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Sustaining Change in the IDD/Special Needs Workplace

Table of Contents

Sustaining Change in the IDD Workplace

The final change management step is to create the necessary culture and infrastructure in the workplace that will allow the persistence of desired change(s). These processes must be sustainable (i.e. not overly complex) and should involve continued change execution, measurement and improvement. This means leaders continue to champion well-researched valuable change efforts, require ongoing assessments that measure change effort(s) alongside predetermined goals, as well as radiating a belief in their staff that they can create ‘good’ change again and again.

After that, you will have a company culture that understands, embraces and effects change whenever needed. Since change is not going away you will have an organization that is ready for anything.

Continued Monitoring, Reward and Intervention

  • Continued oversight and feedback from the guiding team is essential. The bottom line: do not stop—do not give up. The goal is to ensure that the change endures. In this phase, the guiding team:
    • Continues to focus on problem areas, promotes solutions, and help change individual behavior to achieve organizational goals
    • Prepares to train, retrain, and provides technical assistance to rapidly address problems
    • Celebrates the successes as often as they can. People like to know when they are winning. Individual behavioral changes will eventually result in a change in the organization’s culture that aligns with the Future State desired.
    • Continues to seek input from impacted staff groups. This will give them a sense of ownership and hopefully create a sense of community and they will have an investment in the successful implementation of the software.

Change Management is a Cost Avoidance Technique and a Risk Mitigation Tactic 

Network With Other Providers Who Have Successfully Accomplished Your Change

  • There is no need to reinvent the wheel because ‘Iron sharpens iron!’ Learn from others experience and avoid their mistakes. Read the blogs on the Focused Software website – focusedsoftware.com and attend Focused webinars, read the Focused emails to learn of exciting new features and updates to make your staff’s lives easier, ask your Focused Software rep for contact info for other providers who successfully transitioned to the EHR after having faced expected challenges associated with all significant change.

Final Points...

Change is unavoidable in the workplace and in life. However instead of resisting we can learn to embrace the challenge of change and make it work for us. Strong leaders with great integrity will be needed to avoid the unnecessary demise of many IDD service organizations during these periods of swift significant change. EHR and practice management software implementation is one of the smartest and most affordable changes you can make! Call FOCUSED SOFTWARE TODAY!

This is our final installation for this series on Change Management. Watch out for more great FOCUSED blogs next week!

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Focused Blog List

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2020 (1)
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2019 (19)
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2018 (41)
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