A new practitioner guide helps teams reach peak change-capability in the workplace

The Institute for Employment Studies (IES) HR Research Network, in conjunction with The Henley Forum, part of The Henley Business School, is pleased to announce the launch of a new practitioner guide, Changing Together: Change Tools for Teams. The concise booklet is designed to assist teams to be change-ready, maximising full change-capability potential when faced with growing demands for increased agility and adaptability in the workplace.

The practitioner guide is underpinned by an extensive eight month research programme, utilising the resources of 13 project team members, drawn from 11 organisations. Team members were invited to assess their team’s readiness and ability for change using an evidence-based survey tool. Researchers received 228 responses from nine teams across five large organisations in four countries.

The findings revealed, for the first time, common hallmarks of a change-ready, change-capable team including:

• A clear sense of communityship in the team and beyond
• Previous experience of being involved in change
• Self-confident in managing themselves

[perfectpullquote align=”right” bordertop=”false” cite=”” link=”” color=”” class=”” size=””]“For the first time our study identifies what team members do that supports each other while sustaining collective performance.[/perfectpullquote]

Dr Alison Carter, Principal Research Fellow at IES, said: “These findings offer a valuable insight into what makes teams change-ready, culminating in a practical guide to assist teams through periods of organisational transition.”

David Sheldon, Continuous Improvement Manager at the Department of Environment, Food and Rural (DEFRA) said: “Helping people deal with change supports their well-being. You can’t make everything simple but you can use simple things to help people deal with complexity. You can take this research off the shelf and use the tools with teams who have to change.”