Overview
It is important to be able to accurately diagnose the higher priority needs for change in organizations and to develop a high-level process for initiating that change. You will analyze the factors driving change and how these impact an organization of your choice. The emphasis here is not on how to change, but on what to change, and why.
By successfully completing this assessment, you will demonstrate your proficiency in the following course competencies:
· Assess the complex and dynamic nature of organizational change.
· Analyze ways in which leaders and managers can effectively initiate, shape, and support organizational change.
· Analyze the processes of change in people, groups, and organizations.
· Communicate effectively in a professional manner.
Preparation
Using your Organizational Change: An Action-Oriented Toolkit text, select a change model that best applies to a change needed in your workplace or other familiar organization. Use the Capella University Library to find three to five additional resources on determining what to change in an organization.
Assignment Requirements
Using Kotter’s 8-step model and one other change model, analyze aspects of the change needed for your chosen organization and include the following:
· Describe a change challenge facing the selected organization to sustain success.
· List the factors that are driving change for this selected organization.
· Identify the type of change that is needed for the selected organization. Use Figure 3.1 in Mastering the Challenges of Leading Change (linked in Resources) for your identification.
· Assess the organization’s readiness for change and ways to heighten awareness. Use the force field analysis model for this assessment.
· Articulate recommendations for change for the selected organization. These would be recommendations you would eventually deliver to the organization’s executive leadership team. Make sure you support your recommendations with materials from the course readings and from your analysis. Remember, the emphasis here is not on how to change, but on what to change, and why.
Your analysis should be written coherently to support a central idea, in appropriate APA format, with correct grammar, usage, and mechanics as expected of a business professional.
Submission Requirements
· References: Support your analysis with 3 to 5 academic resources from the Capella University Library. You must use proper APA style to list your references.
· Length: 5 to 7 pages, not including the references list.
· Written communication: Demonstrate graduate-level writing skills through accurate communication of thoughts that convey the overall goals of the analysis and do not detract from the message.
· Formatting: Use APA formatting, including correct in-text citations, proper punctuation, double-spacing throughout, proper headings and subheadings, no extra line spaces before headings and subheadings, proper paragraph and block indentation, no bolding, one-inch margins all around, and no bullets.
· Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
Refer to the assignment scoring guide to ensure that you meet the grading criteria for this assignment before submission.
KOTTER’S 8 STEP ORGANIZATIONAL CHANGE MODEL
Today, I will be discussing Kotter’s 8-step Organizational Change Model.
So, why change? We live in a world where change is inevitable. Processes change, business objectives change, the environment changes and people have opinions about how things should be run. Because implementing change is a complex process for managers, it is recommended to use a change model in order to successfully implement change.
One of this models that can be implemented is John Kotter 8-step Organizational Change Model. Within this model, he addresses eight simple steps which are create an urgency, form a powerful coalition, create a vision, communicate the vision, empower people to clear obstacles, secure short-term win, build on change and anchor change. Now, why do most change efforts fail? Well, Kotter says that 70% of all major change efforts in organizations fail, and why? Because they do not take the holistic approach required to see the change through.
I will now be discussing Kotter’s first step which is create urgency. The first step is to create a sense of urgency. It is important that you create a sense of urgency and you have the company values and ideas for change and be on the same pages — the change that you want to see. When you are speaking about the change that you want to make, you want to be very motivational. The first thing that you need to do is that you need to talk to the other coworkers about this situation and how this change may affect your business. You want to be honest about what is happening in the environment, what factors are affecting the company and why it is important that you need to change.
Next, you are going to need to indentify who this is change will support and what stakeholders will it affect. Is it going to affect you and your coworkers? Is it going to affect the upper management? Is it going to affect your clients, your vendor? Who would affect the most?
Next, you are going to want to connect with the values of others and find opportunities to talk about how the change is going to affect the company. One problem that may occur is the case for a change is very poorly thought out, and if the idea is not thought out properly, then no one within the organization will be onboard with your idea and the change will never get implemented, and so that is one way of how this change process could be a failure.
The second step is to form a powerful coalition. You need to convince people that you need change. Get powerful leaders on board who you know you can trust and will drive your ideas and are passionate about the change that you want to implement. Find key people within the organization who you know can help make the change happen. You also need to find people who are committed, because people who are not committed will not feel obligated to help make the change happen and can ultimately slow you down. Also, it is important to allow for weaknesses.
It is good to have a different mix and types of people within your coalition. For example, you do not want all top managers within your group and you also do not only want the opinions of everyday workers. You want to make sure that you involve everyone that is going to be directly affected in the change. For this thing said, you need a group of powerful people, of people that have the power to implement the change. You also need people with the expertise within the organization and people who are ultimately credible and who you can rely on. The coalition needs to be formed on trust and people that share the same objectives as you do.
