Task 1: Discussion Forum on implementing Change

You have the task of implementing a change in your team’s work process. You have a
very short deadline from your boss and you personally agree with the change. Half of
your team is on board and ready to go. The other half is very sceptical about the change.
Applying the module content to set up an appropriate strategy, in a 500 word-post
explain what do you do.

Post your submission by Sunday 11:59 pm (23:59 hours) VLE (UTC) time on the
due date at the latest.

Length: in an approximately 500-word response (+/- 10%), address the aforementioned

questions in the discussion board.

This discussion is student led. You are advised to offer feedback to at least one
colleague's contribution.
Introduction

Change is the act of adapting to a new way of doing something (UniCAF, 2022). In this
report, we'll offer advice on how to implement a change in a team's work process under
pressure from a tight deadline with a team that's wary of the change.

Team Buy-In
According to Suran (2003), people can drive change to success, with a lack of people support
the primary reason why change attempts fail. The goal is to develop a change plan and
implement a process that people can believe in, trust, and support (Suran, 2003). To do this,
Suran (2003) suggests using the following steps to secure support for the change plan:
(1) Persuade workers there is a need for change by providing information that makes
that need real, personal, and crucial to the team's success;
(2) Pay attention the team’s concern and needs through meetings, surveys, and other
means, and use leaders to effectively listen and foster an environment of openness
and;
(3) Allow the team to perform meaningful tasks that contribute to the change, whilst
developing the detailed change plan.

Change Implementation
Implementing several phases is necessary for effective change management (Editorial Staff
of Indeed, 2022). According to Indeed Editorial Team (2022), by following eight steps can
assist team successful implementation of changes;
(1) Identify the change and conduct an impact assessment: The evaluation will offer
suggestions on how to execute the change since it identifies who will be most
impacted and require the most assistance or training;
(2) Develop a change plan: Establish a strategy that outlines the team's goals, how to
make the required adjustments, how success will be measured, and how the team will
be supported during this transition.
(3) Communicate the change to team: create a communication strategy that effectively
conveys the changes to the team. Outline your key messages, define your target
audience, and decide who or what media will be used to communicate this
information in the strategy.
(4) Provide reasons for the change: To win over employees while executing change,
you must prove its need through data analysis and team benefits. Understanding the
reasons for the change may increase the likelihood that the team will feel inspired to
actively contribute to the change.
(5) Create feedback loop: Provide team member with the opportunity to provide
feedback, which may include in-person feedback sessions or surveys.
(6) Launch the change: As the change is implemented, keep an eye on it to make sure
the team is following the right implementation methods.
(7) Monitor the change: As you implement change throughout the, continue to monitor
the process to ensure that the team follow proper implementation procedures.
(8) Evaluate the change: Determine how you will gauge the implementation's success
by working with the team. Check to see if the adjustments achieved their objectives or
moved them closer. The chance of a successful adjustment can be increased by
allowing the team to see the advancement made or goals attained.

Conclusion
Companies must be able to adapt in order to succeed, but this more apparent in the dynamic
environment companies have today (Gesme and Wiseman, 2010). In this report, we offered
advice on how to bring about a change in a team's working procedures under pressure from a
very sceptical team with little time to spare.

References

Atkinson, P. (2014). How to implement change effectively. Management Services, 58(3), 33-38.
Retrieved from https://www.proquest.com/trade-journals/how-implement-change-effectively/
docview/1584942004/se-2

Gesme, D. and Wiseman, M. (2010) ‘How to implement change in practice’. Journal of

oncology practice, 6(5), p.257

Indeed Editorial Team. (2022) 8 Steps For Implementing Change in Your Organization.
Available at: https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/implement-change
(Accessed: 11-November-2022)

Paul, V. & Franckeiss, A. (2002) ‘The five dimensions of change: an integrated approach to
strategic organizational change management’, Strategic Change, 11(1), pp. 35-42.
Suran, S. (2003). How to implement change effectively. The Journal of Corporate Accounting &
Finance, 14(2), 31-38.

UniCAF, 2022. Managing Strategy, Operations and Partnerships. Week 10 - Topic Overview:
Strategic Change. Available at: https://vle-uel.unicaf.org/mod/resource/view.php?id=129956
(Accessed: 11-November-2022)
Extra
Gesme and Wiseman (2010)
Certain elements must be in place in an organization for change to take hold: an agreed-on
direction for the practice, a functional and effective leadership structure, and a culture that
promotes and rewards change;

Shared Vision
Any idea for change should fit into an established direction regarding where the practice is
headed. If your practice has not yet engaged in strategic planning, including developing a
vision statement, start there. (see “Strategic Planning: Why it Makes a Difference and How to
Do It,” an earlier article in the Strategies for Career Success series.)1 The very process of
articulating a vision and a strategic direction for the practice encourages input from all of the
practice decision makers and allows divergent perspectives to be aired and addressed in order
to reach consensus. The resulting vision should be communicated to everyone in the practice
and continually reinforced to foster a culture that is ready for the changes needed to move
toward the vision.

