Change is here to stay. 

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“The rate of change is not going to slow down anytime soon. If anything, competition in most industries will probably speed up even more in the next few decades.” – John P. Kotter

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One of our Farm Bureau leadership principles, Learn, highlights how leaders approach change: “Leaders are not afraid of change or what they don’t know.” 

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Change is constant. Embracing change can be frustrating and is often a complex and difficult process. The most commonly cited reason for project failure is the people side of change. Yet organizations often invest more in the technical side than in leading impacted people through times of change. It takes courage to persevere through change.

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Here are changes we are all dealing with together, to name a few:

• Transitioning policies from our legacy system to Guidewire

• Changing from a partial cancellation process to a full cancellation process

• New underwriting rules

• Re-underwriting our risks and non-renewing our poorest risks 

• Automation of processes that were once manual

• Organizational changes

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Our roadmap continues to indicate change on the horizon with Guidewire version 10, our digital strategy, transitioning CPP into GW, changes in rating, becoming more data driven, and continuous improvement of the system and process and procedures. Whether the change is about processes, technologies, the structure of the organization or something else, it impacts each of us and how we do our jobs. 

  

Through all this change, it is important that we stay together, trust one another, and deliver UnMatched customer service. One of the ways we can do that is by applying the following ADKAR principles:

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A:  AWARENESS OF THE NEED FOR CHANGE 

Awareness ensures that we all understand the “why” behind the change

 

D: DESIRE TO SUPPORT THE CHANGE

Desire helps us each understand how we can participate in and support the change. 

 

K: KNOWLEDGE OF HOW TO CHANGE

Knowledge addresses the need for training and education on the change

 

A: ABILITY TO DEMONSTRATE SKILLS AND BEHAVIORS

Ability stage in change where we can all demonstrate that the change has occurred. 

 

R: REINFORCEMENT TO MAKE THE CHANGE STICK

Reinforcement ensures that we don’t revert to what we have always known.

 

I’m impressed with individuals and teams within our organization that take on change without fear. I continue to see them adapt, improvise and overcome. 

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Thank you.

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Dana May, Director of Customer Experience

 

https://blog.prosci.com/

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