Diary Entries on Promoting Change Through Storytelling

Diary Entries
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Diary Entries
Class Session 4
The class 4 session was quite insightful. In this session, we learned about promoting change without the use of incentives, rewards, or punishment. The standard way of promoting change within an organization or any institution has been to use rewards, offer people incentives, or institute measures that set people up for punishment. However, this class sought to introduce a new approach that would negate these normal approaches. I acquired several things from this lesson that greatly informed my understanding of leading change.
One of the lessons that I acquired from this class entails the importance of sharing information or being honest about a particular issue that one is seeking to change. Often, while trying to actualize change within an organization, employees are given less information, and many end up resisting the proposed change. However, from this class, the importance of having employees be a part of the change process was emphasized. For example, while reviewing the see-feel-change method, one of the things that was emphasized was the importance of people seeing a problem for themselves or feeling a problem for themselves. I learned that this promotes the support one is to receive concerning a change idea (Kotter, 2011). The employees must be informed; they should know their role in helping attain the change and be given the tools to actualize the change. The above informed my understanding of leading change in that it brought to focus how often managers make the mistake of thinking they can introduce an idea and simply get the results they need. However, from this lesson, there was an emphasis on having people involved through sharing information and entertaining ideas.
Another lesson that became quite clear by the end of this class was that the goal is never to tell or impose but to engage and enhance the proposed change by tapping into the knowledge and experience of others who may or may not share in the dream for change. Often, while trying to promote change, a majority of leaders impose their will and wishes. However, employees do not want to feel like their contribution is invalid. People want to see their ideas incorporated within an organization, and one way of achieving this is by inviting them to share their thoughts and inputs. When a manager decides to ask questions instead of making what seem to be self-justifying arguments, they are likely to get a more positive response from the employees. The message here was quite clear in that employees want to feel important, and their contributions to an organization are a sure way of having them feel a part of something monumental.
Lastly, this lesson made it clear that promoting change will result in challenges or opposition to the change idea. Further, the class emphasized having a more positive approach to resistance or reactance instead of looking to squash or crush. Resistance can be intimidating and push managers or change drivers to adopt flawed ways of attaining change. However, there was an emphasis on maintaining the independence of people’s choices and voices in the class. People want to know that they have options and that they are helping attain something worthwhile. Therefore, while pushing or promoting a change, I learned that the autonomy of those involved needs to be maintained. Also, I learned that one must highlight what the change seeks to attain. These help to gift people the belief in a change idea.
Class Session 5
Session 5 was just as insightful as session 4. Here, we learned about vision and storytelling and the importance of each. One thing that came out during this session was memorability, or the ease with which something is remembered. This particular element or aspect came out during the session quite a few times, and it was clear to me that there is a need to create memorable moments.
Aside from the theme, I learned a few things that informed my understanding of promoting change. The first thing I learned is connected to developing a vision. In this session, I learned that there is a need to think of the vision from the future while developing a vision. This had me fascinated and surprised because my mind was focused on the ‘here and now.’ However, this session made it clear that there is a need to think of the impact an idea will have years from now. A vision developed today should be relevant years to come. Incorporating a time machine into the idea of vision development helped bring the message home. The time machine element emphasized the aspect of visualizing the future in clear terms. It became clear to me that while developing a vision, o...