Reflective Diary Sheet: Change Principles and Coping with Change - Assignment Example

REFLECTIVE DIARY SHEET DAY ONE INCIDENT TO BE REFLECTED ON: CHANGE PRINCIPLES AND COPING WITH CHANGE What happened? This day provided information about cultural development in the organisation and the different behaviours and attitudes that people in the organisation carry. Collectivists have emphasis on loyalty and family (Blodgett, Bakir & Rose, 2008). Most reflection was based on Maslow’s principle of establishing a sense of belonging in order to fully develop self-esteem in others. FEELINGS What were you thinking & feeling? This day made me feel much more confident about my abilities to lead and organize change. Change management, as it relates to the culture, requires understanding the loyalty development in others and then establishing this sense of harmonious family culture, a strength for me considering my highly extroverted personality. Bringing out self-confidence in others starts with affiliation as it was reinforced by the lecture materials this day. I felt stronger about my talents in socialization to breed more positive change. EVALUATION What was good & bad about the experience? This day was realistic about the barriers to creating change that are internal and external. I realized that in order to create positive change, I would need to be more risk-minded and view the external barriers as well. I felt that I learned much more about the dynamics of an organisation and how to recognise their interdependence for change purposes. The bad portion of this day was the article describing that people will usually listen to outsiders rather than internal managers for change, a barrier that could bring financial costs and limit relationship development. ANALYSIS What sense can you make out of the situation? Want (2009) offers that changing a culture involves innovation, teamwork and cooperation, awareness of culture, and building trust. I carry many of these dimensions being an extroverted type of person that thrives in social environments with academic knowledge of different cultural principles, such as collectivist values versus individualistic values. Relationship value was the largest sensemaking portion of the day. CONCLUSION What else could you have done? I could have done more investigating into other change principles related to psychology and human behaviour since this is so involved in promoting change. More self-reflection related to technical change is definitely necessary for skills development. ACTION PLAN If it arose again what would you do? If change principles were discussed again, I would focus on the organisation and its structure to determine how best to go about implementing change. I would consider the horizontal versus top-down hierarchy. REFLECTIVE DIARY SHEET DATE: DAY TWO INCIDENT TO BE REFLECTED ON: EXTENDED DICUSSION ON CHANGE LEADERSHIP DESCRIPTION What happened? The materials presented today helped me to better understand my management style especially those identified on the turbulence table. I realized that I am a changing manager that is marketing focused and would be a balanced leader between a closed and open system. This is essential for change to have a level of autonomy and control for employee groups. I am this way because I value customer relationships, seek change actively, but also want controls that are part of this group. FEELINGS What were you thinking & feeling? This day created feelings of surprise at how balanced I am in relation to change principles. I first thought I would be totally innovative in most areas, however I am too controlling at the personality level. But I think this is a strength in understanding management style to develop a change principle or measurement tool that is balanced and would work in both a closed and open system. EVALUATION What was good & bad about the experience? The ADKAR scale provided meaningful insight into the type of change person I would most effectively be. I scored very high on reinforcement which I believe is good considering my marketing focus and relationship focus as part of my butterfly leadership ability. What was bad about the ADKAR test is it reinforced that I need more actual knowledge about how to go about change which will require secondary journal research on my personal time to develop these skills. ANALYSIS What sense can you make out of the situation? Foster (2010) offers that today’s business environment is asking for a replacement of top-down hierarchies and replacing them with flatter and team-based structures to have competitive edge. I realized this will require knowledge exchange with many diverse people in the organisation, making more research important to understand tools and models to use to make change. CONCLUSION What else could you have done? I think I could have focused more on the elements of emotion related to change. Change agents are described as “undeserving victims of the irrational and dysfunctional responses of employees” (Ford, Ford & D’Amelio, 2008, p.362). This means emotions run high and it is dynamic. ACTION PLAN If it arose again what would you do? If change scenarios were offered again, I would focus on removing some emotional barriers that come up in change resistance at the workplace. I would try to build a more psychological approach that deals with belonging and establishing a sense of security as described by Day 1 Maslow materials. REFLECTIVE DIARY SHEET DATE: DAY THREE INCIDENT TO BE REFLECTED ON: EXTENDED DICUSSION ON CHANGE LEADERSHIP DESCRIPTION What happened? This day helped me realize the benefits of information technology in the organisation and how to maximize costs and also productivity in the process. The concept of cloud computing as a resource tool would be beneficial to a manager with my leading style. FEELINGS What were you thinking & feeling? I was thinking about the many costs associated with running an organisation, including technology and the resources to support it. I felt that I lacked some fundamental knowledge of information architecture that could be learned with better