Since my post to Ron Lubensky's eLearning Design Challenge #3 pointed out the importance of "audience ownership", several subsequent posts to the challenge echoed with my suggestion.
Personally, I would not morally agree to include hidden agenda to obscure propaganda information. An open honest approach, with appropriate transparency would be better and more effective to solicit a real change. There are hidden costs in following a sublime approach.
I know a lot of management would think that a top down approach to change is easier. If an employee does not like the change, there is a choice: accept or resign! To make it easier to swallow, some forms of hidden approach may be taken. This is an "industrial" age mentality when positions and employees are inter-changable units but is not necessarily the best management practice of today.
If your employees do not whole-heartedly embrace the change, or have been "tricked" to accept the change, we know there are millions of ways for people to sabotage the change and will eventually cost more to the organisation.
If the management really needs to implement a top-down change, the introduction should be an honest explanation of the rationale behind the change and solicit understanding from the employees. When the change is being implemented, the ownership of change can be facilitated by giving real responsibility and opportunity for suggestions to further improve the change. This approach would not only be very effective, the cost/gain may be reduced/increased through the contribution of the employees.
To understand any rationale to drive change, it is necessary to "step in the shoes" of the management and let the employees have an overall appreciation of the rationale. This is best achieved by a role play simulation where employees play the roles of the management confronted with the issues. You may be amazed by some good solutions which employees may suggest in the role play.
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