse range of people with different communication needs. In this lesson we looked at some of these different channels, enabling change managers to understand the many different means by which communication can take place, so they can use the most appropriate mechanisms to achieve their communication objectives.

In this lesson we have learn about communication planning. It is important to remember that as part of the communication plan in any change initiative, people need to understand the following: Why change is necessary, what is involved, how it will impact them, what role they can play in making change happen and what happens next.

We learn about the communication planning framework, strategy, plan, action, and measure to be able to use as a framework when implementing a change initiative.

There are many factors to consider when planning communications, from how best to engage people emotionally to the mechanics of how best to structure messages so they can be easily understood. Change managers should work closely with other members of the change team and, if available, specialists from internal communications, to plan and implement robust communication approaches.

The outputs from monitoring and evaluation are invaluable for change managers and the other key roles involved in the change process. This information will highlight where communications have been fully understood whether those affected are becoming fully engaged in the process, and where collaboration is making the best contribution. By dedicating time and effort to planning the approach and process for monitoring and evaluating communications throughout a change initiative, improvements can continually be made to future communication plans and activities. The effort involved in doing this should not be underestimated, and yet this area cannot be neglected. The effectiveness of communications leads to the effectiveness of the overall change initiative.

Planned organizational change intends to impact ‘business as usual’ aspects of the organization, in some way or another.

These impacts can be both positive and negative, and can affect individuals, teams, business units, the organization, customers, and other external groups.

Change can create great disturbance and turbulence in an organization, and care is needed to balance ‘managing the change’ and the ongoing task of ‘managing the business’.

Pascale (1999) highlights the difficulty of gaining order in chaotic, uncertain times. His research explains that living systems are difficult to direct due to a weak understanding of cause-and-effect linkages, and as such, our best laid efforts to intervene in a system, to change it or even to replicate it artificially, almost always miss the mark. The best-laid plans are often perverted through self-interest, misinterpretation, or lack of the necessary skills to reach the intended goal.

Identifying and analyzing the impact of change is one of the keys to effective change management planning, and helps to avoid, or at least minimize, the disruptive effects, and support the positive aspects of the change.

When assessing the impacts it is important to bear in mind that there is often an organizational ‘Pollyanna’ effect (when someone thinks only good things will happen or find something good in everything, after the heroine of the novel Pollyanna by Eleanor Porter 1913).

This leads to a tendency to downplay the change, thinking it is easier than it is, and downplaying the impacts.

In this lesson we start to think about change impact. Planned organizational change intends to impact the ‘business as usual’ aspects of the organization in some way or another. We need to understand these impacts can be both positive and negative, and can affect individuals, teams, business units, the organization, customers, and other external groups.

Sadly, it is my experience that the change impact assessment is often not carried out or if it has been it has not been carried out effectively and I can not stress how important it is. In this lesson we learn that the change impact assessment is the process that analyses the impacts and implications of a change initiative on all aspects of the business, the operations and its people and customers, as a basis for decision making and planning for the change initiative.

In this lesson we learn about categorizing the change impacts. We categorized them into the following:

- The intended change

- The unintended/unplanned outcome

- The change management activities

We then look at the key inputs as it is important when starting to identify the impacts of any change initiative there are several key inputs, we learnt that the most important are:

- The detailed proposal and plans for the change initiative

- The gap analysis

- The stakeholder assessment

To aid the assessment of intended change, in this lesson we learn about the McKinsey 7-S model developed by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman (1982).

The model identifies seven internal aspects of an organization that need to be aligned and mutually re-enforcing if it is to be successful.

At the end of this module you will have the opportunity to complete an activity using the McKinsey 7-s model to enable you to bring it to life and be able to use the model in future change initiatives.

In this lesson we learn the importance of a stakeholder impact assessment. The stakeholder assessment looks at the scope of the change and identifies the key people and areas that need to be engaged to make the change happen.

In this lesson we look at the importance of change severity assessments and how the severity of the impacts will depend on several things.

We learn about assessing the environment, the organizational change ability, the history of change and individual responses.

With the business environment becoming more chaotic and uncertain, understanding change impacts has become equally more complex.

The approaches to identify and assess, the severity of impacts examined in this section, provides some guidance and frameworks, to analyse the interconnecting aspects of implementing change.

The impact assessment process often provides clarity on risks and business continuity requirements, that were not previously understood.

This module focuses on the people, and cultural aspects – why they matter, how to identify the issues, and increase change readiness.

We will explore building individual motivation to change, building organizational readiness for change, preparing for resistance, and measuring change effectiveness.

