Change, Resistance and Leadership

1. Change, Resistance and Leadership Jeff Froyd, Texas A&M University Nick Pendergrass, University of Massachusetts-Dartmouth Karan Watson, Texas A&M University

2. Why Worry? “You think you understand the situation, but what you don’t understand is that the situation just changed.” -Putnam Investment Ad

3. Tenets of Learning • Each learner needs learning goals • Each learner relates incoming information to his/her existing cognitive network • Sharing insights with others and listening to their insights help improve your understanding of workshop content • Effective workshops are partnerships between facilitators and participants. • Effective workshops do not occur when participants expect the facilitators to do all the cognitive work • Effective workshops do not occur when facilitators expect that participants will be able to “just make sense” out of a large set of informative slides • Each participant brings many mental models to learning and change experiences.

4. Mental Models – Ladder of Inference • Observable data  Choice of action • Observable data • People select the data they will use and ignore the rest. • People use their personal and cultural beliefs to construct meaning for the data. • People make assumptions using the added meaning. • People draw conclusions from the assumptions and selected data. • People use the conclusions to adopt personal beliefs to use in the future. • Finally, people select an action based on their beliefs.

5. Team Formation • Organize yourselves into teams of four • Organize teams to increase the breadth of NSF units represented in each team • Introduce yourselves to the other members of your team • Share one aspect of working together as a team that you particularly enjoy • Share one aspect of working together as a team that you find difficult or uncomfortable • Appoint one team member to introduce your team to the rest of the workshop

6. Getting Started Workshop Goals Content Overview Introduction

7. What are your goals for the workshop? Think – Team – Share • Individually: List at least four (4) goals that you have for the workshop • As a team: Share your goals and develop four (4) goals as a team that reflect the goals of individual members • Share: Each team will share one or more of its goals.

8. What are your goals for the workshop? • ???

9. Workshop Objectives • Define and create a change model • Apply knowledge from each of the following areas to improve your change model • Individual change • Change and resistance • Dynamics of change • Culture • Non-traditional change models

10. Module Overview • Six Modules • Module • Lecturette – receive information (15 minutes) • Participant task – apply and process information (20 minutes)

11. Engage Participant Resistance • Learning is change; change is learning. • Possible sources of participant resistance • You are unsure about who we are and why we might be qualified. • You are unsure about whether a change model will help you in your current situation. • You are unsure about how the workshop material will be relevant to your work and the challenges you face.

12. Part 1: Change Models Outline • Lecturette • Definition • Examples • Participant Task

13. What is a change model? • Definition: A change model is a statement of the process through which you think an intended change will in an organization. • Analogy: If you compare organizational change to engineering design, then a change model is analogous to an engineering design process.

14. Engineering design informed through: Physical sciences Mathematics Life sciences Economics Social sciences Humanities etc. Change models informed through: Individual change Change and resistance Change dynamics Culture Leadership etc. Analogy: Design vs. Change

15. Change Models: Example Espoused Curriculum Change Model • Conceive a curricular change aimed at improvement • Pilot a new curriculum to test the idea • Assess and evaluate results • Adopt if results from the pilot support change

16. Change Models: Example Current Curriculum Change Model • Recognize dissatisfaction with an element of their students' performance or participation levels • Do an informal search for solutions • Choose and implement one or more curricular or pedagogical changes to address the problem • Gather informal feedback on the success of the innovation, e.g., observe student reactions, ask for student comments • Decide whether or not to continue using the innovation, and if a decision is made to continue, reflect and act on revisions • If the implementation seems effective, possibly attempt to disseminate this innovation through informal methods

17. Change Models: Example Kotter – Leading Change Model • Establish need and energy for a curricular change • Gather a leadership team to design and promote curricular change • Define and agree upon new learning objectives and environment • Discuss the new objectives and environment with the college; revise based on feedback • Implement new curriculum using a pilot, if necessary. • Conduct a formative evaluation of the program, investigating strengths and weaknesses, and use indicators of short-term gains • Decide how the new approach may be used for the entire college and prepare an implementation plan • Prepare faculty and staff for the new implementation, implement, and follow up with improvements

18. Change Models Participant Task • In teams of 4, choose a possible future NSF program. • Describe the change model required to bring about existence of the program. • Describe the assumptions about individual and organizational change that underlie the change model. • Prepare team report • Team Reports • Guided Discussion

19. Part 2: Individual Change Outline • Lecturette • Diffusion of innovation • Staged change models • Reasons for concern about change • Participant Task

20. Diffusion of Innovation: Patterns (area under a normal distribution) Rogers, Everett M., Diffusion of Innovations, fourth edition

21. Type and Distribution of Adopters Late Majority 34% Early Majority 34% Early Adopters 13% Laggards 16% Innovators 3% Rogers, Everett M., Diffusion of Innovations, fourth edition

