Activity 2 - Alec

Activity 2 - Identify a model of change to help explain change within an organisation you have experienced

I am going to use Kotter's 8-step change model to explain change at what rate spread through cultures.

Few years age, my working place (Student learning centre) would like to launch a new website, use e-platform for teaching and database to manage  student's classwork, academic documents and assessments' data.

The 8-Step Process for leading change will help organizations succeed in an ever-changing world.

1. Establish a sense of urgency
The director has announced that a e-platform should be launched few months later. During the meeting, the director clearly comunicate the need for the change of the centre with all staff members. Sense of urgency is occured, staff should think about how to make it happen.

2. Create a guiding coalition
Convincing people that change is necessary takes strong leadership skills. To lead changes, the director, programe manager and IT manager need to bring together a coalition or team. Once the "change team" formed, they should identify the main leader, ask for an emotional commitment, work on team building, check the team's weaknesses and have a good communication between different levels.

3. Develop a clear shared vision
At this stage, the team should create a vision to direct the change effort and develop strategies for achieving it. Team members can design their individual plan which focus on their strengthens for further discussing. In short, the centre should use moodle for teaching platform and willing to develop their own database for administration.

4. Communicate the vision
To market the vision effectively, holding reguarly discussions maybe a good idea. Normally, The "change team" would conduct several internal meetings with instructors and administrative staff to understand the in-house need and meet with outsiders to investigate other directions.

5. Empower people to act on the vision
To empower people and remove obstacles to change, the director had adjusted the centre's structure and job descriptions. Two IT technician are empolyed to assist all the preparation work for the e-platform, and two senior staff have invited to join the "change team".

6. Craet short term wins
A taste of victory in the change process can  release tensions and improve the power of determination. The "change team" decided that the Moodle had been launched at the coming semester. I remembered that all instructors were loved to use Moodle for teaching, because they could upload all teaching materials and discuss with students through the internet. Moreover, administratative staff also thought that they can manage the courses easily and more convenient.

7. Consolidate & build on the gains
To have continuous improvement, the "change team" has revised several structure and policies that don't fit the vision. For example, they abandoned to create their own administrative database to manage data and adjust the job description of IT team. On the other hand, two administrative staff were promoted and enoucage staff to study courses related to their job.

8. Institutionalise the change

In order to remian firmly planted in the culture, the director likely to share his success stories about change process to the new staff. Also, the programme manager would encourage staff try to conduct different courses every year, he believe that it will help ensure that staff's would not forget or lost the concept of "change".

Refenerce:
http://www.kotterinternational.com/kotterprinciples/changesteps