“We are living today in a constantly growing global business environment, where change has become the norm for organizations to sustain their success and existence” (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015, p.234).
Credit Union A
The turn of a Millennia in early 2000 three credit unions merged together forming a new corporation. With the merger there was now 1200 employees that spanned over North Shore, Lower Mainland, Fraser Valley and Victoria and a membership size of 180,000 people.
Credit Union B
Spanning between 2010-2014 Credit Union B acquired and merged 4 smaller credit unions into one. One unique difference that set this merger apart from Credit Union A, was the preservation of each entities name and having representation of local senior leadership roles, alongside divisional head offices located in each of the local communities. With the merger there was now 1700 employees that cascaded from the Fraser Valley, Lower Mainland, BC Interior (Kelowna, Okanagan, Princeton), Island (Victoria, Duncan, Nanaimo) and a membership size of 150,000 people.
There were differences amongst the tale of two credit unions such as they occurred a decade apart and further advances in learning technologies had taken place, organizational philosophies (vision, mission, values, culture, & strategic priorities), a centralized team in one location versus a centralized function with decentralized locations. However, even with these differences similar learning issues were encountered. The need for harmonization, optimization, standardization and digitization was essential and if innovation & creation, influence & advocacy, launch & implementation for the necessary changes didn’t take place in the learning space, it would be extremely problematic, ineffective, inefficient and costly for both credit unions.
Change is Coming
The senior leadership teams in both cases proactively anticipated many things would change, disrupt and transform the business and rattle the familiarity once known. With several infrastructure, logistical and learning impacts anticipated, Credit Union B clearly demonstrated their realization the organization needed an integrated approach to drive change and minimize destructive barriers (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015), where Credit Union A didn’t. With the concern gaining momentum, the need to identify new learning solutions was tasked to me as the Learning & Development Manager to find solutions and implement the new changes to remedy the problem.
Digital Learning Environments & Disruption
Through collaboration with teams, departments, key stakeholders, leaders and end users several new learning solutions resulted in addressing many of the problems faced by both entities. A fundamental difference was Credit Union B realized the change and implementation of a new LMS was connected and would affect the whole organization (Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015) where Credit Union A seen it in isolation of just a change within L&D. Through coordinating efforts across many individuals and groups and promoting organizational change in learning helped identify collective capabilities, as well a gage on readiness based on organizational culture, risk adversity, and flexibility and adaptability (Weiner, 2009). These findings equally helped strengthen the case for L&D to advocate for rising concerns with changes in the learning space and expectations from learners such as real-time and on demand training, flipped classrooms and short, bite size learning’s. In the absence of learning technologies this was next to impossible to satisfy and now with the organizations dependency on learning for the success of the merger, it finally gave us the inroads to draw attention to the changes necessary in the learning space.
In both cases very similar learning solutions and priorities emerged to support the merger and strategic priorities to harmonize, optimize, standardize and digitize in the space of learning. The top priority and solution for both credit unions was to implement a new Learning Management System (LMS). Through the comparison chart and info graphic, you’ll see the key aspects, methods and descriptions of change management and leadership style that supported the successful implementation of a new LMS at Credit Union B and the not so successful implementation of a new LMS at Credit Union A.
Table for Change Management and Leadership Style
Change Management Info-graphic
References
Al-Haddad, S., & Kotnour, T. (2015). Integrating the organizational change literature: a model for successful change. Journal of Organizational Change Management, 28(2), 234-262.
Biech, E. (2007). Models for Change. In Thriving through change: A leader’s practical guide to change mastery. Alexandria, VA: ASTD [Books24x7 database]
Hiatt, J., & Creasey, T. (2003). Change Management: The People Side of Change. First edition (Proci Research). Colorado: Loveland.
Weller, M., & Anderson, T. (2013). Digital resilience in higher education. European Journal of Open, Distance and E-Learning 16(1), 53-66.
Khan, N. (2017). Adaptive or Transactional Leadership in Current Higher Education: A Brief Comparison. The International Review of Research in Open and Distributed Learning, 18(3), 178-183.
Krathwohl, D., & Bloom, B. (2001). A taxonomy for learning, teaching, and assessing : A revision of bloom’s taxonomy of educational objectives: Complete edition (L. Anderson, Ed.). New York: Longman.
Weiner, B. J. (2009). A theory of organizational readiness for change. Implementation Science, 4(67). 1-9. https://doi.org/10.1186/1748-5908-4-67
