10-1 Discussion: Wrap-Up
Andre DeStefano posted May 24, 2022 11:23 AM
The most recent time where I experienced change was during my co-op at Pratt & Whitney. I had been learning my role in the office for about two months when the COVID-19 mandate mean’t that the entire office would be working from home. This happened quite suddenly, and led to a fundamental change for how work was conducted for everyone. Due to the amount of people trying to access the work VPN, internet speed was slow while working from home. One of my main roles comprised of generating daily reports for one of the commercial engines, where I needed to access and run different databases to construct a daily email that was sent to all relevant personnel. This task only took around half-an-hour in the office, but with the slow internet speed this report took around three to four hours while working remotely. Along with this, everybody on my team had their own internet speed issues as well with their own work, meaning that everyone had to learn to adapt quickly. My issues were resolved through consolidating all databases into one, along with setting a computer up in the office that everyone on my team could connect to remotely in order to access the office’s wifi.
After taking this course, I reflected on how the change management skills I’ve learn’t compared to what was done during my time at the co-op. While the change management plan we created for this course was thought out and had time to be refined before rollout, the change in my work was abrupt for everybody. Given the short amount of time we had, I believe that we were able to adapt well. From taking this course, I see now that my manager at the time had change management skills that we’ve learned. My manager was very transparent on what he knew during the change, and took the time to meet with everyone on the team at least once a week to see if there were any changes that we recommend were made. Given what I know now, I would have recommended a more structured change management plan was created, as everything was pretty impromptu at that point. I feel that if new procedures were introduced sooner, it would have felt less like everyone was running around not knowing what to do.
The most relevant skills I’ve found from this course to relate to my professional life is the role of active listening in change management. I’ve recently been accepted for a leadership role that I will be starting in July, where I’ll be in charge of individuals with many more years of experience than me. I’ve learned from this course that those front-line workers who are most impacted by change management have some of the best insight on what actually needs to be changed and how to go about it (Liebscher, 2021). I will take this into account once I start in that position.
References:
Liebscher, C. (2021, December 20). How frontline employees drive the change management processCarter. InnovationManagement. Retrieved May 21, 2022, from https://innovationmanagement.se/2020/04/09/how-frontline-employees-drive-the-change-management-process/ Direction
When responding to your peers’ posts, consider the following:
How are the change management examples shared by your peers similar or different from your own?
Are there any additional change management skills you would recommend to your peers based on their examples? Support your response by referencing relevant topics from the course.
For your response posts, do the following:
Write 1 to 2 paragraphs
Demonstrate more depth and thought than saying things like “I agree” or “You are wrong.” Guidance is provided for you in the discussion prompt.
Consider content from other parts of the course where appropriate. Use proper citation methods for your discipline when referencing scholarly or popular sources.
