Theory of the five disciplines as a method of change - Term Paper Example

Team Development & Change Management Theory of the five disciplines as a method of change Change management is an approach of transitioning teams, individuals, and organizations to a desired future state. Change management process includes creative marketing to enable communication between the changing audiences as well as provide deep social understanding about the leadership styles and group dynamics. A successful change management process is one which benefits the management and defines measure or the stakeholder’s aims, devises an effective education, training or skills upgrading system for the organization, counters the resistance from the employees and aligns them towards the strategic direction of the organization, provides personal counseling to any change related fears (Hayes, 2010).The 10 principles that guidelines the change management is address the human side systematically, it should start at the top, change should involve every layer, make the formal case, create ownership, communicate the message, address culture explicitly , assessing the cultural landscape, speak to the individual and prepare for the unexpected. John Kotter has proposed the 8-step change model for the change management process. The 8-step change model comprises of - Creating urgency , by identifying threats and developing scenarios to forecast what can happen in future to create a sense of urgency of change, examining opportunities that could be exploited, to start honest discussions and convincing reasons to enable people talking and thinking, request support from the stakeholders to support the argument. Form a powerful coalition, in order to convince people that change is necessary, and bring together a coalition or team of some influential people whose power comes from various sources, the change coalition needs to work as a team to continuously create the need and urgency for change. Create a vision for change; a clear vision will help everybody to understand why they are being asked to do something, then creating a strategy to execute that vision. Communicate the vision; this is necessary to be communicated as it may face a lot of competition from other communications in the firm. Removing obstacles; that may come in the process of change, creating short term wins as nothing motivates more than success. Build on the change, to set goals to continue building on the momentum. Lastly anchor the changes in corporate culture, it includes the change values and ideals when training and hiring new staff and to create plans to replace key leaders of change. The five disciplines of the change management include personal mastery, mental methods, building shared visions, team learning and systems thinking. Personal mastery is the discipline of learning and personal growth. Mastery is a special level of proficiency and not dominance over something. People with personal mastery are expanding their ability continually to create results in life. The two underlying movements in personal mastery is continually clarifying what is important and continually learning how to see reality more clearly. Learning is a lifelong process it is the skills to produce the results truly desired for. The characteristics of personal mastery includes approaching life as a creative work as opposed to reactive viewpoint, living in a continual learning mode, integrating reason and intuition. Personal mastery also helps in developing a personal vision. It imparts creative tension; the gap between what we want and where we are that is relative to what we want (Srinath, 2009). Personal mastery thus is a discipline of continually deepening and clarifying one’s personal vision, of focusing our energies, of seeing reality objectively and developing patience. Team learning is another discipline of aligning and developing the capacity of the team to create the results that the members truly desire for. Alignment is needed for individual and group empowerment and it occurs when the group performs as a whole. Team learning is the balance between the discussion and the dialogue. Discussions often termed as debate is when different views are presented and defended. Dialogue is a process of reflection or inquiry. The purpose of a dialogue is to go beyond the understanding of an individual, individual through this gain insight that cannot be achieved by one self-alone. The ways of participating in a dialogue is by observing your own thinking, and by revealing the hidden prejudices in our beliefs (Senge, 2010).The hidden problems in creating a dialogue are the habitual ways of interacting that protects one from embarrassment or threat but also prevents from learning. In dialogues conflicts becomes embraced with the aim to recognize the mental models which are behind them and even as a means of discovering a new view different views are presented (Hiatt, 2003). The characteristics of a team learning facilitator are slipping over to the debate is easy as they are used to such communication, someone that can be helpful for the group to stay in the dialogue process, someone who constantly reminds the team members to examine their thinking process. The primary objective of the dialogue is to develop new state of perception and awareness of increasing subtle movements of thoughts along with the assumptions that hide this movement of normal consciousness. The secondary benefit is the emergence of a less mechanical and more intelligent relationship to knowledge. Summary findings from the Team Development sessions The key findings in session one of team development is about team facilitation, to know about the importance of effective meetings, identifying and preparing the steps needed for conducting