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The purpose of this exercise is for team members to discuss the concerns they may have in relation to an upcoming change, and to identify ways of addressing these. Allow between one hour and one hour 30 minutes for completion, depending on the size of the group.
How to Use This Exercise
This exercise should be held shortly after the announcement of a change in your team, department or organization. It is best suited for groups of six to ten people. In the exercise, team members write their concerns about the upcoming change (anonymously) on sheets of paper which are then collected in a hat and read aloud. The team members then discuss each concern and the potential reasons behind it, and then suggest ways in which the concern could be addressed. As the team manager, you may wish to either facilitate the exercise, or participate alongside your team members. If this is the case, you could share this document with a manager from another team, or a facilitator from the HR or L&D department, and ask them to facilitate.
What You’ll Need
- pens or pencils
- writing paper
- a hat or similar sized container
- copies of the Preparing for Change Action Plan (download using the link below)
Preparing for Change Action Plan
What to Do (Allow 30-60 Minutes, Depending on Team Size)
1. Before you begin, explain the purpose of the exercise and share the following ground rules with team members:
- no concern is too small to be shared
- every concern should be treated with equal respect
- team members must be honest and upfront when writing their concerns down, but are free to remain anonymous during the discussion if they prefer
2. Start by giving the participants five minutes to reflect on the concerns they might have about the change, and to write each one on a separate piece of paper.
3. Once everyone has added their pieces of paper to the hat or container, give it a good shake, pull out one piece of paper and read out the concern.
4. Moving clockwise around the group, ask each team member to reflect on the concern and why they think someone might feel this way about the change. For example, if a team member were to write 'I'm worried that I don't know enough about our new technology to perform well', the group might conclude that:
- this person is worried that they haven't received enough information about how the technology will change
- this person is worried that they haven't understood how to use the new technology
- this person is worried about not having received any training
5. Once everyone has shared their thoughts, encourage the group to suggest actions that could be taken to help address this concern. In the example above, suggestions may include:
- asking for more clarification from a team manager
- asking another member of the team to support or ‘buddy’ them through the change in technology
- requesting some time to practice
6. Take out another piece of paper from the hat and repeat steps 3 and 4 until each concern has been addressed.
Review (Allow up to 30 Minutes)
Once all the concerns have been discussed, encourage the group to identify any common themes that emerged during the exercise, and agree on a set of actions for addressing these concerns. These might be steps that team members can take themselves (e.g. practicing on new or unfamiliar systems) or they might be actions that you, as a manager, need to take (e.g. providing additional information, support or training).
Once actions have been agreed, identify who should be responsible for implementing each one - for team member actions, ask for a volunteer to take the lead on putting each action into practice - and agree on an appropriate timeframe for doing this. Team members can use the action plan (available to download using the button at the top of this page) to record this information. Finally, arrange to meet with the team again in 3-4 weeks’ time to review progress against each of the actions, and to find out how the team members are now feeling about the change in light of the steps that have been taken.
