Change Management - Royal Roads University



Change ManagementIdentifying with some of the approaches described by author Elaine Biech in her book, Thriving Through Change: A Leaders Practical Guide to Change Mastery, I will compare change management approaches taken by FWCU and CCS. First West Credit UnionCoast Capital SavingsChange TheoriesThe believe of Systems theory?existed because FWCU was a complex organization with several dimensions from banking, insurance, investment and lending, front office and back office departments and roles, along with several layers in organizational hierarchy and members/clients and board members. The organization was exerting pressure and pushing its boundaries through the merger with other credit unions. As a complex system, systems theory?recognizes that “a change in any part of the system creates change throughout the system. If one part of the system changes, other parts must change to accommodate this new system” (chapter 3). This was evident as learning and development was one of many departments impacted and called to action to support this new change. The theory also suggests external factors play a role and for FWCU it was the demands of members needs in banking, partner / vendor relationships, the rise of crypto currency, non-traditional banking structures, regulations that forced the organization to grow through acquisition and remain competitive and innovative to compete with these external threats. Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria coined what drives change initiatives around organizational capabilities as Theory O (Biech, 2007), which FWCU adapted for the LMS implementation. There was a focus on ensuring the LMS can support employee development and growth, as well as a sustainable and robust enough solution to help us invest in our people to help them do their jobs better. There was lower emphasis on time and budget, rather what is the best solution for the organization and we will have a business case to support the budget necessary. There were opportunities in this case to complete a Request for Proposal (RFP) and short list and initiate vendor demo’s which involved several stakeholders from the business alongside L&D.Identical to FWCU the believe of Systems theory?existed because CCS was a complex organization with several dimensions from banking, insurance, investment and lending, front office and back office departments and roles, along with several layers in organizational hierarchy and members/clients and board members. The organization was exerting pressure and pushing its boundaries through the merger with other credit unions. As a complex system, systems theory?recognizes that “a change in any part of the system creates change throughout the system. If one part of the system changes, other parts must change to accommodate this new system” (chapter 3). This was evident as learning and development was one of many departments impacted and called to action to support this new change. The theory also suggests external factors play a role and for CCS it was the demands of members needs in banking, partner / vendor relationships, the rise of crypto currency, non-traditional banking structures that forced the organization to grow through acquisition and remain competitive and innovative to compete with these external threats. Michael Beer and Nitin Nohria coined what drives change initiatives around economic value as Theory E (Biech 2007), which CCS adapted for the LMS implementation. As senior leadership deliverables were focused on time & money clearly suggested to implement this new change of an LMS quickly, with minimal resources, within very short timelines and an inexpensive solution to ensure cost containment and minimal budget expenditure. There were no opportunities to suggest the RFP process or large demos for collaborative discussion and feedback.Change StrategiesA Facilitative Approach for change was taken by FWCU as there was a co-dependency, shared ownership and responsibility and involvement by several key stakeholders to support this change of a new LMS. Everyone on the project team, super users and change champions, which consisted of change sponsors, change leaders and change agents were involved and contributed to the success.An Informational Approach for change was taken by CCS as much of the responsibility had solely lied with the L&D Manager and team. There were minimal opportunities to engage many parties outside isolated project team of members primarily all within L&D. There were very low opportunities to engage end users in user experience and testing and even leaders and super users as change champions. Most of the expectations from end to end launch of the LMS fell on the laps of L&D, which was delivered primarily through education and knowledge transfer by our department to the audience.Change Techniques & Approaches Appreciative Inquiry & Understanding Organizational Culture comes closest to what FWCU demonstrated as the techniques and approaches while implementing its new LMS. It was approached and seen as a hugely positive change, by implementing an LMS it would enable learners to have access to learning any time and any where. It was supporting the demands of the audience and what was being said by staff. Through lots of collaboration and perspectives were shared around what do they want to see and what are the possibilities. As suggested there was a 4-D Model; discovery dream, design and destiny (Biech, 2007). At FWCU there was a greater emphasis in alignment with culture and organizational philosophy which is suggested by Al-Haddad & Koutnor (2015) as key success factor in change initiatives. What surfaced quickly was this culture amongst all four around learning, growth and development and an appreciation of investing in employees and their careers within the company, which worked to our advantage as the LMS would only elevate and further support that.Problem Solving, perhaps glimpses of Appreciative Inquiry comes closest to what CCS demonstrated as a technique and approach while implementing its new LMS. The focus was primarily on the learning problem of not having some sort of technology that can help support learning in its new environment. The