Thank you, Mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, our government has a tendency to struggle with implementing and responding to change effectively. This is a common problem for large organizations, and I argue it is a big problem for the GNWT that we aren't talking about as an overarching issue. Poorly implemented change management is at the heart of many of the issues MLAs and the public raised about the GNWT. Rather than providing specific examples at the outset, I'm going to speak to some common change management errors listed by John P. Cotter in his book Leading Change. I think people will find at least a few of them will ring true on changes they've been a part of or had a stake in.
One error is allowing too much complacency when communicating a change or failing to establish a sense of urgency. Another is failing to create a sufficiently powerful guiding coalition to drive the change that we're trying to achieve. Another is neglecting the importance of a driving vision and communication of that vision throughout the organization. The fifth error is permitting obstacles to block the new vision because employees feel disempowered to overcome them. Another common error is declaring victory too soon, communicating that the change is done when we're only halfway through its implementation. Finally, the eighth error is neglecting to anchor changes firmly in the corporate culture.
John Cotter notes that until the change is rooted in social norms and shared values, it is subject to degradation as soon as pressures associated with the change efforts are removed. Is this starting to sound familiar, Mr. Speaker? Certainly, I can identify a few change processes which have exhibited some of these characteristics. The one which stands out most starkly to me currently is the transition of Aurora College to a polytechnic university, a process which I would argue has suffered from all of the noted change management failures on some level or another along the way.
Other change processes come to mind. The Stanton transition, departmental mergers, or the struggle government is currently having to shift resources to the Assembly's new priorities. The remedy to this problem, of course, is to reverse the above-noted errors. We need to ensure effective change management principles are built into and maintained in our processes. Mr. Speaker, I seek unanimous consent to conclude my statement. Thank you.
---Unanimous consent granted
Thank you, Mr. Speaker, and thank you to the Members. Mr. Speaker, we also need to ensure staff throughout the organization understand how to lead and respond to change effectively. This will help build change resiliency into the fabric of our organization and overcome change resistance which holds us back. Thank you, Mr. Speaker.
Thank you, Member from Frame Lake. Members' statements. Member from Monfwi.
