RUNNING HEAD: BUILDING OF MEMORY

Introduction Shimon Kornfield, the project manager of the Holocaust History Museum, aimed being creative in managing his team members and the changes brought on. In this paper, we will discuss change management techniques that Kornfield should have used to manage the morale of his team members, steps to make sure that all team members have learned about the changes, importance of timing of communication, and actions to establish trust in members of team other than key participants.

Change Management Techniques: Great leaders and coaches are known for their ability to manage the morale of their teams. They are able to get the team (and every team member) to do their best – no matter what disappointments or challenges meet them. In times of no stress and more successes, morale is barely noticed but in stress, morale becomes the main actor. Some of the techniques that Kornfield should have used to manage the morale of his team are discussed below: 1. Celebrating the minor successes with team members: Keep check of who is countering well to the change and identify them for their hard work. Provide help to those who are not countering well and appreciate and reward those who accept change. 2. Training for Change Management: Team leaders and managers play a significant role in dealing with change. Eventually, the direct-administrator has more control over a worker’s impulse to as compared to any other team member. It is imperative for the change management team to win the confidence of managers and to build headship according to these requirements. Once execution of tasks by the team starts, the team leader should plan training and education strategy. The objectives of training program is; how to use individual change management techniques on team members and ways to cooperate with other personnel of organization. 3. Feedback Analysis and Communication of Solutions: Involvement of team members is an essential and fundamental part of coping with change. Feedback from staff is a chief constituent of the change management procedure. Appraisal and counteractive steps based on this feedback presents an effective cycle for applying change. Recommend a solution that explains the real issue and concentrates on every member’s apprehension (White, 2013).

Ensuring Change is learned by Team Members: Many outstation team members or those belonging to other countries cannot embrace change readily. For this, team project managers can check for cultural variations that may have an effect on the change. Some leaders have the habit of talking down their subordinates. This develops an environment of distress for employees; thus failure in accepting change and achieving goals. The leaders should be capable enough to keep a balance of involvement of executives and subordinates in the project. Holding training programs and quizzes about the proposed changes is another effective way for ensuring that all members have learned about changes. This will help in knowing that how much employees have learned and accepted changes. Project leader can take surveys and give questionnaires on random basis to make sure that team members are coping up well. Leaders should work along with their subordinates. This will help in knowing the issues in implementation of change. Distribute daily, weekly, or monthly brochures for assistance of team members. Hold seminar and meetings to discuss employees’ issue and concerns for the project and changes to be implemented. Through all these steps, credibility between employee and leader will be formed that will help the leaders in knowing about performance of team members (Dashe, Online).

Criticality of the Timing of Communication: Before starting the Yad Vashem Memorial Project, the cost of entire project was measured to be 100 million dollars but only 45 million was provided. At this point, Director General of Yad Vashem, Ishai Amrami communicated about this issue with Shimon Kornfield. He recommended that the construction of museum can be split from rest of the project and tender should be issued. This allowed Kornfield and his team members to concentrate more on the most complicated part of the project. The process of selecting the contractor for a project like Yad Vashem’s museum was another instance when timely communication became imperative component of project’s success. Kornfield was worried that due to shortage of financial resources, quality of work will be compromised. At this instance, Kornfield suggested that selectors should adopt a new and different approach when selecting the contractor. The aim of Kornfield here was to select someone who was not very expensive yet the most suitable for this project. For this purpose, proposed a three-stage selection process for his clients. The selected contractor worked in such a way that not only the safety hazards were prevented but saved a great amount of money and endless headaches. The vision of project leaders of museum of Yad Vashem was to make something unique that stays in its viewer’s memories for ever instead of becoming a piece of history after some years. A group of curators, headed by Avner Shalev, started working on this vision. They educated young generation about the events of Holocaust and worked on other innovative techniques. However, this process was affected when design of the museum did not comply with the education and ideas of curators. Ishai Armami, Israel Chaskelevitch and Shimon Kornfield provided a platform to curators for communicating about their concerns. This helped both he parties to develop a successful and memorable piece of history. Timing in communication in projects plays a great role in success, like that of Yad Vashem’s museum. If contractors, employees, and audience are communicated timely, success rate becomes maximum (Decker, 2011).

Establishing Trust and Gaining Credibility: If key members of the project were replaced, challenges for other members of the project would increase. In order to deal with these issues, Shimon Kornfield could take following actions to establish trust and gain credibility with project participants: 1. Competence: Firstly, the project leader should be competent enough to deal with all major and minor issues occurring in the team. 2. Honesty: To develop trust between the leader and team members, leader should always be honest with his subordinates. Not only this, it helps the leader to attain respect and credibility.

Training and Educational Programs: By repeatedly, and overtly, pursuing training and further education in your field indicates that the leader is not the only mind behind all matters but also a learner like all others.

Responsibility: To establish trust and gain credibility, a leader is obliged to be responsible for his decisions and strategies. If a leader commits a mistake, he should confess it and take steps to correct it.

Devotion: devotion from project leader results in employees having the sentiment of cooperation for success.

Trust: The leader should trust the abilities and skills of his subordinate. This creates a relationship of confidence between leader and team member.

Respect: Collaborating with subordinates while upholding a position of boss, rather than underestimating the staff, facilitates the team leaders to gain credibility. Kornfield must show respect towards his subordinates’ individual requirements, talent and views to help gain their devotion.

3. Rewards: The leader should identify minor achievements and contributions of employees by appreciating and rewarding them.

Conclusion With successful execution of diverse policies and tactics for management of any team, you can focus on objectives, achieve your aims within the set time and provided resources. In conclusion, each member of the team comes out as frontrunner, which is the prime advantage of team management.

References
White, P. (2013). Four Simple Techniques for Change Management. Nexight Group. Retrieved on August 21, 2013 from - http://nexightgroup.com/four-simple-techniques-for-change-management/

Dashe and Thomson. (2011). Ensuring that Change “Sticks.” Social and Learning Blog. Retrieved on August 21, 2013 from - http://www.dashe.com/blog/organizational-change-management/ensuring-that-change-%E2%80%9Csticks%E2%80%9D/

Decker, B. (2011). Actually, Timing IS Everything. Decker Communications. Retrieved on August 21, 2013 from - http://decker.com/blog/actually-timing-is-everything/

Anderson, A. Ten Ways to Build Credibility as a Leader. Hearst Communication Inc. Retrieved on August 21, 2013 from - http://smallbusiness.chron.com/ten-ways-build-credibility-leader-20954.html