Facilitator guide - Thinking about Organizational Change · Facilitator Guide: Thinking about Organizational Change Better Business Learning Change Activation Toolkit v1. ©Branded

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Learning objectives

Understanding the types of changes that organizations undergo.

Recognizing the main features of organizations upon which change initiatives focus.

Recognizing that change initiatives may operate upon various levels within organizations.

Awareness of the role of dedicated change leaders in leading change initiatives.

How to use this module

Before beginning a change initiative, use this material to demystify the nature of change

and assure stakeholders that change is a process that organizations must undergo in order

to align themselves with a shifting environment.

When bringing together a change management leadership team.

In order to clarify the distinction between change management initiatives and continuous

improvement efforts.

To illustrate the variety of broad forces and influences that organizations face.

When briefing on the nature of a change program to those responsible for a quality or

continuous improvement process.

This module outlines the distinction between

incremental and transformational change, explains

the major features of organizations upon which

change operates and describes how the support of

members at all levels of organizations maximizes

the likelihood of success.

FACILITATOR GUIDE Thinking about Organizational Change

Facilitator Guide: Thinking about Organizational Change


Activity Target Audience Suggested timing (dependent on group size and experience level)

Activity 1

Video: Thinking about

Organizational Change

All learners 15 - 30 minutes

(video duration 5:00 mins)

Activity 2

Attitudes to Change All learners 10 - 15 minutes

Activity 3

Appreciative Enquiry All learners 40 - 50 minutes

Activity 4

Self Assessment: “Changing Me” All learners 30 minutes

Wrap-up & commitments All learners 15 minutes

Terminology

Change initiative An organized, concerted effort to alter part or all of an organization.

Incremental change Continuous improvements made to the organization in an ongoing,

adaptive manner. These are gradual changes to the current state.

Incremental change does not usually challenge the existing culture of an

organization.

Transformational

change

Change which is not merely an extension of, improvement or

modification of the current state of an organization, but one which

involves a complete and fundamental change to the organization,

involving changes to processes and systems, people, structure and/or

culture.

Stakeholder A person or group which has an interest in the process or result of a

change initiative. They do not necessarily have to be directly or

indirectly affected by a change initiative to be a stakeholder; some

stakeholders are unaffected but can wield direct or indirect influence,

such as damaging an organization’s reputation or encouraging public

support. Examples of stakeholder groups include: customers, groups of

employees, people with specific roles within the organization, the

media, government, society, competitors, trades unions, campaign

groups, etc.



Description The module subject-matter is introduced using a short animated video.

The knowledge check and personal reflections questions are then used to

explore learners’ understanding and experience before moving on to

other connected activities.

Facilitators can make use of a range of techniques such as brainstorming

or debates to explore the knowledge check questions.

Use examples of learners’ experiences in the activities which follow.

Resources/materials Required:

The introductory video.

Flipchart and marker pens.

Dependent on the technique chosen, optional resources could include:

Terminology flash-card printouts

Instructions Introduce the video which explains the concept of organizational

change. (Slide 2)

Following the video, use the questions in the knowledge check to

guide the conversation, exploring the learners’ views on this subject.

(Slides 3 to 6)

Knowledge check

(Slides 3 to 6)

What forces affect

organizations,

prompting them to

adapt to shifting

circumstances?

Examples include:

market conditions such as new markets opening up, new competitors,

changing prices or regulation;

changes in technology, whether in IT, manufacturing, communication,

product delivery, etc.;

the expectations of stakeholders - be those customers, employees,

government, regulators, society, etc.;

customer demands, such as requests for specialized products,

integration with other organizations products, availability, etc.;

input costs, which may require either finding new sources of inputs or

ACTIVITY 1 Video: Thinking about Organizational Change



finding alternative ways to produce a product;

competition from alternative suppliers of your product.

These forces may mean an organization has to stop doing something,

start doing something new or do something differently.

What are two major

types of change and

the differences

between them?

Incremental change involves continuous improvements made to the

organization in an ongoing, adaptive manner. These are gradual

changes to the current state. Incremental change does not usually

challenge the existing culture of an organization.

Transformational change involves change which is not merely an

extension of, improvement or modification of the current state of an

organization, but one which involves a complete and fundamental

change to the organization, involving changes to processes and

systems, people, structure and/or culture.

Name four features

of organizations that

change initiatives

typically operate on

and outline typical

components within

those features that

are acted upon.

Processes and systems – changes to technologies, information flows,

how resources are allocated and the design of production systems

People – influencing the way in which people within an organization

communicate, motivate each other, approach problems, work in

teams and develop new skills.

Structure – Changes to an organization’s hierarchy of authority, job

roles and structural characteristics such as the organization of its

business units or internal groups.

Culture – influencing the way that those people in the organization

relate to each other to better align with the organization’s mission,

vision and strategy. This involves making efforts to understand and

shift values, norms, assumptions, leadership styles and roles within

the organization and is typically a long-term project involving

consistent efforts at all levels of the organization.

What do changes

require of individuals

within groups that

are the focus of a

change initiative?

Success requires individuals to accept and adopt the change.

Personal reflections

(Slide 7)

Of these types, what types of changes have you experienced during

your career?

What kinds of changes are occurring at the moment in your

organization – and which of the four organizational features are they

operating upon?



Description This activity performs the dual purpose of preparing learners for the self-

assessment activity later in this module, while giving the facilitator

essential information about the learners taking the course which will

enable them to mold and direct the course as it progresses.

It then progresses to a short experiment which brings home to learners

what their subconscious reaction to change is.

