Change is hard, this can help


  • April 6, 2016
  • /   Shannon Nickinson
  • /   training-development

It used to be that only two things that were certain in life were death and taxes.

Now you can add a third: Change.

Change is hard on all of us — be it change in the work word or in our personal lives.

In the Studer Community Institute's ongoing series of training workshops, coping with and managing change is an underlying theme of many of the topics we cover.

Quint Studer, the Institute's founder, speaks often about change and the impact it has on individuals and organizations. In his work, he draws on research and experts in change and how people manage it.

Here are some of the key sources of inspiration for Quint's work:

Heath Brothers

Authors of “Switch” and “Making it Stick.”

— 80 percent of failure is ambiguity.

— People want clear direction.

— To motivate, learn the “what” for each employee.

— Shape the path through development.

“Micromanaging gets a bad name,” Studer says. “If you care about someone you micromanage them until they have the skills so you don’t need you to micromanage them.”

The analogy Studer uses is when parents teach their children to ride a bike.

“You don’t just take the bike to the top of a hill and say, ‘Here you go big guy.’”

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Psychologist Abraham Maslow’s work on Theory of Human Motivation.

— Help make connection to outcomes. Tell me why we need to do this.

— Mentor.

— Show empathy.

John Kotter

Author “Leading Change,” “A Sense of Urgency,” and “Accelerate.”

— Move through the phases of change.

“People will go through phases of change,” Studer says. Good leaders, he says, are ready for their teams at each step.

Values

— Show people what right looks like.

— This is the best thing to do for that person.

Peter Senge,

Author of “The Fifth Discipline,” lecturer on organizational change with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, founding chairman of the Society for Organizational Learning North America.

— A small group of people — or sometimes one person depending on how high up they are — can hold back a whole organization.

To help keep the learning process alive for you and your organization, use this reading list.

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