Discuss the importance of a change agent and a guiding team. What is the purpose of each, and what traits make them successful
Discussion 4-1
Change is inevitable in organizations and every change initiative requires a change agent and a guiding team to be successful. Change agents and guiding teams must possess certain characteristics to be able to effectively drive reforms in their organizations (Kotter & Cohen, 2002). The purpose of this discussion is to describe the importance, purposes, and traits of a change agent and a guiding team.
Importance, Purpose, and Traits of a Change Agent
A change agent is an essential figure in an organization, especially during change implementation. Carlo (2016) defines a change agent as anyone with the skills and knowledge to make change happen or facilitate a given reform. A change agent is important in an organization in that he or she steers a change towards successful completion and also serves to connect the leadership of an organization with employees and other stakeholders during the change process. According to Kotter and Cohen (2002), the purpose of a change agent is to explain to stakeholders why change is taking place, disseminate information, highlight potential benefits, develop success strategies, address concerns, and coordinate stakeholders’ efforts. Specific traits that make a change agent successful include; diversified knowledge, flexibility, courage, trustworthiness, creativity, and openness.
Importance, Purpose, and Traits of a Guiding Team
Every organization requires a guiding team that works to find the best possible solutions that can facilitate successful transformations. A guiding team can be a group of either 3-5 members in small companies or 20-50 people in large companies who use every possible channel to ensure that a given change is successfully adopted in an organization (Kotter & Cohen, 2002). The importance of a guiding team is to promote successful change adoption while its purpose is to empower others to take appropriate actions by successfully offering directions. The traits that a guiding team must possess to be successful include determination, effective communication skills, good interpersonal skills, and the ability to prioritize issues (Steinke, 2017).
References
Carlo, G. (2016). Meaning of change agents within organizational change. Journal of Applied Leadership and Management, ISSN 2194-9522.
Kotter, P., & Cohen, D. S. (2002). The heart of change: Real-life stories of how people change their organizations. Boston, MA: Harvard Business Press. ISBN-13: 978-142218733
Steinke, L. (2017). Change: A leader’s perspective. https://mlpp.pressbooks.pub/undertherushes/chapter/guiding-a-team-through-change/