Effective Leadership
In addition to a shared vision, effective leadership is needed for change to be successful. “The
key to transformational change or any change is to have leadership that is able to understand
it, support it, explain it, and move the organization to commit to it. That is 95% of the success
of any change,” says Nick A. Fabrizio, PhD, a practice management consultant with the
Medical Group Management Association (Englewood, CO).
Radiation oncologist David Fryefield, MD, medical director at Willamette Valley Cancer
Institute (Eugene, OR), agrees, describing a leader as “someone who is willing to say ‘yes,
I'm going to do what is necessary to lead,’ which includes knowing how to build consensus,
what to communicate, and what decisions to make independently. It's a daunting task.”
On the flip side of the requirement for a leader is the need for followers. “Among physicians,
follower is a word that suggests a certain weakness, but we shouldn't look at it that way,”
says Fryefield. “If everyone tries to be a leader, the organization isn't going to go anywhere.
The role of followers is really a position of strength, involving elements of trust—letting go
of a certain amount of control.” An appropriate leadership structure, including a leader and
physicians who are committed to the vision and willing to support it, is key to transformative
change. All of the physicians in the practice need to be team players, including taking
responsibility for the entire practice and being willing to recognize the leader's authority.

Organizational Culture Supporting Change

Although full schedules, distracting events, fear of change, and apathy are obstacles to
change, the real enemy of change is complacency. “Having the will to change is critical,”
says consultant Fabrizio. “Do [the practice leaders] have the willpower to push change
through? If not, stop right there.”
Even groups that seek change may be complacent and not committed to follow through. That
was the situation encountered by a practice administrator we'll call Joyce Mills, who was
recruited to “fix problems” in an eight-physician oncology practice in the Midwest. She noted
that “the single biggest obstacle to change in the practice was that both the physicians and the
staff were comfortable with not changing.” A practice that is ready for change has a culture
that looks for ways to improve and promotes and supports ways to enhance quality, patient
care, and efficiency.

Creating a Readiness to Change

In shifting from a culture that is satisfied with the status quo to one that is ready to change,
the “fire in the belly” needed to bring about change has to start at the top. The physicians are
central. Because they set the tone for the practice, the practice will not be ready to change
until they are ready.
If the physicians in your practice seem mired in inertia, providing information is one way to
increase the group's desire to change. “Data is incredibly powerful, especially for
physicians,” says Fryefield. “Measure everything you can think of, and use that data to help
drive change.”
Benchmarking data that compare your practice's performance on key practice indicators to
those of other oncology practices also provides information that can encourage a readiness
for change

Implementing Change
Communicate
Frequent and effective communication is especially important during change, because so
much is going on. “Communicate at strategic, operational, and individual levels,” Jensen
says.
When launching a transformative change, Jensen suggests developing a plan for who needs to
know, when they need to know, and in what manner. “Communicate the who, what, where,
why, and how of the change. Start with the overview—the strategic reasons for the change.
Communicate the vision of what's going to happen, how individuals will be involved, what is
expected from them and their team, and why it is important to the practice and the patients. In
the absence of communication, people will fill the vacuum with inaccurate information and
often start talking with each other and creating assumptions that are not true.”
Jensen emphasizes that providing the opportunity for the staff members to give their
perspective is highly important. “In staff meetings, solicit concerns, questions, clarifications,
and suggestions. Then, take them into account.”
Use every medium at your disposal to tell people about the change. Meet with people one on
one as well as in groups. Use e-mail, the practice intranet, and break-room bulletin boards.
“You can't say something once and think that everybody gets it,” says Fryefield. “If you've
said it 15 times, say it 16 times.”

Foster a Team Culture

In managing a change process, the participation of those who will have to change is essential.
Consciously work on developing a team culture, in which everyone works toward a common
goal. The vision of the practice and the objectives of specific changes should be clearly
articulated. Developing and nurturing a team culture is an ongoing process that is founded on
a climate of trust and mutual respect.
Set clear expectations. Individuals should know what is expected of them, should understand
the roles of others, and should have a sense of shared accountability. Empower individuals to
work toward the goal in their own job, in addition to contributing ideas for the team as a
whole. Invite team members to indicate areas in which they would like to take initiative.
“They need to see the vision for the future and what they can contribute,” Jensen says.
Identify and Empower Champions
All changes need visible champions who are committed to the goal and can lead others. “The
practice leaders may know of individuals with natural leadership skills among the staff,
people who will do a great job of convincing their peers,” Jensen says. She suggests creating
a change team around a certain process and having individuals lead their peers in that effort.
“Empower them with your support, and give them tools and resources needed to do the job.”
Provide Feedback and Positive Reinforcement
Individuals want to know how they are doing and whether their efforts have made a
difference. Just as you used data initially to foster change readiness, continue to use it to
document progress and reinforce new behaviors. For some change activities, daily or weekly
reports of results might be called for, whereas for others, such as a report of the number of
medical records converted to a new system or average patient waiting times, a monthly report
might be appropriate.

