Change Management

New Era IT appreciates today’s educational environment, the pressures schools are under and the importance for schools to manage change effectively.

Change

Schools today find themselves in a complex rapidly changing world. We live in a global village where change anywhere can have a global impact. The sheer quantity of changes is increasing, and changes are happening more frequently and faster than ever before. In this world ever increasing demands are being placed on schools. To add to the complexity there are pressures from without and within education for schools on the one hand to integrate technology into learning and teaching and on the other to get back to basics; to be more creative and yet be more accountable; and to deal with change and to implement change.

Schools today need to be agile organizations and they need agile leaders with agile skills. Change management is a must for today’s schools and change management skills are a must for today’s principal. Although change impacts on everyone in the school it is the senior management and namely the principal who must manage change on two fronts:

External - the impact on the school of changes from without, and
Internal - implementing strategic change within the school.

Managing External Change

Schools and their leaders approach the impact of external change on the school differently. Two opposing views of this change are depicted below:

Although some schools may sit in between (often adopting a wait and see attitude) school leaders will view change either negatively, as something they have little control over and have to react to; or positively, as something they can use to their advantage and be proactive about. In our experience the latter understand change management while the former are yet to appreciate change management.

New Era IT’s Pathways provides schools with the ideal change management framework and toolset for dealing successfully with external change.

Managing Internal Change

Vision and strategic analysis are important for shaping the future but change management is critical to making it a reality.

Without vision, strategy is merely reactive.
Without realistic strategies to achieve them, visions are only lofty ideals
Without change management neither the future state is achieved nor is the current state maintained – all can be lost.

Change management entails thoughtful planning and sensitive implementation. As Spady (1994) points out people don’t change unless:

they share a compelling reason to change
their leaders model that they are serious about the change
they have ownership in the change
they have a concrete picture of what the change will look like for them personally
they receive organisational support for the change.

(Spady, W.G. (1994) Outcome-Based education: Critical Issues and Answers.)

In our experience

What can happen if change is NOT managed?

What can happen if change is EFFECTIVELY managed?

Progress declines as people become more consumed with the change being introduced.
Passive resistance festers.
Active resistance emerges and sabotages the change.
Valued employees become disenchanted and leave the school.
Employees become disinterested in both the current state and the future state.
Employees begin arguing about change and the direction of the school.
People are left to wonder why the change is happening.
People find work-arounds to avoid implementing the new way of doing things.
Employees revert back to the old way of doing things.
Changes are not fully implemented.
Changes are scrapped and cancelled due to the lack of support throughout the school.
Divides are created in the school between 'us' and 'them'.
The school builds a history of failed and painful changes.
Many types of risk are created - risk to the project, to the school, to the employees involved and to the individuals supporting or chartering the change.

Employees have a solid understanding of why change is happening.
Employees engage in both the solution and the change.
Training is used to build knowledge after employees have made the personal decision to support the change.
Resistance is identified and dealt with early in the process.
Senior leaders demonstrate their own and the school's commitment to the change.
Communications are segmented and customized for different audiences, answering the questions that they care about.
Momentum is built throughout different areas and levels within the school.
Changes are less painful to the school and to the employees.
A coalition of support among senior leaders creates momentum throughout the school.
Probability of meeting project objectives is increased.
The school begins to build a history of successful change, creating a better 'backdrop' for the next change initiative.

New Era IT’s Pathways provides schools with the ideal change management framework and toolset for successfully implementing change.

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Change Management