Successful Project Management, Second Edition
Designed to be practical, stimulating and challenging, this workbook describes the skills, techniques and considerations involved in successful project management.
TABLE OF CONTENTS Successful Project Management, Second Edition
Managing Change
You may find that some of the people who work for the organization which is sponsoring your project do not trust you. This has nothing to do with your personal qualities as a human being. It is because you, as a project manager, are seen as a bringer of change. And most people do not like change, especially when it is forced upon them.
Before we look at ways of overcoming resistance to change, it is useful to spend a little time thinking about the nature of change itself.
FORCE FIELD ANALYSIS
Kurt Lewin, a social scientist, put forward a theory that people and organizations act in the way they do because of the effects of opposing forces. Some of these forces push us in one direction, while others push us in the opposing direction. The result is a state of equilibrium, in which both sets of forces are exactly balanced.
| DRIVING FORCES | ||
| ? | ? | ? |
| EQUILIBRIUM SITUATION | ||
| ? | ? | ? |
| RESTRAINING FORCES |
The forces can be anything which affect the situation, such as:
-
people's attitudes
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costs
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quality
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information available
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resources available.
ACTIVITY 16
Complete the following diagram.The current equilibrium is the poor timekeeping of the employees in an office.The driving forces are the pressures for the situation to improve and the restraining forces are the pressures which are preventing change.
| DRIVING FORCES | ||
| ___________________________ | ||
| ___________________________ | ||
| ___________________________ | ||
| ? | ? | ? |
| POOR TIME-KEEPING | ||
| ? | ? | ? |
| ___________________________ | ||
| ___________________________ | ||
| ___________________________ | ||
| RESTRAINING FORCES |
FEEDBACK
The forces you thought of may be similar...
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