22. Diffusion of Innovation: Patterns • Innovators: Venturesomeness; more cosmopolite social relationships; innovators play gatekeeping role in the flow of new ideas into a system • Early adopters: More integrated into local system than innovators; innovators are cosmopolites, early adopters are localites; greatest degree of opinion leadership • Early majority: Interact frequently with peers; seldom hold positions of opinion leadership; unique position makes them an important link in the diffusion process; may deliberate for some time before completely adopting a new idea • Late majority: Adoption may be result of increasing network peer pressure; weight of system norms must definitely favor an innovation to help convince late majority • Laggards: Most local outlook; many are near isolates; point of reference for the laggard is the past; decisions often based on what has been done previously

23. Adoption of Innovations: Factors Rogers, Everett M., Diffusion of Innovations, fourth edition • Relative advantage: degree to which an innovation is perceived as better than the idea it supercedes • Compatibility: degree to which an innovation is perceived as being consistent with existing values, past experiences and needs of potential adopters • Complexity: degree to which an innovation is perceived as difficult to understand and use • Observability: degree to which the results of an innovation are visible to others • Trialability: degree to which an innovation may be experimented with on a limited basis

24. Oblivious to needs, desires, or efforts Awareness that things are happening Passive Information Gathering Interest in the things that are happening Decisions about what is happening Commitment to aid or resist the changes that are happening Active Information Gathering Action Staged Change Model Facilitate stage-to-stage changes, not the overall change Passive information gatherers are willing to invest less time and energy. Active information gatherers are willing to invest more time and energy.

25. Concepts/Ideas Concept #1 - ?? Concept #2 - ?? Concept #3 - ?? Applications Application #1 - ?? Application #2 - ?? Application #3 - ?? Individual Change Individually, write down several concepts about individual change and think of an application for each concept.

26. Part 3: Change and Resistance Outline • Lecturette • Origins of resistance • Dynamics of change and resistance (figure) • Responses to resistance • Levels of resistance (Maurer) • Guides • Participant Task

27. Origins of Resistance • Resistance is inevitable, not bad • People are at different stages in changing • People move from stage to stage at different rates • People move from stage to stage in response to different stimuli • Resistance is similar to turbulence

28. Learning/Change Cycles Commitment to Change • Concerns, e.g., • Will I be successful? • Will I find friends? • What will my future look like? Possibly Improved Results New Learning Positive Impact Negative Impact

29. How to Recognize Resistance • Confusion • Immediate Criticism • Denial • Malicious Compliance • Sabotage • Easy Agreement • Deflection (changing the subject) • Silence • In-Your-Face Criticism Maurer, Rick, Beyond the Wall of Resistance, Austin, Texas: Bard Press, 1996, chapter 2

30. Responses to Resistance • Dismissal: “You’re an idiot.” • Bulldozer: “You just don’t understand and I will try again to convince you of the correctness of my approach.” • Let’s talk: “What you say has merit. Let me understand your concerns and let’s review how an alternate proposal might address your concerns.” • Anticipate: Don’t be placed in a position of selling a curriculum proposal; instead position yourself as responding to a felt need

31. How Intense is the Resistance? • Level 1: The Idea Itself • Communicating the Idea • Relative Advantage • Compatibility • Simplicity • Easy to Test • Observability • Involvement • Level 2: Deeper Issues • Level 3: Deeply Embedded Maurer, Rick, Beyond the Wall of Resistance, Austin, Texas: Bard Press, 1996, chapter 8

32. How Intense is the Resistance? • Communicating the Idea • Relative Advantage • Compatibility • Simplicity • Easy to Test • Observability • Involvement Level 1: The Idea Itself (primarily intellectual) • Risks of Level 1 • Can intensify • Reluctance to deal with resistance Maurer, Rick, Beyond the Wall of Resistance, Austin, Texas: Bard Press, 1996, chapter 8

33. How Intense is the Resistance? • Distrust • Bureaucratic Culture • Punishments and Rewards • Loss of Respect and Face • Fear of Isolation • Events in the World • Resilience Level 2: Deeper Issues (primarily emotional) • What is needed? • Actively involved • Heard • Valued • Risks • dealing with emotionally charged issues Maurer, Rick, Beyond the Wall of Resistance, Austin, Texas: Bard Press, 1996, chapter 8

34. How Intense is the Resistance? • Combination of Level 2 Factors • Historic Animosity • Conflicting Values and Vision Level 3: Deeply Embedded (viewed as enemy) • What is needed? • Persistence • Actively involved • Heard, valued • Risks • dealing with emotionally charged issues Maurer, Rick, Beyond the Wall of Resistance, Austin, Texas: Bard Press, 1996, chapter 8

