Challenges of Strategic Leading Change Introduction and Alignment The constantly changing nature of the world means that executives cannot simply set thei

Challenges of Strategic Leading Change Introduction and Alignment

The constantly changing nature of the world means that executives cannot simply set their people off in one direction doing things a certain way and then put their organization on auto-pilot. A new technology, competitor, government regulation, or business model can easily make what was right for today incredibly wrong for tomorrow. If executives and managers can more effectively help people see the need for changes, provide the resources to make the changes, and follow up and reinforce the changes, then the people will propel the company forward. If not, the reality of the future will fall far short of the promised vision. (Black, 2014, p. xviii)

The first discussion forum in each workshop in this course is dedicated to helping you to learn the strategies for more effectively helping people see the need for change and then following through on planned change initiatives by first “changing the ‘mental maps’ that individuals use to see their world and guide their behavior” (Black, 2014, front inside book jacket).

In Workshop One, you will read Chapter 1 in the textbook It Starts with One: Changing Individuals Changes Organizations.

In Chapter 1, “The Challenge of Leading Strategic Change,” Black (2014) identifies the major challenges that arise when one seeks to lead a strategic change initiative. The author further discusses the rampant rates of failure, three inconvenient truths, three dynamics of change, the implications of change, the crux of the challenge to change, and the fundamentals of change. The chapter ends with an overview of the book—a roadmap of sorts—detailing the terrain for the remainder of the workshops in this course. The overview includes a preview of Black’s (2014) 4-Stage theory for using a change process that will alter mental maps—that of others, and your own.

Upon completion of this assignment, you should be able to:

Discuss the challenges of leading strategic change to include failure rates, inconvenient truths, and dynamics of change.

Resources

Textbook: It Starts with One: Changing Individuals Changes Lives

Instructions

Read Chapter 1, “The Challenge of Leading Strategic Change,” in the It Starts with One textbook.
After reading Chapter 1, click on https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1klZD0nKOF4 to allow the author’s video discussion of the textbook to load. Watch the video for ways to get the most out of the textbook. Incorporate at least one thing you learned from the video in this assignment with an appropriate reference to the video.
Navigate to the discussion thread and respond to the following questions based on your current organization or one with which you are familiar. For this assignment, the organization selected is to be a different organization than the hotel you will select for your HR simulation. Be sure to identify the organization in your discussion.
Challenge of Leading Strategic Change. There are challenges when leading strategic change. Reflect on the following statement, then describe a time when you have witnessed—in yourself or through observation of others—the difficulty of changing work behavior. Address as part of your discussion the topics discussed by Black (2014): failure rate, inconvenient truths, and dynamics of change.
If people cannot easily and successfully change their own behavior when they say they want to, why would we be surprised that people have about the same level of difficulty and failure rate when trying to change others’ behaviors, who may not even to want to change? (Black, 2014, p. 3

If people cannot easily and successfully change their own behavior when they say they want to, why would we be surprised that people have about the same level of difficulty and failure rate when trying to change others’ behaviors, who may not even to want to change? (Black, 2014, p. 3)

Implications of Change. The first item on Black’s (2014) bulleted listing of six key prescriptions for change is “Start with yourself” (p. 16). Later in the reading, the author states, “The principle of ‘leading by example’ is relevant in most situations but it seems to be particularly important when it comes to leading change. Describe a situation where you have witnessed the principle of “leading by example” in the organization as either “successfully” leading by example or “poorly” leading by example. Explain why.
Provide a detailed post that demonstrates clear, insightful critical thinking. Your initial posting should be 200-300 words long.
Your initial posting is to include, at a minimum, two sources properly cited and referenced: (a) the It Starts with One textbook and (b) one academic journal article that is at least 3-5 pages in length and published within the last 3-5 years.
Post your initial discussion by the end of the fourth day of the workshop.
Also, conduct a critical analysis of postings by two of your classmates by the end of the