Change Ahead, This Way!

Without making too many assumptions right now, I am sure that we can all agree that change can be a little bit scary and at one point or another we have avoided change. Change can create a fear of the unknown and what that change may do to our lives. Although we may not agree with the change that is happening and we may want to fight it we have to remember that change is inevitable, and it is the one constant that will not be leaving anytime soon.

Typically, when change is occurring in the work place it is implemented because there is a need for things to change such as improving customer service or increasing the bottom line. A few years back, I was working with a company that went through some major changes. A competitor had opened nearby and business was starting to struggle and our company wanted to go through some planned change within the organization. The change that was made was to create an environment that fostered the idea that by treating the customer right, the money will follow. They shifted our pay scales to have more of a focus on customer satisfaction rather than numbers. This change affected our pay in the way that bonuses were taken away on numbers and bonuses were added for hitting certain levels of customer satisfaction based on a survey system. If we were above the customer satisfaction index average for our region we would get an additional bonus. The change shifted our focus to making sure we were spending time with each of our customers and not rushing to get to the next to hit more numbers and ultimately make more money. The steps we went through during that time mirrored Schein’s theory of planned change and we worked through the process of unfreezing, changing and then refreezing.

According to our commentary, “A leader must motivate the people in the organization to change” (PSU,2018). What happened next was the most important part of the process. Our leader got the group together and talked about the changes that were going to be occurring. He explained to us the reason why the change needed to occur and how we as a group were going to do it. This was the unfreezing process of the planned change. He helped us to understand why our old behaviors were unacceptable and he created a sense of enthusiasm around how the change was going to benefit us. He asked if anyone had any concerns and asked for anyone to voice opinions they had about the change. The discussion allowed for him to answer any questions we had and made it so that no on feared the change and the potential of taking a pay decrease.

Over the next couple months, we worked on the change process. In the second step of Schein’s (1980) planned change model, there is focus on the change itself, specifically what he calls the first mechanism, identification (PSU, 2018). In this step, you connect yourself with a respected person who is helping to teach the new behaviors that you as an individual can learn from and look up to. Our leader was a mentor for all of us, so we were able to easily follow along with his lead to adapt to these new changes (PSU, 2018). During the change process, we had meetings to discuss where we were at with the changes and how we were feeling. We had open discussion about the changes as well as had feedback from our leader in how he thought we were doing with the change and what we needed to adjust. During this step, the numbers and surveys were speaking for themselves. We were seeing changes in the numbers and they were steadily rising higher than they were before the change was made.

In last stage of Schein’s (1980) planned change model, the process of freezing the new behaviors into everyday standard behavior occurs. One of the methods in part of this step is what is known as the fit to self-concept mechanism. When using this mechanism, the individuals working with the change can test out the new behaviors in a safe environment to see how well the new behaviors fit with each person (PSU,2018). This is the primary mechanism we focused on during this change and it closely relates with my boss’s leadership style. Throughout the changing process, he had created an environment that allowed us to make mistakes without repercussions and allowed for open dialogue. He created an environment that had support that way If we were struggling with a customer he was always there to step in and help us.

The need to change was apparent and the change that occurred was for the best. Had we not made the changes we did, we may not have kept the customers we did, and we would have fallen behind our competition. They were always known for having great deals but not the best customer service. We took the opposite approach, and the changes helped us to keep a competitive edge and made us stand out from our competitor. We focused on perfecting the art of customer service. The most important part of the process was having a leader who was strong and motivated us to want the changes as well. The changes that were made weren’t changes that were imposed on us to make us feel like we had no say. There was a lot of open discussion and a learning curve that took place. The change created a synergy within the ground that allowed us to follow in our leaders’ footsteps and collaborate successfully to make the changes necessary to be successful.

Penn State University. (2018). Lesson 05: Learning and change in a global setting. Retrieved from https://psu.instructure.com/courses/1942644/modules/items/24935389