Leading Change by Putting People First

• Please introduce yourself to your classmates and professor.

Our course is built around Jack’s principle that people are the most important part of any organization. 

As a current or aspiring HR professional, it’s reasonable to assume you are in favor of HR having a leadership role in major change initiatives. However, history shows that HR departments have not often led change in organizations. The question of whether that can or should change is something we will explore throughout this course. To get us started, share your thoughts and experiences on the following:

• How do you define a “people first” approach to change leadership?
• What do you think HR’s role should be in leading change? Think about the attitudes and skills within HR departments you are familiar with, as well as the real and perceived value of HR as a change driver in the rest of the organization.
• Examine the role of HR in your current organization. How does it align with your definition of “people first” change leadership?

Include examples from the readings in this and/or previous JWMI courses, as well as your own experiences, to support your responses.

This week only, post your initial response by Friday, midnight of your time zone, and reply to at least 2 of your classmates’ initial posts by Sunday, midnight of your time zone.​​

1st response

 

Hello Professor Bodam and Classmates,

My name is

Paula

L Johnson-Hill, I am a graduate of Strayer University with a bachelor’s degree in business administration. When I decided to go for my master’s degree, I felt that the JWMI master’s program would provide me with key knowledge on how to grow my leadership skills in ministry. When I first started my MBA program in the winter of 2019 I was driving for Uber while working as an independent life insurance agent. In May of 2019 I registered my outreach ministry (Higher Praise Impact) and in the summer of the same year we did feed some of the homeless people within our county. Afterward, I dragged my heals on moving forward then Covid happened. Just before the pandemic shutdown I joined a different group of agents and hoped to use the revenue to fund some of the programs for Higher Praise Impact. However, I struggled to make appointments because of the shutdown. Once the fall of 2020 rolled around there were some non-covid related health challenges with my dad that needed to be addressed and I needed to be available to help him. Then I ran myself down and I began suffering some health challenges of my own. However, I did not give up. During the past few months, I made up my mind to focus on ministry. This means I am working to complete the revision of my two books and publishing the spiritual workshop that I put together. I will be having a board meeting soon to discuss recent changes and to select one of the programs that we can all agree will give us the best start. Everything I do going forward must be about ministry (outreach). I have seen and heard about so many people suffering from one thing or another over this past year and the ministry cannot help if programs are not in place. I have two children; my son is the oldest with his job on hold due to pandemic and my daughter is in her second year of college. I am proud of both my children and I pray that eventually they will join me in my ministry work in the future.

A “people first” approach to change leadership is to demonstrate company values to employees. If a company claims that people come first than employees should expect leadership to provide honest feedback, recognize employees hard work, ensure employee voices are heard and work with employees to make them successful. When employees are successful, leadership is successful, and when leadership is successful the company is successful.

The role of HR leading change should be creating a new culture along with each department manager. Once the change initiatives have been created and agreed upon HR leaders and department managers can discuss how to best implement the change initiatives. HR leaders should have a meeting with each department to have an open discussion about the new change initiatives and the expectations to meet those new initiatives.

Although I do not currently work for an employer, I am in perfect position to align a “people first” culture in my ministry. It is necessary for an outreach ministry to implement a people first culture because we will be dealing with individuals and families with various social issues, and they must feel safe coming to us for help. Therefore, we must first set the example by demonstrating putting people first among ourselves and when people see that we demonstrate these values among ourselves they can feel assured that they will be treated the same.

Paula

Resource

JWI 566 Week #1 Lecture notes

2nd response

 

Hello Class and Professor,

I am Vera Vankline, and I reside in New Jersey. I am married with two children, and I am eager to obtain my MBA to further my HR career and provide a better life for my family.

My current role is as a Coordinator of Program. I oversee the onboarding, hiring, training, and recruitment for my region. I enjoy what I do, so I am pursuing this degree to land a role within the Human Resources department and a better opportunity.

How do you define a “people first” approach to change leadership?

It has been a known fact that you are likely to retain staff if you put employees first.

The “People First” approach would be treating people the way you would like to be treated, being Candid and purposeful.

What do you think HR’s role should be in leading change? Think about the attitudes and skills within HR departments you are familiar with, as well as the real and perceived value of HR as a change driver in the rest of the organization.

The HR role should lead by example and should demonstrate consistency. Leaders need to understand the forces that undermine change, or they will continue to repeat the same mistakes (1). Being consistent will help to alleviate errors within HR.

