Change Management

Change is something that excites people who love opportunities for growth, seeing and learning about new things, or who like to shift the status quo. Some changes, however, are harder to adjust to and lead to expressions of resistance and anger. 

We can take concrete steps to make change more palatable by understanding people’s hesitation, enlisting the help of others, setting up plans, and managing stressors. These steps can also ensure that desired changes are implemented successfully.  

When we talk about working with groups of local government employees, more specifically, we tend to attract individuals to local government who don’t prefer change. Frequently there is a profound difference on this criteria between local government and the private sector. It’s probably healthy, because there are many elements of what we do in local government that aren’t changing very quickly. 

If you really like a situation that’s ever-dynamic, sometimes the pace of large-scale change can be frustrating in local government. But when this change does occur, it’s essential that, even if it is not necessarily the largest function of our roles, we are prepared to take on the challenge.

In this course, you’ll learn how to manage and cope with change and how to help those around you, too.