Doing Change Well

November 2024 | Courtney Thornton

The Wolfpack 2030: Powering the Extraordinary strategic plan describes what the NC State community wants for the university’s future. It drives the development of university-level implementation plans with key initiatives identified to help NC State reach its strategic goals. These strategic documents are, in essence, documents about change – where does NC State want to be, and what must be done differently to get there?

There are many good reasons to pay attention to how strategic changes are implemented at NC State – and not just to what is changing. First, a well-implemented change is more likely to result in its full intended benefits. In other words, poorly managed changes leave value on the table. Second, a well-implemented change builds institutional goodwill and fosters the success of future change efforts. An organization’s past performance with change is a key predictor of employee responsiveness to future changes (Hiatt and Creasey, 2012). When faculty, staff and students feel prepared and ready for change, they perform better and regard the institution positively. 

Over the past year, through close work with implementation plan contacts across the university, Institutional Strategy and Analysis (ISA) realized an opportunity to strengthen how NC State supports the success of its strategic initiatives. It centers on doing change well.

Genevieve Rockett was hired in June 2024 to serve as the university’s first Implementation Specialist. She joins us this month to share insights about this new role.

What are your responsibilities as Implementation Specialist?

I have two primary responsibilities. My first responsibility is to provide direct change management support to a small number of select initiatives in the university’s implementation plan. Think of me as a kind of internal consultant. I’ll walk closely alongside those initiative leaders with advice, tools and analyses they can use to lead change effectively. My second responsibility is to contribute to a culture of operational excellence and continuous improvement at NC State. We want positive, effective change processes to become a natural part of our culture and the way we do things at NC State.

What is change management anyway?

Change management is often described as the “people side” of change. Most of us can probably think of a time when we felt in the dark about a change that we were required to make. You might remember thinking, “Why is this change happening? How is it going to affect me? How can I be better prepared for it?” While these may seem like obvious questions to address, the efforts needed to effectively build awareness, support and prepare individuals, and sustain a change can be less obvious.

What in your background prepared you for this role?

I’ve been helping people walk successfully through changes my whole career without calling myself a change manager, per se. As a serial entrepreneur and former COO and CEO, I led staff and stakeholders to adopt the new practices necessary for them to reap more or different organizational benefits. As a trained physical therapist, I inspired individuals to change their behaviors in order to improve their health outcomes. Whatever the case, the key to achieving technical success was to, first and foremost, understand and address the needs of the human beings involved.

What changes do you hope you’ve helped to make at NC State a year from now?

A year from now, I hope to be a trusted resource for those leading strategic implementations at NC State. Through our work together, I hope we continue to create an institutional culture that supports people well through changes and seamlessly weaves those good practices into daily routines. I envision us developing a shared understanding of change that unites everyone at the university and drives our ongoing improvement. Small adjustments can make a big impact and develop NC State into an even more responsive, connected, and forward-thinking institution.

Interested to learn more about supporting others through strategic changes at NC State? Contact Genevieve Rockett, Implementation Specialist, Institutional Strategy and Analysis at gcrocket@ncsu.edu. 

References
Hiatt, J. M, & Creasey, T. J. (2012). Change management. ProSci Inc.