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Unit 4 Outline Unit 4: How to Manage Change Lesson 1: Encouraging Creativity 1. Why is creativity important to change? 2. How can I encourage creativity in employees? * Remain open-minded to new ideas * Provide verbal encouragement * Plan brainstorming sessions * Rotate employees through job positions * Hold job improvement meetings * Encourage employee experimentation Lesson 2: Developing Commitment 1. Why should there be a commitment to change? 2. How can I develop commitment in employees? * Respond to employee commitment levels * Remain patient when implementing the change Lesson 3: Communicating Change 1. Why is communication important when implementing change? 2. How should I communicate during a change? * Keep the message simple * Remain consistent * State the change's goal * Provide examples * Explain your reasons * Tell the truth

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* State your feelings * Plan your thoughts * Repeat yourself 3. Why is listening important when communicating change? 4. How can I provide support to employees by listening? 5. What is the grapevine? 6. How can I control the information in the grapevine? Unit 4 Content Lesson 1: Encouraging Creativity Why is creativity important to change? Creativity is the most effective way to determine new goals for change. Creativity allows you to develop new and innovative methods to improve your customer satisfaction, teamwork, and communication skills. In addition, you can use creativity to increase employee morale. How can I encourage creativity in employees? Fostering creativity in employees encourages ideas for handling change. There are several ways to encourage creativity:
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Remain open-minded to new ideas Provide verbal encouragement Plan brainstorming sessions Rotate employees through job positions Hold job improvement meetings Encourage employee experimentation

Remain open-minded to new ideas Remaining open-minded encourages employees to share their ideas and thoughts freely. Employees are able to approach a situation from a different perspective than yours and can offer unique insight. In addition, encouraging employees to share their ideas will help you gain their trust and respect. Provide verbal encouragement You should provide employees with verbal encouragement to motivate them to contribute to a change. Employees appreciate receiving feedback and feel more comfortable sharing their thoughts with you when you request their ideas. Plan brainstorming sessions

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Brainstorming sessions encourage employees to offer new and creative ideas. A brainstorming group should represent the areas of the organization directly affected by the change, and be limited to six to eight members. A group of this size and with this diversity will be able to generate a sufficient number of ideas for the change. Employees should be encouraged to suggest ideas that are creative but also realistic and attainable. These criteria focus the group on developing achievable ideas and goals. Rotate employees through job positions Rotating employees through different positions within an organization can encourage creative thinking. Employees often become so familiar with a particular area of the change that they begin to overlook obvious problems. Placing employees in new positions allows a fresh outlook on old problems. Hold job improvement meetings Holding job improvement meetings with employees generates creative ways for enriching their jobs. Employees frequently have ideas on how to improve their positions. You can encourage employees to be creative while giving them the opportunity to express their thoughts at a job improvement meeting. Encourage employee experimentation There are several ways to encourage experimentation within your organization. However, when employees begin to experiment with new and creative ideas, you need to guide them to make sure that they stay realistic and within organizational policy. Some ways you can encourage employees to experiment include:
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Encourage employees to find new approaches to their jobs Make a ''think tank'' or workshop available with materials for thinking and planning Implement a policy that rewards employees for offering creative ideas Hold creative thinking seminars to encourage experimentation

Lesson 2: Developing Commitment Why should there be a commitment to change? Everyone involved with a change has to be committed to it and its goals in order for the change to be successful. When gaining support for a change, you need to establish commitment for its success and for the consequences if it fails. Establishing this commitment ensures that employees will not lose interest or back away from their responsibilities. How can I develop commitment in employees? You cannot take an employee's commitment to change for granted, and building it is not an easy task. However, there are two guidelines that can help:
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Respond to employee commitment levels Remain patient when implementing the change

