Shifts in workflow processes, fluctuating corporate priorities, and layoff-led adjustments in team personnel have prompted a series of evolutions in my adaptive change project over the last eighteen months. Even though the focus and concentration of my project—“Improving Campaign Production Processes at Ruffalo Noel Levitz (RNL)”—is a bit different from what I originally had planned, at least three theories have remained consistent in informing my project.
These theories are built on change leadership, building relationships, and team leadership. Yes, these all can stand on their own, but together they create a bond that strengthens my efforts to boost cost efficiencies and improve campaign production time among my Creative Team colleagues, RNL’s Client Success Consultants (CSCs), and our Campus Partners.
As the Copywriting Lead and one of the longest-serving writers on the RNL Creative Team, I view this project as fundamental to the company’s future. It is essential for boosting employee morale, securing our bottom line, and enhancing customer satisfaction in the relationships we build and the products we create. This aligns with what Cawsey et al. described about change leadership. In their 2020 book, “Organizational Change: An Action-Oriented Toolkit,” they explained, “Change leaders use visions to create and advance the mental pictures people have of the future. …” (2020, p. 124).
Throughout my nearly seven years at RNL, I have built a reputation as a dedicated, compassionate, and fair team player. With so many players involved—writers, graphic designers, CSCs, directors, Campus Partners, and RNL vice presidents—I have had to strengthen my relationships with everyone and listen to their concerns as they relate to what I envision in my adaptive change project. Such relationship building is key, according to Ronald Heifetz, Alexander Grashow, and Marty Linsky in their 2009 book The Practice of Adaptive Leadership: Tools and Tactics for Changing Your Organization and the World. They explained, “… forge strong connections with people who have big stakes in the challenge … Listen to them to comprehend their interests and loyalties” (p. 135). I can’t do this adaptive change project on my own, so I need these relationships to help me, and ultimately RNL, realize this vision.
This brings about the notion of team leadership. Remember? I am known as being a team player, and my colleagues know I have our collective best interests in mind in I work do and the way I lead. In John P. Dugan’s 2017 book Leadership Theory: Cultivating Critical Perspectives, he elaborates on the theory of team leadership. Dugan explains, “It represents a shift away from solely examining linkages between leaders and subordinates and toward interactions between leaders and teams as well as the ways in which teams can be afforded greater agency for their collective work” (2017, p. 161). This is fundamental to my adaptive change project in that I will connect with my colleagues and engage them in this effort because it’s more than me and my master’s degree. It’s about us, our job satisfaction, and the future of our company
References
Cawsey, T. F., Deszca, G., & Ingols, C. (2020). Organizational change: an action-oriented toolkit (4th ed.). SAGE Publications, Inc.
Dugan, J. P. (2017). Leadership theory: Cultivating critical perspectives. Jossey-Bass.
Heifetz, R. A., Grashow, A., & Linsky, M. (2009). The practice of adaptive leadership: Tools and tactics for changing your organization and the world. Harvard Business Press.