Change Management & Technology with Faye Garland

Summary

We’ve talked a bit about change on this podcast, how could we avoid it? Change happens faster then ever and most professional adults with any amount of experience have learned to expect that. But that doesn’t mean that the practice of change management should be be ignored. The opposite in fact. To keep your teams happy and productive during major changes, there’s a few things you can do to keep them from feeling unsettled, and maybe even thriving. Faye Garland, Group Head of Retouch and Image Mangement for THG Studios,  a UK based content creation studio joins Daniel on the podcast today to talk about maintaining a people-centric focus when it comes to change management. 

Key Takeaways

• Change management in the studio starts with determining that there is a need, for a process change or introducing a new technology. 
  • Learn to listen to your team, not just what they're saying, but the subtext as well. Sometimes asking for help doesn't sound like someone asking for help. 
  • Root cause analysis plays an important part of identifying the TRUE problem, so you don't further complicate the process by addressing a symptom. 
• Part of leveraging technology in an organization is keeping up with new features and tools that solve new problems.  Sometimes this is a dedicated team or an individual. 
• Gathering input from your team when possible, but be careful not to give too much weight to the naysayers. Someone needs to have the visibility to all of the dependencies and cost/benefits related to them, and push for the right solution despite some negative knee jerks reactions. 
• Be aware from the beginning of the process how well you will be able to support your teams. Training on a new system is as important as any other factor when determining what solution to use in your studio. 
• Be genuinely open to reversing a decision if it turns out not to work well. 
• Focus on People!

Credits
Produced by: Creative Force - creativeforce.io
Edited by: Calvin Lanz Sound - clsound.net
Hosted by: Daniel Jester - danieltjester.com