The third step is to create a vision. Link ideas together from different people within your coalition to form one powerful and clear vision. A clear vision helps to get people an understanding of what you are trying to change and why. So, how do you create this vision? Well, first you need to find the common ground of value. What does your coalition agree on? What do they disagree on? And you need to come to term. Make sure that your vision is very clear. Your vision must also be imaginable, it has to be easy to picture and you should be able to pick the exact change that you want to see happen. Also, it must appeal to everyone. In order to make change successful, everyone must be on board and not reluctant. It must also be feasible. The overall change must be realistic and your goals must be attainable. And lastly, it must be communicable. Other people must be able to understand your vision, and it must be able to clearly communicate it to others about why it is important that you need change.
The fourth step is to communicate the vision. You want to make sure that you communicate your vision frequently and powerfully and passionately. No matter where you go, you should be talking about where this change can fit in and how it is going to affect the organization. You are also going to want to demonstrate the kind of behavior that you want to see. Setting a good example and proving why people should want to allow for this change to happen will help clearly communicate revision. If people see that it is for the better then they will likely to follow and be open to the change as well. So, how are you going to communicate the vision? Well, when you talk about your vision, use very simple words. You can also use metaphors and examples. The fewer the words, the better.
Next, you are going to want to address the concerns of the people and be invitational. You want to make sure that you are able to have a two-way conversation between another person. If they have any questions, you want to make sure that you are eagerly able to address them.
Next, you are going to want to apply the vision to everything. Every opportunity that you get allow for the change to be brought in and apply and demonstrate this action and the response that you would like to see.
And lastly, your vision should be repeatable. You want your vision to be able to repeated from word of mouth around the company, and you want it to be short and easy for people to remember and understand.
The fifth step is to empower people to clear obstacles. First, you must ask yourself what obstacles are in the way of this change? Is there anyone that is resisting the change? Resistance to change will slow you down, and if not, will ultimately stop the overall change process. It is important that these obstacles are removed and not left unaddressed. By removing obstacles, you are empowering the people to execute provision that you see and with this, change can move forward and not become slowed down or stagnant.
So, how do you empower people to clear obstacles? First, you identify leaders that you would like and then you hire them. Make them a part of your committee. Make them a part of your coalition. Next, make sure that the organization structure, job descriptions and performance are in line with the vision that you have created. Next, identify people who resist the change and help them see why the change is important. You can give them specific examples of when this change had helped the company. And then lastly, you need to realign incentives. Let people know that the change is good. By providing incentives, people will see the benefits of the change. They will be more willing to implement it.
The sixth step is to secure short-term win. Create short-term targets that are achievable. Do not make your change one long process. It is difficult to measure how long your change is producing without having small steps implemented on the way to help achieve your overall goal and vision. Wins increase the morale of the company and increased overall approval of change that is being implemented.
Now, how do you stick for your win? Short-term win specifically. Well, you are going to look for sure projects that can be implemented without any strong critics for change. This way, people will be more open to the idea of the change. Also, by implementing changes without any strong critic, you are less likely to have any opposition towards any of the processes that are going to be going through.
Next, analyze the pros and cons of the target. After the short-term goal is achieved, see what went right and what needs improvement for the change process. Did the process to go smoothly? And finally, it is important to reward the people who are creating these short-term win. This will help boost overall morale and increase the sense of optimism and urgency for the change.
The seventh step is to build on change. Always look for key areas to improve. There is never going to be a time when implementing change is going to go perfectly smoothly. Receive feedback from others and incorporate the input into the change process. Next, do not let up. Always try to incorporate your change in everything you do. Letting up before the change fully occur causes momentum to slow down and it could possibly cause the change to fail.
Next, you are going to want to drive new behavior into the culture. Make the change become evident part in everyone’s everyday life. And once it becomes a process that people accept, people will become more comfortable with adapting to the change. Next, set goals to build on the momentum. It is important that the goals are short-term again and that they are attainable. Lastly, keep ideas fresh. This can be done by adding new leaders and taking advice from everyone in your group or coalition.
The eighth and final step is to anchor the change. You want to make sure that the change sticks and that is how you know that it is a success, the change that you implemented. Make it a part of the everyday culture of the organization. Make sure that company leaders support the change. Without their support, it is going to be difficult to keep the change since these leaders drive what happens in the company.
So now, how to anchor the change? Well, first talk about the progress. Give specific examples of success stories and why the result was beneficial. Next, you are going to want to include change values when hiring new staff. Make sure that the new staff that you are hiring has the same vision that you have for your company. Next, create plans to replace key leaders when they move on. Once your key leaders leave, you want to make sure that you have a good plan for replacing them so that the momentum and drive for the change is not lost. Next, you want to make sure that your success is visible. It takes a majority of an organization to embrace the new culture, so it is important that the benefits of the change are very, very visible. And lastly, you would like to reinforce new norms with incentives and rewards.
Now, by following all these steps, implementing change within in an organization will be a lot smoother and more successful.
REFERENCES
· Catherine Tape:
Kotter’s 8 Step Organizational Change Model
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