The role of the change agent.
BEING
What you can do is very different from what you are. What you are can change, of course, as life events impinge on you—you may even seek out situations that help you to change. But if you try to 'learn' to be different in the same kind of way that you might learn contract law the changes can seem rather phoney, at least until you have made them part of yourself.
People show what they are by how 1...... react to them. Spending time with people 2..... are at peace with themselves and value 3....... to you feels very different and much 4..... than being with people who are very 5......, and seem driven by inner demons that 6..... quite unaware of your existence.
A team 7....... people trying to put an idea into 8....... face many anxieties some of which are 9......... (-will X be delivered on time?), some personal (-can I really do it well enough?). There will often be periods 10...... no-one can distinguish between realistic fears and 11....... panics.
If the atmosphere in the team 12...... safe and trustworthy, the unfounded panics and 13........ can easily be checked out and absorbed. 14....... if external pressures such as job insecurity, 15..... internal pressures from 'inner demons' are too 16........, the anxieties may easily take over, with 17....... becoming suspicious of one another, defensive manoeuvering, scape-goating, 18......... conflicts distracting side-issues and all the paraphernalia 19....... a group at war with itself.
Groundwork includes 20........ a good atmosphere, with good communication and 21........ You may have to start by changing 22.........
What comes with The role .....
As an agent of change you must 23...... such responses. It is in the nature 24....... the role, and the change agent needs 25...... skills, adaptability, resilience, and groundedness, to cope 26........ it.
Some of the pressures and uncertainties 27..... an organisation are transmitted in from the 28...... world outside, and some are generated from 29....... by the tensions between the needs of 30...... organisation as a whole, and the needs 31...... the individual members within it. But wherever 32...... pressure comes from, every sectional interest expects 33. ...... have to defend itself, to 'guard its 34......' from real and imagined threats, and change 35...... almost always a potential threat.
There is 36....... single 'correct' way to be a change 37...... . Many different styles are possible. There are '38..... profile' styles that 'lead from the front' 39...... as the entrepreneur, the visionary, the autocrat 40. ...... 'low profile' ones that 'work from the 41......' such as the non-directive facilitator, the undercover 42....., the adviser. Some are to sell particular ideas; others 43..... to help people to find their own 44....... Some aim to provide information: others aim 45...... to inject energy and vitality, others to 46....... the level of trust and communication.
It 47....... certainly help if you can let the 48....... confront you; fire enthusiasm in the bored 49....... disillusioned; provide a safe place for the hurt, the 50......, and the anxious to open out in; 51. ..... what the arrogant have to say, without 52. ...... pushed around by them; satisfy the sceptical; 53....... explain carefully and respectfully to the confused.
Check for complete text:
