- People with diverse talents, personalities, and backgrounds who are able to exchange their ideas freely set the tone for change.
- Recognition that there's not just one correct way of doing things and being appreciated makes you want to be more creative and willing to offer your ideas.
- Good leadership knows how to uncover employees’ diversity of talents and gives them an outlet and opportunities to demonstrate this. Helping them to use their strengths will lead to a more innovative environment.
- Explain three business reasons for change and three examples of the implications of change for organisations, teams and individuals.
Change is an important element of life and therefore an important part of any business. Imagine what would happen if a business stayed exactly the same from the moment it was established. Some changes can be very small and others very large but they all happen for a reason.
- Without change your internal/external customers will not stay satisfied with the service/s they receive
- The company will not be able to meet its targets/objectives
- For some companies there will no longer be the need for the business to exist.
- A change to a service or product offered by the company could mean that related procedures need to be reviewed to ensure they are still correct.
- Some people adapt to change very well and others don’t. Whereas some people thrive on the challenge of something new, others may worry about it and can become very negative.
- Responding negatively to a change will influence those around you creating a difficult environment to work in. A positive approach encourages a good working environment and good teamwork.
- Explain the purpose of planning change and why effective communication is so important to the organisation and the individual when planning change.
If team members feel valued and well supported during a change, they are more likely to adapt quickly and be more open to accept what needs to be done.
Good communication can really help people accept a change more quickly. The person implementing a change will hopefully give everyone plenty of warning and also get everyone involved as a team to help make decisions.
Training and time are also important support measures that people will need to adapt during a change. Not everyone will be able to change overnight they may take time to learn how to complete something new and also need training to be able to do it.
- Describe three types of problem that occur when making changes and state ways of dealing with each of them.
The initial reaction can sometimes be shock this will automatically reduce an individual’s performance as they will fear the unknown. Shock normally lasts briefly and then individuals move into denial.
Denial is when the individual will stay focused in the past and the ‘way things used to be done’. The fear of the ‘new way’ may cause the individual to continue to complete their tasks the ‘old way’.
Once the initial feelings have been dealt with denial slowly turns to anger. The individual will look for someone to blame for the change. The individual maybe stuck between denial and anger at the same time, they will become sceptical and criticise the change.
Working with others really helps to keep a positive outlook on the change. Working together means you can help each other when something may become more challenging. People often adapt to change better if there is good communication. You may find that you will be able to help support your colleagues if they are finding something challenging and vice versa. Try to identify if you think your colleague is ‘stuck’ in one of the stages and needs help ‘getting out’.
It is important to remember that to support and work with colleagues effectively you will need to keep a positive outlook. Moaning and continual criticism of what you are doing and why will not support others and means that you are stuck in a stage of anger. Instead of complaining think about how you can get yourself to accept and embrace change.
- Explain the purpose of reviewing and evaluating change after it has taken place.
When implementing changes it is essential that an evaluation is made of the impact they have had. Evaluating what has been done, and learning from the evaluation is a vital part of any change process. It is important that the evaluation is objective and conducted with rigour using an agreed framework. An external evaluation or challenge process may be helpful in determining if the changes that have taken place have been effective and the objectives achieved.
