Health Angels – HC2’s team blog post in favour of how top-performing companies manage change, by making staff engagement a priority.
Change is inevitable. In today’s fast-paced world change takes place on an ongoing basis. In order to handle challenges and competitions with opposing companies, one must understand the importance of change. It is easy for leaders or managers to implement change, come up with new ideas but the success depends on how well the change is carried through within the company. Change is well managed when there is open communication, guidance, and support provided by the management team. “When you look at what the best companies do to prepare for and manage change, you can clearly see that success hinges more on common sense and leader behaviour than on a change management structure or processes”(Lepsinger, 2010). How the management team facilitate and coach employees throughout the change process is crucial. If employees are not supported throughout the change process, they may start to resent the employer. “Make sure you are keeping your employees involved. This will strengthen the relationship, build buy-in, encourage reactions and identify barriers” (Newell, 2018).
Before the change process begins, it is important to understand the emotions and fears of employees. Some employees may be resistant to change. Companies must keep up with the growing technologies but sometimes there are employees who may not accept technological changes because they may not have the background knowledge. When Fraser Health initiated Paris (paperless documentation and assessments) many employees opposed to it because they did not want to use the computers and rather had continued to use paper. It may be worth a while for the management team to share the video “Who moved my cheese”. This will help employees understand the importance of change. As Lepsinger 2010 addresses employees may be inflexible because they want to maintain the status quo. Top companies maintain an open and honest communication with employees to ease the process of change.
As mentioned in Lepsinger (2010), “you change an organization one person at a time”. A well-managed change initiative not only involves structure and plan to be in place, but also to make staff engagement a priority. Lepsinger (2010) provides three additional insights into how top-performing companies manage change which the Health Angels HC2 team is in favour of. These three points are outlined in the following.
“Stay focused during the first 3 months…success depends on it”
First three months after implementing any change are equally crucial for the employees as are for the employer. Change can be implemented successfully only when a company can survive the change for the first three months (Lepsinger, 2010). At the initial stages, many people in the organization are still resistant to change. They lack trust which inhibits change (p.116). As a leader, one must stay empathetic and consistent to pull everyone together. In this process, the involvement of middle-level managers is crucial as success depends on their contribution (p. 102). Moreover, adopting a democratic style of leadership (Remple, 2010) will allow every employee to participate and make them feel involved, they must realize that they are a part of something significant and that is where their performances and contribution will improve (Maslow, Stephens, Heil, & Bennis, 1998). However, constant motivation and encouragement will keep the employees on track. This can be done through daily reminders in the form of mail or a short text message.
“Don’t just focus on senior leaders….involved middle managers and keep them engaged”
When an organization is planning to implement a new initiative or project, the senior leadership would go through countless hours of planning and strategize in order to make the necessary preparations for the change. Yet, during the stages of such planning and executing the plan, the senior leadership often neglect to engage other staff members for their input. As suggested by Hughes et al. (2014), strategic thinking ss a collective process and organizations need to engage diverse perspectives and viewpoints (pg. 54). In addition, we also know certain individuals have greater opportunities and responsibility to affect their organization than others (Hughes et al., 2014, pg. 3). Some of these individuals include middle managers and leaders within the organization. As mentioned by Lepsinger (2010), “it’s usually the middle managers who do the heavy lifting and drive day-to-day execution”. Without the engagement of the middle managers and leaders, the change initiative is doomed to fail.
As an example, Vancouver Coastal Health (VCH) is currently in the process of a change initiative in the effort to increase staff engagement. The CEO of VCH, as well as many of the senior executives, have been front and centre in terms of supporting and driving this new initiative and many communications sent out to staff with regards to this change. While the goal of this change initiative is much needed as voiced by many people, there seems to be a disconnect and confusion in messaging. Many department managers and leaders have not mentioned or engaged frontline staff regarding the initiative even though the messaging from senior leadership is continually being sent out. It appears the senior leadership is neglecting to engage middle managers and leaders and the result of this is confusion in communications and staff being uncertain as to how what to believe. Direct managers and supervisors have an effect on staff that is different compared to senior leadership. Employees tend to be more engaged in their work when their supervisors are supportive and concerned about their welfare and interests (Chughtai, A. A., & Buckley, F., 2008). The result of a direct supervisor or manager engagement could promote staff learning, growth and development. The consequence of such an encouraging and productive work environment can play a pivotal role in breeding work engagement (Chughtai & Buckley, 2008). When middle managers, or in this scenario department managers, are on board and part of the process, they can help drive change and increase the likelihood of success. Alternatively, when these leaders are not engaged, they can be change-delaying bottlenecks (Lepsinger, 2010).
“Take aggressive action to avoid the commitment dip”
Even if the team leader manages to get everybody on board with the idea of change, it is difficult to keep the momentum going. A leader must be dynamical and constantly make efforts to maintain the spirits of the employees which is usually high in the beginning. Therefore, an aggressive action needs to be taken to avoid the commitment dip (Lepsinger, 2010, p.103). It reminds me of a funny quote by American author Zig Zigler- “People often say motivation doesn’t last. Well, neither does bathing- that’s why we recommend it daily.” As these situations are rapidly changing, in no time the team members can lose their interest in the freshly developed ideas and would want to go back to routine, it is, therefore, important for the leader to take instant actions to prevent this plunge. The leader should be swift and strategic in responding to the rapidly changing situations (Hughes, 2014, p. 237). There are no shortcuts to transformation; it requires consistent efforts to bring the change. The Cultural Change Principal states that it is important to be proficient in managing the process of change (Fullan, 2002, p.3). The process of change does require holding the members accountable and help them sustain their enthusiasm. Constantly reminding the members of the change that the organization wants and their role in achieving the same helps them stay connected to the transformation and prevent the commitment dip.
References:
Charece Newell, MSILR, sHRBP, CCLC, CRC. (2018, July 20). Change As An Opportunity: A Strategic Approach To Change Management. Retrieved November 6, 2018 from https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbeshumanresourcescouncil/2018/07/20/change-as-an-opportunity-a-strategic-approach-to-change-management/#e1ff0e122412
Chughtai, A. A., & Buckley, F. (2008). Work Engagement and its Relationship with State and Trait Trust: A Conceptual Analysis. Journal of Behavioral & Applied Management, 10(1), 47–71. Retrieved November 6, 2018 from https://ezproxy.student.twu.ca/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=a9h&AN=35749073&site=eds-live
Fullan, M., (2002). The Change. Retrieved November 6, 2018 from
http://www.ghaea.org/files/IowaCoreCurriculum/Module1/Mod1-FullanChangeLeaderArticle.pdf
Gerardo, L. (2013, November 05). Who moved my cheese Full Movie. Retrieved November 6, 2018, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2QmeWe2KoDs
Hughes, R., Beatty, K. & Dinwoodie, D. (2014). Becoming a strategic leader: your role in your organization’s enduring success. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Lepsinger, R. (2010). Closing the execution gap: How great leaders and their companies get results. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.
Maslow, A. H., Stephens, D. C., Heil, G., & Bennis, W. (1998). Maslow on management. New York: John Wiley. Retrieved from http://altfeldinc.com/pdfs/maslow.pdf
Remple, S. (2010). Transformational Servant Leaders: TWU’S Master of Arts in Leadership Program. Leadership Monograph 2017. Retrieved from https://learn.twu.ca/pluginfile.php/75991/mod_resource/content/1/MA_Leadership_Monogra ph_approved.pdf