Over the past weeks, we have all participated in several electives. These have covered topics such as finance, strategy, marketing and analytics, leadership and change management. However, now we have come to the end of our academic calendar, and graduation is just days away.
2021 has been a truly transformative and interesting year for all of us. From making the decision to pursue an MBA, and, for most participants, relocating to Switzerland, we have all had to manage change in one way or another.
It was no surprise that I selected the elective on ‘Change Management’ by Professor Winter Nie as one of my options. Change is a constant that features in our lives. Following graduation and “reintegration” with the world, we will be faced with bigger situations and warring changes. I also found this course particularly interesting as it was taught using gamification.
Immersive Learning
Several of the IMD MBAs will be transitioning to business leadership roles. Therefore, understanding the importance of building confidence, influence, and effective stakeholder management will be a game changer for us.
The elective exposed us to theories of change and learning how to build influence, whilst managing stakeholders and priorities. Simulating the real-life situation of a bank merger and the acquisition of an IT firm shone more light on how these delicate parts interact in the change process. These parts can be the deciding factor for whether the change succeeds or fails. We therefore explored how there are always ripple effects for every decision made both qualitatively and quantitatively.
My key learning points
- Communicate often and strategically
- Consider people’s emotions and feelings
- Collaborate and get the right stakeholders onboard
- Follow through on plans
- Leverage relevant resources to help drive change
- Celebrate successes and keep looking forward
Change management is common knowledge, but it is not common practice. To succeed both on a personal and professional level, we must make effective change management habitual and common practice.
There is nothing more difficult to take in hand, more perilous to conduct, or more uncertain in its success, than to take the lead in the introduction of a new order of things.
Niccolo Machiavelli
Wishing all my classmates the best of luck as they embark on their next transition.
