Week 7: Assessment Activity

Week 7: Assessment Activity

1. One change method is to encourage testing activities throughout the change process. "Piloting" ideas throughout the change process gives opportunities that are safe to challenge the current approaches. This also creates a mind-set of continuous improvement. How or where could you try this now? What are different ways to test whether this would work?

This method could prove useful in most firms undergoing change. Guiding ideas through the change process allows for pivoting opportunities and adjustments to the idea depending on the time and environment. This feature could prove invaluable when it comes to making change work, especially in a large company. For example, in my organization I could use this method to implement change in our HR recruitment polices. Piloting the idea for change would yield better end results. The effectiveness could be tested by measuring successes of changes implemented under this method, or by attempting similar changes in similar companies and following the impact of the changes with and without the help of this method.

2. Another method for dealing with change is to respond constructively to failure. How leaders respond to "failure" or less successful ideas will shape the attitude toward risk taking. What can you learn from this? What should you do differently? How can you support the individual taking the risks?

Risk is always associated with reward, and with risk comes a chance for failure. However from every failure comes a chance to learn, we can assess what went wrong and why, we could adapt the idea to make it more viable, and avoid the same pitfalls again. What I would do differently is always conduct a risk analysis before any risky decision, this would give me the upper hand and let me know if the risk is even worth taking. Supporting an individual taking the risk can come in many forms: capital, advise, personnel, machinery etc.

3. List 5 of the most important concepts or knowledge that you gained from this week.

• I have learned a lot about how to go about implementing any kind of change in a company. Like creating a sense of urgency is necessary for the change to be effective.

• I realized the effect of patents and active competition from the articles on Pfizer.

• I learned the importance of involving all employees in the implementation of major changes in a company.

• I also took away some techniques on how to empower others to act on a vision for change, which increases the chance of success.

• Lastly, I never thought there were so many ways to fail when it came to change in a company, knowing the common pitfalls really helps prepare and plan for change.