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Criminal Justice Online
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Change in Public Safety Organizations: Its a Cultural Thing
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Being in a public safety
organization leadership role, youre likely aware of the considerable difficulty
involved in making significant changes to technology, procedure, administrative
rules, etc. If you have attempted a determined organizational push for some
major change, (sometimes even a fairly small one) which met with surprisingly
limited success, probably the culture thing got you.
Organizational culture,
one of the factors some federal agencies investigate at incident sites and in
other situations, can be simply stated as the way things are done around
here. Building a culture of change is perhaps one of the toughest things a
public safety organization will ever attempt. Sometimes rational, always
challenging, cultural change can mean influencing opinion and behavior top to
bottom.
Laboring to make the
acceptance of needed change an everyday habit in your organization? From the
top down, consider these general change rules for your action checklist:
Ø
Its hard to convince anyone
of needed change without actual, visible top management commitment and funding.
Ø
Required change has to be a
priority with key leaders, on par with other priorities, or it gets squeezed
out.
Ø
Sometimes change means
re-education and reshaping the reward system top to bottom. You dont pick up
fresh methods or habits nor shed old ones, without new knowledgeand new
consequences.
Ø
Policy, training and
organizational action guidelines must spell out specific requirements, in simple
terms.
Ø
Communicate, communicate and
communicate about the change, your commitment to it and expected new/ continuing
behavior.
Ø
Unionized? Get union
leadership into the picture early. Many changes actually offer a good place to
build/ re-build positive working relationships for the long haul.
Ø
Non-unionized? Want to keep
the status quo? Visible concern for open communication can help model
organizational caring. As well, the change improvement process can be crafted
to both spur employee involvement and facilitate leadership/ employee
communication.
Beyond these general
guidelines, to actually implement many organizational changes, consider also
working from bottom up a necessity. Front line supervisors are the real
trendsetters of culturehow things are done around here! Get these vital
change-makers to make it happen in the station, in the field and elsewhere by:
Communicating and educating as
to what is required, why its critical to the organizations welfare, and whats
in it for them.
Ø
Holding them accountable for
actual implementation and changed procedures, practices, etc.
Ø
Rewarding for sustained
positive action. As well, key leaders might consider routinely visiting the
field (or whenever change impacts), discussing/ praising compliance with
front-line supervisors.
Ø
If appropriate, creating
something distinctive (such as a uniform patch or desk object) which might
signify qualification in some new procedure, etc.
Ø
Incorporating working
supervisors into the planning of change.
Ø
Creating, and including supervisors in, a change
oversight council and empowering it to act to help sustain changewithin
appropriate guidelines.
Working collaboratively with
employees who will be affected by change is working smarter. Its also good
leadership. A public safety culture that simply drops significant changes on
the troops risks employee resistance ranging from the subtly creative to that of
crafty hostility all about as much fun as root-canal procedures. 3
______________________
▪ Ken Myers (PhD;
organizational behavior) has consulted, taught and led major change projects.
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