Change Strategy
Lakinna Be, Niota McDowell, Joshua Pickett and Gwen Pritchard
LDR/531 - Organizational Leadership
November 4, 2014
Dr. Ramon Benedetto
Change Strategy
The word change immediately makes people nervous and evokes resistance. According to The Strategy Process (2003), failure to change is harmful to an organization. However, the key is to understand resistance and understand when to promote strategies (p. 416). This paper outlines the change strategy for iParty LLC. Within this strategy, the reader will understand the importance of change that a new business needs to adapt as it grows into an effective organization (Mitzberg, Lampel, Quinn, & Ghoshal, 2003)
In order for iParty LLC, a small event planning company, to remain viable and have an advantage over competitors, iParty LLC must strategically change their mission to stand out and appear unique within the event industry. This paper will focus on several key areas of change including; sense of urgency, potential barriers to change, change the vision, and strategies, communicate change vision. In addition, steps to implement change and evaluating change viability (University of Phoenix, 2014).
Sense of Urgency
Although iParty LLC is a new business, not establishing a sense of urgency is a mistake that most organizations make at the beginning (Kotter, 2007). The sense of urgency is the first and most critical step for a new business. The owners must have a purposeful conversation about the market, competitors, shrinking margins, and staffing (Kotter, 2007). One of the focal points for iParty is hiring the right staff, training and keeping the staff engaged. According to Kotter (2007), people will not help without motivation.
Furthermore, motivating begins with changing the mission of iParty LLC. Although the mission is “to enable profitable growth through collaborative services, providing a cutting-edge venue while encouraging self-empowerment and employment opportunities” ((McDowell, Pickett, Pritchard, & Sims, 2014). The mission lacks the uniqueness that to engage new business and new employees. The change strategy for the mission statement is an ongoing effort by all the stakeholders of iParty LLC.
Potential Barriers to Change
With a sense of urgency come certain barriers that will try to hinder change. Some of these barriers can include but are not limited to communication, zoning laws, building codes and other regulations. Within organizations, any different barriers can negatively affect communications within a business, and some are more ordinary and pervasive than others (Richards, 2014). These barriers can be personal or environmental and can include things such as bias, cultural differences, real noise, or internal noise, authority levels, or even differences in roles (Richards, 2014).
Aside from communications, we may run into an annoying barrier called zoning. Zoning is the division or separation of a municipality into sections called districts, and it is the regulation of these structures and buildings in these sections according to their construction and uses (Talen, 2012). Zoning is also the regulating of how local government uses real property, industrial, commercial, or any other use (Talen, 2012). Zoning laws can seem like bureaucratic anonymity, but they can often have a negative effect on areas that are urban (Talen, 2012). There can be perverse motives at work, such as racial or bias. The view of zoning by real estate developers, planners, citizens, and environmentalist is mostly negative (Talen 2012). We at iParty need to protect ourselves and our business from these barriers and thus our business shall thrive in the process.
Change Vision and Strategies Currently, the vision is "iParty LLC will strive to offer a top quality venue, for all occasions, for the Chicagoland and surrounding areas, while empowering people with positive employment opportunities" (McDowell, Pickett, Pritchard, & Sims, 2014). Although, the