Managing workplace change
It is needless to say that changes are happening in workplace around the world every day. The MIT-based author, researcher, and educator Peter Senge once said “people don’t resist to change, they resist being changed.” This quote suggests one of the most critical and widely-known points in workplace change management that is getting anyone affected by the change informed and involved.
In the article “Managing workplace change: A people-based perspective,” O’Neill (2012) presented a process of five simple steps to ensure any change manageable and successful. Adopting Senge’s idea, O’Neill’s process featured the use of pre-change and post-change surveys in order to measure employees’ attitude with regards to change readiness and receive their feedback for change process improvement. I found that his simple but highly practicable suggestion can render significant effect on the successful implementation of change in the workplace.
O’Neill (2012) asserted that his pre-change survey which asked employees to rate how much they and their team were aware of and comfortable with the incoming change “quickly and inexpensively captures the pulse of the organization.” With the ubiquity of online survey tools, his suggested survey is undoubtedly not only quick and easy to implement but also reasonable in terms of cost.
Most importantly, the survey can help the change manager accomplish one of the most difficult tasks in the change process which is engaging the employees. Responding to the survey, the employees feel that their voices are heard, their opinions are recognized, and their roles are appreciated and crucial to the future success of organization.
When it comes to the change manager, the survey result is no doubt an important and credible reference for the change manager to revise or ameliorate his planning. After the change is entirely complete, it is meaningful to collect employees’ feedback for assessing the change process. O’Neill (2012) suggested that these insights should be well documented, archived, and shared with managers and company leaders as they could provide great practical benefits and valuable lessons for the change projects in the future.
Thanks to simplicity and applicability of O’Neill’s idea, everyone can immediately use survey as a powerful tool to get employees involved in his change project. For example, the Information Media (IM) department at St. Cloud State University initiates the idea of integrating social media to online teaching and learning.
Specifically, social media will be used as a platform to facilitate online discussions (e.g. closed groups on Facebook for asynchronous discussion and Twitter chats for synchronous discussion). Firstly, the chairperson of the IM department will present the overview of the idea as well as the implementation plan in the faculty meeting. Following, a pre-change survey will be sent out to faculty members and administrative staff to examine their readiness for the change and to gather their concerns and feedback. Based on the survey result, the department can adjust the initial plan and also provide sufficient training and assistance for faculty members and staff to get them prepared for the change to come. When the semester ends, the faculty members will need to complete the post-change survey which is designed to collect feedback concerning advantages and disadvantages of using social media for online discussion and what can be improved to streamline the transition process.
Reference:
O’Neill, M. (2012). Managing workplace change: A people-based perspective. Retrieved from https://www.knoll.com/document/1352940440990/WP_ManagingChange.pdf
