Organisational Change:

Case Study and

Learning Points

UCL Mechanical

Engineering ucl.ac.uk/mecheng

Sian Lunt

Departmental Manager Sian.lunt@ucl.ac.uk

@LuntSian

uk.linkedin.com/in/sianlunt

AUA Managing Change in HE

Faculty of Engineering Sciences

Learning Points

• How different people react to change

• Techniques for buy in

• How to cope with dissatisfied staff

• Settling down a team after change

• Successful away day encouraging

communications and planning

• Anything else you want?

What is change?

• External drivers for change, we react to with some strategic planning

• Internal drivers for change, driven by us and planned for

External changes

• Dowling Review of Business-

University Research Collaboration

• Science & Technology

Parliamentary Select Committee

Budget

• Review of Research Councils

• Government’s Spending Review

• TEF – search gov.uk

• 6 publications from BIS

in May 2016 alone

• Brexit

Internal changes

• Business process improvement

• New systems going live

• Office Moves

• New leadership

• A member of the team moving on

• New staff starting / new

personalities to get used to

• The pen you prefer to use no longer

being ordered

• Planned, controlled organisational

change

AUA Good Practice Guides

“Change is a constant feature of higher education. With changes in administration, systems, technology, students and funding”

“Managing change may be defined as making changes… with the aim of implementing new methods and systems whilst maintaining ongoing business”

“Restructuring and reorganisation are stressful for all… the staff involved present the largest and most coherent challenge…”

AUA Good Practice Guides As tools to open discussion with staff Change as something you can drive and is normal Emotions as part of the our working life, impact & raised self- awareness NOT during change – before = normal

UCL Engineering is….

UCL MechEng

Est. 1847

First chair in Mechanical Engineering in England

There is a happy ending!

@UCLEngineering

Timeline • First Department Manager for the Department • Identifies PS under staffed and not delivering to institutional standards • Students & Academic numbers grown without growth in PS staff numbers

• in 10 years UG numbers had grown by 62%, PG by 64% • New Head of Department due to join in Sept 2013, change to be

implemented by that date • 28 days for consultation (institutional guidance, not statutory)

• Tempting to make this as long as possible – don’t

DM starts Oct 12

Consult May 13

Bus Case March 2013

Change starts

August 13

New Head Starts

Sept 13

Revised BC June 13

Organisational Charts – Before and After

Office Rationalisation • Based in 3 separate locations, many with private offices

• All in one shared open plan office

(Except IT)

• First away day, prior to move concentrated on how to share the space

• Not full participation

Main Problems • Buy in can be difficult

• New manager driving change, how to build trust in your judgements • Do you have the right balance of time for consultation and time of uncertainty? • Consultation must be genuine, all queries from staff directly involved must be addressed • There will always be someone who does not engage fully • Emotions will run high

• Everyone will have an opinion • Support PS manager position very important from trusted management positions • Scenario planning essential, but you won’t think of everything

• There will be rumours • Misinformation is inevitable and not always malicious, but needs to be addressed where

confidentiality concerns allow

Different Reactions to Change

Strongest voices • Change of line management • Lack of privacy for confidential work (loss of own office) • Given management responsibility • Perception of lack of genuine consultation • NOT those at risk of redundancy Conversations post-changed, enabled by a change of management elucidated deeper reasons for those reactions Mostly historical reasons - some very specific to the department, others very specific to UCL

Away Day: September 2014

• How to be a team • There will be a very shortly weekly Monday morning meeting to bring everyone up to speed on

what is going on, who is where etc. This can be held in the professional services meeting space • Headphones will be allowed in the office but not when working on reception. They will be

removed as soon as a visitor approaches someone’s desk • No food will be left on the desks overnight • Phones will be on group pick-up and will always be picked up by members of the relevant sub-

team. Members of other teams can pick up if they wish but should not feel obliged to. • The Professional Services meeting room should have telephone for private calls • People can have their own individual fan and / or heater • All team members should aim to be as paperless as possible so that space is utilised well • Everyone should keep their Outlook calendar updated and share with all the team

Change Became Further Change…..

