Review course assignments for Weeks 1-5, including the results of the Mastering Leadership Self-Assessment taken in Week 1. Select an organizational change in your company or one you know. Develop a

Leading Organizational Change

Leading organizational change is an inside-out process. Children’s Administration is venturing into a merger with three other agencies to form a new Department of Children Youth and Families for the state of Washington. To develop as a leader who will add value to such a venture and to ensure the organization’s success in this merger, there are some improvements that need to be made and an action plan developed both individually and as an organization to achieving those goals.

Current Leadership Role

My current leadership role is a collaborative effort with no real authority. Most decisions made are collaborative in nature. There is some autonomy in the role, but only to a certain point, as it is a social service environment at the headquarters level where policies and procedures are developed. Shared decision making and consultation with each other is how business is done because leaders in our organization know that building partnerships and involving different voices in decision making results in better outcomes. Everything is mission focused with a shared commitment to the goal of child safety and wellbeing.

Organizational Change

The leadership process includes deploying “management systems that include business cadence, strategy, direction, execution, process, metrics, and decision making,” (Anderson and Adams, 2016, p. 30). As stated previously, Children’s Administration is going through a big organizational wide change. The organization is evolving into a new Department which is a different level in the life of the agency. Successful implementation of the new processes related to the combined contracts department is an area I will have the opportunity to help lead. The agency has been given the direction and our role now is to find a way to combine systems, processes, and have collaborative work sessions with the combined units so that on the day these four agencies become one, business will be running as usual.

Individual Action Plan

Having a successful merger is the goal. To be a success in leadership, getting out of the “comfort zone” and putting forth the effort to develop skills and take risks will help cultivate the new work environment. This is the perfect opportunity to make changes within self and make changes where needed in our current processes. Analyzing current state and future state. Not only for self but for the organizational change as well. “Becoming a leader is not the end of the road, as a leader needs to continuously develop, to acquire more knowledge, to improve himself/herself, and this is mainly related to his/her openness for discovering issues impacting on the organization, for designing patterns to provide the well-being of the same or for developing appropriate organizational culture and strategies,” (Hudea, 2014).

It has been said that the inner game runs the outer game (Anderson and Adams, 2016). The inner game, “takes place in the mind of leaders and those who work for them. It is the inner state of being, the lens with which you see the world, the frozen beliefs and assumptions which drive choices and actions,” (Nambiar, 2017). A self-analysis of the inner game consists of character traits such as honesty, integrity, self-awareness, compassion, authenticity, and intuition. These characteristics are based on individual limited experiences. Personal values are what I live by personally and impact my work behavior. Strength, courage and conviction are all elements of the inner game. All based on experience. The inner game is what you draw on when action must take place in situations that are complex.

The Mastering Leadership Self-Assessment that was done five weeks ago showed that the individual leadership process is focused on execution of individual tasks and stuck in the reactive mind set (the inner game). To have a successful merger the decisions made will need to be beneficial to the entire combined contracts unit, not just for self. Current leadership competencies possessed such as strong ethics, self-organizing, efficient learning, connection and belonging are how the individual job is done, not how those I foster those things in my team. The current leadership consciousness is afraid of taking risks and failing in the eyes of my peers. This is a barrier to effective leadership.

“Since consciousness is a structure, and structure determines performance, to attain higher effectiveness and better business performance amid complexity, you must be restructured. This is a metamorphosis process-a radical change in the structure of mind,” (Anderson and Adams, 2016 p. 43). The individual action plan is to start the transition to the next level of creative leadership. The thought process of the creative leader will help the reactive mind transition the focus from self to a more collaborative team focus.

This transition has already begun to happen within and is showing on the outside because of the many collaborative sessions that have been had with the merging agencies, figuring out how to combine our work processes, analyze systems needed to do work, and figure out what our databases will have to look like in order for all to work efficiently. Great effort has been made to speak up to ensure items have not been missed. The focus has changed to just getting by to being excited for the opportunity to make changes for the better for our specific group. To grab hold of this challenge and face it head on. The changes within must be made first to effectively help the organization through this organizational wide change.

Organizational Action

Children’s Administration’s first step in their process of this organizational wide change was to communicate with other leadership and management that there was a need for the change to take place. Defining what the future desired state of the organization will look like is the next step. The next step was to communicate those changes with staff early on regarding the merger, the timeline, and the steps that were going to be taken. Making sure to communicate that no staff cuts or budget cuts were being made in the process Soliciting feedback from staff was the next step. This is an important next step because not only does it get the people who do the work in on the ground floor to help build the foundation of the new Department, but it shows that they are valued. After soliciting feedback from staff, workgroups pertaining to different functions of setting up the Department are put together.

One workgroup is solely responsible for the legalities of setting up a new Department, such as establishing a new Employer Identification Number, and licenses and other legal functions. Another group oversees buy back agreements to ensure our work continues as we are figuring out new systems and processes. Other workgroups are working on organizational charts and where staff will be housed. As items have been figured out, messages have been sent out to staff keeping this whole transition transparent. The agency understands that there are anxieties around this merger and that people are uneasy and unsure of the future and what it will look like in the end. There is an employee assistance program available for staff who need resources such as counseling to help them if need be.

Conclusion

Leadership development is about continuous improvement, not only regarding competencies and honing skills, but must first start with the inner game and transforming one’s self into the creative leader, integral leader, and ultimately unitive leader. Organizations must invest their time and energy in developing these types of future leaders. Organizations are moving towards the “all for one” mentality because having everyone share the same purpose and vision will only be beneficial for the company. Only leaders who live and work with that type of mentality can cultivate such work culture.