Introduction
Change in any organization is inevitable and every organization always anticipates change which is always expected to an organization at any given time. To most organizations, the worrying question is how the organization, particularly the employees, to whom the implementation of the organizations objectives is always pegged, will react to the change. As one of the strategies to ensuring that an organization reacts well with change, organizations always have change management teams served with the responsibility of ensuring that an organization is not adversely affected by any form of change. These teams, with regards to the pivotal role that they play of ensuring that an organization remains agile and able to adjust to any form change within the shortest time possible, have to be made up of people known to be high performers with indubitable leadership skills and to any member (as affirmed by several researchers who have carried out studies on change management and consulting) members of such a team have to be better placed to apply consulting or change leadership capabilities to develop the team making it able to cushion the organization against any unprecedented negative effect as a result of any change. This report aims at presenting my experiences while working with a team of fellow students taking up the role of a change management team of an organization.
Consulting
In its basic form, consulting implies the act of seeking advice from a specialist regarding a matter. Business organizations always seek the help of consultants whenever they feel that there is need for such a service. Kubr (2002) asserts that consultation should only be done after an organization, with the help of the concerned individuals, has adequately defined the problem and why it should be sought. In most organizations such a responsibility rest with the change management committee.
Change Management Models
There are several change management models in existence. One famous of these is the Kotter's 8-Step Change Model which is he developed under the general notion that change is perhaps the only constant in business. According to Kotter, the first step in change management is the creation of an urgency in which a change is only sought by an organization only when it is very necessary (Sabri, Gupta, & Beitler, 2007). In most cases, Successful changes for an organization have to be back by more than two thirds of an organization’s management and on his part, Kotter emphasizes the need to have a majority of an organization’s management back any intended change. The second step in Kotters model is the creation of a guiding coalition drawing its support for important people in an organization besides being steered by people of exemplary leadership skills (Sabri, Gupta, & Beitler, 2007). The chosen leaders to spearhead the change have to be determined team players with proven commitment to help the organization make the defined changes. This step is then followed by the creation of a vision for change. Creating a vision for change can be viewed as one of the best strategies of getting people to see how the change might affect the organization, in most case positively. The fourth and fifth steps in Kotter’s model are communication of the change vision and getting the employees ready for action respectively Sabri, Gupta, & Beitler, 2007). This is then followed by creating short-term wins whereby the organization feels some positive effects of the change within a short period following the start of the change initiative. Kotter’s this point warns that people should not be overwhelmed by the short wins as many change initiatives usually end up not finished because people have declared early wins and are celebrating something that is still yet to be concluded Sabri, Gupta, & Beitler, 2007). And before that new change is incorporated into the organizations culture (eighth step), there is need to consolidate the few gains and used them to effect new changes (seventh step) (Sabri, Gupta, & Beitler, 2007).
Team Vision
It is normal for people to have varying visions and this was no exception in our team. Initially everyone has his own vision even though we managed to develop a common vision that applied to all of us. Using the diagnostic tools, we were able to measure our performance during the team work activity besides using the tools to decide the agenda of our meetings.
The team envisioned that the project will enable the members of the team have a sound understanding of the change management process besides preparing them for a successful performances in a high performing change management team. Additionally, the team members were categorical that the project was to go a long way in helping the members better their team performance and dedication. While coming up with the team vision, the members underscored the fact that a vision is overly important in uniting team members around a given task besides having proven ability to enhance emotional commitment (Cotterill, 2012). As the author further asserts, a vision, (a term that is most commonly used interchangeably with other terms like objectives and missions in what can be termed as a confusions in the meaning of the word) “involves perceptions of ability, personal characteristics, values, and motivations of the team’s members” (Cotterill, 2012, p. 9). In its basic form, a vision implies what change one expects after a given period of time.
Team Vision: To learn the basics of change management as well as improve our team performance. With these skills we can indubitably become important figures in our respective organizations during the time of change.
The following objectives were identified
Team Contract
For any team to succeed there is always a crucial need for the team members to indentify some of the best practices that can guarantee the team success. One of the widely acknowledged attribute that can guarantee a team success is unity. The importance of unity in a team cannot be understated considering that a team in most cases is composed of different people trying to work together for a common goal. On his part, Robbins (2009) while emphasizing the importance of having objectives in any given team work, stresses that the success of any team is determined by the availability of measurable objectives to act as blueprints for the teams activities. Robbins (2009) further affirms that there is need for team members to have confidence in themselves in addition to having laid down procedures for handling any conflict that might arise considering that conflicts in any team responsibility might not been bad. It is also important to have members in a team whose individual contribution in the team can be easily pinpointed with in mind that teams are in most cases infiltrated with people who hide in the team just because their efforts while alone are not worthwhile (Robbins, 2009). Additionally, our team was also governed by governing principles such as punctuality while attending the weekly meetings, being future oriented (especially with regard to next meetings), focus and active involvement of every member, clarification and recording everything that happened during the weekly meetings.