an effective meeting. Facilitation if not planned properly then many things can go wrong. The session highlights that active participation among all team members and commitment is necessary for the success of the project. The session includes a meeting with all the key stakeholders, though continuous learning is essential to excel in personal mastery but people who gain experience and competence finds it difficult to acquire new set of competencies and skills. In the second session the main focus was on the tam learning discipline which was based on the SWOT analysis, and through discussions the team could come up with answers of how to be well positioned to beat the threats, to minimize it weakness, make better use of strengths and exploit the opportunities. This session also revealed that high energy is required amongst the team members to result into productive discussions or debate, to invest the energy to criticize thoughts and outline the best amongst those. Learning as Facilitator of Team Development The main goal of session two team development is to continue to define the core work of learning organization through the disciplines of learning. The characteristics of a learning organization can be enumerated as follows: I) there exists a shared vision that everyone agrees on, II) people discard the old ways of thinking and the standard routines they use for solving problems or doing their job, III) members think of all organizational processes, activities, functions, and interactions with the environment as part of a system of interrelationships, IV) people openly be in touch with each other without fright of condemnation or penalty, V) people sublimate their personal self-interest and fragmented departmental interests to work together to achieve the organization’s shared vision. A learning organization is that organization that has developed the continuous capacity to adapt and change. Just as individuals learn, so too do organizations. It is considered as the fundamental prerequisite for sustained survival of associations that they learn whether consciously or not. However, some organizations just do it better than others. Most organizations connect in what is regarded as the single-loop learning (Reiss, 2012). When errors are detected, the rectification process relies on precedent routines and present policies. In contrast, learning organizations use double-loop learning. When an error is detected, it is corrected in ways that involve the modification of the organization’s objectives, policies, and standard routines. Double-loop learning defies deeply rooted suppositions and standards within an association. In this way, it provides chances for radically dissimilar explanations to problems and theatrical jumps in development. Proponents of the learning organization envision it as a remedy for three fundamental problems inherent in traditional organizations such as fragmentation, competition, and reactiveness. Change management comprises of five learning disciplines among which two is discussed here. Team learning is considered as a discipline in which a group of individuals impart their experience, abilities and learning among one another as a means to improve things. Systems’ thinking is seen as a structure which looks between relationships that represent complex communications and circumstances as opposed to shortsightedness. A plan for team development is considered critical for the success of any change management process. The main goal of team management is to take a step back and then create such a condition in which the group will succeed. Recommendations for Team Development The discipline of team learning is considered as an important element of the development process of teams. It involves creating a limit for the group to achieve the outcome that team members desire. It involves the creation of an imparted vision. There are four stages for a team to achieve an outcome that is considered successful such as forming, storming, norming, and performing. Effective teams have common characteristics. They have adequate resources, effective leadership, a climate of trust, and a performance evaluation and reward system that reflects team contributions. Learning Resources to Know More about the Change Management Process The main purpose of team development is to engage with an outside group to make recommendations on change within an organization. It involves implementing structured processes, possessing necessary resources and tools to achieve the intended results. Change management is considered as a process that should be included in the planning process of an organization at an early stage (Kneer, 2013). There are many learning disciplines in the change management process among which the most important ones are considered to be personal mastery, mental models, and shared vision. Personal mastery is considered as a discipline for personal learning and growth. Mental models involve taking pictures in our minds of processes that are to be changed and analyzing those pictures on a consistent basis to achieve the desired outcome. Shared vision refers to a group of people sharing an equal commitment with regard to achieving the desired outcome. References Hayes, J. (2010). The Theory and Practice of Change Management . Denmark : Palgrave Macmillan. Hiatt, J.,Creasey, T. J.(2003). Change Management. USA : Prosci. Kneer, C. (2013). Change Management. Norderstedt: GRIN Verlag. Reiss, M. (2012). Change Management: A Balanced and Blended Approach. Norderstedt: Books on Demand. Senge, P.M. (2010). The Fifth Discipline: The Art & Practice of The Learning Organization. Cambridge : Crown Publishing Group. Srinath, T.T. (2009). Team Development and Team Effectiveness. Hyderabad : ICFAI Book. Read More