Managing Change - Learnings from an Occupational Therapist

Abstract

Change seems inevitable in our current world of work. Whether it is workforce restructuring, new products and services, changes to ICT, a change in leadership, new customers and staff, varied supply chains, a change in equipment used, new locations where work is performed -the change is endless. As an Occupational Therapist I have seen the impact on workers and the organisation when change is managed poorly. It can lead to an absence from work, psychological and physical injury or illness, poor workplace dynamics, reduced workplace productivity, an increase in worker and customer complaints, and the lodgement of workers' compensation claims. The following is a summary of what I see as the key features of successfully managing a change initiative. When change isn't managed well, unfortunately the impact on workers and the organisation can be significant. ConsultationConsultation needs to be engaging of the relevant stakeholders. Delivering one way communication to people is not consultation. We know that by engaging people, seeking their input, clarifying issues, and problem solving together, is the best way to gain commitment and buy-in [1]. We must consider both internal and external stakeholders in this consultation, and ensure that those persons affected by the change, are engaged in the consultation phase [1]. This doesn't mean every worker must be individually consulted, however there needs to be authentic and inclusive consultation processes across the range of stakeholders. PreventionQuality and relevant risk assessments must be completed prior to the change initiative occurring. This includes looking at strategic risk, business risk, and the project risk. Within these risks will be consideration of the workplace health and safety risks. At a basic level, we need to ensure we analyse the risks, update the risk register, mitigate any identified risks, monitor risks, and ensure we communicate widely to all relevant parties [2].Organisations are founded on a basis of social psychology, and a failure to recognise this is likely to result in failed attempts at implementing successful change initiatives [3]. We need to consider people, and plan for strategies over time. Simply trying to institute change on to people will result in failure. To prevent this occurring, establishing a healthy organisation puts us in good stead to then work with our workforce when implementing change initiatives. Furthermore, having healthy workers means they are better prepared to deal with the stressors associated with change [4]. This is also linked with creating effective teams -people working with people. Effective teams are paramount in successful organisational change [5]. When talking 'effective teams' , there is a strong connection between culture, leadership styles and individual worker behaviours. Ultimately, there is a social-psychology basis to preventing change initiatives from failing.