Page 264 - Managing Change in Organizations

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Coping with the process of change
receiver emphasizing that feedback is important if effectiveness in communica-
tion is to be ensured. In fact, using these coping with change ideas as the basis
for short workshops can provide for more effective communication about
changes.
Issues
Do I know how I am expected to behave? What standards of performance will be
required? Who will I work with? Who will I report to? Who will I be responsible for?
Discussion
If I do not understand the new situation I am unlikely to be able to deal with
these questions. Yet if people are to adapt they need to be able to answer them.
These questions are really the behavioural element of the questions raised in the
last section. They also begin the process of establishing precisely what others
expect of us in the new situation.

Issues
Can I try out the new system in advance? Is it possible for me to experiment with
the new system? To learn by trial and error?

Discussion
Coming to terms with new systems takes time, requires experiment and risk and
involves learning. Very often, the first time that many people face a new system
is either on a training course or when the system is installed. Both situations cre-
ate expectations which can mitigate against risk. Often, training programmes,
unless sensitively handled, involve comparisons between people. No one wel-
comes feeling stupid or ineffective in front of others. If we are trained to handle
a new system we may feel that we cannot control our own learning because we
are holding back the group, or because the trainer has so much ground to cover
and we feel we cannot or should not hold things up. Trying out new systems for
ourselves and by ourselves allows us to familiarize ourselves with the system at
our own rate. We can begin to come to terms with new systems if our first
attempts are not organized in such a way as to make us feel that we are being

evaluated. I once discussed this point with a senior manager from a newspaper
group which had introduced computerized printing technology. In doing so the
company had bought a number of workstations long before they were needed for
production purposes. These workstations were placed in a room which operators
were allowed to use at any time and unsupervised. Instruction was available but
was delivered at the rate that the operator wished and not to a predetermined
training plan. Thus the operators controlled their own learning. The company
found that people made rapid progress, including many who had been consid-
ered unlikely to take on the new technology.

Know others who can help
Issues
Is there benefit in talking things over with family, friends or colleagues? With my
manager? With strangers?

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