Running head: PROJECT APPROACH AND PLAN 1

Project Approach and Plan

Ranikka Moore

Capella University

Change Management

March 15, 2022

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Project Approach and Plan

The purpose of change management is to implement strategies for effecting change,

controlling change, and helping people to adapt to change in organizations (McCalman, Paton, &

Siebert, 2016). Change management is the discipline that guides how we prepare, equip and

support individuals to successfully adopt change to drive organizational success and outcomes

(Prosci, N.D). Assisting individuals or groups through their change journeys enables

organizations to become learning organizations. A learning organization is organizations that

encourage adaptive and generative learning, encouraging their employees to think outside the

box and it has five disciplines: personal mastery, shared vision, mental models, team learning,

and systems thinking (ELM Learning , 2021).

Change Management Purpose and Discipline.

The value of change management is that it increases the chances of success. Managed

projects are more efficient. They cost less, take less time, and achieve better results. Change

management also helps to systematically address leadership and team resistance and decreases it

(Smith, 2019). An example of a few organizations that did successful change management is

Netflix the company started off as a DVD subscription that delivered movies via mail in 1997

but in 2007 changed to a streaming service. Netflix successfully implemented change

management to meet the needs of the consumers that would begin to watch content online

(Profits&, 2019). Lego is another with sales down eight-hundred million dollars and the

company near bankruptcy in 2004 the company began to focus not only on toys but implemented

digital transformation. Instead of putting their sole focus on physical toy products, Lego is

increasingly concentrating on bridging the physical and virtual augmented reality (AR)
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experiences (Profits&, 2019). The company has games, toys, movies and has gone down in

history as one of the biggest come backs.

Lego and Netflix are prime examples of learning organizations with great change

management. There are organizations that do not embody the organization learning

characteristics. Ways to spot a non-learning organization is the vision or mission of the

organization is unclear, leadership is ineffective or non-existent, the culture is bad, negative, or

unmotivating, lack of Initiative, poor vertical communication, poor cross-functional

collaboration, poor teamwork, and poor idea and knowledge management (Jacob, 2011).

Organizations such as these ignore problems and solutions to problems and passing the on the

responsibility of addressing problems to someone else or somewhere else (K. BRUNSSON,

1998).

Necessary changes a non-learning organization must do to become a learning

organization are systematic problem solving which is relying on the scientific method, rather

than guesswork, for diagnosing problems. Experimentation is another way the organization can

become a learning organization and it involves the systematic searching for and testing of new

knowledge. Learning from past experiences is review successes and failures, assess them

systematically, and record the lessons in a form that employees find open and accessible.

Organizations should learn from others by looking outside their immediate environment to gain a

new perspective. Adapting to the present is one essentially change organizations must stay

current with new forms of communication, technology and more. The last change an

organization should make is transferring knowledge and understand that knowledge spreads

quickly and efficiently throughout the organization (Garvin, 1993).

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Project Goals and Objectives

The objective of the stakeholders which is Pastor Ricky Bates, and the Board member is

to increase Sunday School attendance, provide quality lessons and teaching. The goal of the

stakeholders is to have attendance up by thirteen percent from sixty-eight students to seventy-

four students with a structured curriculum change on quarterly or ninety-day basis. This

generalized goal and objective is the reason for change management intervention.

The desired goals and objective to help reach the general change management goal and

objective is to align the specific tangible goals with organizational learning disciplines. The first

goal is a system thinking goal of all systems work together as whole than parts of a whole (ELM

Learning , 2021). The church board members will no longer receive reports and requests from

the Sunday School Administrator at board meetings. The board will review comprehensive

scores, attendance, and review teachers monthly starting at end of first month after implantation.

All board departments will include the Sunday School program for budgeting, event planning,

training & development, and necessary staffing and bench planning.

The second goal is solidifying a shared vision of an efficient and effective Sunday School

program. The objective is to establish a vision statement for the Sunday School program that will

align the entire organization to reach its religious and secular objectives. A vision statement is an

organization's declaration of its mid-term and long-term goals, stating what they want or want to

become in the future (Dictionary.com, 2020). This mission statement will be introduced at the

launching of the new Sunday School program. The change management team will assist Pastor

Ricky Bates in writing the vision statement and give support in introducing the new vision

statement to the congregation and board members.

