However, change can create feelings of uncertainty and anxiety among employees, which make them resist change. As an HR leader, you cannot afford to ignore these reactions. If handled inappropriately, change can lead to negative consequences that some organisations may not be able to bounce back from. Therefore, HR must be capable of implementing change that minimises resistance, ensuring that employees adapt swiftly, and change is sustained.

Change Is Inevitable

Organisations operate in an ever-changing business world, making it inevitable that change will occur sooner or later. It could be in the form of restructuring, mergers and acquisitions, leadership changes, or technology changes. Regardless of the form, change is always a significant part of the daily life organisations, and HR leaders who are adept at change management can make the transition smoother.

Helps Employees Adapt

When change occurs in any organisation, the HR department is responsible for employees’ welfare. HR leaders can play a critical role in proactively helping employees adapt to new policies, processes, or systems, minimising the chances of them feeling overwhelmed, leading to undesirable consequences, such as increased staff turnover and lost productivity. By being adept at change management, HR leaders can help minimise any potential negative impacts, which is critical in maintaining a healthy and positive work environment.

Ensuring a Successful Implementation

Change is not just an event, but a process that involves planning, communication, execution, and follow-up. HR leaders who are skilled at change management can lead the change process and work with other departments to implement it successfully. By executing a strategic change management plan, HR leaders can optimise resources and achieve organisational objectives without disruption.

Enhancing Employee Trust

In times of change, employees’ resistance can stem from a lack of trust in the leadership’s capabilities. HR leaders can help to maintain employee trust in the organisation by implementing change management strategies that demonstrate leadership’s ability to manage change effectively, minimising the chances of pushback and resistance.

Improving Overall Organisational Performance

Change management is not about putting out fires. It is about doing things better, making organisations more effective, and positioning them for future growth. HR leaders who are adept at change management help organisations to minimise disruptions, boost morale, and increase employee satisfaction levels, resulting in overall improved organisational performance.

Change management should be an essential part of HR leadership. Organisations will benefit significantly from HR leaders who are skilled in managing change, from increased employee satisfaction levels to better organisational performance. Therefore, it is crucial that HR leaders prioritise change management training for themselves and their teams to ensure successful and seamless transitions.

Related Blogs: Succession Planning: Nurturing Future Leaders, The Art of Talent Acquisition: Strategies and Techniques for HR Leaders, What can HR leaders do to increase employee engagement?

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Embracing Change

One of the core principles of agile methodologies is prioritising customer satisfaction and responding quickly to change. Leaders who adopt these principles welcome change as an opportunity to improve and outpace the competition. As an agile leader, it’s important to be flexible, adaptable, and have the ability to pivot quickly when necessary. Encouraging creativity and experimentation among your team members can also help foster a culture of agility and continuous improvement.

Communication & Collaboration

Another key component of agile leadership is effective communication and collaboration. Transparency, mutual respect, and open communication are vital in agile methodologies, and leaders must lead by example to create a work culture that encourages sharing knowledge and collaboration. Building cross-functional teams, frequent check-ins, and open communication channels can help build a sense of collaboration and camaraderie among team members.

Iterative Approach

The iterative approach is a hallmark of agile methodologies and provides a useful framework for leaders to work with. Taking an iterative approach implies breaking down tasks into smaller, more manageable pieces, identifying elements of a project that can be improved on, and constantly working to refine and improve processes for better outcomes. Leaders can apply this methodology to manage complex projects or even daily tasks by focusing on clear, measurable objectives, creating to-do lists, and prioritising tasks to minimise distractions and focus on high-impact work.

Continuous Learning

As an agile leader, it’s important to foster a culture of continuous learning and growth in your team members. Holding regular meetings to identify areas for improvement, experimenting with new approaches, and learning from past failures can help you and your team members evolve and stay ahead of the game. Leaders who encourage and facilitate learning create an environment of constant improvement, which leads to better results over time.

Empowerment & Ownership

Agile methodologies are all about empowering teams and fostering a sense of ownership among team members. As a leader, it’s important to empower and support your team members to take ownership of their roles, hold themselves accountable for their work, and make decisions that impact the project’s success. This can be achieved by creating a work culture that supports team autonomy, providing clear roles and responsibilities, and promoting a sense of ownership through recognition and feedback.

Agile leadership is a key element of any company’s success and by embracing the principles of agile methodologies, leaders can adapt, collaborate, and focus on iterative, data-driven improvements to create a more agile and successful team. The key to success lies in empowering team members, creating a culture of continuous learning, and embracing change as an opportunity to innovate and improve. As a leader, taking an agile approach to problem-solving and project management can lead to better results, greater team productivity, and a competitive edge in the marketplace.

Read more leadership blogs: Crisis Management: Essential Skills For Every Business Leader, Managing the Remote Workforce

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In March 2020, Trajectory Partnership published a quick peek into the future titled “The Post Pandemic Consumer.”  With a longstanding interest in future trends and scenario building, I read with interest the trends identified in the paper under 4 “Trend” headings: Arrested, Slow, Dominant and Advancing, referring to the likely pace of the trends they identified.  Able to spot trends and outliers quite naturally, one must remain aware that the trends are projections of observations made of data and set the scene for anyone interested in the future to play with. Peter Schwarz, my top Futures guru because of his deep understanding of Futures thinking, says simply in his book, “The Art of the Long View”

“The test of a good scenario is not getting the future right… The real test of a good scenario is:  Did I make better choices as a result of having looked at and understood both my own environment better and the consequences of my actions”

What scenarios of the future for the education sector could be gleaned from Trajectory’s trends?  As I was reminded in a conversation with colleagues at TCD, whilst life has slowed for the majority during this Pandemic, it has sped up for many in the NHS, Care sector, specialist manufacturers and supermarkets.

