Resilience is key in the face of change.
Change is good, but it is not always easy. I recently changed jobs and have had the opportunity to move into a role as a Project Leader for the last 6 months. I rapidly engaged all my skills of exploration, communication, and teamwork in preparation to incite change at the level of two acute care hospital front lines of care. My leader encouraged me to review resources on ADKAR change management, learning how to support staff through change processes in their Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement of change. The principles fit with what I identified from my past clinical role as to the psychological stages I had to flow through to accept and be supported in change at work. I didn’t find the ADKAR model in our readings this week in LRNT 525: Leading Change in Digital Learning, but I did find both Kotter’s 8-step model for change and the CHANGE model in Biech’s (2007) work. I found both models to describe very similar processes that change leaders should use:
- establishing a ‘Why’ or a vision that challenges the status quo,
- creating coalitions with committed stakeholders,
- developing vision and meaning for all stakeholders,
- empowering others to buy into the change,
- taking a systems perspective to guide the change,
- using tools and metrics to measure along the way,
- evaluating and reiterating processes to adapt them
Most of the models and approaches seemed to overlap in components of preparation, action, evaluation, and sustainment. All have consideration for creating buy-in and finding common values, connecting to overarching leadership styles (O’Toole, 2008).
Developing people, culture, and capabilities in change management approaches creates strength and resilience.
Weiner (2009) speaks to what is referred to as a psychological readiness for change and I take an interest in this key human component. I connected to Beer and Nohria’s ‘Theory O’ based on organizational capability change leaders. These type of leaders choose a soft focus to develop culture, people and constructively build capabilities with reflection and feedback (as cited in Al Haddad and Kotnour, 2015). In my view, a change management framework that encompasses developing people and culture speaks to the strength of its adaptability and resilience; both two traits that are necessary in our current technological, economic and societal contexts. Al Haddad and Kotnour (2015) offer that change drivers need frameworks that are adaptable and recognize that to increase success, we must focus on and pay attention to people.
In further consideration of change drivers, Weller and Anderson (2013) offer that institutes must react to technology change and be resilient. Corporations must recognize that digital content moving globally will result in practice changes; however, Weller and Anderson (2013) warn that the core function of our practices should not be lost despite any new forms our practices take. This aligns with my belief in recognizing and understanding core values while not allowing dilution of those values despite applications of digital technology.
Weller and Anderson (2013) also spoke to measuring the resilience of practices in their context of higher education. In their article, Holling defines resilience as a “measure of the persistence of systems and of their ability to absorb change and disturbance and still maintain the same relationships between populations or state variables” (as cited in Weller & Anderson, 2013, para 7). If applied to the context of healthcare, there would be many considerations regarding the ability of hospital staff to adapt to change or tolerate change and disturbances in practice. In their article on Lean improvement strategies in healthcare, Warring and Bishop (2010) state that the “lines of resistance [] represent obstacles, [to] the emergence of new leaders, the generation of evidence and the re-configuration of clinical practices” (p. 1339). Resistance works against progress and change processes, so perhaps healthcare teams require human capacity development to improve their resilience at multi-stakeholder levels? Building resilience may help us to retain our core values despite flux and transformation. According to Weller and Anderson (2013), this resilience “develops engagement, education, empowerment, and encouragement” (para 7). These are all traits that I value in my approach to both leadership and change management.
CB
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 Press. [Books24x7 database]
O’Toole, James (2008). Notes Toward a Definition of Values-Based Leadership. The Journal of Values-Based Leadership, 1(1).
Prosci ADKAR Model. (2019). [website] Retrieved from: https://www.prosci.com/adkar/adkar-model
Waring, J. J., & Bishop, S. (2010). Lean healthcare: rhetoric, ritual and resistance. Social science & medicine, 71(7), 1332-1340.
Weller, M., & Anderson, T., (2013). Digital Resilience in Higher Education. European Journal of Open Distance and E-Learning, 16(1), 53-66.
February 17, 2019
Hi Christy,
I really enjoyed reading your post. Thank you for sharing your experience and thoughts.
