Greetings, class. Today we're going to discuss Kotter Change Model and its eight steps. Last week, you performed an organizational assessment and SWOT analysis. Through that, you should have identified an area that needs change.
As we all know, change is not easy, and it meets a lot of resistance. However, when managed appropriately, change can be beneficial to everyone involved, and we can avoid a lot of heartache. So today, as we walk through Kotter's change model, I'm going to go through an example that we experienced here at Maryville.
So in the fall of 2010, as part of Maryville University's strategic plan, various administrative personnel began to investigate the feasibility of initiating an online presence. To begin this venture, a variety of programs were reviewed, and it was decided that the Master's of Science in Nursing program with Adult Gerontology and Family Nurse Practitioner programs and the Post-Master's Doctorate of Nursing Practice program would be the first to be offered in an online format.
Because these programs were the first within the university, it was imperative to begin the change management process so that the transition would be effective. Most departments and services within the university would be affected by this change, including admission, registration, financial aid, the business office, and the library. So we wanted to focus on how the nursing program faculty would be impacted and what all steps we would need to go through for putting this program online.
Here is an overview of the eight steps of the Kotter Change Management Model. So our Step 1 is to create urgency. Step 2 is to form a powerful coalition. And Step 3 is to create a vision for change. Together these create a climate for change.
Step 4 is to communicate the vision, remove obstacles. And then Step 6 is to create short-term wins. This helps to make the change happen. And then, finally, Steps 7 and 8 are to build on the change and then make it stick. These are crucial in the implementation and being able to sustain the change in the long term.
So the following is what you will work through in week 4, which is this week. So step 1 is establishing a sense of urgency. This stage is similar to the unfreezing stage in Kurt Lewin's Change Model. We need to make individuals aware that something critical needs to be changed. People naturally want to remain in their comfort zone, so we immediately react to impending change with some anxiety.
We ask, what's in it for me? And how is this going to change my work and/or my relationships? This stage is meant to get people out of their comfort zones.
We are caught up in complacency for many reasons. People may not see a visible crisis because a lot of time managers and administrators try to shield employees from unpleasant things. We might see initiatives taking place that make us think that the financial status of our organization is fine, when in reality it isn't.
If we set our performance measures too low, then there is no way to stretch, and we may just be meeting mediocre standards. There may be a culture where the management does not want to hear bad news, so conversations may not be honest or difficult, and we avoid talking about these unpleasant things.
It is human nature to deny that we do not want to hear things—things that don't fit into our worldview. Sometimes in efforts to increase employee motivation and satisfaction, there may be too much positive talk from our managers. Your leadership skills of negotiation and persuasion will be crucial in convincing those who are going to be affected by the change as well as those who can help you with your change. Why? The status quo is unacceptable.
Patients' outcomes and costs are two compelling reasons for people to listen to you. Another would be increasing efficiencies in the processes that will help with workload. Listen to what your patients might be saying. Do not get defensive about their critiques. People listen in other departments that interact with you in your setting, and they may also provide valuable information. Not paying attention to this information may actually sabotage your initiative for change before you even get started.
So here are some examples as we work through these questions. You will be expected to provide your own answers below. Why is the status quo unacceptable?
Because of the entry of approximately 30 million new individuals to the health care arena due to the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the decreased numbers of physicians whose primary care or family practice is a specialty, it is imperative to provide health care providers to meet the needs of the nation.
Citizens—it is well accepted that nurse practitioners can provide quality health care at the level at, equal to or above that of the physician. Therefore, it makes sense that offering an online program throughout the country, speaking again for the example of Maryville, and especially in those areas where an institution of higher learning is not close, this would be an effective solution to the looming health care crisis.
In listening to your patients and other internal and external customers carefully, Maryville found that while no formal survey was taken of students, anecdotally many folks voiced some preference for online learning. We considered this information as a factor that supported the moving to the online environment. Now, looking at your organizational analysis and SWOT analysis, answer these questions:
Step 2 is creating a powerful guiding coalition. You cannot make change alone. So it is important for you to pull together a strong team to help you. You need to make the decision regarding whom to invite to your coalition with care because you need to be sure that the team will be effective. Therefore, you want to include individuals who have position power in your organization, who are dedicated to the change initiatives just as you are. They can assist with the potential obstacles that are out of your control. This could be a manager, a director, or a physician. You want people with expertise in the area.
You also want to include people with some diversity of thought. The most effective decisions are made when there are people who think differently than you versus those who come to a consensus with you. You do not want groupthink. You need people on your team that will take the assignment seriously.
Both formal and informal leaders will be critical to your success, remembering that sometimes leaders have no title. You want to avoid people who are self-aggrandizing because they can take a project off course. If you have people who do not create trust, your project can be stalled. Establishing trust is absolutely critical in creating your team.
At Maryville, we looked at who we would choose to be on the guiding coalition, and did they have the following characteristics: position power, expertise, credibility, and leadership. It's important to have strong individuals in your guiding coalition for a change effort as large as beginning an online program.
The following individuals were instrumental at Maryville—the dean of the College of Health Professions who had a position power in leadership. The assistant dean for nursing had a position power in leadership. Two graduate members who are noted for their willingness to take risks in their teaching had previously demonstrated excellence in teaching and had experience in curriculum development. So they had expertise, credibility, and leadership. And also a graduate nurse practitioner faculty member who was herself in an online program, so she had credibility, expertise, and leadership.
We also considered trust and mutual understanding and respect for those on the guiding coalition. This group of individuals had worked together for many years and had developed trusting, respectful relationships. A few of them were friends on a social basis. Overall the group was cordial and effective.
