HRMD 650 Organizational Development and Change : Implementation Stage

While virtually all of us have an idea about what we want to change and how we want to accomplish that change, we seldom create a comprehensive plan that includes implementation steps. Far too often, a well conceived change initiative ceases to exist altogether, because the change agent has not appropriately addressed many of the barriers to successful implementation. From poor communication to change resistance to poor design to lack of training, implementation barriers need considerable attention from change agents. What part do leaders play in implementation? The videos for this discussion have some clues about why change initiative implementation may fail. Some of those barriers are addressed in your text, but others are found in many other places.

There is no greater barrier to change than communication issues. There is no greater skill than communication that can cross levels, depth, scope, and breadth of people and information. People who are adept communicators quite literally link the world for everyone else. Using the videos above, think about the communication that Mr. Laipply uses as he works through his time on stage. Did you understand it? Did you laugh with the audience? What was the language that he used? Why did you understand it? How does culture feed into understanding this video? How does empathy impact our communication skills? Is empathy its own language? Do change agents need a great deal of empathy? Explain. Is there value in outrospection in change management? All of the questions here are presented to help create a framework for your answer. They do not require explicit and listed answers.

Answer:

Organization Development and Change

Change initiative within an organization, company or institution will not succeed without effective implementation of the change policies (Dinwoodie et al., 2015).Implementation is the most important stage of any major change effort, once this stage is not managed well, change won't be experienced. Many companies which have implemented well their change policies have seen clear financial benefits from the change efforts. Having the ideas, policies and everything that it needs for the change is not enough without implementation stage being effective.

Mr. Laipply’s video, at first glance, seems like just a hilarious video. It is hard to understand it at the beginning, but, as he continues, one can understand the message he is trying to put across. At first, I laughed with the audience, but then I realized that Mr. Laipply is passing an important message to the audience. Laipply uses visual language to pass the message. The video is an example of how life changes with time. It can be seen that Laipply dances different songs throughout the video and a closer look at the songs shows that each song represents a particular time in history. Since life is dynamic, new songs and moves are continuously appearing and hence, changing how people perceive music.  Culture influences how one can understand this video. Every culture has its own perception of music and dance. Whatever was practiced a long time ago in a particular culture, could be the current trend in another culture. This difference affects how one can interpret the difference in time portrayed by the video.  

In understanding the videos, empathy plays a major role. Empathy helps one to communicate or pass a message in a manner that will make sense to others, and it also helps the audience or listeners understand better. This is because, when one empathetic to someone, it implies that he can clearly understand what someone feels at that particular moment. This gives him the urge to carefully listen. On listening to Stephen Ritz, who is a teacher in one of the New York’s tough towns, he grows gardens for food and greenery which create a number of jobs for the suffering community members. When listens to it, he is likely to be empathetic to Mr. Stephen and likely to get the message well. I wouldn’t say that empathy is its own language but an important tool in understanding people.  Change agents need to have empathy in order to bring change. The agents must feel what others are feeling in order to have the drive to implement a change.

Another important aspect of change management is outrospection. By definition, it means a way of knowing oneself by establishing a relationship and empathetic thinking with others (Hernandez, 2013). This aspect is illustrated in the RSA’s videos the surprising truth about what motivates us and Changing education paradigm. Pink (2010) is explaining what really motivates people. For someone to discover what motivates him, he must, first of all, know himself. According to Pick (2010), higher wages and bonus leads to excellent performance only if the tasks comprises of basic mechanical skills. In Robinson's video, he explains the education paradigms that suits people. This, together with outrospection, will enhance creativity and strengthen relationships.

The leaders or the management team as indicated have to work in oneness to cause change. Most of the organizational change has failed, not because of the procedure used to bring out the change, but because of the people involved, the leaders. Executive leaders, senior leaders, top professionals can see change when they themselves become part of the change. They have to understand the imperative of leading the change and managing change too (Dinwoodie et al., 2015).They have to guide people through the emotional upheaval that come with change, should develop mindset, skillsets, and toolsets to other employees and be able to listen to the concerns of those close to the front line as their concerns may help in implementation (Dinwoodie et al., 2015).

References:

Dinwoodie, D., Pasmore, W., Quinn, L., & Rabin, R. (2015). Navigating change: A leader’s role. Center for Creative Leadership. white paper, 1.

Hernandez, J.G. (2013).Empathy: The Power of Outrospection. Retrieved from https://jesusgilhernandez.com/2013/02/26/empathythe-power-of-outrospection/

Leipply, J. (Producer) (2006). Evolution of dance. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dMH0bHeiRNg

Pink, D., (Producer) (2010). The surprising truth about what motivates us. Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u6XAPnuFjJc. [YouTube video]

Ritz, S. (Producer) (2012). A Teacher growing green in the south Bronx. [Video] Retrieved from https://www.ted.com/talks/stephen_ritz_a_teacher_growing_green_in_the_south_bronx

Robinson, K. (Producer) (2010).Changing education paradigms. RSA Inmate. [YouTube video] Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U.