External data also provide credible feedback that helps sustain change. Find out what your
patients and referring physicians think about the changes you are making and give that
information to both physicians and staff.
Take the lead in encouraging others and praising individuals who do well. Acknowledge
people's efforts in the change process and thank individuals for their contributions to the
success of the practice. Celebrate milestones and successes to foster team cohesion and
sustain change efforts. As Fryefield points out, “successful change comes when everyone
thinks the change is their idea.”

(Paul & Franckeiss, 2002)

(Indeed Editorial Team, 2022)

When implementing change within an organization, it means you are shifting the way that
you do business in some way, whether that involves a new business strategy, employee
practices or the implementation of new software or equipment. Successful change
management requires implementing multiple phases to ensure the transition runs smoothly.
By following these eight steps, you can keep your business on track while achieving a
transition:
(1) Identify the change and perform an impact assessment: To begin, you should first
identify the necessary change and make sure that it aligns with your company’s
overall objectives. Once you identify your goal, perform an impact assessment to
evaluate how the change will affect all levels of your organization. This assessment
will provide guidelines on how to implement the change because it shows who faces
the most impact and will need the most support or training.
(2) Develop a plan: Use the insights you gained in the preparation phase to determine
how to implement the changes needed. Create a plan that sets the direction for your
organization, including how to achieve the necessary changes and ways to measure
whether the changes were successful. Depending on the scope of the change you
implement, you may need to include a plan on how you will support employees
through this transition. Your impact assessment identified the most impacted
employees, so your implementation plan also needs to include any type of support or
training that these employees may need. Things to consider include mentorship
programs, cross-training plans and open-door policies where employees can ask for
assistance and receive clarification.
(3) Communicate the change to employees: To effectively convey the change to
employees, you’ll need to develop a communications strategy. In this plan, outline
your main messages, identify your audience and determine who or what medium will
deliver this information. Depending on the change, you may also need to consider
how management will respond to resistance or feedback from employees. Due to your
impact assessment, you will likely already know which level of the organization will
 be affected most by the change. It is recommended that you communicate with these
employees first and most often.
(4) Provide reasons for the change: To gain the support of employees when
implementing change, you must demonstrate the necessity of the change. Often, the
best way to achieve this is to present data that supports your decision. Such data may
involve customer or employee surveys, strategic business goals or budget plans.
Remember to underscore the benefits the change implementation will bring.
Employees who understand why the change is happening may be more likely to feel
motivated to actively participate in the change.
(5) Seek employee feedback: After communicating the change to employees, offer them
the opportunity to provide feedback. You can either schedule times to conduct in-
person feedback sessions or send out surveys. Change can make some people nervous,
so allowing employees to voice their opinions makes them feel like part of the
decision or conversation. You may even gain insights into how to improve your
implementation plans. Encouraging employees to voice their concerns also allows the
opportunity to clear up any misunderstandings and answer any lingering questions.
(6) Launch the change: Effective change happens in stages, which ensures that
employees are not overwhelmed. Create a timeline that starts with the aspects that you
must complete first, such as employee training, equipment acquisition or software
installation. It’s helpful to set a deadline for when you want to evaluate the
implementation process and determine whether it achieved your intended goals.
Depending on how much time you have to implement change, you may want to
consider a pilot program. By having a small group of employees test the change
before you implement it company-wide, you increase the likelihood of a successful
change.
(7) Monitor the change: As you implement change throughout an organization, continue
to monitor the process to ensure all of your employees follow proper implementation
procedures. Depending on your role, you may directly observe employees or delegate
the tasks to other supervisors. Try to monitor progress on at least a weekly basis—
toward the beginning of implementation, you may even want to review progress daily.
Keeping a close watch on your progress will help you fix any mistakes you hadn’t
anticipated and gauge any other unexpected outcomes from the change.
(8) Evaluate the change: Work with your employees or team to determine how you will
measure the success of the implementation. In some situations, you may have
quantifiable results that can be easily measured. If you don’t have quantifiable data to
work with, you may want to brainstorm other ways of measuring success. For
instance, you could consider the following points: What was the goal of this change?
What should success look like, given our starting-point goal? Which areas of our
business have improved since the change was implemented? Are there any areas that
have reduced their productivity? During the planning phase, you set a deadline to
evaluate the implementation. When you reach this deadline, meet with your team to
assess the results based on your established guidelines for measuring success.
Determine whether the changes met your business goals or made progress toward
them. You can also discuss whether the change implementation process worked as
intended and determine whether you need to make any improvements. Share the
results of your discussion with employees — seeing that they made progress or
achieved goals can help motivate them at work.
(Suran, 2003)
Clearly defined and communicated strategies. Effective organisational structure. Effective
processes including communication process.

