No word can cause widespread panic like “change”. But despite its bad reputation in workplace, change is key to building a high performing, efficient and sustainable institution, and what’s more it’s inevitable in the Education sector within the current environment.

But just because is inevitable, it doesn’t mean stress and conflict need to be. Here are four steps to help you create an optimal organisational change in your institution.

Step 1: Review the situation

Clarify:

Make sure you have a full overview of your current structure, positions and teams. A good way to get a full grasp of the situation is by organising multiple workshops and exercises with key stakeholders and mapping out current structures, roles and responsibilities.

Step 2: Include your colleagues and people

Collaborate:

Acknowledge the experience of your people and colleagues by involving them in the workshops. They often already have ideas of how to improve the structure and service. Include them in designing the processes and responsibilities. This will make it easier for them to accept the changes that are made and the decisions behind them. Consider discussing with them:

• What’s working well?
• What could be improved?

Step 3: Release the draft design to your people

Consult:

Once you have developed a draft of the new organisational design, release your restructure plans to all staff for review and consultation. A people forum is often a good approach to presenting this change.
Don’t forget to provide multiple avenues for people’s feedback, they need to feel safe in providing feedback. Some include:

• One on one interviews
• Anonymous survey
• Externally managed email address
• Focus groups / team discussions
• Intranet or Sharepoint site for up to date information on the change (don’t forget to keep it up to date – ensure this is someone’s responsibility)

Also remember a feedback loop-people need to feel heard.

Step 4: Release final design to your staff

Communicate:

Take feedback into account when finalizing your design. Once finalized, release it again to your people. Keep in mind that stress and tensions raise when communication is absent, so ensure you don’t wait too long to release and ensure it is clear when the process is each step of the way.

Employ similar approaches to step 3 to enable dialogue and support for all impacted people .

Need help managing change in your institution? Call us today at 1800 870 677.