Examine the role of HR in your current organization. How does it align with your definition of “people first” change leadership?

The role of HR in my current organizations serves as a support system. If I have any questions about hiring new staff, they are there to provide me with assistance. Our Human Resource department has a national office based out of Princeton. Any HR-related questions are very supportive and are aligned with what I would describe as “people first”.

Reference:

1. JWI 556 Leading Change by Putting People First Week One Lecture Notes

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JWI 556 (1196) Page 1 of 8

JWI 556

Leading Change by Putting People First

Week One Lecture Notes

© Strayer University. All Rights Reserved. This document contains Strayer University Confidential and Proprietary information and may not
be copied, further distributed, or otherwise disclosed in whole or in part, without the expressed written permission of Strayer University.

JWI 556 (1196) Page 2 of 8

WHY IS CHANGE SO DIFFICULT?

What It Means

To acknowledge that change is difficult is to recognize a fundamental force of nature – inertia. Once

something is set in motion, it will tend to continue in that direction until a strong enough force acts on it to

change the direction. Inertia applies to people and businesses. Change is especially difficult when

everything is going along “well enough.” We think, if there is no crisis or imminent threat, we carry on as if

everything will stay this way forever. We get comfortable in our familiar ways, and won’t willingly change

from them unless there is a compelling reason to break free from the status quo.

Why It Matters

 An increasingly global and competitive market will force change onto most organizations

whether they want it or not. Those that aren’t able to change proactively (i.e., before they need

to) will find themselves on the losing end of the battle for market share, and will eventually be

made obsolete.

 Leaders need to understand the forces that undermine change or they will continue to repeat the

same mistakes.

 Leveraging a proven change model is the best way to harness the positive forces that can drive

change, and head off the negative forces before they can do irreparable damage.

“Change takes time, change takes buy-in

from lots of people for meaningful and

lasting success.”

Jack Welch

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JWI 556 (1196) Page 3 of 8

INTRODUCTION

“If the rate of change on the outside is faster than the rate of

change on the inside, the end is near.”

Jack Welch

Welcome to the course.

Over the next ten weeks, we will explore change leadership with a particular focus on the role that HR

professionals can, and should, play in it. The lecture notes for this course are designed to draw out key

themes that are covered each week. This is intended to both help you better focus your learning activities,

and present additional tips and guidance on how the practices and tools we are studying can be applied

to your job as a current or aspiring HR professional.

Our course is organized around three broad change themes. Since HR leadership is a complex

interconnection of forces, you can expect that many of these themes will be revisited throughout the

course and will have multiple applications during our ten weeks together.

1. Identifying and Managing Change in One’s Own Career

We begin with an examination of the key principles of change leadership. We introduce the

challenges that change leaders face, and explore the reasons so many change initiatives fail to

deliver on their promise. As part of this, we introduce key elements of proven change models, and

look at our own personal tendencies in approaching change.

2. Leading Change in HR and in Teams

Over the next three weeks, we focus on leading change in teams. While the principles of leading

team change are fundamentally the same as those of organizational change, it is helpful to look

at team-level change first. This will help you apply what you have been learning in your other

courses in your HR concentration at JWMI, and it serves as a proving ground before moving on to

bigger change projects.

3. Leading Organizational Change

The second half of our course is focused on BIG CHANGE. This is the sort of large-scale initiative

that is driven by the C-suite. We look at the similarities and differences between team change and

organizational change. We will also focus on how to tailor your approach to better match both the

specific type of change initiative being undertaken, and the cultural forces at work in the

organization. We will conclude the course with a review of our change journey and a look at

what’s next.

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JWI 556 (1196) Page 4 of 8

THE NEED FOR CHANGE AND CHANGE LEADERSHIP IN ORGANIZATIONS

Whether you want them to or not, organizations evolve over time. Companies react to competitive

pressures. Leaders pursue new agendas. Products progress through life cycles. Yet, people resist

change. Managers block or ignore the inevitable. Leaders make big investments in yesterday’s products

and services. Too many organizational cultures value, reward, and perpetuate complacency.

Organic change occurs “naturally” as products and systems evolve over time. But organic change is

rarely enough to ensure an organization’s ongoing success. So when we talk about organizational

change in this course, we mean transformational change. We’re focusing on the kind of change that a

leader instigates and drives forward in order to better position the organization for greater relevance and

success.