Resources/

materials

Required:

Likert scale banner printouts.

Flipchart and marker pens

A stopwatch or timing device

Instructions

(Slides 8 to 10)

Using the Likert banner (showing a scale between 1 and 10) along one

wall of the teaching room, ask people to position themselves between

1 and 10, depending on how much they agree or disagree with the

following statements, where 1 is ‘completely disagree’ and 10 is

‘completely agree’. You may wish to record their score for each

question.

o I like change.

o I like being changed.

o I hate change but am generally comfortable with it after a

while.

o I struggle to handle changes in my personal and professional

life.

(Slide 10) Using the flipchart pens, ask people to vote ‘agree’ or

‘disagree’ to the following questions, noting down who agrees or

disagrees with each:

o How the change is introduced is just as important as what the

change is, in regard to how I will react that change.

o It is important to be able to adapt to change.

ACTIVITY 2 Attitudes to Change



o People should expect change in modern organizations.

o There is too much change happening in my organization at this

time

o People’s ability to handle change is part of their personality; it

is fixed.

If you are running a course using several of the modules you may wish

to repeat this exercise at the end of the course to see whether

people’s attitudes have changed. If so, it is useful to note people’s

scores/votes and then compare them.

(Slide 11) Ask the group to split into pairs facing each other. Make

these remarks:

You’ve got one minute to study your partner before

you’re going to turn your backs to each other and alter 5

things about your appearance. Your partner will have to

guess what you have changed. One minute starts… NOW!

Tell them to turn their backs at the end of the minute and change 5

things about themselves. Then they turn back and have to work out

what changed.

Repeat the exercise, asking them to change three more things. It is

likely they will grumble about this. If they aren’t too frustrated by this

point, you can repeat it one more time.

Ask people what kinds of things their partners changed. It is likely that

they removed things, rather than adding (for example tucking a pencil

behind their ear) or altering (such as moving their watch from one

wrist to the other). The point is, most of them will have treated change

as a loss. Praise those who were positive enough about change to add

or alter, rather than removing.


(Slides 12 & 13)

How did you change your appearance?

What do you think this says about your subconscious response to a

requirement to change?

Considering you are attending a workshop about ‘change’ and may

have experience of leading change, do you think a ‘loss’ attitude to

change is more likely among other people within the organization?



Description This activity continues the self-discovery started in the previous activity

and further develops the facilitator’s understanding of the learners on the

course. In particular, it gives the learner an appreciation of what they have

achieved so far in their career and how well their organization is doing.

Resources/

materials Required:

Appreciative enquiry worksheets for each learner

Writing materials for each learner

Instructions

(Slides 14 to 16)

Make these remarks:

I’d like you to divide into pairs for this next activity. We’re

going to carry out an appreciative enquiry. For this

activity you’ll start by filling in a short questionnaire

which take a positive look at your organization, your

career so far and your hopes and aspirations for it in the

future. I’d like you to spend the next five minutes filling

out these questionnaires and then we’ll move on from

there.

Provide learners with the appreciative enquiry worksheets.

After five minutes, make these remarks:

Now you’ve completed these questionnaires I want you

to swap sheets and read each other’s answers. Then

spend a few minutes coming up with some additional

questions you would want to ask your partner to find out

more about their personality, achievements, skills and

abilities, knowledge and ambitions. Feel free to make

notes on your partner’s questionnaire.

When you’re ready, I’d like you then to spend some time

interviewing each other to get answers to these

questions. You have around 20 minutes to do this. When

your interviews are complete I’m going to ask you to

introduce your partner to the rest of the group and

explain some of the fantastic things you found out about

them.

Once the interviews are complete, gather the learners back together

ACTIVITY 3 Appreciative Enquiry



and give each of them time to present their partner to the rest of the

group.


(Slide 17)

How did the appreciative enquiry activity make you feel?

Is this the technique you could use with your colleagues?



Description In this activity, learners have the opportunity to develop a greater

understanding of their attitude to change and the sources of and

influences on these attitudes. Since this is likely to be deeply personal,

group discussion of the results is not recommended. The facilitator can

collect in the sheets to review and deepen their understanding of people’s

needs and attitudes, but should hand them back later.

Resources/

materials

Required:

“Changing Me” self-assessment handouts for each learner

Instructions

(Slides 18 & 19)

Make these remarks:

We’re going to take the opportunity now for you to do a

self-assessment, exploring your attitude to change and

what influences it. I know this is a very personal thing to

do, so only you and I will know what you’ve written and

we won’t hold a group discussion afterwards.

ACTIVITY 4 Self-Assessment: “Changing Me”



Learner debrief

(Slides 20 to 22)

What was the most important thing you learned?

How will this affect your work?

Optional: Change

Commitments

Postcards

(Slide 23)

Hand out the Change Commitments Postcard handouts at this stage,

inviting delegates to record on this postcard "what they would like to

do differently as a result of this workshop".

Delegates can then take these with them as a reminder of the

workshop and what they have learned, or the facilitator can collect the

postcard handouts and commit to send those postcards back to the

delegates after a set amount of time (i.e. one month).

If you are collecting the postcards to send back at a later date, hand

out envelopes and instruct delegates to write their names on those

envelopes. It may be helpful to assure delegates that these postcards

are for them and will not be looked at.

SESSION WRAP-UP & COMMITMENTS

Documents

Facilitator guide - Thinking about Organizational Change · Facilitator Guide: Thinking about Organizational Change Better Business Learning Change Activation Toolkit v1. ©Branded