problem was analyzed within set limitations to output viable solutions and then develop a plan to implement. The focus revolved some around fact finding and then actioning on what was discovered. It looks at a desired state in this case implement an LMS quickly and at low cost was the focus and primarily fixated on an easy solution to implement, in a short frame and at a low cost. Change Models & FrameworksAt FWCU the Prosci ADKAR Model was used. It has some similarities to the CHANGE Model. The ADKAR model goes through five successful parts of change. It starts with how to effectively build awareness for change, then how to positively influence an individuals desire to embrace and accept change, to effectively build knowledge and train individuals, to help and support ability to implement a change and finally focusses on reinforcement and sustainment of change. I did find there was some correlation with CHANGE Model in steps 3 which was to activate commitment with awareness, step 5 guide implementation with build knowledge and train and step 6 evaluate and institutionalize the change with reinforcement and sustainment of change.There was no change model to guide the implementation of the learning management system at CCS. The only two aspects of ADKAR that was used at a very small scale and just bolted on was awareness through communication towards the implementation phase and some training guides and materials as resources, alongside L&D team members going out to branches to train end users. Change CurveReferencing the Kubler-Ross Change Curve FWCU did a great job in recognizing where employees were throughout the upcoming change of integrating a new LMS. There were employee pulse checks and readiness surveys, along with super users who would share with us what their peers were feeling, and change champions reporting back any potential issues or gaps they were hearing or seeing. The natural cycle of how people go through change enabled FWCU to come up with some key strategies to reduce the time one would spend in those lower dips and ensure we got people out of ‘despair’ quickly. This were done through much of what was suggested in the ADKAR model; ensuring alignment, maximizing communication, sparking engagement & motivation, developing their knowledge and capabilities and sharing knowledge consistentlyAs CCS lacked a change management plan and change model or framework, individuals were in the dip of frustration and depression within the Kubler-Ross Change Curve much longer in duration and lacking any strategies to get them out of the valley of despair, it was very difficult to get them to adopt the change of a new LMS.Leadership Style“Exemplary leadership is modelling the way, inspiring a shared vision, challenging the process, enabling others to act, and encourage the heart” (Kouzes and Posner as cited by Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015, p. 239). First West Credit UnionCoast Capital SavingsOne of the exciting and things that happened in parallel to the LMS implementation at FWCU was the review and enhancement of core, leadership and functional competencies. In the infographic you would have noticed the current / old state of leadership competencies and in 2011 the implementation of the new leadership competencies was launched, which created a consistent behavior which helped leaders with the skills and knowledge through training to support them with Change Management, which was one of the new formed competencies. Biech’s (2007) change model talks about the need to harmonize and align leadership and Weiner (2009) also describes how leaders need to communicate and act consistently in support of a change. As part of the good change management practices, FWCU leaders participated and engaged in the full process provided them the necessary skills, resources and time to be effective leaders in time of change and large-scale implementation (Weiner, 2009). Most of FWCU leadership resembled and had similarities described in an Adaptive Leadership style. Many leaders were part of the solution and identified barriers and opportunities for success. They helped tackle a complex and critical system implementation that impacted the whole organization (Khan, 2017), especially when the LMS would change the way learning looked and how they can support the future of more on demand, virtual and self-directed learning.There was a level of resilience demonstrated by leaders showed up in their persistence and ability to absorb the change, along with their ability to support staff through developing engagement, empowerment and encouragement (Weller, 2013).Due to the lack of collaboration and involvement of leaders within the implementation of the LMS at CCS, many leaders led with the style of Transactional Leadership. Whatever was communicated and implemented was expected to be adopted by the audience. Leaders were handcuffed and expected to just get their employees to start using the new LMS once it was launched. Reports were provided to leaders to suggest who has logged in and not logged in as first-time users and completed their first introduction module on ‘how to navigate and use the new LMS’. For those that didn’t within the timelines set would not be rewarded and would perhaps be punished (Khan, 2017). Due to the lack of involvement, minimal communication and low awareness leaders didn’t know what to expect and just needed to execute and just deal with what came at them and their staff, it was reactive in nature and very ‘transactional.’Poor communication and understanding, lack of organizational priorities and strategies, with unclear direction and purpose driven change caused resistance and amongst leaders at CCS in supporting the LMS implementation (Biech, 2007).At CCS there was more resistance demonstrated by leaders, showing up through the lack of follow up with staff on progress on training using the new LMS to support and provide reinforcement, which resulted in a longer time in depression on the Kubler-Ross Change Curve. Resistance tends to show up when emotional impact of loss is greater than the gain, making the leaders naturally risk-adverse (Weller, 2013). ................
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