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Coghlan and Brannick (2014) discuss the issues involved in a single person occupy-ing dual organizational and change agent roles.To assist in getting the organization to offer alternative solutions.3.5.

Stage 3: Develop an action plan

The development of an action plan can be thought of as beginning the phase of managing the transition from an organization's current state to its desired future state, as shown by the 'journey to the future' zigzag in Figure 8.2. It also continues the process of gaining commitment to the vision, but with a somewhat changed emphasis on how that vision can come about.

A number of issues are important in this stage of the OD process. One is the issue of who is to guide the planning and, later, the implementation of the change. Another is the issue of precisely what needs to change to achieve the vision, while a third is where any intervention should take place. The following explores these issues in more detail.

The role of a change agent

The success of using an OD approach to facilitate change rests on the qualities and capabilities of those who act as the facilitators of change. Moving organizations from current to future changed states is not easy and requires knowledge and skills that some managers might not possess. In addition, many managers and other employees are often so close to the day-to-day issues and problems of managing that they find it difficult to stand back from the current situation of managing to take on the role of change agent as well. For these and other reasons, such as the need for managers, themselves, to learn how to manage change, many writers on change advise that a change agent who is external to the organization is necessary. However, the change agent as facilitator of change does not necessarily have to be from out-side the organization, as the director of the Regional College of Psychiatric Nursing (see Illustrations 8.1 and 8.3) demonstrates. She was the director of the organization and the change it had to make, as well as the change agent within an OD process. Coghlan and Brannick (2014) discuss the issues involved in a single person occupy-ing dual organizational and change agent roles. They discuss how internal change agents' existing relationships with others will alter alongside changes in the agents themselves. While Figure 8.3 does not explicitly demonstrate the role of reflection in each stage of the process, both external and internal change agents should keep a reflective diary that records their thoughts and emotions as well as actions proposed during the change cycles.

Apart from engaging an external change agent or using an internal change agent, it is not unusual to involve someone from another part of the organization (not the one that is the focus of the change). Indeed, some large organizations have

departments or divisions that are specifically set up to act as OD consultants to the rest of the organization. What should also be borne in mind is that all the skills and competencies required of a change agent might not reside in one individual. It might, therefore, be preferable to use more than one person or, in the case of large-scale change, a whole team of people.

Buchanan and Boddy (1992) give a helpful list of the competencies of effective change agents, based on research on how managers deal with change (see Illustra-tion 8.5), which is reminiscent of the characteristics of 'transformational' leaders. (see Chapter 6). However, this list must be considered in the context of how it came about. The evidence for constructing the list came mainly from questioning project managers - that is, internal change agents who were concerned with changes in their own project areas. Perhaps, because of this, it emphasizes more the content of the change and how to get ideas accepted, rather than the process skills of consultation and participation that form an essential part of the facilitation role. In this respect it can be compared with Paton and McCalman's list of the roles taken on by effective change agents (Paton and McCalman, 2008, p. 232):

1. To help the organization define the problem by asking for a definition of what it is.

2 To help the organization examine what causes the problem and diagnose how

this can be overcome.

3. To assist in getting the organization to offer alternative solutions.

4 To provide direction in the implementation of alternative solutions.

5. To transmit the learning process that allows the client to deal with change on an ongoing basis by itself in the future.