reading materials from journals and textbooks. My confidence as an IT leader was not very large based on the complexity of the materials. EVALUATION What was good & bad about the experience? This day provided insight into my strengths and weaknesses related to knowledge and understanding of IT. What was good about the day was that it reinforced my people skills which was identified as being necessary for IT-based changes. ANALYSIS What sense can you make out of the situation? Today’s sensemaking was that the organisation is a dynamic environment with ongoing change in order to be competitive and productive. It requires having a multiple focus on many areas in order to get cooperation to change. CONCLUSION What else could you have done? One article on IT and the lecture indicated that consulting people must be done to ensure they will change. I would need to build a communication plan to clearly describe roles and purpose if I hope to get people to embrace a new change concept. ACTION PLAN If it arose again what would you do? If an IT situation arose where change was demanded, I would examine all of the 15 barriers to why people resist change and try to build them into an IT change project and focus on how to lead successfully to combat these issues that arise. REFLECTIVE DIARY SHEET DATE: DAY FOUR INCIDENT TO BE REFLECTED ON: BUILDING A SOLID BUSINESS CASE FOR CHANGE DESCRIPTION What happened? This day reinforced the importance of consulting and communication and the development of a business case to do this. This clarifies scope and importance and builds knowledge to get cooperation. FEELINGS What were you thinking & feeling? I felt interested about how better to communicate since Days 1-3 spoke so highly of relationship development through communication. I felt confident about my ability to speak verbally for this purpose, but less so about using a formal template for a business case. EVALUATION What was good & bad about the experience? This day showed my weakness on technical business communications tools that need development significantly. However, understanding that I have a genuine focus on internal marketing and relationship development can help when building a business case by using appropriate language. ANALYSIS What sense can you make out of the situation? Business communications are complicated and change resistance is likely if there is not clarity, purpose and vision for a new change principle. Expect resistance regularly and be prepared to combat it! CONCLUSION What else could you have done? I could have completed the template for the business case more effectively rather than just browsing its concept. It is a quality tool that can help identify all key important areas to discuss so nothing is left out of the discussion. ACTION PLAN If it arose again what would you do? If a situation arose again where a business case needed developing, I would look for models from real-world organisations that have been used and compare them to my own communication format and technical language. This would give much large comparison and ensure no data is left out of the discussion. REFLECTIVE DIARY SHEET DATE: DAY FIVE INCIDENT TO BE REFLECTED ON: BETTER SELF-REFLECTION OPPORTUNITIES DESCRIPTION What happened? Considerable knowledge was gained about change philosophy, its relation to the self, and its relationship to the organisational culture. Much reflection was done on my own change principles as it relates to life and the workplace, considering myself to be a butterfly, one that is fully developed and having emerged from the metaphorical cocoon to have achieved the pinnacle of change leadership. FEELINGS What were you thinking & feeling? I was thinking about how grateful I was to the concepts and lectures provided because they gave me new insight into my weaknesses as both a manager and a leader. I was glad to understand what really happens in the organisational environment today so I can be better prepared for change, social activity, and group membership. EVALUATION What was good & bad about the experience? The day was positive because it made me re-examine what I had traditionally thought about myself and take a more realistic view of weaknesses so I can develop them. What was bad about the day was that there was not enough time to cover all topics in depth, especially those that I needed strengthening such as business case development. ANALYSIS What sense can you make out of the situation? Self-reflection is part of emotional intelligence and understanding one’s competency completely. If an organization is not empowered to make change using a horizontal hierarchy, it is not ready for change (Reis & Pena, 2008). This is why relationships and self-reflection are so important for quality purposes. CONCLUSION What else could you have done? I could have been more focused on Jung’s philosophy of learning from mistakes and embracing them as opportunities for change. I intend to be more reflective in this way so that future errors do not happen again in key areas of leadership. ACTION PLAN If it arose again what would you do? If self-reflection for change arose again, I would consider using risk management tools to ensure that anything I miss mentally has a technical document to reflect on. These changes are necessary in an environment that calls for technical and social communications. References Blodgett, J., Bakir, A. & Rose, G. (2008), A test of the validity of Hofstede’s cultural framework, The Journal of Consumer Marketing, 26(6), p.339. Ford, J., Ford, L. & D’Amelio, A. (2008), Resistance to change: the rest of the story, Academy of Management Review, 33(2). Foster, J. (2010), MANA Manufacturer works with Reps to create demand, Agency Sales, 40(4), pp.10-14. Reis, D. & Pena, L. (2008), Focus on management theory, reengineering the motivation to work, Management Decision, 39(8), pp.666-675. Want, Jerome. (2009), Saving the company, Leadership Excellence, 26(6), pp.10-11. Bibliography Quickmba.com. (2010) [internet] Porter’s Five Forces: A model for industry analysis. 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