Maintaining Change Management During a Pandemic
By Ginger Kloska, Change Management & Process Improvement Intern
May 15, 2020
During these unprecedented times, change management becomes increasingly important. Brad Bauer, LTC Ops. I in Maintenance, got on the Change Management train back when the Colorado Department of Transportation (CDOT) was just starting to branch into that territory. Since then, he has been able to better manage his Maintenance staff and encourage development and implementation of new ideas as a member of the Change Agent Network. Now, more than ever, Brad explains that change management can be utilized in every area of CDOT.
Maintenance team
ADKAR and Constant Change
After getting involved with CDOT’s Change Management Program, Brad took a 3-day course on how to better utilize change management in his workspace. Brad explained, “This course really gave me a different way to look at things. We don’t get a lot of opportunities to look into our work and pinpoint areas to improve.” A large part of the Change Management class is the ADKAR model. This model represents the five factors of change that managers must implement if they want their changes to be successful: Awareness, Desire, Knowledge, Ability, and Reinforcement. The ADKAR model can be used especially during this time of great change. During this course, Brad was able to develop a better understanding of this model and apply it to his ever-changing work in Maintenance.
Even before the pandemic hit, CDOT’s Maintenance team was used to constant change. Brad explained, “Our folks in maintenance are highly adaptive. I think we're constantly dealing with change, and we're reactive. We try to be proactive as much as we can, so our environment is constantly changing.” As a Change Agent, Brad encourages his team to adopt new ideas and changes that make their work easier and more efficient. He mentions, “there's all kinds of great ideas out there. There's not just one set way to do things. I've stolen a number of ideas out of Lean Everyday Ideas for my guys. I've seen a lot of really cool things out there, and there's a lot of modern, easier ways to do our job.” Despite the setbacks of the current time we are in, innovation and change management can continue to push us forward.
Advice for Others
For others trying to manage change during this time, Brad explains, “I think if we try to use ADKAR as much as we can in our day to day work and try to give our folks a model to go on this would really benefit our teams. We want to give them that awareness of what the state's doing and what we're doing as a region. How we're trying to keep COVID-19 from going around is a really good example right now of trying to create and keep change management in the forefront and try to keep people aware of what's going on.”
Want to learn more about Change Management at CDOT? Check out our improvement efforts at the Office of Process Improvement’s website!