TRAINING & EDUCATION
Playing Your Part Frank Newberry
The Turfcare Professional’s Guide to Managing Change at Work
Change at work may be forced on us by many things, e.g. technological advances, new legislation, economic worries, or environmental considerations - including most recently the COVID-19 pandemic.
Successful change management can hinge on how well we (i) communicate change, (ii) implement change, and (iii) set a good example to others during the change.
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Trainer Frank Newberry looks at a simple approach to communicating and implementing change in the workplace. He outlines the four key requirements that will need to be met if change is to be handled successfully (by either team leaders, or by team members - who want to make a difference)
You may have heard the phrase: ‘people don’t like change’. Sometimes it is expressed as ‘people resist change’. These sayings have been doing the rounds for many years now, and they can be useful if they cause the authors (or agents) of change to devise strategies that will overcome any resistance to change in the workplace.
I would challenge the notion that people resist change
Personally, I would challenge the notion that people resist change. My evidence? How about gambling in the UK? On 13 November 1994 approximately ten million people gambled in the UK. Around 17% of the UK population had a flutter - mainly on the football pools.
The next day (14th November 1994), the National Lottery was launched, and 49 million lottery tickets were purchased. The UK population was then about 58 million people.
The National Lottery caused millions more people to become gamblers! The number of gamblers has now settled down to just less than twice the pre-lottery figure with the National Lottery still the UK’s favourite gambling option.
Millions of people have made a significant change in their lives
This suggests to me that millions of people have made a significant change in their lives, and they have remained changed - for a quarter of a century. Around 1.7% of the UK population still do the football pools; about one tenth of those who were doing the pools back in 1994.
120 PC February/March 2021
Why did millions of people change their behaviour? Is it that people just need to know whether a proposed change will bring them benefits, or the prospect of benefits? Another popular phrase seems to apply here, the notion of ‘what’s in it for me?’ or ‘what may be in it for me?’
In this article, we will look briefly at the National Lottery as an example of a successful change that was structured and implemented to succeed. Then we will look at how we might help to manage change when it comes to our workplace.
Everyone is now an agent of change
There are four key features that need to be in place if we are to successfully manage change at work. Now, you may be thinking that change in the workplace is nothing to do with you - that change is a senior management problem, not my problem - it is, as you might say, ‘well above your pay grade’.
Well, that might have been the view in the middle of the last century. But change is now so frequent, and so necessary - for our employers’ survival and our own employment prospects - that everyone is now an agent of change. From apprentices to senior managers.
So what do we have to do? Well, I believe that we all have a part to play, and ultimately we could be shaping the future of our team, our organisation and maybe even the future of our profession.
Let us look at the part we can play in change management at work, especially helping meet the requirements for successful change.
Four Key Requirements of Successful Change
1. A shared dissatisfaction with the present situation
2. A vision of the future that we can all see clearly
3. A route to goal 4. A plan with dates
First Requirement: A shared dissatisfaction with the present situation
The National Lottery succeeded because a sense of dissatisfaction with the football pools was not difficult to locate and then exploit. The Lottery was quick and easy, you could participate when you went shopping, the prizes were much bigger, and you were contributing to worthwhile good causes through the Lottery Fund. By contrast, the football pools took longer to do, the prizes were smaller and no good causes seemed to benefit.
Why did millions of people change their behaviour? Is it that people just need to know whether a proposed change will bring them benefits, or the prospect of benefits? Another popular phrase seems to apply here, the notion of ‘what’s in it for me?’
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