ACT
In today’s world everyone is always trying to change everyone and everything. Change has become a part of our everyday lives. You taught that if someone is wrong you need to change someone, make them better, but is this really the best approach to have? ACT stands for advanced change theory where there are two main parts: the leader and the followers. First the leader must change themselves then work on changing their followers to match their vision. There are ten main points the first 6 focus on the leader changing and 7-10 focus on the leader’s relationship with others.
In the world today how often do you see leaders trying to change employees? I know for me it is has been a common trend in every job I have had, but what is even more common is the leader themself refuses to change. At my old job, which was not a positive company, required the employees make numerous changes, including cutting their lunch break to 30 minutes, no personal calls, no personal emails, no cell phones, no open-toed shoes, no skirts, and few other rules that seem to have nothing to do with the job. Yet as the leaders are strictly enforcing this they come strolling in from their 2 hour lunch break on their cell phone wearing flip-flops. In a situation like how are employees going to be willing to change when they see those around them getting away with what they are told is against the rules? It makes the trust in the leaders very low, and makes employee morale decrease which we know leads to low work performance and decline in employee attendance.
So what makes change so hard? Some people see change as criticism it is easier to ask others to change and criticize them than it is to actually change yourself and see you too can improve. When you look at change was a whole it can be difficult but that is why I think the ACT is a good theory because it breaks change down into 10 steps first focusing on the leader and then the relationships the leader has with others. In order to expect change one must first be willing to change themselves.
Then when you are wanting change you have to ask what you are wanting to change. The ACT breaks change down by: change a child, change a class, change a unit, change a division, and change a corporation; each situation requires a different relationship the leader must have with the followers. The bottom line when it comes to changing human behavior is it is not going to happen over night, you must have a good goal of change you are working towards, and you first must change before you will see change in anyone else.
On the flip side of change I have seen it work positively in the company I know work for. The leaders made some huge changes to our company in the last year and the first thing they say is we don’t expect anything from you we don’t expect from ourselves. You ask you not to be on your cell phone all the time but we understand sometimes you need to have it, because we do use our cell phones. The company took a salary decrease due to the economy and the leaders took the same decrease as the employees in the field. They asked people to be here at 7 instead of 8, well the leaders are here at 6:30. And because the leaders are showing they can change too it makes my more willing to change and open to change.
Jessica Plassmeyer 