Change in the Workplace Table of Contents

EDC385G Organizational Development with Dr. Ralph Gohring
Unique ID 73535--Student Susan K. Soy
Summer, 2001

Table of Contents--Change in the Workplace Project

Week 1 -- June 09, 2001

Class Syllabus

Roster of Students

Optional Readings

Affinity Exercise & Affinity Diagram

Focus Group Results

Personal Expectations Questionnaire

Key Learning

Affinity Exercise

Week 2 -- June 16, 2001

Reflective Writing on a Change Process

Readings/Response and Feedback Paper on French & Bell Chapters 1-2--Mink Chapters 1 & 2

Key Learning:

Thoughts about Systems Theory
Key learning for change project
Perhaps I need to consider and tackle a framework for the AMN as a whole

Related Websites and Readings:

French, W. L., & Bell, C. H. Jr. (1999). Organization development: Behavioral science interventions for organization improvement. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.

Gallagher, W. (1993). The power of place: How our surroundings shape our thoughts, emotions, and actions. New York: HarperCollins.

Lindblom, C. E. (1959). The science of "muddling through". Public Administration Review, 19(2), 79-89.

Mink, O. G., Esterhuysen, P. W., Mink, B. P., & Owen, K. Q. (1993). Change at work: A comprehensive management process for transforming organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Schuler, D. (1996). New community networks: Wired for change. New York: Addison-Wesley.

Quote for the Week:

It is not enough for a handful of experts to attempt the solution of a problem, to solve it and then to apply it. The restriction of knowledge to an elite group destroys the spirit of society and leads to its intellectual impoverishment. Albert Einstein

Web link for the Week: About Chris Argyris

http://www.strategy-business.com/thoughtleaders/98109/page1.html

Week 3 -- June 23, 2001

Written Description of Project using "Questions to Guide the Project"

Results of Stages of Concern Questionnaire

Notes on CBAM, Concerns-Based Adoption Model

Response and Feedback Paper combined with the beginnings of journal notes on the project on French & Bell Chapters 4, 5, 6, & Mink Action Research Teams Chapter 4

Key Learning:

Confusion about Project and Decision to narrow scope to those areas I can influence

Key learning for change project now titled:

"Project Plan for Integrating the Austin Music Network Archives into the Austin History Center Collection"

I need to consider walking away from the larger problem because it is not possible to fix the whole; too much of it is out of my sphere of influence
Individuals first; Change second

Websites and Related Readings:

Brand, S. (1999). Clock of the long now: Time and responsibility. New York: Basic Books.

French, W. L., & Bell, C. H. Jr. (1999). Organization development: Behavioral science interventions for organization improvement. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Primarily Chapters 4-7.

Mink, O. G., Esterhuysen, P. W., Mink, B. P., & Owen, K. Q. (1993). Change at work: A comprehensive management process for transforming organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Primarily Chapters 3-4 and 14.

Quote for the Week:

Rigorous long-view thinking make responsibility-taking inevitable because it responds to the slower, deeper feedback loops of the whole society and the natural world.--Stewart Brand page 1:18 in Clock of the long now: Time and responsibility.

Web link for the Week:

Joe Flower's Conversation with Marvin Weisbord "Future Search: A Power tool for Building Healthier Communities" http://www.well.com/user/bbear/weisbord.html

Week 4 -- June 30, 2001

Brief Project Plan Presentation using the planning and Development Guidelines provided

Response and Feedback Paper combined with the journal notes on the project using Mink Chapter 10 and The Prelude

Plus Journal Notes for my project

Plus Experience with CBAM

Journal related to Change Plan Implementation

Guest Speaker:

Jim Smith, City of Austin, Director of the Austin Bergstrom International Airport

Handouts:

Strategic Plan for Creating Customer Satisfaction: [Add box for Commitment to Service]
Worksheet for The 10 Dynamics of Change
The Change Thermometer

Key Learning:

Change is discomforting and the reaction to change is predictable
Timing is everything

Key learning for change project:

You can't rush progress through the progression of steps necessary for the adoption of change.

Websites and Related Readings:

Quote for the Week:

Look for change at each scale: Changes can happen between the organization and other organizations, between the parts of an organization, between individuals, or within individuals - and each change causes other changes at the higher and lower levels. http://www.well.com/user/bbear/change_codes.html

Web link for the Week:

Concerns-Based Adoption Model As viewed by others:

http://ide.ed.psu.edu/change/hall.htm

http://hale.pepperdine.edu/~fldaughe/A3-CBAM/CBAM-reference.html

http://www.coe.uh.edu/insite/elec_pub/HTML1997/td_dirk.htm (not up online 8/04/2001)

Week 5 -- July 7, 2001

Response and Feedback Paper combined with journal notes on the project using Mink Chapter 5-9 and French and Bell Chapter 8 - 9

Plus Journal Notes for my project, Force Field Analysis results from 7/02 & 7/07

Fully developed sections Week 1 - 4 for the Final Class Product

Guest Presenter: City of Austin Police Chief Stan Knee

From Stan Knee: His memo on training to the APD force, packet of materials concerning APD

Key Learning:

Erase the Whiteboard--clear the decks and begin anew--

No one likes to work for a grump, be visible, remember where you came from, keep your eyes on the horizon, and your ear to the ground

Websites and Related Readings:

Bushe, G. (1998). Five theories of change embedded in appreciative inquiry. In : http://www.od-forum.com/congress98.htm Organization Development Institute: Selected Proceedings** of The 18th World Organization Development Congress, held July 14-18th, 1998 University of North Carolina, Wilmington. & University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

Cooperrider, D. L. (1990). Positive image, positive action: The affirmative basis of organizing. In S. Srivastva & D. L. Cooperrider (Eds.), Appreciative Management and Leadership (pp.91 -125). San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

French, W. L., & Bell, C. H. Jr. (1999). Organization development: Behavioral science interventions for organization improvement. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Chapter 8-9

Mink, O. G., Esterhuysen, P. W., Mink, B. P., & Owen, K. Q. (1993). Change at work: A comprehensive management process for transforming organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Chapters 5-9

Sources for Brief Descriptions of Force Field Analysis:

http://www.mindtools.com/forcefld.html
http://www.accel-team.com/techniques/force_field_analysis.html

Website to further explore:

http://www.od-forum.com/congress98.htm Organization Development Institute: Selected Proceedings** of The 18th World Organization Development Congress, held July 14-18th, 1998 University of North Carolina, Wilmington. & University of Dublin, Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland

At this website, various papers explore Organizational Development issues like large group interventions, appreciative inquiry, and a more socially responsible world.

Quote/passage from Joe Flower:

Doing things right or doing the right thing

Peter Drucker synthesized a powerful thought for our era. He pointed out that in the past, in the industrial era, we focused great effort on allowing people to do their jobs better. We saw learning how to do the job better as the principle driver of quality, and ultimately of wealth. In this new era of network economics, where information plays a greater and greater competitive role, the question becomes not, "How can I do this job better?" but "What should I do? What is the right thing to do?"
When you start asking those questions you find that just doing what you have been doing, but doing it better, is not necessarily the answer. You often have to stop doing what you're doing, and go do something new. This process of letting go, of stopping what we are doing entirely and doing something else in its place, has not really made it into our vocabulary of corporate management.
This kind of change is disruptive. It's heart-rending. It's not easy. We see this often not with entire organizations but with products. Organizations get invested into a particular product. And sometimes the best thing is to stop making that product, even though it's profitable, because it has optimized at a local peak. This is where it becomes hard. It's like saying, "This is a nice peak, but we are going to get stuck here. We've got to let go. We've got to kill it and climb down this hill, so that we can cross the valley and move on to larger peaks."
We don't have the organizational and managerial tools for giving things up very easily.
For instance, as health care moves from just fixing people who are sick toward more prevention and community work, it is finding out something important: the kind of organizational and individual skills that you need to fix people are very different from the kind of skills that you need to get people to change the behaviors that make them sick in the first place. This is a very different business.

Flower, Joe. The structure of organized change: a conversation with Kevin Kelly. Available online. http://www.well.com/user/bbear/kellyart.html#RTFToC8

Week 6 -- July 14, 2001

Response and Feedback Paper combined with journal notes on the project using Mink Chapters 11 & 12 and French and Bell Chapters 10 & 11

Plus Journal Notes for my project, results from Tim and I on defining the situation, completing the force field analysis to produce a prioritized list of items to fit into the Business Plan work for next year, and the early drafts of the spreadsheets that we started with for defining job tasks.

Guest Speaker:

Dennis Romig with handouts on Breakthrough Teamwork and Side by Side Leadership

Handouts:

Sigmoid Curve from The Age of the Paradox

News article about Trilogy

Earthquake Consensus building exercise

Key Learning:

Reflection improves leadership

Websites and Related Readings:

Management and HR Consulting. (2000). Current Concepts of Change Management. [Online]. Available: http://www.mgmthrconsulting.com/current.html [06/30/01].

French, W. L., & Bell, C. H. Jr. (1999). Organization development: Behavioral science interventions for organization improvement. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Chapters 10-11.

Mink, O. G., Esterhuysen, P. W., Mink, B. P., & Owen, K. Q. (1993). Change at work: A comprehensive management process for transforming organizations. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Chapters 11-12.

Quade, K. and Sullivan, R. (1998). Whole systems transformation and the facilitation of large group interactive events (LGIE). Quantum Change Associates. [Online]. Available: http:// www.od-forum.com/quade.htm [06/30/01].

Quote of the Week:

"When people plan present actions by working backward from what is really desired, they develop energy, enthusiasm, optimism, and high commitment."

-- Weisbord, Marvin R. Productive Workplaces (San Francisco: Jossey-Bass Publishers, 1987.)

Week 7 -- July 21, 2001

Response and Feedback paper on Dr. Romig's presentation concepts in Side by Side Leadership

Sigmoid Curve paper

Guest speaker:

Michael Wolf, Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

Plus Journal Notes for my project, results to date from the analysis of SSPR items, Job Description, Essential Functions

Key Learning:

Good Luck, Bad Luck Story

Websites and Related Readings:

French, W. L., & Bell, C. H. Jr. (1999). Organization development: Behavioral science interventions for organization improvement. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Chapter 12-13

Handy, C. (1994). The Age of Paradox. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Refer to Sigmoid Curve, Chapter 3.

Romig, D. Breakthrough Teamwork: Results Using Structured Teamwork. Austin, TX: Performance Research Press, 1997. See also the Priteam.com site: http://www.priteam.com/twrkpg.htm

Quote/passage of the week from Heifetz Hall Consulting Group: http://www.leading-change.com/formula.html

Key factors for Change are:
Vision = the what
Process = the how
Discomfort = the why
Cost or resistance = the why not
V+P+D greater than > C
Furthermore, organizations that lack a sufficiently clear and compelling vision often find that managers and their work units will 'fill in the blanks' with their own notion of what to strive for If this happens, you'll probably have differing understandings of your goals and aspirations that clash or compete destructively, wasting precious resources, time and energy. Organization alignment to a common purpose and vision is a very powerful force. Misalignment is a surefire way to fail.
Managers often underestimate what it will take to bring the organization from it's Current State to the desired Future State. It is common to misjudge the amount of time, money, effort, communication and planning needed. Similarly, we tend to underestimate significant barriers, and the tools and capability needed to do the job. If you do not pay enough attention to the required capabilities, you can end up in a 'can't get there from here' situation.
Some of the resistance is quite predictable. Entrenched beliefs, patterns of thinking and behaving are always difficult to change. There are also many people who will strongly resist any change, regardless of how needed or attractive it may be. There will always be inertia to overcome, especially at the beginning of a change process. But there are also many unexpected sources of resistance which can impact a change effort. Some of these resistive factors go well beyond the cost of the change to the people who have to make the change. Shifts in the marketplace, difficulties in commercializing new technology, dips in sales, unexpected competitive activity, new government regulations, internal politics or shifting priorities can have a dramatic effect on your change process.

