Business Project Assignment
EACH BULLET BELOW SHOULD BE A 1 PAGE PAPER BY ITSELF TO COMPLETE THE FINAL PROJECT.
Total: 8 separate (1 page) papers with references AND 1 PowerPoint presentation (total of 5-10 slides)
Have you ever found yourself in a situation at work or in your personal life that you wished were somehow different than it was? Did you know what steps to take to change the situation yourself? Did you know how to get the people around you all moving in the same direction, with urgency, to create the change you desired? Change is often crucial to long term success both in business and in life. Business Project Assignment. Accomplishing change, however, is not always easy. Throughout the assignments in this course you will work through one specific example of the change process to help you master the steps of change.
Specific questions or items to address:
Select an organization in which you feel change is needed. The organization may be a current or previous employer, a school organization, military organization, or other group you may be a part of. Be sure you have adequate knowledge of the organization to complete the project.
Throughout the course you will be studying Kotter’s 8 Steps for change from Kotter and Cohen’s The Heart of Change. Each week you will build and expand on your final project for the course; a plan to implement change successfully.
- Identify the organization and change that is needed. Summarize the context of the organization, the change that is needed, why the change is needed, and why you feel the organization/situation is a good candidate for your final project.
- We will move toward and become like that which we think about. This means we must prompt the individuals in the situation we are trying to change to begin thinking about and moving toward change. To do this successfully, we have to give them a reason! Most individuals are slow to take action when they have no motivation to do so. But how do we do that? And how do we accomplish not just motivation, but urgent motivation? What can you do that is dramatic, attention grabbing, and memorable to attack the problem of insufficient urgency? Business Project Assignment.
- Explain how you would show enthusiasm and commitment to draw in the right team players, how you would model trust and teamwork, how you would structure the team, and how you will inject energy into the group. Be sure to touch on potential pitfalls in this step that you will avoid. You may find page 60 helpful in reviewing the key points of what to do and not do when building your team. Be sure your paper touches on the key elements of each as they pertain to your organization.
- Explain in as much detail as possible, your vision for the change you desire. Be sure to paint a vivid picture that helps your team see, feel, and envision the change you desire. Include a description of how the situation is different, what outsiders may have to say about what they see when they look at the change you have created, what your team and employees are seeing and feeling after the change is completed, and what relevant indexes you can use to measure and quantify the change. You may find page 82 helpful in reviewing the key points of what to do and not do when creating your vision. Be sure your paper touches on the key elements of each as they pertain to your organization.
- Explain what actions you and your team will take to communicate change with stakeholders of your situation and work to gain their buy-in. Be specific in the methods you will use to communicate: when, in what detail, and to whom. Once you have crafted your communication strategy, draw up a mock questionnaire to survey a few of your key stakeholders. (The survey you devise is only hypothetical-you do not need to actually survey individuals from your change scenario.) The survey should allow you to gage the success of your communication strategy and identify changes that might be necessary in your strategy. You may find the exercise on page 98 helpful in crafting your own questionnaire. You may also find page 100 helpful in reviewing the key points of what to do and not do when crafting your communication strategy. Be sure your paper touches on the key elements of each as they pertain to your organization. Business Project Assignment.
- Explain what actions you and your team will take to empower people to take action. How will you remove boss barriers, system barriers, information barriers, and barriers of the mind? How will you ‘retool’ the boss? You may find page 121 helpful in reviewing the key points of what to do and not do when empowering action. Be sure your paper touches on the key elements of each as they pertain to your organization.
- Explain the short term wins you can facilitate for your team. Next explain what you will do to help ensure your change efforts don’t fade when you have accomplished your goals. How will you help prevent burn out? How will you help maintain the change once it’s implemented? You may find page 157 helpful in reviewing the key points of what to do and not do when not letting up on the change effort. Be sure your paper touches on the key elements of each as they pertain to your organization.
- Explain the actions you will take to make change stick. How can you overcome tradition and emotion to keep the change in place rather than sliding back into old habits? How can you control the hiring process to be sure fresh faces coming in to the team also support the new vision? You may find page 175 helpful in reviewing the key points of what to do and not do when setting short term goals. Be sure your paper touches on the key elements of each as they pertain to your organization. Business Project Assignment.
Finally, create a 5-10 slide PowerPoint presentation pretending as though you are going to present your change proposal to someone above you in your organization to gain their approval and support for your desired change and plan of action to achieve it. Your presentation should summarize the key points of all eight parts of your final paper. Your presentation should include speaker notes– indicating what you would say if you were actually giving the presentation in real life. Do not copy from your paper into the speaker notes. You would not read to your audience, so don’t copy directly from your paper. Write in the speaker notes what you would say in person. Business Project Assignment.