John Kotter, one of the most respected experts on change, and whose model for change leadership will

form the foundation of our course, characterizes our history with change as follows:

“People of my generation and older did not grow up in an era when transformation was

common. With less global competition and a slower-moving business environment, the

norm back then was stability and the ruling motto was: ‘If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.’

Change occurred incrementally and infrequently…The challenges we now face are

different. A globalized economy is creating both more hazards and more opportunities

for everyone, forcing firms to make dramatic improvements not only to compete and

prosper but also to merely survive. Globalization, in turn, is being driven by a broad and

powerful set of forces associated with technological change, international economic

integration, domestic market maturation within the more developed countries, and the

collapse of worldwide communism…No one is immune to these forces. Even companies

that sell only in small geographic regions can feel the impact of globalization.”

Leading Change, p. 20

TECHNOLOGY & GLOBALIZATION: THE LEADING FORCES OF CHANGE

Over the past 30 years, the pace of change in business has increased dramatically. Of the many

contributing factors, the most important have been breathtakingly rapid developments in technology and

globalization. Throughout organizations of all sizes, technology

has:

 Multiplied the speed and quantity of work that can be done

 Distributed work across traditional boundaries of function, organization, and geography

 Restructured traditional industries like telecommunications and banking, and given rise to new

ones

 Facilitated the tracking and analysis of vast quantities of data, transforming everything from

managerial decision-making to the behavior of capital markets

 Reshaped consumer behavior – how people shop, choose among competing products, and

entertain themselves

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JWI 556 (1196) Page 5 of 8

During the same period, globalization has stitched together the world’s economies, removing traditional

barriers to the flow of goods, money, information, and expertise across national and regional boundaries.

Thanks to breakthroughs in containerized shipping and Internet-based telecommunications, entire

classes of jobs – from manufacturing to computer programming – have shifted to lower-cost

environments. Tariffs on trade have fallen – notwithstanding sporadic outbreaks of protectionism – while

the number of preferential trading blocs has mushroomed. Across the business landscape, globalization

has:

 Intensified competition, not just from local businesses, but also from best-in-class organizations

around the world

 Widened access to a global talent pool and low-cost production options

 Expanded market size and economies of scale

 Increased political and financial risk

 Driven product innovation to serve the unique needs and tastes of rapidly emerging middle-class

consumers in developing countries

The world is also seeing other powerful new trends emerge. The environment is becoming an ever-

greater concern, bringing increased regulation. Resources like oil and water are showing signs of real

scarcity. Finally, the recent financial crisis has forced organization to change many longstanding practices

of how they manage debt and equity. In the face of all these external forces of change, some

organizations will be able to pull far ahead of the competition while others will be left behind.

THE ROLE OF MANAGEMENT AND LEADERSHIP IN CHANGE

So, if transformational and often large-scale change is the new normal, who are the leaders that will guide

us on the journey? Is this purely the domain of the CEO and perhaps a few select members of the C-

suite? What role should Human Resources professionals play in leading change? These are questions

we will explore throughout the course. But before we go any further, let’s consider what Kotter finds to be

an important distinction between management and leadership.

 Management is a set of processes that can keep a complicated system of people and technology

running smoothly. The most important parts of management include planning, budgeting,

organizing, staffing, controlling, and problem solving.

 Leadership defines what the future should look like, aligns people with that vision, and inspires

them to make it happen despite the obstacles.

Leading Change, p. 28

This distinction is critical in Kotter’s view, and he argues that “successful transformation is 70 to 90

percent leadership and only 10 to 30 percent management. Yet for historical reasons, many organizations

today don’t have much leadership. And almost everyone thinks about the problem here as one of

managing change.”

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JWI 556 (1196) Page 6 of 8

“The combination of cultures that resist change and managers who have not been taught

how to create change is lethal…A powerful enough guiding coalition with sufficient

leadership is not created by people who have been taught to think in terms of hierarchy

and management.”

Leading Change, p. 30

To be clear, however, Kotter is not anti-management.

“Managing change is important. Without competent management, the transformation

process can get out of control. But for most organizations, the much bigger challenge is

leading change. Only leadership can blast through the many sources of corporate

inertia. Only leadership can motivate the actions needed to alter behavior in any

significant way. Only leadership can get change to stick by anchoring it in the very

culture of the organization.”

Leading Change, p. 33

WHY DO SO MANY MAJOR CHANGE EFFORTS FAIL?