Achieve Buy-In
Convince employees if the need for change.
Listen to employee concerns and needs
Involve Employees in a meaningful way
Communicate the plan, the rationaly of the plan, strong belief in the plan from upper
management and leaders.

(Paul & Franckeiss, 2002)

Resourcing Strategy: design and structure of the business, the manner and process through
which employees are recruited and the development of appropriate retention strategies, the
training and development philosophy and practice and the manager in which succession is
managed.
Reward Strategy
Communications Strategy
Leadership and effective communicate are critical determinants of the change process (Paul
& Franckeiss, 2002)

Planned Change: Change that occurs when leaders or followers make a conscious effort to
change in response to specific pressure or problem. The different types of change may require
different actions from leaders, e.g. for planned and evolutionary change, a leader’s ability to
structure tasks may be important (UniCAF, 2022).

Draft 1
Introduction

Change is the transformation or adaptation to a new way of doings things (UniCAF, 2022).
The ability to change is crucial to the success of any organization and has never been more
important than it is in today's changing oncology practice environment (Gesme and Wiseman,
2010). In this report, we will provide recommendation for the implementation a change in a
team’s work process with a short deadline with a team that is very sceptical about the change.

Team Buy-In
Suran (2003) identified people as the driving force in successfully accomplishing change,
conversely, lack of personnel support is a major cause of failure to accomplishing change.
Since fear is the dominant reason for workers failure to support change, the objective is to
create a change plan an implement process that people can believe in, trust and support. To
do this Suran (2003) recommends the following actions to achieve buy-in to the change plan:
 (1) Convince employees if the need for change by providing information to make the
need for change real, personal and critically important to the success of the team;
(2) Listen to employee concerns and needs by means of surveys, meetings, leveraging of
leaders to effectively listen and create an environment of openness and trust;
(3) Involve Employees in a meaningful way by doing real tasks that contribute to the
change whilst developing the detailed change plan and;

Change Implementation
When implementing change within an organization, it means you are shifting the way that
you do business in some way, whether that involves a new business strategy, employee
practices or the implementation of new software or equipment (Indeed Editorial Team, 2022).
Successful change management requires implementing multiple phases to ensure the
transition runs smoothly. (Indeed Editorial Team, 2022). By following these eight steps, you
can keep your business on track while achieving a transition, according to (Indeed Editorial
Team, 2022);
(9) Identify the change and perform an impact assessment: The assessment will
provide guidelines on how to implement the change because it shows who faces the
most impact and will need the most support or training;
(10) Develop a plan: Create a plan that sets the direction for the team, including
how to achieve the necessary changes, ways to measure success on how the team will
be supported through this transition. Things to consider include mentorship programs,
cross-training plans and open-door policies where employees can ask for assistance
and receive clarification.
(11) Communicate the change to team: To effectively convey the change to
employees, you’ll need to develop a communications strategy. In this plan, outline
your main messages, identify your audience and determine who or what medium will
deliver this information. It is recommended that you communicate with these
employees first and most often.
(12) Provide reasons for the change: To gain support of employees when
implementing change, you must demonstrate the necessity of the change by means of
data analysis, benefits to team. By understanding why, the change is happening may
be more likely make the team feel motivated to actively participate in the change.
(13) Seek employee feedback: After communicating the change to the team, offer
them the opportunity to provide feedback, which includes;in-person feedback sessions
or send out surveys.
(14) Launch the change: Effective change happens in stages, which ensures that
employees are not overwhelmed. By having a small group within the team test the
change before you implement, one can increase the likelihood of a successful change.
(15) Monitor the change: As you implement change throughout the, continue to
monitor the process to ensure that the team follow proper implementation procedures.
(16) Evaluate the change: Work with the team to determine how you will measure
the success of the implementation. Determine whether the changes met its goals or
made progress toward them. Allowing the team to see the progress made or achieved
goals can help motivate them and increase the likelihood of a successful change.

Conclusion
Leadership and effective communicate are critical determinants of the change process (Paul
& Franckeiss, 2002). In this report, we provided recommendations on how to implement a
change in a team’s work process with a short deadline with a very sceptical team.