BEFORE STARTING: Review the requirements for the Brainstorming Discussions.

Adaptability

Skill #9: Lead and Plan for change by developing a process to manage change and using it to lead change events.

Dwight and Ike have had many conversations lately about their vision and core values for the business in light of their plans for expansion. One troubling issue they finally came to a decision on was their policy upon only hiring American wounded veterans. While both owners really want to keep up this tradition, they came to an understanding that going abroad would mean it would be harder to honor the tradition but also may make some veterans unhappy with their choices of places to expand (e.g. Viet Nam). It also seemed to them that they were limiting their employee pool and not really encouraging customer support by not hiring any person with a disability who was qualified for the jobs they offer. After all who would be better to understand the needs of a person who needs the use of a wheelchair than someone else who uses one? They also wondered if they should give first preference to American veterans. Still undecided on this point, Dwight and Ike want to see how good you are at leading change. They have not released their decision on this policy change. This change is important to the happiness of those employees already in the company. They are proud to be a member of the staff of EC and think of the company as a way to again serve their country. Dwight and Ike want you to create a plan that will make the policy change run smoothly in this instance and in others going forward. The plan should include:

1. By FRIDAY, complete the following:
   • Create a change plan. This includes any steps you deem Dwight and Ike should take to clarify the policy.
   • The steps, order, and ways to implement the policy change should be detailed. Consider designing the headings for the steps etc. that you are making a template for change implementation. These choices should be designed to fit any change effort that the company or you face in the future. Make sure to include the major components needed to effect change.
   • An explanation/justification as to why the steps, the order and ways of implementation were chosen should be discussed.
   • A discussion as to why the steps will be successful in creating the desired change.
   • You must use course material to support your responses and APA format in-text citations and reference list.
2. THROUGHOUT THE WEEK, complete the following:
   • Respond to at least four of your classmates on three or more days throughout the week. Remember you are trying to develop the best answers to the questions as possible. Your classmates are doing the same so read the posts carefully looking for the best ideas being presented. The goal is that by the end of the week the class will come to some consensus as to the best answers giving you the chance to submit the best ideas in the final post.
   • You must use course material to support your responses but you do not need to use APA in the brainstorming discussion with the exception of Friday’s initial first impression post.
   • Participation is worth 2.5 points each week (20% of the final grade). Participation must be reflected in the final post so grades will be affected by the content portion of the post if participation is not shown. Therefore, it is important to get in the class often and with the idea of improving your initial post with the discussion so that the final grade will be the best you can deliver.
3. By TUESDAY, complete the following:
   • Attach your final post in the classroom by 11:59 PM ET – please create a new discussion thread for your final post.
   • The final post must reflect the brainstorming activities and should be different from the Friday initial post.
   • The final post must include a variety of sources from the class material, research as well as the use of scenario or case study facts where appropriate.
   • It must use APA format in-text citations and reference list.

Additional Requirements and How to Prepare the Weekly Attachment Submission:

• Follow the instructions carefully if the assignment asks for a memo, email, plan, report, etc. be sure to follow the format templates provided.
  • Submissions should be in proper business writing form.
• APA formatting with in-text citations and a reference list is required.
• Review the grading rubric for the assignment.
• Carefully read all of the instructions to make sure all elements of the assignment have been covered.
• Third-person writing is required. Third-person means that there are no words such as “I, me, my, we, or us” (first-person writing), nor is there use of “you or your” (second-person writing). If uncertain how to write in the third person, view this link.
• Contractions are not used in business writing, so the expectation is that students do not use contractions in assignments.
• Paraphrase and do not use direct quotes. This means you do not use more than four consecutive words from a source document; put a passage from a source document into your own words and attribute the passage to the source document. Provide the page or paragraph number. Note that a reference within a reference list cannot exist without an associated in-text citation and vice versa.
• Do not use books as source material.
• Use a variety as well as multiple course readings and research to support ideas, reasoning, and conclusions.
• Submit the final attachment as a new thread into the appropriate weekly discussion. Once submitted, the submission is eligible for grading and students will not be permitted to make changes or make another submission.