It sounds too simple, but the reason that so many people in organizations don’t change is that they don’t

have to. Their leaders may talk about why change is needed, but they fall short of demanding the results

that can only be achieved through change. It’s a leader’s job to know when an organization needs to

change, determine the direction, and make it happen. But determining when change is needed is not

always easy. It requires a leader who is adept at looking into the future and staying several steps ahead

of everyone else.

“People who have been through difficult, painful, and not very successful change efforts

often end up drawing both pessimistic and angry conclusions. They become suspicious

of the motives of those pushing for transformation; they worry that major change is not

possible without carnage; they fear that the boss is a monster or that much of the

management is incompetent. After watching dozens of efforts to enhance organizational

performance via restructuring, reengineering, quality programs, mergers and acquisitions,

cultural renewal, downsizing, and strategic redirection, I draw a different conclusion.

Available evidence shows that most public and private organizations can be significantly

improved at an acceptable cost, but that we often make terrible mistakes when we try

because history has simply not prepared us for transformational challenges.”

Leading Change, p. 19

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JWI 556 (1196) Page 7 of 8

JOHN KOTTER’S EIGHT-STAGE PROCESS FOR LEADING CHANGE

We have selected Leading Change by John Kotter as our main text in the course. While Kotter’s is

certainly not the only model for leading change, it has proven itself over the years. It remains one of the

most widely-referenced sources on the topic in both academic and corporate circles.

Kotter’s eight-stage framework is based on his research that shows major change does not happen easily

or naturally, and that it must be supported by a series of steps that address the eight most common errors

that occur during large-scale change initiatives. The errors are:

1. Allowing Too Much Complacency

2. Failing to Create a Sufficiently Powerful Guiding Coalition

3. Underestimating the Power of Vision

4. Undercommunicating the Vision

5. Permitting Obstacles to Block the New Vision

6. Failing to Create Short-Term Wins

7. Declaring Victory Too Soon

8. Neglecting to Anchor Changes Firmly in the Corporate Culture

Leading Change, pp. 4-15

As we explore change leadership and management practices in this course, we will revisit Kotter’s model

frequently. We will also feature readings by other experts presenting research that argues Kotter’s model

may not go far enough in some areas, or that it does not address key factors that have a significant

impact on the success of change initiatives. You are encouraged to consider these points of alignment

and difference carefully, and to continue your exploration and application of the practices presented in the

course in your own career.

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JWI 556 (1196) Page 8 of 8

SUCCEEDING BEYOND THE COURSE

Throughout this course, we will explore principles and tools of effective change leadership. You should

always think about how what you learn can be tested and applied in your own workplace. At the end of

each week’s lecture notes, you will find tips on how to do this. These tips are directly connected to the key

learning outcomes for the week. For most of the ideas it will be helpful to apply them to a specific change

initiative you are considering or are already engaged with. It doesn’t have to be a large-scale change; in

fact, it may be better if it isn’t. But having a real-world scenario to work through allows you to apply what

you are learning and evaluate the results you get.

 Understand the need for change and change leadership in organizations

Commit to not becoming complacent about the need for change. Be on the lookout for

examples of organizations that wouldn’t (or couldn’t) change and ended up losing market

share or even going out of business. Research the biggest changes that have happened in

your industry in the last decade. What drove them, which companies came out as winners

and which as losers? What did the winners do that allowed them to make the needed

changes ahead of others companies? As you are researching change in your industry, take

a look around the inside of your organization also. Who the change leaders? What role has

HR played in leading change? What factors led to this role?

 Examine the reasons so many companies fail at major change efforts

As you learn more about the forces that impede change, start looking for real-world

examples in your organization. Have there been situations where change has been

attempted and failed. Looking back on these, conduct a post mortem. Were key steps

missed? What could have been done differently that may have led to more positive

outcomes? If you can’t see an obvious problem (and your typically won’t at first), ask

questions. See if you can find out who the change leaders were and talk with them. Let

people know that you are taking a course on change leadership, and want to deepen your

understanding. Be careful that you express your genuine interest in learning about the

challenges of change and do not come across as someone looking to assign blame.

 Explore John Kotter’s eight-stage process for leading change

Leverage the framework as a model for your examination of real-world change initiates. You

don’t have to buy into every element of it for it to be a good evaluation tool. Even Jack made

adaptations to the model and developed a GE version called the Change Acceleration Process

(CAP). What change models have been used in your organization in the past or are currently

being used? Research other models. Learn how they align or differ. Use Kotter’s model as a

framework to weave other support tools and methodologies around.