Then we considered what the common goal was regarding the proposed change. It was agreed at the onset that we did not want to lose the values that made the on-ground graduate program so successful and well respected in the St. Louis area. Those values included engagement between faculty and students as well as excellence and expertise in teaching up-to-date materials applicable to the practice of nurse practitioners. Learning best practices of transitioning of a successful on-ground program to an online delivery method was also the primary goal at the onset of the project. Reflect on these questions and answer them below.
Step 3 is to develop a vision and strategy. A vision is the most effective way to break through resistance. You want to create a picture of the preferred future regarding the change project and then make it meaningful to all of those that will be affected by the change.
An effective vision will clarify the direction of the change. We should ask ourselves if what we are doing, activities and other projects and such, are in line with the vision. This makes our decision much simpler.
Change will inevitably involve some pain, even if it is just getting out of our comfort zones. So a good vision will be hopeful and motivating. Once the vision sets our direction, we can act autonomously towards meeting the vision without asking all the time, can I do this or can I do that? Therefore, an effective vision is one that people can imagine really happening.
It is up to you to make it come alive and make it exciting. It needs to focus on why it is important to make the change and what the future will look like once the change is made. It needs to appeal to the interests of others—patients, co-workers, and other health care providers.
It needs to be realistic. People will not accept your vision if they think it's pie in the sky, or if it'll never happen here, or will never get the support. You could hear all of these things as you start to talk to people about your vision, and you need to be prepared with an uplifting message. Your vision needs to be focused so that it can provide guidance but so tightly that—but not so tightly that you can't be flexible.
Your vision may need to be tweaked as needed if the environment changes. You should be able to communicate your vision in an elevator speech. Can you articulate what you want to happen in 5 minutes? Make it as simple as you can without losing your message.
At Maryville, we approached the following questions: What is your picture of the future that provides meaningful rationale to the people who want to make the change? The vision that we have is the opportunity to provide quality online nurse practitioner program to nurses across the country to meet health care needs in the communities they serve.
And then we looked at the vision statement to make sure it included the clarification for the direction of the change, motivating people, and coordinating actions. So the vision may be too broad to provide clear direction to the exact path to accomplish the goals because it does not define the quality online program and what the steps were that were needed to ensure quality. However, with the help of our course developers and training brought to the university by Quality Matters, we were able to apply best practices for student engagement and translate on-ground content to the online learning environment.
Faculty were eager to get started once they developed their partnerships with course developers. Once they were able to see the products of their efforts, their motivations increased even further, and they were able to act autonomously in developing their courses with the course developers.
Then we want to look at the vision to see if it's an imaginable, desirable, feasible, focused, flexible, and communicable. So our vision was imaginable, as it was not too abstract. And we had the quality programs at Maryville already.
It was clearly desirable in keeping with the goals that the faculty held closely. Because of this venture, we had the support from our very top of our organizational structure. It was feasible in terms of financial and personal resources. And it was focused on the graduate programs. The vision itself was not flexible because nothing less than a quality program would be acceptable. It was easy to communicate this vision to anyone within the community.
Step four is communicating the change vision. Everyone involved in the change must have a common understanding of the goals and directions, so there's no such thing as too much communication. People need to be directed to vision often. Make sure that your message is simple. Avoid nurse jargon because outside professionals may not understand it.
Be sure to communicate the vision as easily and understandably as possible. A lot of time we use sports analogies, such as hitting it out of the park. Use creative thinking within your coalition to make your vision come alive. Use as many different methods of communicating your vision as possible—big and small meetings, memos, posters, et cetera. Use formal and informal interactions, including hallway conversations. Use every chance you can to spread the word.
Ideas need to be heard so many times to let them sink in. Again, there's no such thing as too much communication. You and other members of your guiding team need to walk the talk. Inconsistent behavior speaks more loudly than words ever will. There may be circumstances in which the vision is not achievable in the moment, and they may be completely legitimate. It is best to address those issues head on in an honest and forthright manner.
Communication should be a two-way street. You need to actively listen to those who are questioning and asking for clarification. Most of the time, tossing ideas around and asking questions are the ultimate way to get buy-in to your idea.
So we looked at, was our vision simple? And the vision was simple to communicate. Faculty involved in the project enthusiastically talked about what they were doing to faculty and staff and other departments.
Faculty who explained to others that were not involved the online process used many examples outlining the similarities between and differences between teaching online and teaching on ground. The primary thing was that we communicated that the intensity of the engagement between faculty and students was not lost in an online program. In fact, students remarked that they were closer to their online classmates than they were with their classmates in a face-to-face classroom.
We looked at communicating in multiple forums. So there were many opportunities to communicate our vision at the university. And these included scheduled roundtable conversations among faculties from different disciplines and the vice president for academic affairs, faculty, council meetings, meeting and faculty involved in scholarship teaching and learning, and other more informal encounters. The message was communicated in many forums and more than once.
The leaders of the change effort were involved in creating courses, so it was easy for them to communicate and demonstrate their enthusiasm during the process. There were no obvious inconsistencies in the process of building the online program. In fact, we were very conscious of aligning the policies that govern the nursing program as a whole with those policies that were being implemented for the online program. Obvious exceptions were made only related to the need policies regarding the online course delivery, such as technology for discussion boards and synchronous office hours and such.
And then we looked at allowing for give and take. And there was much discussion at the faculty meetings regarding the online program. There was some resistance to this major change in our program, and those who were skeptical were given an option to have a full voice at those meetings.