While reading your post, I found myself nodding in agreement to your statements and found myself reading the resource that you added about the ADKAR model. One of the articles on the site describes this model as one which drives action. “It provides a map of what needs to be done to advance a change rather than just describing how someone proceeds through change” (para. 10). Furthermore, the article states that the key to successful change goes past the “visible and busy activities that surround change. Successful change [] is rooted in something much simpler: How to facilitate change with one person” (p. 13). The site had other articles which describes that change only occurs when people change; therefore, to support this individual change, leaders much ensure that each person moves through the five phases of the ADKAR as you have outlined above. When this is done, then a successful outcome will occur. This is congruent to Al-Haddad and Kotnour (2015), where they suggest that it is the human element and the resources that lead to change. I can see how the ADKAR framework could be applied to many types of organizations and could be resilient. Have you applied this model to any of your projects or experienced this model through organizational change?
Cheers!
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.
The Prosci ADKAR Model: Why it Works. (n.d.). Retrieved from https://www.prosci.com/resources/articles/why-the-adkar-model-works
February 22, 2019
Hello Joyce! Apologies for the delayed reply. Thank you for your comments and for digging into the ADKAR framework a little deeper. I really enjoyed what you found and shared in your comments. ADKAR was the first change management framework I had ever encountered and, in the healthcare context, it seemed like a very nice fit, so I began to apply it into my pilot project planning. Healthcare relies on the emotional strength and the will of care workers on the front lines. They are giving their all, working literally day and night to exhaustion to care for their patients. Bringing any changes to that environment can be disruptive enough to tip them into absolute frustration and revolt. Your statement above regarding a focus on change with one person is key. In my current project, I am using Weiner’s(2009) concepts of framing a consistent message and planning out my information sharing to support a sense of readiness before running the pilot. I cannot say that I identified the ADKAR process being used in changes that I myself experienced, but I do find that knowing the ‘why’, understanding the vision and reasoning for any changes, and having those reasons align with my personal values helps me to embrace change more readily. Narine and Persaud (2003) argue that a series of action steps must be taken to gain the commitment of employees and these include: “ensuring organizational readiness for change, surfacing dissatisfaction with the present state, communicating a clear vision of the proposed change, promoting participation in the change effort, and developing a clear and consistent communication plan” (p. 181). I’m grateful that I have the readings from this course to support me and enough of a clinical background to know how to connect my messaging to the needs of the care providers. I’ll be vying for the support of my front line teams by offering them a technology that will help to reduce their workload, something they all desire and can all connect to.
CB
References:
Narine, L., & Persaud, D. D. (2003). Gaining and maintaining commitment to large-scale change in healthcare organizations. Health Services Management Research, 16(3), 179-87.
Weiner, B. J. (2009). A theory of organizational readiness for change. Implementation Science, 4(67). Retrieved from https://implementationscience.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/1748-5908-4-67
February 23, 2019
Hi Christy,
No apologies necessary! We all have a work-life balance to maintain! 😊
It sounds like you will be having exciting times ahead of you with your pilot project.
When conducting the interviews with two of my colleagues (one from a dental program and one from a nursing program), I found that their perspectives were quite similar especially when it came to ensuring that a consistent message was delivered to the faculty and staff. They felt that a leader should be able to relay the importance of the change (i.e. addressing a gap) to ensure buy in from the faculty or staff in the school or hospital setting. One of them recommended that conducting a literature review on the possible challenges that could be encountered as well as conducting a usability study prior to implementing the change, would add to the success of the project. This is supported by Al-Haddad and Kotnour (2015) as they mention that “[p]roper planning and analysis help identify the gap between where the organization is now and where it wants to be” (p. 243). Furthermore, “[t]he organization needs to identify the environmental conditions required for the change plan to succeed” (Hotek and White, 1999; Kotter, 1996, as cited by Al-Haddad & Kotnour, 2015, p. 244).
I look forward to hearing more about your pilot!
Best regards,
Joyce
February 23, 2019
Sorry! Just realized that I forgot to add my reference for my last comment!
JW
Reference:
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.