Change of management simulation

The aim of this paper is to present a simulation experience of change management simulation, specifically power and control. As a result, the article would focus on the simulation’s interpretation and lessons learned as seen through the transformational servant lenses. At the start of the simulation, it was clear that the diversity and uncertainty of thought would be a barrier to the acceptance of the new concept. For example, the majority of those on the board struggled to understand how incorporating emerging technologies could increase the company’s overall focus (Day & Shannon, 2015). However, to ensure that the original idea would be incorporated vigorously into a tenuous timeline, the incorporation of three strategies was included. They include freeze, mobilize and unfreeze.

With Mobilization required the proposition on making the change initiative through building the organization’s capacity for change. As a change agent, the first goal would be the introduction of the new target that the company, Spectrum Sunglasses Company, is required to follow by adopting the new green technology. But, a lot of negativity and lack of cooperation would be met from the Chief Financial Officer, Corporate Controller and Vice President of Operations. The reason was that the financial capital required to invest in the business’ new approach would cost more than the business’ current income. Also, another adopter cum resistor would be the Chief Executive Officer who would require some priming to embrace the new position of the company which would fortify not only the business with BigMart but, is in front of the modern movement to turning to green technology (Burke, 2017).

The next step would be movement or change. To efficiently roll this out, there was a need to introduce a momentum for change initiative. It entailed the introduction of cooperation through understanding what relations the executives on the board possess with those at the top-level management and medium-level management. The mandate on this would be innovating the ties between the CEO, CFO, and VP of operations. As such, there would be preservation and continuance to build organizational capacity for change. The final step would be sustaining innovation through refreeze. The third level was the most crucial part yet taunting task due to the time frame took to warm up to the new idea of change in technology. More so, there was the institutionalization of the change initiative (Burke, 2017).

Strategy to Influence Organizational Members to the New Change Initiative

To effect the new change particularly to the non-responsive members, an approach was developed. It included the building of credibility. To bring it on, there would be a communication plan which involved the engagement of each lever such as the CEO, CFO, and VP of Operations. The second step was building a coalition. By understanding the simulation plan on who is friends with who and who works with who, the method was used to create the strategic plan. The process includes befriending the VP of Operations with Director of Plant Material and VP of Operations to CFO. To ensure that the process was well equipped with the goal of change, there was the fourth step that included pace and involvement. The relations to be developed were introduced successively after conjuring one member to another as a plan to improve the acceptance of the new change plan (Day & Shannon, 2015).

Finally, the strategic plan involved the training of the members of the board about the new technology such as the benefits that come with the introduction of green technology. Other factors such as the process it would take to incorporate the latest technology and how long it would set back the company in the realization of the new trend in the market. By doing this, there was the development of organizational capability. By building a corporate capacity, there was the need to read and gather information about the company and its members. The information included about familiarizing oneself with the company, challenges and opportunities and end goal as well as the timeline for the change achievement. Challenges and opportunities included the determination of the organizational hierarchy and how it would affect the adoption of the new change. During this phase, the decision was identified that in the department of finance, there is a tight control on the budget due to the revenue generated in sales and marketing. Therefore, to improve the identification of factors such as social network information to know which members would influence the non-responsive members into adopting or embracing the new change. For instance, social networking in the finance department is tightly fashioned that it would require the use of the director of the information system to influence the corporate controller who would in turn influence the Chief Executive Officer.

As such, the conceptualization of the company was one of the factors that influenced the perception of the company. There was the need for a thorough comprehension about the organization as well as its complex environments such as problems that arise due to the new debate about change and the necessity to creatively address the issues in accordance to the goal of the company. Matters faced included understanding the universal emotions that included apprehensions, self-doubt, paralysis, and fear of failure. To enable the analysis of the comprehensive emotions and how to address them, courage was required. Courage included the need to take calculated risks. Therefore, throughout the process, there was a striking desire to be aware of the relationships as well as possible background baggage that the followers would carry such as personal concerns and the well-being of others (Burke, 2017).

To promote the process and the strategy, the theory by Kotter’s Model was used to establish an excellent relational build up to the organizational understanding and change. The Kotter’s Model aided in the creation of guidelines to a coalition as well as developing a vision and strategy as a change agent. For instance, under Kotter’s model aided in the planning and creation of guideline to know when the policy was winning and when it was losing. Through this, I was able to consolidate on the gains as well as productivity of the strategy to creating the members change in the adoption of the new technology (Goetsch & Davis, 2014). Also, the Lewin Theory was used which included unfreeze, change and refreeze. The theory enabled the change path which included awakening, acceleration, and institutionalization (Hayes, 2014).

Personal Reflection

The strategy as a change agent was successful due to the evaluation that was carried out to understand the company. One of the reasons is due to the non-over estimation or underestimation of the firm and its members. Instead, the communication plan was to incorporate all the members and used the levers to my advantage and influence their decisions. However, one set back was the struggle in differentiating the manipulation as well as the competence indicators in identifying leadership competency. As such, I proposed the use of collaboration on all the levers including clarifying the values as well as developing coalitions and running the project. Another advantage of my success was the need to behave ethically, through the establishment of credibility. Credibility is a vital component throughout the simulation activities and through the actions as well as reactions I was able to rank credibility meters and measurements of all the decisions made. Therefore, the impact of the simulation success is understanding that as much as people are leaders, followers are also subject to change within the organization which was necessary to adoption and trial phases of the project.

Conclusion

As such, the individual experiences I learned throughout the project simulation is that flexibility and accommodation of new ideas are necessary to the integration of change plans. The importance and benefits that come with change ought to be incorporated in a whole change effort. Furthermore, I recognize that the diagnosis is important as well as the assessment of a situation before acting on it. In this, it means that there ought to be a plan that seconds the overall idea to ensure that there are check and balance of the project. Finally, I have learned that communication is a volatile factor in an organization mostly when handling change. Therefore, choosing the right communication path such as direct communication can aid in the mobilizing of people to change their minds compared to other ways such as email.

References

Burke, W. W. (2017). Organization change: Theory and practice. Sage Publications.

Day, G., & Shannon, E. A. (2015). Leading and managing change. Leading and Managing Health Services: An Australasian Perspective, 295–304.

Goetsch, D. L., & Davis, S. B. (2014). Quality management for organizational excellence. pearson Upper Saddle River, NJ.

Hayes, J. (2014). The theory and practice of change management. Palgrave Macmillan.