In this lesson we think about the theories of motivation, which we had previously explored in change and the individual when we looked at specific factors that motivated staff, such as reward, fulfilment, and recognition.

In this lesson we look at increasing the motivation for change from the perspective of Beckhard and Harris and their change formula.

The change formula essentially means for the change to happen A, B and D have to be higher that X and if any of A, B and D is at zero the change will not happen.

In this module we learn about the importance of building an effective change agent network.

We look at recruiting a change agent network, developing your network, the use of middle managers and working with innovators, the majority, and laggards.

In this lesson we reflect on what we learnt earlier about how to put a together a project team to deliver a change initiative as often the change manager is part of this team and there is no other dedicated resource to concentrate on the people side of change.

We then learn about the pros and cons of internal versus external recruitment for your change team and developing a change management plan.

Change is very personal, and everyone will have a different reaction to change.

For the change to be successful, each affected individual will have to decide to transition from old ways of working, to the new.

It is important to set up a structure to support individuals, either a network of change agents or middle managers.

There are different models of engagement for individuals in adopting change, depending on whether they are early adopters, in the majority or laggard.

Organizational readiness is a key part of preparing to implement change initiatives. There are a number of elements to this including:

• Assessing organizational factors such as culture, values, and management style.

• Developing the competencies needed to deliver the change, including utilizing skills from other areas of the business, recruiting into your own team, and developing stakeholder skills.

• Building awareness and support for the change.

Change management should begin as early as possible, in the change process, as should communication, in order to minimize the risk of the informal grapevine filling in gaps, with rumour and conjecture.

In this module we have highlighted that organizational readiness is a key part of preparing to implement change initiatives and there are several elements to this, including:

- Assessing organizational factors such as culture, values, and management style.

- Developing the competencies needed to deliver the change, including utilizing skills from other areas of the business, recruiting into your own team, and developing stakeholder skills.

- Building an awareness and support for the change.

Change management should begin as early as possible in the change process, as should communications in order to minimize the risk of the informal grapevine filling in gaps with rumor and conjecture.

Questions to think about:

- What conclusions can you come to about the culture of your organization through observing how it operates?

- What other teams and departments will you need to work with in order to plan and implement your change?

- How can you build awareness of the need for your change in a positive manner?

This module is all about preparing for resistance and yes, just as you are thinking, the reason we need to learn about this is because in any change, some resistance is inevitable.

Resistance to change is normal and should be expected and prepared for, no matter how minor or sensible your change initiative may seem.

In this section we will look at the common reasons why people may resist, we explore how to identify the types and magnitude of resistance, and explain how to build appropriate strategies to deal with resistance.

In this lesson we learn about the’ psychological contract’. I think everyone has experienced this or can certainly think of an example and hopefully this lesson made you think about how important they are, especially when managing a change initiative.

One key to understanding why people resist change is to view the world of work through the psychological contract.

In this lesson we delve more into resistance and identifying likely areas of resistance. To help we look at Kanter’s 10 common causes of resistance and how we can deal with those particular reasons for resistance.

To embed this learning, you will have an opportunity to complete and activity on Kanter’s 10 common causes for resistance at the end of this module.

Resistance to change can take on a variety of forms and in this lesson, we learn about the types of resistance and their symptoms and common considerations for building a strategy to manage resistance. We also learn how to support managers and supervisors as they can play a vital role in the successful implementation of change.

Often, we forget about the importance of building and sustain the momentum for change. It can take effort to build momentum for the change initiative and its even more challenging to sustain that momentum, especially if there is lots of planning before implementation, or if the implementation takes a long time.

In this lesson we look at the stages of a change initiative which can be supported by four key strategies to build and sustain momentum.

Resistance to change is to be expected and, therefore, it pays to prepare for it. There are common causes for resistance, for example loss of control or increased uncertainty, but each change will also have specific elements that may also cause resistance.

There are a number of techniques to deal with resistance, depending on the cause and type of resistance you are experiencing and the urgency of the change. Building and sustaining momentum, and supporting managers and supervisors, are both key factors in preparing for resistance.

This brings you to the end of this module and the course, please take time to reflect on and consolidate your learning:

• Consider whether you have met the module learning objectives, do you need to review any of the lessons?

Questions to think about?

1. Are you clear about the reasons behind the change?

2. How could you explain or summarize these?

3. What if a stakeholder asked, ‘So what?’’ What response would you have?

4. Is there sufficient urgency to overcome the inertia to change?

• if you are confident that you have met these objectives, attempt the module tasks

• Progress to the next step in your learning - Upgrade to Change Management - Foundation and Practitioner.