Positive Change Management

Change is a difficult thing to navigate for many people and many organizations, but change is needed to grow. Employees and employers alike need managersto support change and go beyond accepting it to normalize change.

Discuss strategies managers can use for creating positive, organizational change with their teams. How does collaboration influence positive organizational change? Provide an example scenario to illustrate the implementation of one strategy.

1)Any implemented change in an organization must have a good reason and show that it is a good move for the business. An example I can think of that has recently become a topic in my office is the operating hours we have for our office and the customers who try to reach us at certain times. Our office hours are 9-5 and work 8.30-5.30 daily. We have received feedback that 5 pm is a little inconvenient for some of our customers because if they want to come and see us at the end of their workday, they cannot because our office is closed.

My manager brought us into a meeting to discuss and suggested changing our office hours. However, this would mean longer work hours, too, with no overtime. The change discussed would take advantage of 9-5.30 office hours, and we would then work 8.30-6, Monday- Thursday, and make up the more extended hours on the first four days. We would close at 2.30 on Fridays to allow us to leave at 3 p.m. and start our weekends early.

This is still under discussion, but our manager brought our team together to discuss a change that would allow us to help our customers and our team in conducting certain parts of our business.

This is a minor example of a team collaboration in which each person must agree on the possible change and how it can affect our personal lives outside of work and our customer service operations. Keeping open communications with teams and employees is one primary strategy for implementing change. Communication is the number one channel all organizations use to implement change at all levels of wanting to create said change.

2)Changes within an organization, good or bad start with managers. With that, one-way managers can positively influence change is by having a positive attitude. Positivity is infectious, it breeds success, it rubs off on others; these are all great sayings and they’re true.  The other saying that I love is; Praise down, bitch up.  All of these are true for managers and should be used as a starting point for change.  According to Williams (2024) there are three principles for navigating change in an organization. First is having a clear vision and a well-defined plan will enable managers to effectively voice reasons for change in ways their team understands as well as properly answer questions and address concerns. Second would be to involve employees in the changes. Don’t just tell them what is going on but solicit input in areas that they can have direct ownership. In what ways can we do XYZ (Williams, 2024) better/faster/cheaper/safer? Lastly, celebrate accomplishments! Little wins show progress and progress shows understanding of the vision.

Collaboration…this word just screams teamwork, unity, togetherness and these remind me of a few things that made/make my heart smile.  USA for Africa, 1985 and “We Are The World” was a collaboration written by Michael Jackson and Lionel Richie, sung by them, Paul Simon, Stevie Wonder, Kenny Rogers, Tina Turner, Billy Joel, Diana Ross, Dionne Warwick, Ray Charles, Bruce Springsteen and so many more amazing artists. That amazing collaboration raised $75M to combat poverty in Africa. The song was then remade in 2010 by another collaborated group of artists, remade “We Are the World 25 for Haiti” and raised $100M for survivors of an earthquake in Haiti.  (Genius & The_Aards, 2019)

Reference

Genius, & The_Aards. (2019). USA for Africa – We are the world. Genius.

https://genius.com/Usa-for-africa-we-are-the-world…

Williams, C. (2024, May 22). Three Leadership Principles for Navigating Organizational Change. Forbes.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbesbusinesscouncil…