Mgmt Analysis

Reflections on Change Management Simulation

Spectrum Sunglass Company, a 10-year old privately held company, is attempting to implement an organization-wide environmental sustainability initiative. This initiative is looking to have “green” raw materials for the sunglasses while addressing environmental waste issues as well. This initiative dealt with many challenges relating to sustainability, power, influence, change agents and organizational resistance.

Methodology

Our team tried to implement an organization-wide environmental sustainability initiative at Sunglass manufacturing firm twice, as a middle manager at first and then as a CEO in a single-player simulation. We were given a set of resources and actions to use in our attempt to persuade the management team and other key individuals through the change stages of awareness, interest, trial and then finally to adoption. Our goal was to achieve the greatest percentage of adopters within the company with fewer resources.

Learning

After the change management simulation, one of the key learning points for our team was that the relative power of the change agent plays a significant role in any change initiative. The higher the power of the change agent, the more influential his message/ persuasion would be. The associated urgency and the risks (in case of no change) played a vital role in an effort to implement change. Telling a success story, holding town hall meetings, recognizing an adopter and building a coalition for creating awareness worked better for CEO than did for middle manager. Conducting private interviews worked for both level of authority during the early stages of the change. Conducting a pilot project, internal and external skill building and posting progress reports worked well when individuals had already entered an awareness stage and were interested in the initiative. Getting consultant’s support at an early stage of the change initiative had no effect.

Recommendations

* Any...