Week 3 Activities - Ben

Reflection on Fullan’s framework for leadership. What are the implications to our workplace?

From my previous experience, most of the people do not want to have a CHANGE, while they have already adapt to their own working style, with their working tools, working in the same place, with same group of people……etc. However, I also faced several changes during the past years and I agreed that a LONG TERM planning is a must for any changes, especially letting everyone have a clear focus at the very beginning is very important.

During every change, I think the most valuable element is PEOPLE, they are the one to run the system, they are the one to work on it, their feelings and response are always something which has to be measured.

In Fullan’s framewok it divided into 5 different parts for leaders.

I agreed that all the components are important for leaders, as I said, people is the most important element during changes. Especially in business world, Management’s order is known as the MUST DO item, poor management can lead to a bad feeling for employees and as a result, the failure of change. On the other hand, if a good atmosphere were built, employees are willing to work together, share their knowledge; trust relationship can then be built between employers and employees.

However, the element of Energy, Enthusiasm and Hope is something a bit subjective and difficult to measure. I believed that the concept of it is pretty good. But it’s always difficult for one to judge what level they need to reach, or how far is their target. As mentioned, a clear focus is very important, not only the company, but also individual do.

Framework is just a model, it reflects an ideal concept of being a leader, however HOW to make it practical is the most difficult and important part, I am looking forward to learning more on the practical part (Case Studies) on HOW to make it possible in the coming lessons.

Develop and articulate ideas for describing leading change in an organization of your choice

For my company, as I mentioned at the last blog, the changes is about migrating databases from old systems to a new ERP system. If I put the case to the model of Fullan, I think there is something to let our management to learn from it.

Moral Purpose – I think our management did a pretty good job at this component since before the migration; all of us have to attend a meeting. During the meeting, it describe about the project, including how its work, the timeline, our responsibility for this project……etc. All of us agree that the new system can really improve the efficiency of our job.

Understanding Change – For this point, I think our management understands what we are doing and our progress. Since there is a time-line report which all departments have to hand-in every week to keep monitoring the progress of the migration.

Relationship building – This is the most difficult part in my mind, since in business world, there are always a gap between your boss and you. For our company, I can say the relationship is not bad, but people are get used with it and do not do not step up to change the current situation.

Knowledge Creation and Sharing – New knowledge was created during the progress of our change, however, the knowledge did not share as what we expect, since everything is new for us, we are not able to share if we not sure it’s right or wrong. I think a sharing section is needed during the change, as it can let all of us to have a better understanding about where we are and what is the expectation among us.

Coherence making – For this component,  I can say the coherence were made in our company, since all departments are involved in the change and every time when we meet other departments, the first topic would be discussing about the migration. The atmosphere was built during this change and people are encouraging each other to complete the progress.