….. and this is when I enter initially as Maternity leave cover

Team coming to the end of the forming period: 2 posts vacant Then focus was to make the storming period as short as possible • Leadership – consistent messages • Transitioning to a coaching

management style • Context to academics • Carefully planned away day

February 2015: What I inherited

•Tuckman, Bruce (1965). "Developmental sequence in small groups".

Psychological Bulletin 63 (6): 384–99. doi:10.1037/h0022100

Away Day: September 2015

• Problem • Diverse team (Comms/Teaching/IT/HR/Finance/Grants) • Delivering on many very different aspects = a vast variety of styles and characters • Controllers were trying to organise creatives • Clashes were escalating in frequency

• Solution

• Myers Briggs Type Indicator to open up dialogue on personality / style • Raise awareness of different personality preferences • No one is right or better, just different

• Also – the morning was a reflection on the past year and how far they had come

Away Day: September 2015 Timings Session

9.00 - 9.30 Arrival and refreshments

9.30 - 9.45 Welcome, introductions, team contract

9.45 – 10.00 Icebreaker

10.00 – 11.00 Where the team has a) come from, b) where it

is now and c) Mechanical Engineering

Professional Services - Outline Team Plan going

forward

11.00 – 11.15 Coffee

11.15 – 11.30

11.30 – 12.00

Analysis of team changes needed to deliver

actions from Mechanical Engineering

Professional Services Outline Plan

Action Planning

12.00.12.30 MBTI Type as Marvel Character

12.30 - 1.15 Lunch

1.15 – 1.45 Mechanical Engineering as Marvel Characters

1.45 – 2.45 Team Presentation on which character they

prefer and why it’s like them?

2.45 – 3.00 Tea

3.00- 3.45 Implications for our team of Marvel cartoons

3.45 – 4.00 Action Planning/Evaluation/Close

Humorous Fun discussions to allow honest and open reflection Serious I actually saw the lightbulb moments on the faces of some of the team

Outcomes

Morning session • Lists of successes to date • Ideas for better working together • Improvements to office environment • Action points with named champions Afternoon session • Increased cooperation and understanding

immediately • Short-cut for conversation when tensions do

arise – “remember at the away day when we…”

Further Change Became More Change

Smaller change is now normal practice

• Staff left and were replaced by promotion – positive for morale • Cross cover during holidays enables supervision of temps during

periods of recruitment to protect core services • New roles are the most challenging as who does what gets

embedded into practice, but welcomed (reception) • Still internal / external changes

• New research grants software rolling out • New admissions procedures being designed centrally • HR department undergoing Organisational Change • Professional Services across Institution being reviewed • Brexit – uncertainty is potentially derailing

HR Context Vital

• St rong HR Advisory Services & Occupational Development teams • Bespoke designed and delivered team building & training available

delivered for free to departments(OD) • Institution-wide training designed with the vision to enable renewal

and change (OD) • Flexibility, cooperation and forward thinking embedded in Core

Behaviours (AS) • Support for review of change (AS)

New Leadership Helped

• Enabled the transition to coaching style of management more quickly • Allowing space to offload frustrations • Moving forward message not taken as criticism • Shortened storming phase • Listening allows you to hear problems sooner to take action

• Consistent leadership messages between two different managers led to reflection on past actions

• Staff-driven review of processes empowers staff and embeds change as normal

Prepare Yourself

• The most sound business case will not persuade everyone • Introspection is important to prepare yourself to drive change

• Check your motives • Check your belief that this is the right thing to do • Check your managers support the change fully • Get your support systems in place

Your conviction and consistency of message from managers will be more persuasive than anything else

SWOT

Analyse whether you are in the best position to start change - prepare fully Identify possible pitfalls / opportunities early on

Big win

Academic staff who opposed the change have consistently praised the new team and the work that is done in support of their work “The team are really brilliant and doing such a good job, I don’t think anyone envisaged how much of a difference this would make to the department” Prof X With thanks to the HR team, the Faculty Manager, my predecessor Most importantly – my super team!

Thank you Any Questions?

Sian Lunt

Departmental Manager

UCL MechEng Sian.lunt@ucl.ac.uk

@LuntSian

uk.linkedin.com/in/sianlunt