LCO 6100 Module 2 Module Paper: Urgency, a Coalition and a Vision for the Second Attempt Example

Starting Over Right: Urgency, Coalition and Vision for Raritan Valley Mutual's Second Attempt

Student Name

Master of Science in Management, Thomas Edison State University

LCO-6100: Leading Change in Complex Organizations

Mentor Name

Month Day, Year

Starting Over Right: Urgency, Coalition and Vision for Raritan Valley Mutual's Second Attempt

Introduction

A second attempt at a failed change starts at a disadvantage. Raritan Valley Mutual's adjusters remember the first claims platform as extra work that leaders abandoned, and many expect the new effort to fade the same way. Kotter (2012) opens his process with three stages: making the need for change felt, building a coalition to lead it and setting a vision with a strategy. At Garden State, each must also overcome the cynicism the first attempt left behind.

Establishing a Sense of Urgency

Urgency at Garden State must come from evidence adjusters find credible, not from executive announcements. Three sources are available. Customer data show that simple auto claims take nine days to settle, against two days at two large competitors, and that customers who wait more than a week are three times as likely to leave at renewal. Agent feedback shows independent agents steering new customers to faster carriers. And the company's own claims costs are rising as adjusters handle more simple files by hand. Kotter (2012) suggests letting employees hear directly from customers; the plan therefore includes listening sessions where adjusters hear recorded calls from frustrated policyholders and meet agents who have lost business.

Armenakis et al. (1993) argue that readiness for change depends on a message that conveys both the discrepancy between the current state and the desired one and the organization's capacity to close it. Urgency alone, delivered to people who doubt the company can succeed, produces anxiety rather than action. The urgency message must therefore be paired with evidence of capacity: the platform now works, other insurers use it successfully and the company has learned from its first attempt. Listening sessions will be held by team, in person, so adjusters hear the same calls together and can discuss them.

Creating the Guiding Coalition

The first attempt's steering group was run by IT and lacked authority over claims work. The new coalition has eleven members: the chief claims officer as chair, the IT director, two regional claims managers, the head of customer service, a human resources partner who can change performance measures and four frontline adjusters chosen because their peers trust them, including two who were openly critical of the first rollout. Kotter (2012) describes the four qualities a coalition needs: position power, expertise, credibility and leadership. The critics bring credibility; the chief claims officer and HR partner bring position power.

The coalition will meet weekly for the first six months, with its own measures of progress, and the chief executive will attend monthly. Putting trusted adjusters on the coalition matters for a reason Battilana and Casciaro (2012) documented: change agents with central places in informal networks did better at pushing through changes that break with routine.

Developing a Vision and Strategy

The vision must say what will be different in plain terms. The draft reads: "A customer with a simple claim will be paid within two days, and our adjusters will spend their time on the complex claims where their judgment matters." It speaks to customers' wait and to adjusters' professional identity, presenting the platform as a way to handle routine work so adjusters can focus on the difficult cases they value.

The strategy has three parts. The platform will handle simple auto glass and minor collision claims first, where the benefit is clearest, before expanding to property claims. Adjusters' measures will shift from closed files to cycle time and customer satisfaction, so that using the platform helps their numbers. And a group of adjusters will be trained as peer coaches, so help comes from colleagues rather than from IT tickets.

Testing the Vision

Kotter (2012) suggests a vision should be communicable in five minutes and should appeal to the long-term interests of those affected. The coalition will test the draft with adjuster focus groups before it is announced. If adjusters hear it as a threat to their jobs, the coalition will need to say plainly that no positions are being cut and that staff freed from simple claims will move to complex property claims, where the company has a backlog. The focus groups will also test whether adjusters find the urgency evidence credible, since the readiness message depends on both parts landing.

Conclusion

Garden State's second attempt begins with urgency built from customer evidence and paired with signs of capacity, a coalition that holds authority over claims work and the trust of adjusters, and a vision both customers and adjusters can picture. These first steps address the specific weaknesses of the first rollout and prepare for the communication and empowerment steps in Module 3.

References

Armenakis, A. A., Harris, S. G., & Mossholder, K. W. (1993). Creating readiness for organizational change. Human Relations, 46(6), 681-703. https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679304600601

Battilana, J., & Casciaro, T. (2012). Change agents, networks, and institutions: A contingency theory of organizational change. Academy of Management Journal, 55(2), 381-398. https://doi.org/10.5465/amj.2009.0891

Kotter, J. P. (2012). Leading change. Harvard Business Review Press.