Week 8 -- July 28, 2001

Response and Feedback paper on Michael Wolf's presentation concepts concerning Technology / Change

Core Values at SDC based on Culture.Com reading combined with thoughts from other readings in Open Organization Chapters 1-2 and French and Bell, Chapter 14.

Handouts:

Good Luck, Bad Luck Story

Handouts from Michael Wolf's presentation on Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service

Guest Speaker:

Rhonda Norris presentation and handouts Lord&Hogan

Personal Accountability Model

Plus Journal Notes for my project, results to date from the analysis of SSPR Key Learning: PCA Promote, Create, Allow and the Personal Accountability Model

Key Learning:

PCA=Promote, Create, or Allow

Websites and Related Readings

Collins, J. C., & Porras, J. I. (1994). Built to last: Successful habits of visionary companies. New York: Harper Business.

French, W. L., & Bell, C. H. Jr. (1999). Organization development: Behavioral science interventions for organization improvement. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Chapter 14.

Mink, O. G., Mink, B. P., Downes, E. A., & Owen, K. Q. (1994). Open organizations: A model for effectiveness, renewal, and intelligent change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Preface and Chapters 1-2.

Neuhauser, P. C., Bender, R., & Stromberg, K. L. (1999). Culture.com: Building corporate culture in a connected workplace. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Chapter 1-2.

Quote/passage for the week:

"I now see paradoxes everywhere I look. Every coin, I now realize, has at least two sides, but there are pathways through the paradoxes if we can understand what is happening and are prepared to act differently."

-- Handy, C. (1994). The Age of Paradox. Boston: Harvard Business School Press. Preface, xi

Week 9 -- August 04, 2001

Paper on Rhonda Norris' presentation concepts concerning Behavior Change

Response and Feedback paper based on Culture.Com reading combined with thoughts from other readings in Open Organization Chapters 1-3, and The Prelude

Guest Speaker:

Dr. Oscar Mink with the performance measure hierarchy and the organizational leadership through the adaptive/open organization model

Handouts:

Blue Ribbon Challenge

Force Field Analysis Illustration

Plus Journal Notes for my project, results to date from the analysis of SSPR and use of the Affinity Exercise with Tim

Key Learning:

Tie to the Socrates model for sharing information, context [creating meaning], shared meaning, and relationships. Core values at the center.

Websites and Related Readings:

Amidon, Debra M. (1997). Innovation strategy for the knowledge economy: The KEN awakening. Woburn, MA: Butterworth-Heinemann.

Argyris, C. and Schön, D. Theory in practice: Increasing professional effectiveness. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 1974.

Bender, R. Searching for the Dot.Com Genome. Available online. http://www.culturedotcom.com/article_5b.htm

Bright, S. (1993). The Prelude: A novel for managers. Austin, TX: Catapult Press.

Mink, O. G., Mink, B. P., Downes, E. A., & Owen, K. Q. (1994). Open organizations: A model for effectiveness, renewal, and intelligent change. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass. Preface and Chapters 1-3.

French, W. L., & Bell, C. H. Jr. (1999). Organization development: Behavioral science interventions for organization improvement. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall. Chapter 16

Neuhauser, P. C., Bender, R., & Stromberg, K. L. (1999). Culture.com: Building corporate culture in a connected workplace. New York: John Wiley & Sons. Chapter 1-2.

Weisbord, M. R. (1987). Productive workplaces: Oganizing and managing for dignity, meaning, and community. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.

Quote/passage for the week:

"If you want to understand what a science is, you should look in the first instance not at its theories or its findings, and certainly not at what its apologists say about it; you should look at what the practitioners of it do."

-- from Geertz, Clifford. (1973). The Interpretation of cultures, New York: Basic Books, p. 5.

Week 10 -- August 11, 2001

Conclusion of Project

Journal entries combined

One page project description handout

Brief report on project

Return to Table of Contents

This page is created and maintained by Sue Soy ssoy@ischool.utexas.edu

Home page: http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~ssoy/ Last Updated 08/04/2001