Change Management Good Practice – The Challenge of Change

Incredible Hulk 2Call of the Wild has recently been asked to deliver a workshop on change to an audience of 50 education professionals who are delegates in a change management conference in Portsmouth.
Looking at change from the unique perspective of each individual the question that Call of the Wild intends to pose to the audience is:-

“Why do some individuals thrive on the challenges presented by change, yet others see change as a threat which has an adverse impact on their performance”

Control and Manage Change

Incredible Hulk

Change as a process is inevitable, both in the workplace and in our wider lives. To a large extent any change initiative or process lies outside each individual’s sphere of influence and therefore much is to be learned by identifying the relative impact of change on those who are affected by it.
Call of the Wild’s work has brought us into contact with the Work of Dr Peter Clough, Head of Psychology at Hull University and his research on “Mental Toughness” which may be explained as:-

“The quality which determines, in some part, how effectively individuals perform when exposed to stressors, pressure and challenge irrespective of the prevailing circumstances”

We have found that the ability to deal with change correlates positively with the ability to deal with pressure stress and change. We therefore propose that Mental Toughness has much to offer as an explanation and predictor of the impact of chance on a group of individuals. Dr Clough has also developed a psychometric tool which we use to measure Mental Toughness and importantly, develop the behaviours required to thrive in the face of change and challenge.
If we can identify and benchmark the levels of mental toughness within an organisation we can:-
1.    Predict the likely impact of the change process for each individual and for the group as a whole
2.    Build in interventions and coach the group through the change process

For more information on change management click here.