Team Diagnosis
We used a survey composing of 5 areas (innovation, team work, communication, commitment, and hard working) to gather qualitative data that was to be used to foster dialog and communication among the team members. Even though this diagnostic tool proved to be utilitarian with regard to the success of the team activities, there are some team members who found it a little bit too involving when done in between the meeting alongside other agendas of the meeting. Others also expressed concern that the activity was time consuming hence the team should look of a way of using it but during an agreed period different from the meeting time.
Knowledge Area
I was interested in hard work assessment. The hard work questions were essential in collecting information about performance development. For instance, question two asked the respondents to give an account of how they thought their pieces of advice was going to strengthen the team and also enable the team achieve its goals. Ideally, when it comes to hard work, organization and proper planning is overly pertinent. One needs to have a proper work schedule to ensure that all the tasks that require attention are attended to besides ensuring that the tasks are handled to acceptable standards. Notably, the questions ought to be designed in a a way that the members of the team are able to assess the progress with time; this assertion underscores the fact this such an adjustment might overburden the survey although it should also be noted that such an adjustment is of pertinence. .
Intervention Design
There are several types of interventions (sets of structured activities in which selected organisational units (target groups or individuals) engage in a task or a sequence of tasks where the task goals are related directly or indirectly to organisational or team improvement (French & Bell, 1999, p.156), inclusive of agenda managing intervention, goal setting intervention and process intervention, among others. To me, coaching was more appropriate hence I took up the role of offering guidance to the teammates. During the coaching session, I asked the members to rate their efforts on a scale of one to five. On more than one occasion, I asked the members to tell the other members what they think of doing in light of the achievement of the team’s objectives. I also asked them to state how they plan to achieve their endeavors. This was done with the help of questions.
Intervention implementation
This was dependent on factors such as time, integrity of the respondents, my percept (about the respondents), what they thought about me and also our levels of motivation.
Intervention Evaluation
I asked each of the team members to give my qualitative feedback so I can have more information. In general feedback was encouraging and enthusiastic with the coaching way of dealing with hard working issue. This was surprising to have such feedback from 30 minutes exercise. They said that the coaching made them go into self-reflection process and self-awareness for more improvement. However, there were some negative feedbacks about the coaching activity. For instance, one of the members complained of the low amount of time provided to complete this exercise. It seems that coaching needed to have more time to do more accurately. Other members also asserted that they might need more space for them to ponder about the questions before giving their responses. Additionally, one of the members advised to use brain storming as adjunct method to foster the outcomes of such meeting. The coaching session lasted for thirty minutes that also included a session during which the members were given time to provide answers to the questions.
Reflection
Change Leadership
There are three types of leadership styles; democratic, autocratic, and laissez-faire. From the result of a questionnaire administered to our group with the aim of determining the type of leadership style that existed in the group, it was apparent that the team was under a democratic type of leadership. Individuals in the team were given roles that matched their skills and abilities. The leader of the group was chosen democratically and unanimously. Ideally, much of the team’s activities were as a result of the members forwarding various ideas on what should be done.
Leadership is a trait that is innate (Liguori, 2014) even though there are instances when a person not born with leadership qualities can become a good leader if presented with suitable leadership experiences (Gill, 2006). Unlike management which is in most cases concerned with taking care of a complexity, leadership involves coping with change (Kotter International, 2012) hence the notion that a leadership trait obtained as a result of experience is always upheld by many researchers. With such experiences, one can further learn about leadership through being in readership of the various resources on leadership.
Conclusion
Concisely, change is perchance among the important undertakings that an organization will have to consider once in a while. In other instances, the need for change might be inevitable for and organization. Implementation of any change strategy needs to be carryout out be skilled people. In most cases such people are picked from an organizations workforce who needs to come up with a vision as well as sound and measurable objectives in addition to picking the best intervention strategy that works well with the selected team. It should be noted that every other effort to succeed in anything that one is doing should be coupled with determination and hard work. And in any team, there is always a huge need for a proper type of leadership.
Reference List
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Cotterill, S. (2012). Team Psychology in Sports Theory and Practice. Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, Routledge.
Duke Corporate Education. (2005). Building effective teams. Chicago, Dearborn Trade Pub.
Dunphy, D. C., & Bryant, B. (1996). Teams: Panaceas Or Prescriptions For Improved Performance? Human Relations, 49(5), 677.
Gill, R. (2006). Theory and practice of leadership. London, SAGE Publications.
Kotter International - Change Leadership. (2012). Kotter International - Innovative Strategy Implementation Professionals. Retrieved May 5, 2013, from http://www.kotterinternational.com/our-principles/change-leadership
Kubr, M. (2002). Management Consulting: A Guide to the Profession. Geneva, International Labour Office.
Liguori, G. (2014). ACSM's resources for the health fitness specialist. Philadelphia, Wolters Kluwer Health/Lippincott Williams & Wilkins.
Robbins, S. P. (2009). Organisational Behaviour: Global and Southern African Perspectives. Cape Town, Pearson Education South Africa.
Sabri, E. H., Gupta, A. P., & Beitler, M. A. (2007). Purchase Order Management Best Practices: Process, Technology, And Change Management. Ft. Lauderdale, FL, J. Ross Pub.
