WEEK 4 - DRIVERS OF CHANGE & CHANGE MANAGEMENT & LEADERSHIP

Drivers of Change

The first topic of the session was on drivers of change. In regards to the (Charles Darwin) quote shared by the Prof, it is not the strongest who will survive but those were most responsive to change. This is very true (or the quote wouldn't be so widely used or reach 1 million likes on FaceBook) and I suppose everyone have probably experienced a who moved my cheese moment. Change is a constant and entirely unavoidable. For an example, you have to join FaceBook some time now or later or risk becoming a do-do bird amongst friends. What this entire session highlighted is how one addresses and manages the changes brought about through the major drivers of change (globalization, competition, innovation, etc) in today's world.

We began the class with an introduction of the different drivers of change. Having read the reading 2 and having my BGS class the day before on globalisation, which we defined as the 'death of distance', I could really relate to how globalization is truly a major driver of change. With increased cross border activities (regardless of if it is an economic transaction, communication or immigration), it has also increased the speed or rather the need to change. From an economic perspective, globalization has intensified competition as domestic industries face new competitors vying for market share. This is where domestic companies need to decide if they can continue being dominant players or become falling stars should they risk not being to adapt to new 'events' in their situations.

We were also introduced to two types of change - revolutionary and evolutionary. Revolutionary change being one that is sudden. There is another type of change - Disruptive Change which may not (or may!) sound as icky as it does. Well, sometimes I do think disruptive should be a synonym for change. But then again, I could keep watching Who Moved My Cheese so I would feel less that way.

Is a disruptive change the same as a revolutionary change? Maybe. But in revolutionary changes, you can always go back to where or who or what you were. In a disruptive change, which is defined as an irreversible change in your expected future, I don't think it is possible to go back. (Prof used the example of letter writing and email.) The important point to note is whatever the changes are - you got to capitalize on the opportunities presented.

Change Management & Change Leadership

What happens when there is a change and how do we effectively manage change? In addition, who 'create' changes in organizations? Leaders or managers? What is the difference between leadership and management? I thought these were some of the questions brought up during our discussion. Anyway, in my HRM module in poly, leaders were loosely defined as those with a vision and the ability to lead (convince) people into accepting and embracing his or her vision whereas managers simply do the right thing. Richard Branson is a beloved example of visionary leadership in my class.

We were introduced to the session via a short video 'Leadership Lesson From a Dancing Guy'. I think this video adequately explained the dynamics of leadership. I'm glad this video highlighted the importance of followers.You can't be a leader if you don't have followers. You'll just be a little lone nut. In addition, followers are often neglected and left out of a grand story but a leader may not necessary be great at managing the changes he sees fit.

Our discussion finally led to the topic on responding to change which relates to the Shahi model of falling and rising stars in my week 2 post. There are 3 general ways of responding to change, you either welcome it with open arms (and maybe even facilitated the change) or you take a backseat and avoid it as long as possible or you hide somewhere & pretend there is no change. I find myself guilty of taking the last option from time to time. The result is cruel - you become a laggard and find it hard to embrace the change and the next thing you know you become a do-do bird and your picture goes into the encyclopedia. The bottom line is - with technology rapidly advancing, we all need to take option 1 all the time.

Key Messages

What I liked about this session the most is how I could relate it to the some of the modules I took in Poly (HRM and Service Operations & Quality Management in which TQM was emphasized as the new way to go in organizations). It was also interesting to get to know the different drivers of change as I do think it is important to understand them in order to effectively manage change. Personally, I think that's what education is about. New information is being generated everyday, we are taught what is going wrong out there so young and impressionable students are able to go out and be drivers of change.

Anyway, taking our little debate in class on what started global warming - humans or natural causes. Could this be an example of responding to change in an ineffective manner where we engage in pointless pseudo environmentalist debate over who caused what? I never really thought of it this way.

Lastly, although it is obvious that one must take on the modern approach (continuous monitoring and renewal) in order to respond to change or improve. It is not easy to implement this approach. Anticipating and accepting change and taking the TQM (modern) approach in organizations was certainly indoctrinated in to us in Poly HRM and Service Operations modules... but we were always reminded how difficult it was to engineer change in an organization. Karen's presentation on Managing Change in Recession discussion question for the class was if it was important to win over the hearts and minds of employees in order to faciliate change. I do think change will not happen successfully if people do not have embrace it completely. Convincing others will always remain the trickiest part as demonstrated in the pessimism-time curve and explained to us in a very easy to understand manner. Hint: Think of the graph as a relationship model.  

I would rate the session 8/10. I think most of the topics required were adequately discussed in this session. I enjoyed all the presentations and the presentation on Microsoft vs Apple helped to further cement the point that change leadership requires change management in order to ensure that change happens in a manageable (happy) way. I look forward to the next TWC class!