Organizational Change: Connect to Good

Background of the Company, Industry and Culture

The foundation of the company that later became AT&T was done after the invention of the telephone by Alexander Graham Bell in 1876. The company delivers next generation TV, high speed internet, mobile services, and smart solutions for individuals and business organizations. The company is thus working towards being the best in telecommunication, media, and technology industry. The company is also very focused on the development and the growth of the countries where it is located. It works as a source of employment to many people in the country. The organization also provides relief support in emergency situations. The company has also invested more funds on the future of the USA than any other public company.

“Though the technology may have changed, the underlying network is still about our connection to each other. Connect to Good is our vision for how to leverage those connections to build a better tomorrow. Our goal in everything we do is to create a better, smarter, more connected future. It’s good for our business, and it’s good for our customers, employees, suppliers and communities.” (AT&T, 2015) This is a vision that is about having a sustainable world, and leaving a clean world for our future.  For us to achieve this vision, we must focus on people, planet, and possibilities. 

Change Vision and its Importance

The company intends to use its network to build a better tomorrow. Its greatest change vision is to mobilize learning, power, career skills, and support education. AT&T plans to create a sustainable, more connected future for the community and the people that will be living in it in the years to come.  “We will continue to drive reductions in emissions and increases in resource efficiency and alternative energy deployment. We will enable AT&T customers to lead more sustainable lives by expanding access to technology, further integrating sustainability solutions into products, and measuring the impacts.” (AT&T, 2015)

Kotter’s Eight Stage Framework.

Creating a Sense of Urgency

Many businesses make mistakes by not creating a sense of urgency when dealing with change. Creating a sense of urgency is important in creating cooperation between different employees within an organization as few employees are usually interested in working towards change. A sense of urgency can be created by motivating employees to invest their time, skills, and effort in dealing with all the inconveniences of change (Pollack & Pollack, 2015). Every employee at AT&T will be expected to work towards ensuring the intended change plan is successful. This way, more work will be put towards building a better tomorrow.

Creating a Guiding Coalition

The guiding coalition is created by ensuring that the personnel involved in leading the change have the power and skills required. The leaders should provide strategic direction of the project and provide project governance (Pollack & Pollack, 2015). At AT&T, the best individuals will be those who are able to work with the people to understand the best way the company can partner with the public in developing a better future in different spheres. It is normally problematic to identify factors responsible for successful implementation of change in an organization. The success of the change program will depend on the effort of the whole group and their drive for change.

How to Develop a Vision and Strategy

A vision and strategy has already been developed, and has been put in to place to ensure that everyone can be on the same page as far as the vision and how to reach the goals of the company.  This will ensure the performance of the organization and the necessary steps are clear and concise. The strategy to deal with the issues of decreasing our carbon footprint and creating a more efficient company will include projects such as: reducing electricity consumption, expanding on-site alternative energy capacity, and enhancing the efficiency of our network.  

Communicating the change vision

The change team should focus on two groups of activities when communicating the vision which are; visible senior support and harnessing existing activities. The senior leaders are supposed to keep talking about the need for change thus encouraging other employees to keep working towards the change project. The senior employees should also prepare presentations about impacting positively in the community and present to other employees. It should also be ensured that the news about the project is kept circulating in the organization at all times (Pollack & Pollack, 2015). This will enable the employees and shareholders of AT&T acquire a culture a culture of impacting on the community positively.

Empowering Employee Action

This stage involves removing all obstacles that might be hindering change by changing systems that undermine change and encouraging innovative ideas (Pollack & Pollack, 2015). The employees of AT&T should also be trained to ensure the younger generation possesses the skills and knowledge to make the company more efficient and educate the customer as well. Employees that have more knowledge on these matters should also be encouraged to coach each other and be provided with resources to use in the coaching process. The coaches are also assured of senior management support.

Generating Short Term Wins

Short term wins are very important as they show how possible change is and ensure continuity. The short-term wins should be visible and possible to meet within a short set deadline. The change team should also seek out the positive outcome and use the results to encourage the employees to work more on the change. Communicating the short-term wins is very important as it encourages the employees to keep working as sometimes it can be hard to identify the wins which might make the team feel like they have been doing nothing. Communicating the wins will help show the coaches the fruits of their vigorous work (Pollack & Pollack, 2015). In the case of AT&T, the company should adopt wins in the form of supporting different programs that are in the public and developing innovative programs through which the company can work with the public. For example, AT&T will offer discounted wireline broadband services to low-income households that qualify for the SNAP program. 

Consolidating Gains and Producing New Change

In this stage, the change team must deal with the outcome of their success. Effort is required in this stage to ensure the program stays true to the organization’s vision and avoid effects from other activities from changing the program’s approach. In this stage, the program has already gained momentum through the short-term wins and the involvement of the senior personnel (Pollack & Pollack, 2015). Once AT&T starts seeing reduced emissions and carbon footprint, it should continue working towards seeing better results. This will also ensure that the problem does not recur and create a better future for kids. 

Anchoring New Approaches in the Company Culture

In this stage, several guiding coalitions should be established, which although will not be used at the same time but will be used at some point in the change strategy. Groups of people should also be given different tasks to undertake at various stages of the change strategy depending with their knowledge and skills (Pollack & Pollack, 2015).  One such task could include collecting and refurbishing/recycling devices, for example. At the same time, other groups will record results, while others review the financial requirements of each program and how to continue to implement more such programs.

References

A road map to 2025. (2017) (1st ed.). Retrieved from http://about.att.com/content/dam/csr/2025-goals/2025-ATT-Goals-PDF-Overview.pdf

Horak, R. (2007). Webster’s New World Telecom Dictionary (1st ed.). John Wiley & Sons, 2007.Pollack, J., & Pollack, R. (2015). Using Kotter’s eight stage process to manage an organizational change program: Presentation and practice. Systemic Practice and Action Research, 28(1), 51-66