The secrets of happiness: delivering change in a complex environment - PowerPoint PPT Presentation

The secrets of happiness: delivering change in a complex environment Dave Lewis, Director of Business School Operations December 2018

This session…  Share lessons on engaging staff & delivering change  Appreciative Inquiry and continuous improvement  Kotter’s 8 steps of change management  Well-being and engagement during periods of organisational stress

Delivering change… “70% of organisational change initiatives fail” Hammer and Champy (1993), Beer and Nohria (2000) Kotter (2008), Senturia et al (2008)

Effective change needs a cast…  The heroic leader is a myth  We need a variety of change agency roles to make anything happen e.g. leader, advocate, champion, motivator, finisher, challenger, supporter, therapist, pedant (!)  Think about who is going to help you in your change process and what role they will play

Context… 20% 5636 433 of the total contribution members of staff 1 in 5 of all University from Academic Colleges at students are studying the University of Birmingham in the Business School 3 New The School has AMBA, Hierarchical AACSB and EQUIS organisation with accreditation visits in a tiers of management Management Team 9 month period and division of PS and appointed in 2017 academic staff

Make friends and build alliances…  We can learn a lot from others  Increasingly organisations are more complex, so we need to build relationships across functions  Often change requires interventions across a School, College or University

My first day…  Resignations  Organic development of professional services  Low trust and lack of autonomy  Operational challenges  Changing priorities  …but change fatigue

What would you do… a) Do nothing b) Establish a period of stability Introduce incremental changes c) d) Engage with the College programme of change e) Launch a programme of change Something else f)

The birth of Project Happy  Explained our why: our vision for the future  Established project leadership and advisory teams  Initiated the project  Communicated  Advertised for a Project Officer  Set four staff challenges and one major task  Stop-start-change-continue exercise

Appreciate Inquiry

Appreciate Inquiry – 4D cycle Discovery What gains life? The best of what is Appreciating and identifying good practice Destiny Dream How to empower everyone to What’s possible in the future? learn/adjust/improve? What is the world calling for? Sustaining the effort and Envisioning results continuously reviewing Design What should be? Shaping the ideal outcome Co-constructing the process and plan

Behaviours are important…  Need to focus upon behaviours  We need to know exactly how behaviours need to be different after a change

Successes of Project Happy…

Reorganisation 19 23 staff promoted new posts created in and 15 new hires strategically important areas resourced at Integrated 5 teams into 97% College structures with improved engagement of our establishment with all staff on open ended contracts

Not all success…  Staff engagement fell from 72% to 51% – Lack of influence and control – Change management – Transparency of communication

Kotter’s 8 steps to effective change...

Project Happy lessons to be learned…  Didn’t create a sense of urgency  Didn’t set -out a clear plan  Didn’t secure commitment  Didn’t give ourselves enough time and resource  Didn’t ‘remove the barriers’  Didn’t invest enough in myself

Behaviours are important…  We need to consider our own behaviour: – Role modelling and supporting change – The need to delegate / let go, and not over- function – Need to develop personal resilience.

Building personal resilience…

What next…  Relaunch Project Happy – Focus on increasing staff engagement and making it a great place to work  Quick Wins based on staff feedback  Appreciative Inquiry: – Recruitment to culture, Induction, PDR, Training and Development

What next…  Wellbeing strategy

Top 10 tip s for happiness… Don’t ignore the positives Have a clear process 1. 6. Take your time Grasp the nettles 2. 7. Build relationships Celebrate the victories 3. 8. Be kind to yourself… Think about your cast 4. 9. 10. …and each other Focus on behaviours 5.

The secrets of happiness… “The noblest art is to make others happy” P T Barnum