I hope you enjoy my toying with these trends on how leaders in the education sector could utilise the thinking to identify opportunities and threats for sustained success in a Post-COVID-19 world. This article may speak differently to you, depending on where you lead – in primary, secondary or tertiary education – so please take what applies and leave the rest on the table for someone else.

Arrested trends include growth in office and shop-based face-to face services, which until recently had gradual growth alongside online services. Demand for office property will reduce in both expensive urban locations but elsewhere, not based on cost but on choice.  The current successful experience of mostly telephone consultations before face-to-face attendance, will for the education sector, present opportunities to stretch resources to provide facilities in school where a child and parent could have a telephone medical consultation, so reducing children missing lessons in school.  Some INSET training could be delivered remotely with more individualised interactive training bringing together video and written media. Routine face-to-face Parent-Teacher meetings is likely to stop and be offered on demand or based on circumstance, with considerable time savings for parents. Where they take place, most stages of school admission assessments would be virtual, with much reduction in costs to schools. These demands will put pressure on government to speed up delivery of its digital strategy in the community, by providing wider private access to computers.  Schools on leased accommodation may be well placed in this climate to renegotiate lease terms and reduce costs or get better value.

Consumer confidence has stalled with the uncertainty in the current crisis – employment, housing market, retail excluding supermarkets and online businesses that sell essentials. Lower interest rates (0.1%) have arrested savings that were already low.  School supply businesses are likely to be keen to sell and so present opportunities for schools to negotiate good deals and strengthen supplier relationships, notably in the area of school meals and supplies for example, where supermarkets have acted more like social businesses, demonstrating such willingness to support their local communities.

Read more about Slowed, Dominant and Advancing trends in the full article here: Joseph Ogbonna Post-COVID-19 futures v2

Joseph Ogbonna is a London-based versatile, experienced coach, with excellent supporting skills in strategic thinking, relationship building, mindfulness, organisational development, project and programme management skills, serving a range of public and private sector clients.

Read more blogs from Joseph – Lessons for a generation, “Keep Calm and Wash your hands”

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Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) caused by the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) is trending in the news, social media, our waking hours and even our dreams.  This suggests that both our conscious and subconscious minds are engaged.

Many are saying “life will never be the same”, but what do they mean?  Many used similar words immediately after the 9/11 attacks and after the 2008 financial crisis. Granted that life constantly changes and no 2 seconds of time are the same, frankly no fundamental change has happened for humanity. Observe this on individual, organisational and government levels. So why and how could life beyond COVID-19 be different from what we know?  It is possible that this crisis will be different.  This article shares my thoughts on how it could be.

Humankind

We have a reminder that Humankind is intimately connected and as the “nose weeps with the eyes”, what affects the individual, affects the larger community, within and across borders. Our increasing reliance on technology only goes so far and becomes an avenue for Nature to self-correct our ways. How is a leader to lead themselves and their followers going forward? Gallup reporting on a recent survey, says the biggest global study of what followers want identifies that the world’s 7 billion citizens demand that leadership and institutions lead our nations and the world with (1) compassion, (2) stability, (3) trust, and (4) hope and inspiration for the future.

Gratitude

As lock-downs, self-isolation and social distancing are implemented, we must find compassionate ways to take care of ours and other’s mental health to manage anxiety; manage triggers for tendencies to Obsessive Compulsive Disorder (OCD); practice gratitude, limit exposure to consistent negative news and analysis, and internet misinformation; eat well with supplements where needed; exercise and still connect with others.  I have found peace most in accepting my mortality. Meditation and mindfulness practice which can help discernment of appropriate decisions and behaviours is also helpful.  COVID-19 has already taught me that washing my hands properly for 20 seconds and rinsing for 10 seconds requires attention and focus which I would reserve for work and sport, yet this is more crucial for survival than those.  Other conscious behaviours include choosing how to dry my hands, keeping my hands away from my face, travelling on public transport with minimal reliance on holding on, choosing how to open doors and generally ditching the autopilot.  I have opportunities to develop remote working skills, especially virtual presentations and meetings, to ensure I am photogenic and maintain personal impact in virtual environments as in physical ones. “Keep Calm and Wash your hands” is a good mindset to simplify and take care of the basics.

Holistic look

I am a bit concerned that humanity could miss a trick here, though.  Perhaps the most valuable lesson here is that life cannot afford to keep going back to business-as-usual in the ways we are comfortable with, when we have evidence that this is not sustainable and does not provide stability. Perhaps here is an opportunity for humanity to take a more holistic look at itself in order to prevent the next in the series to threaten current generations of humankind. Any serious holistic look at prevention, would inevitably lead to an examination of “how humans are living” in the universe.  If we do not look, Nature will.  It is Nature’s way to sense and correct imbalance in the universe.

Shift in mindset

In concluding, it is time we realise that taking care of our selfish interests to the detriment of others in our species and others, has landed us where we are and we need another level of thinking with a shift in mindset, if we are to prevent follow-ons that Nature may have in the series. Leaders could demonstrate such a mindset in perceiving situations, understanding them in the fullness of their connectedness to other issues and working collaboratively to be more aware of the impact of humankind on its ecosystem in small ways and large, individual and communal. Their actions and ours can provide compassion, stability, inspiration and hope for the future.  This, is how it could be.

Joseph Ogbonna is a London-based versatile, experienced coach, with excellent supporting skills in strategic thinking, relationship building, mindfulness, organisational development, project and programme management skills, serving a range of public and private sector clients.

Read more blogs from Joseph Ogbonna – POST COVID -19 Futures for the Education Sector

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