35. Resistance What is your contribution to resistance? • “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself” Tolstoy • “We have met the enemy, and he is us” Pogo • “We must become the change we wish to see in the world.” Gandhi

36. Guides: Responding to resistance • NO. 1: Maintain clear focus • Keep both long and short view, persevere • NO. 2: Embrace resistance • NO. 3: Respect those who resist • Respect vs. trust • Listen with interest • Tell the truth • NO. 4: Relax • Stay calm to stay engaged • Know their intentions • NO. 5: Join with the Resistance • Begin together • Change the game • Find themes and possibilities Maurer, Rick, Beyond the Wall of Resistance, Austin, Texas: Bard Press, 1996, chapter 5

37. Change and Resistance Participant Task • In teams of 4, based on the information just introduced, how might you change the change model developed by your team . • How might you use the ideas to improve your change model? • Prepare team report • Team Reports • Guided Discussion

38. Part 4: Dynamics of Change Outline • Lecturette • Processes that promote change • Does not depend on where you are in the change • Processes that hinder change • Depend on where you are in the change • Initiation • Sustaining • Redesigning and rethinking • Participant Task

39. Change Promoting Processes • “because it matters” • Personal results (Fritz: “What matters to you?”) • “realization that in order to survive and thrive I must change” (Schein, Organizational and Managerial Culture) • “because my colleagues take it seriously” • Community • “because it works” • Business results Senge, Peter, et. al., The Dance of Change

40. Challenges of Initiating • “We don’t have time!” • Challenge: control over personal time • “We have no help!” • Challenge: inadequate coaching, guidance, and support • “This stuff isn’t relevant!” • Challenge: relevance • “They’re not walking the talk!” • Challenge: management clarity and consistency Senge, Peter, The Dance of Change

41. Challenges of Maintaining Momentum • “This stuff is ____!” • Challenge: fear and anxiety • “This stuff isn’t working!” • Challenge: negative assessment of progress • “We have the right way!” / “They don’t understand us!” • Challenge: isolation and arrogance, true believers and non-believers Senge, Peter, The Dance of Change

42. Challenges after InstitutionalizationChallenges of of Redesigning and Rethinking • “Who’s in charge of this stuff?” • Challenge: prevailing governance structure • “We keep reinventing the wheel!” • Challenge: diffusion, inability to transfer knowledge • “Where are we going?” • Challenge: organization strategy and purpose Senge, Peter, The Dance of Change

43. Concepts/Ideas Concept #1 - ?? Concept #2 - ?? Concept #3 - ?? Applications Application #1 - ?? Application #2 - ?? Application #3 - ?? Dynamics of Change Individually, write down several concepts about the dynamics of change and think of an application for each concept.

44. Part 6: Culture Outline • Lecturette • Definition • Levels of culture • Formation of culture • Changing culture • Participant Task

45. Why Worry? “Culture eats change for breakfast.” James Hunt http://www.top7business.com/archives/management/20000208.html Jim Hunt, Principal James W. Hunt & Associates The "Change II" Management Consulting Firm Web address: www.jameswhunt.com

46. What is culture? “A ‘culture’ is a pattern of shared basic assumptions that have been learned by the members of their group.” Edgar Schein, in Senge, Peter, The Dance of Change

47. Levels of Culture • Artifacts • visible organizational structures and process • easy to observe, difficult to decipher, ambiguous • Espoused values, rules, behavioral norms • strategies, goals, espoused rationalizations • articulated reasons for actions, (espoused theories, Argyris) • Basic underlying assumptions • unconscious, taken-for-granted beliefs • theories-in-use (Argyris) Edgar Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, second edition

48. Levels of Culture • Artifacts • Tenure and promotion criteria • Tenure and promotion records • Espoused values, rules, behavioral norms • What people say publicly about what is required for tenure and promotion • Basic underlying assumptions • What people assume and/or say privately about what is required for tenure and promotion and why

49. Adaptation to its external environment Mission and strategy Goals Means Performance measurement Correction and remediation Integration of its internal processes Creating a common language and conceptual categories Defining group boundaries and criteria for inclusion and exclusion Distributing power and status Defining and allocating rewards and punishments Explaining the unexplainable - religion and ideology Culture – Lessons learned via • Edgar Schein, Organizational Culture and Leadership, second edition

50. Changing culture • “You cannot create a new culture. You can immerse yourself in studying a culture ... Until you understand it. Then you can propose new values, introduce new ways of doing things, and articulate new governing ideas. Over time, these actions will set the stage for new behavior. If people who adopt the new behavior feel that it helps them ... The organizational culture may embody a different set of assumptions, and a different way of looking at things ...” Edgar Schein, in Senge, Peter, The Dance of Change