Change: Help them EAT it Up Academic and Student Affairs Leadership - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

October 2019 Change: Help them EAT it Up Academic and Student Affairs Leadership Conference Minnesota State

Objectives • Help employees (and ourselves) deal with the emotions generated by change. • Take action to deal with the most important issues. • Communicate with others about the change.

Change – EAT it up! Step 1: Deal with Emotions Step 2: Help Them Take Action Step 3: Talk to Them About the Change

Step 1: Deal with Emotions

Reacting to Change Primary goal: Create Safety • Our brains evolved to focus on threats. • Social threats are as significant as physical threats • When we feel threatened, our brains close down, options narrow to flight or flight. • When we feel safe, we are able to consider options, plan, make better decisions.

William Bridges – Transition Model

What Could be Ending? Creative Commons 4.0 BY-NC

Helping people through the transition • As leaders, disagree behind closed doors. • Don’t immediately try to “fix” things. • Assess where people are in dealing with the change and acknowledge their feelings. • Be clear about what is changing and what is staying the same.

What about my emotions? • What is changing for me as a leader? • What am I worried about? • What do I need in order to move forward?

Step 2: Help Them Take Action • Clarify roles and responsibilities. • Work together on an action plan to be sure the critical work continues to get done. • Provide training, time to practice new skills, and a safe space to experiment.

Step 3: Talk to Them About the Change • Identify key stakeholders. • Create a communication plan. – Provide context to help them understand why the change happened. – Help them understand their role. • Listen!

Who is a Stakeholder? Stakeholder: An individual, group, or organization who may affect, be affected by, or perceive itself to be affected by a decision, activity, or outcome of a project, program, or portfolio (PMI,2015).

Engaging Stakeholders • Give an example of a time when a change effort was successful in engaging stakeholders. • Give an example of a time when a change effort was NOT successful in engaging stakeholders.

Identifying Stakeholders • Brainstorming – who will be affected by the change or play a role in implementation? • Questions to consider: • Who cares about this change? Why? • Who will be impacted by the change? • Who will do the work? • Whose resources will fund and/or staff the effort? • Whose approval is necessary? • Who should not be surprised?

Engaging Stakeholders Vision & Action Communication Resources • Clear purpose • Two-way: • Information and plan listen and act • Training • Effectively • Informal and • Support meeting formal objectives • Regular and consistent

Stakeholder Matrix • Identify the landscape of support and resistance. • Develop a more strategic communication plan. Influence

Communication Plan • For each key stakeholder, consider: • Key message – What do they care about? – What do you care about? • Communication methods • How will you send the message? – Remember the adage about sending a message 8 times and 8 different ways • When and how often should the messages go out? • Who is responsible for sending the messages?

Creating a Communication Plan Stakeholder What they What I need Comm. Timing Who’s need from from them method responsible me

Questions? What’s one new idea you are going to take away from this session?

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