From the Teacher Support Network, www.teachersupport.info.

FOCUS ON STAFFWISE: THINK ABOUT GUIDES – CHANGE

Funded by the Scottish Government, StaffWise is a practical online resource, designed to improve organisational wellbeing in Scottish schools and early education centres by providing local authorities, managers and individual staff across Scotland with guides and tools that enable them to achieve excellence in wellbeing at work. Each week we will be looking at a different element of the site. This week: think about guides – change.

Over the next few weeks we will be looking at the 'Think about guides', which include information on support, role, relationships, demands, control, change and communications.

Change

This ‘think about guide’ will help you to manage change and to help staff cope with the process and outcomes. This will include things such as:

• Preparing For Change – Understanding risk assessments, identify groups that will be most affected and identify who will help to plan and implement change.
• Consulting on change - Engaging in meaningful dialogue with those likely to be affected by proposed changes in the workplace.If carried out genuinely it could provide an assurance to staff that their views and opinions will be sought before decisions are made.
• Solution Focused Meetings - Provides staff with a positive format for discussing workplace challenges or problems.
• Communicating Change Effectively - It is important to communicate change early on before rumours and false information through the ‘grape vine’ take hold.This could help to avoid some resistance to change at the very beginning.
• Promoting the Need for Change - Doing this clearly and effectively will help to allay fears and reduce potential resistance. It could also help to ensure the transition to change runs smoothly with increased commitment from staff.
• Impact of Change on the Individual - The impact of change on the individual and how best to recognise and manage this is perhaps best explained by considering a model of change that is known as the Kubler-Ross ‘change curve’ or the ‘coping cycle’. Click here to view the model.
• Creating a ‘preferred future’ - A ‘preferred future’ is the solution-focused term for a description of the way we would like things to be. It describes the situation that will exist when our goals or outcomes are achieved.
• Solution Focused Working - A solution focused (SF) approach promotes a collective ‘can-do’ attitude in the workplace. It describes a way of talking, thinking and behaving that focuses attention on success and strengths, and emphasises solutions rather than problems.

You may also find the following links useful:

• Solution focused language
• How do you deal with change?
• Tips for managing change
• Responding positively to change