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The third objective is team learning and personal mastery disciplines and will start during

the training and development for the new identified learning medium and curriculum. The

change management team will set-up administrative training for the board members and Pastor

for new system. The next training session will be for teachers and curriculum breakdown. The

last meeting will bring the together the Pastor, board, and teachers to learning communication

and accountability expectations as a team. The goal of the team learning objective is to share

experiences, insights, knowledge, and skills with each other about how to do things better a

group (Dearlove, 1990). The personal mastery will create a confident and committed teaching

team through personalized training (Dearlove, 1990).

The last goal will be addressing the mental model of The Ladder of Inference with the

teachers and board members of the organization. A bi-annual schedule of meetings, continued

training and development and brainstorming for the teaching team with the board members. The

first meeting date will be set for 90 days after implementation of new system. This is important

to keep assumptions of the individual at a minimum and open a platform of communication

between board and teachers to address any Sunday School Program items from the teacher

perspectives (Capella University , N.D).

These suggested goals and objectives will help transform the organization into a learning

organization during the change management process.

Selected Change Management Model and Tools

The chosen model is the Senge Five Discipline Model. The Senge's five disciplines of

learning organizations or Senge's learning organization describes how to manage the success and

development of an organization and how employees give the extra mile that goes beyond the

expectations of the company. The model describes an organization where people continually
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expand their capacity to create the results they truly desire, where new and expansive patterns of

thinking are nurtured, where collective aspiration is set free and where people are continually

learning how to learn together (Toolshero, N.D ).

This model was chosen because it builds the skills of the whole team, leadership

included. The different disciplines allow for an inclusive learning organization and change

management process. The model creates a shared vision of the individual and organization and

will allow for a tangible plan and cultural atmosphere shift that will open the door to reach the

goals of increasing attendance, knowledge, and comprehension of the students.

The change management tool being used to evaluate stakeholders, organizational culture

and environment is ADKAR Analysis. The ADKAR model in change management is used as a

coaching tool to make sure that the people or employees involved in the process support and

believe in the change. ADKAR stands for, awareness, desire, knowledge, ability, reinforcement

(Athuraliya, 2021). The model suggests a set of goals that team leaders should try to achieve

and being able to do so is the key to earning the support of the employees to successfully

implement the change strategy (Athuraliya, 2021). The goals are the acronym for the name. The

goals help with communication, support, training, feedback and follow-up and these steps will

help paint a picture of the organization as whole.

Ways to achieve a successful ADKAR analysis is doing a cultural map through interviews

and establishing a common opinion, behavior and more. The two tools together will assist in

establishing strengths and weaknesses that may strengthen the change management plan or

hinder it.

Project Plan.
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High-Level Timeline/Schedule

The meetings following the proposal will be via zoom and the organization has asked
that all meetings are conducted in the first week. The first contact occurred on March
7, 2022, with Louise Crayton. The timeline:

First meeting and identified change,

need; Project proposal introduced,
and scheduled additional meetings
March 7th, 8th,9th for learning medium.

March 10th Approach and plan meeting with

Louise Crayton. The client wants
the implementation of new
curriculum quickly and wants new
learning medium options.

March 13th Review and approval of learning

medium with Louise Crayton.

March 14th Presenting the approach and plan

which is to have a planned approach
and model. This approach will allow
the project team to focus on group
behaviors within the organization at
the top of organization or aka the
board members of the church
(McCalman J. P., 2016).

March 15th Stakeholders’ analysis and change

management activities, this is going
to consists of two of the six
components to change management,
Leadership Alignment, Stakeholder
Engagement (Miller, 2020).

March 16th Stakeholder analysis and finding

will show how the stakeholders are
going to impact the change and how
their impact will make it successful.
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March 17th Recommending intervention and

adopting strategies, and client
presentation.
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Athuraliya, A. (2021, July 26). The Ultimate List of Change Management Tools to Drive Change

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Capella University . (N.D). The Ladder of Inference. Retrieved from Capella University :

https://media.capella.edu/CourseMedia/bus-fpx4802element237003/wrapper.asp

Caveo Learning . (2015, October 30). 4 Keys to Optimizing Learning Organization Structure.

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https://www.dictionary.com/

ELM Learning . (2021, May 7). What is a Learning Organization? Complete Guide. Retrieved

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non-learning-organization.html

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Management,, 14(4), 421-432. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/S0956-5221(98)00002-5

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That Do It Right. Retrieved from Knowledge Force Consulting :

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right/

Learning Organization. (2019, November 3). Advantages and Disadvantages of a Learning

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en-us-x-none_54.html

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PROCESS. Retrieved from Harvard Business School Online:

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MANAGEMENT IN BUSINESS. Retrieved from Profits&:

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