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Four key approaches to change SeCtion one
This means that the next stage in a process is ready to undertake the necessary task rather than only doing so because it is under pressure from early stages.
Starting the Change
Manager B had set up a management team which comprised of the four senior practitioners from the previous teams and her admin manager. He decided that another project team was not required, but that at their monthly meeting they would dedicate at least an hour to the change process. Manager B was aware that culture has been shown to be a key issue in the merger of organisations and services. From discussions within the management team there had already been a few instances in comments had been heard such as ‘that’s not the way we do things in older people’s services’ and ‘in the old days we used have a greater focus on the people accessing services’. The management team therefore brought together all the staff from the new team (including administration staff) into a full day workshop. Following a brief introduction the staff members were divided them into three groups which represented their previous specialism, and asked them to provide a pictorial representation of the previous culture in their teams using the Cultural Web. The groups then took turns presenting their Cultural Webs to the rest of the team, with opportunities for questions. This then led into lunch in which there was considerable discussion regarding the similarities and differences between the presentations. After lunch, participants were divided into three groups with mixed representation from the previous teams. They were asked to develop different aspects of what they would see as an ideal Cultural Web for the new team. When they had developed their initial ideas a ‘carousel’ exercise was used to share this with other team members and refine what the ideal culture would look like.
The day finished with a presentation by the improvement team on the Lean process that they would be following and an exercise in which the team identified the main stakeholder groups that they would deliver ‘value’ for. This was on the basis that the first step in using Lean is to ‘specify value’ from the customer perspective. Four main stakeholder groups were identified – the people who had their needs assessed and care managed by the team, their family carers, other services in the council including support services such as finance and performance, and external partners such as the NHS, housing associations, and third sector organisations.
Understanding the change
Working with his management team, Manager B identified different ways to gather data that would help to understand value from their stakeholders’ perspectives (see table below). Whilst the questions were phrased differently, all stakeholders were asked about three key areas:
• What types of value do you need from this team?
• What types of waste have you experienced or observed from the team?
• What ideas do you have for improving the team’s work?
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