OL 663 Final Project Guidelines and Rubric Overview
To be an effective leader, one must be able to lead change efforts in a way that is collaborative and demonstrates the culture of the organization. At some point, all leaders will be tasked with either leading an organizational change effort or being part of upper-level team planning and implementation of an organizational change effort. Your final project in this course is the development of a change plan based on a case study. Your plan will utilize Kotter’s change implementation plan components for an organization. Kotter’s plan will take you through steps that demonstrate what should be looked at during each step of a change effort. Changes take time to implement, and it is vital that all aspects of an organization are considered when making these changes. This project addresses the following course outcomes:
Determine the root causes and driving forces for effectively implementing an organizational change effort
Diagnose gap differences between current situations and targeted goals of change efforts for determining the needs of a change effort
Analyze the impact of a change effort for its implications on the roles of employees
Predict areas and causes of resistance within an organization to develop a well-informed, effective change plan
Determine the communication needs in a change effort involving employees for successfully implementing a change effort
Enhance the influence of organizational culture on organizational change efforts Prompt In this project, you will develop a change plan based on a case study with stated objectives to accomplish an intended goal or goals. Once the objectives are established, you will build backward from those goal(s) in order to develop a timeline for completion in a phase-by-phase sequence. This change plan will analyze what is needed for the implementation of a change to be successful and things to look out for along the way. Specifically, the following critical elements must be addressed:
I. Analysis and Diagnosis
A. What is the problem in need of addressing at this point in time? Describe which forces are driving the change effort. B. How did this problem arise? Determine how this problem is currently impacting the organization. C. Identify the specific organizational needs driving the change. Explain each. D. Identify specific variables, conditions, issues, individuals, and other factors that will impact the change effort negatively. Describe how these should be handled prior to planning the change effort. E. What are the underlying causes of the problem? How should these be addressed? F. Identify the gap between what the problem’s current situation is and what the hoped-for targeted outcome will be. Establish what needs to occur to build a process to bridge this gap. II. Developing a Change Plan Using Kotter’s Model for Implementing Organizational Change A. Create Urgency 1. Describe a plan to create urgency within the organization and convince stakeholders that this change needs to take place. 2. What processes currently exist for implementing change? How will these processes need to be updated for the proposed change? 3. Describe the strategy you will use to get support from your employees. How will this strategy be effective? B. Build a Guiding Coalition 1. Identify who should be involved in this guiding coalition. Provide rationale for each choice. Kotter likes 50% leaders and 50% managers with experience, while others prefer the composition to be 33% leaders, 33% managers, and 33% informal leaders, but you can assemble the guiding coalition as you see fit. 2. Determine steps you can take to ensure commitment from those involved. Describe those steps. C. Form a Strategic Vision 1. Determine the values that are essential to this change. Why are these values essential? 2. Establish the vision for this organizational change effort. How will this vision be effective in promoting your change effort? 3. Identify your intended targeted outcomes. Defend your choices. 4. What must occur for the organizational change effort to be considered a success? Defend your response. D. Communicate the Change 1. What is required for the change to be communicated effectively within the organization? Why? 2. Determine actions you will take to encourage two-way communication for effective feedback loops during implementation of the change effort. Explain why these actions will be effective. 3. How will you support the direct supervisors in the organization in their efforts to communicate with employees about the change effort? 4. Describe how you will address any concerns or anxieties regarding this change. 5. Who needs to be involved and in what capacity for this change effort to be a success? E. Enable Action by Removing Barriers 1. Identify the forces, barriers, and hindrances to the organizational change effort, and describe each. 2. How can resistance be recognized? How will you eliminate resistance or mitigate its impact on the implementation of the change plan? 3. Describe actions that will enable and empower employees to help drive the change effort. F. Generate Short-Term Wins 1. Determine how you will generate short-term wins. How will you reward these wins? 2. What can be gained from short-term wins? Defend your response. G. Sustain Acceleration 1. How will you ensure that the momentum driving the change effort continues? H. Institute Change 1. What actions need to occur for this change to become part of the organizational culture? Defend each action. 2. What infrastructure mechanisms need to be in place to maintain and sustain the change into the future? Describe the importance of each. Milestones Milestone One: Kotter’s Steps 1 and 2 In Module Three, you will review the case study “Alaska Airlines: Navigating Change” and then complete the following: (a) State what actually occurred in the case regarding Kotter’s first two steps of establishing a sense of urgency and creating the guiding team in a change effort and (b) reflect on what you think should have been done in the change effort regarding those two steps. State your reflection as recommendations to implement steps 1 and 2. This milestone will help you build Section II parts A and B of your final project. This milestone is graded with the Milestone One Rubric. Milestone Two: Kotter’s Steps 3 and 4 In Module Five, you will review the case study “Alaska Airlines: Navigating Change” and then complete the following: (a) State what actually occurred in the case regarding Kotter’s steps 3 and 4 of developing a vision and strategy and communicating the change vision (two to three paragraphs), and (b) reflect on what you think should have been done in the change effort regarding those two steps. State your reflection as recommendations to implement Kotter’s steps 3 and 4. This milestone will help you build Section II parts C and D for your final project. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Two Rubric. Milestone Three: Kotter’s Steps 5 and 6 In Module Seven, you will review the case study “Alaska Airlines: Navigating Change” and then complete the following: (a) State what actually occurred in the case regarding Kotter’s steps 5 and 6 of empowering employees for broad-based action and generating short-term wins, and (b) reflect on what you think should have been done in the change effort regarding those two steps. State your reflection as recommendations to implement steps 5 and 6. This milestone will help you build Section II parts E and F for your final project. This milestone is graded with the Milestone Three Rubric. Final Submission: Change Plan In Module Nine, you will be submitting your final project, a change plan for the Alaska Airlines case study. Throughout the course, you have had multiple opportunities to work on the elements of this proposal and fine-tune your thinking for the change plan. Your finalized proposal should incorporate feedback you have received from your instructor as well as your peers. This submission is graded with the Final
