Change Managment

Overview

The purpose of this assignment is to provide a thoughtful analysis of your learning in the course as it relates to your conduct of your team development sessions and the disciplines you chose to address. You are asked to engage in a reflection that differs, to some extent, from what you have done in earlier course assignments. While you may draw on those assignments, your paper will be a synthesis of the ideas they contain rather than a mere reproduction of them. It will also include any new ideas you may have as they relate to the topics to be addressed.

You will prepare a draft of your final paper for feedback from your peers in a Unit 9 discussion, and after submission of this assignment, from your instructor. After receiving feedback from your instructor you will submit the final version in Unit 10 as an assignment.

Instructions

For this assignment:

• Create the next draft of your project and begin a draft of your presentation. You will use your completed team development assignments to finish your project. After successfully completing your project you may wish to actually give the paper and presentation to a professional audience in your organization to demonstrate your own development.

You will prepare a paper and a presentation separately, both of which will support each other.

• The purpose of the paper is to provide a coherent, integrated, and well-reasoned explanation of the use of the Five Disciplines for team development.

• The purpose of the presentation is to experience preparing a presentation that graphically communicates the summarized findings of your project.

Your paper and presentation should cover these areas:

• Theory of the Five Disciplines as a method of change.
• Summary findings from the team development sessions.
• Learning as a facilitator from your second session of team development.
• Recommendations for team development in your organization.
• Learning resources that will assist your outside team in learning more about the change management process.

Your paper and presentation should include the following:

• Review of relevant theory of change management and two of the Five Disciplines.

o Consider your audience as you decide how and what to discuss about theory.
o Make judgment calls about the audience's needs, their setting, and which theory seems appropriate. An important part of the presentation challenge is to provide a powerful metaphor to help the audience understand and remember the relevant theory. The textbook use of causal loops; the ladder of inference; the evolution of dialogue; and telling, selling, testing, and consulting are examples of graphic metaphors. You are expected to invent your own unique metaphor to explain the theory. The definition of metaphor is using a graphic and verbal image of something familiar to explain an unfamiliar thing or process.

• Team development summary findings.

o Present summary findings from the first and second team development sessions using your selected team exercises.
o Use the best stories and quotes from your session experiences to illustrate the disciplines and how they support change.
o Synthesize your learning about team dynamics and the value of the Five Disciplines for team development.
o Illustrate some action statements taken by the teams you worked with and the changes you observed.

• Learning as facilitator from the second team development session.

o Write a section on your learning as a facilitator from team development session two. What worked, what did not work, and what would you do differently next time?

o How would you change your contract, your explanation of change management, the discipline, the exercise, your exercise choice, or your behavior during the team session to enhance the quality of team learning?

• Recommendations for enhancing team development in the future.

o Provide your recommendations in a way that is practical, justified, memorable, and actionable for your team and their larger organization.

o Remember to include some examples from your best quotes and stories.

o Show how your recommendations make a difference in helping the group move closer to its preferred future through more effective teams. This could include some models from your learning about disciplines that support team learning. Your recommendations should also include the potential and power of using the Five Disciplines in the future to support team learning.

• Learning resources.

o To assist your outside team in learning more about the change management process, include a section of books, articles, Web resources, and organizations containing the most important resources you recommend.

• Optional: Include two or three questions you have about this project.

Submission Requirements

• Document format: APA format preferred. Use APA for references.
• References: Include title and reference pages.
• Length: 10-12 pages, not including title and reference pages.
• Font and spacing: Papers should be double-spaced and in a standard font.
• Writing: Writing should be well organized and clear, with correct spelling and grammar.
• Here are the past papers you can use.