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Respond to employee commitment levels Employees respond to change both intellectually and emotionally. Most employees understand a change intellectually and form an opinion about it before they emotionally accept it. When developing your implementation strategy, you need to take into consideration the differences between these two levels of their concerns. When possible, you must balance the intellectual and emotional commitment levels required from employees when implementing a change. When employees do not accept a change, their commitment levels toward the organization drop. Remain patient when implementing the change Remaining patient when implementing change allows time to encourage open communication, involve employees, foster empowerment, and develop relationships in order to increase commitment to the change. Commitment takes time to achieve. However, once you begin to develop commitment in your employees, you will be able to gain the support needed for the change. Lesson 3: Communicating Change Why is communication important when implementing change? If you encourage communication during change, you will be able to inform employees about the change and the benefits they can receive from it. Communication addresses and eliminates many rumors that employees may have heard about the change. In addition, employees are more likely to support a change when they are informed about it. How should I communicate during a change? There are several guidelines to follow when communicating to your employees during a change:
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Keep the message simple Remain consistent State the change's goal Provide examples Explain your reasons Tell the truth State your feelings Plan your thoughts Repeat yourself

Keep the message simple Focused and jargon-free information reduces time and confusion when communicating about change. Remaining direct and simple in your explanations prevents your employees from drawing false conclusions about the change. Keep your explanations clear and precise to communicate change effectively.

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Remain consistent Keeping your messages consistent will eliminate employees' confusion about a change. Inconsistent messages that contradict one another cause employees to doubt the credibility of the change. State the change's goal When you communicate about a change to employees, you should relate your message to the change's overall goal. Employees should understand what the change's goal is, how it will be accomplished, and who will benefit from it. Clearly stating the goal establishes credibility and keeps employees focused. Provide examples Using examples allows you to communicate complicated ideas quickly and effectively. It can be difficult to communicate to a large and varied group of employees, but using well-known examples enables you to relate your message more easily. In addition, well-chosen words and phrases often make your message memorable to employees. Explain your reasons Employees need to understand the reasons for a change in order to become committed to its implementation. Giving the employees as much information as you can reduces their concerns and helps gain their commitment. Tell the truth Employees have to know the truth about a change no matter how unpleasant it may be for them. The more employees understand a change, the less anxious they will be about its implementation. If you attempt to evade the truth, your employees will distrust you and the reasons for the change. If you are unable to answer a question for your employees, you should explain why. However, once you do become aware of the answer or any additional information, you should hold another meeting to answer the question and to address any new concerns. In addition, explaining the exact limitations and goals of a change will prevent employees from imagining a worst case scenario. State your feelings Employees are interested in how their superiors feel about a change. Being open about your feelings and concerns can help you gain support for a change. It is important that you remain honest when expressing your thoughts. If employees doubt your sincerity, they will question and resist the change. Plan your thoughts You need to determine ahead of time the best method of informing your employees about the change. Planning your thoughts prepares you for employee concerns and frequently allows you to answer their questions before they ask them. Repeat yourself

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You will not be able to communicate your entire message at one time. Repeating the information about the change allows you to communicate all your ideas, while allowing employees time to understand the issues involved. Repetition should not be forceful or blatant. You should reiterate information about the change through a brief memo, by spending a few minutes talking about it in a meeting, or by bringing it up briefly in a conversation. Why is listening important when communicating change? To be an effective communicator, you need to listen to your employees. You should avoid spending too much time explaining a change and not enough time listening to employees' concerns. Making an effort to listen helps you identify and address employee problems immediately. How can I provide support to employees by listening? There are three ways you can demonstrate support and concern for your employees by listening: 1. Use body language that demonstrates you are listening to the employee. Body language, such as direct eye contact and nodding when appropriate, communicates that you are concerned with the employee's thoughts and feelings. 2. Encourage conversation with the employee if the employee pauses or hesitates while speaking. Encouraging conversation helps you understand all of the employee's concerns. 3. Paraphrasing employee's points allows you to repeat in your own words what they have said. Paraphrasing ensures that you have understood their entire message. What is the grapevine? The grapevine is the informal communication within an organization.The information that travels in a grapevine tends to travel very quickly since it is unimpeded by organizational constraints. How can I control the information in the grapevine? An organization's grapevine is a natural and unstoppable form of communication in any organization. Managers need to be aware of how informal communication travels in their organization in order to control the information in the grapevine. Staying informed of the information in the grapevine allows you to dispel any unsubstantiated and potentially damaging information about a change. Although an organization's grapevine is usually 80 to 90 percent accurate, you should be aware of what is being said to eliminate any false information. However, you can use the grapevine to your advantage by strategically placing information in it to increase interest and support for a change.

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