| Course | MSM-6200 Leading Strategic Change |
|---|---|
| Module | Module 5 |
| Paper type | Discussion forum: initial response and two comments |
| Length | About 413 words |
| Format | Discussion post with APA 7 citations |
| School | Thomas Edison State University |
| Program | Master of Science in Management |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for MSM 6200 Module 5
Module 5 Discussion: Leading Through a Bad Week
Leading Through a Bad Week: Implementation Setbacks in a Robot Pilot
Phases one and two went well: reslotting cut walking time from 41 to 32 percent, and new picker retention improved. Then, in the second week of the robot pilot, the robots lost their connection to the warehouse management system three times, each outage stopping the zone for over an hour. Two of the six pilot pickers asked to go back to manual zones.
Hayes (2022) treats implementation as a period that requires continuous monitoring and adjustment, because no plan anticipates everything. Our first instinct, from the general manager, was to push through to protect the timeline. Instead, we paused the pilot zone for four days, moved its orders to manual picking and had IT and the vendor fix the integration.
What mattered as much as the fix was how leaders behaved. We told the floor exactly what had happened and what we were doing, instead of calling it a minor glitch. We asked the two pickers who wanted out to stay through the fix and help test it, and both agreed. And we let the pilot team change the workflow, moving the packing station closer to where robots delivered totes, which they had suggested before the outage.
Battilana et al. (2010) found that leaders' competencies matter differently at different stages of planned change: task-oriented behaviors were linked to communicating and mobilizing, while person-oriented behaviors mattered for evaluating the change. Our recovery needed both: a technical fix and attention to the pickers' confidence.
After restarting, the zone ran four weeks without an outage, and its cutoff performance reached 98 percent. The lesson we drew for the remaining months was to treat the pilot team as an early warning system: they now log every robot delay, however small, and IT reviews the log each morning. Oreg et al. (2011) found that the change process, and not only the change itself, shapes how recipients react; our pickers' trust grew because the process during the setback treated them as partners rather than as an audience.
Comment on Priya's Post
Priya, your accounting software rollout had a similar bad week. Did leaders tell staff openly what went wrong? In our case, naming the problem plainly bought more patience than reassurance would have.
Comment on Luis's Post
Luis, your store remodel stayed on schedule but staff felt ignored. Could a short weekly huddle where employees suggest fixes, like our pilot team's packing change, rebuild their sense of ownership?
References
Battilana, J., Gilmartin, M., Sengul, M., Pache, A.-C., & Alexander, J. A. (2010). Leadership competencies for implementing planned organizational change. Leadership Quarterly, 21(3), 422-438. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.leaqua.2010.03.007
Hayes, J. (2022). The theory and practice of change management (6th ed.). Bloomsbury.
Oreg, S., Vakola, M., & Armenakis, A. (2011). Change recipients' reactions to organizational change: A 60-year review of quantitative studies. Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 47(4), 461-524. https://doi.org/10.1177/0021886310396550
MSM 6200 Module 5 instructions, in plain terms
The Module 5 forum asks what leaders should do while implementing change, especially when things go wrong. Expect to describe a real or realistic implementation, a setback and how leaders responded, and to analyze the response with course concepts and research. Focus on both the technical response and the people response. Reply to two classmates with questions or suggestions that connect their cases to the module's ideas, and keep your replies specific to what each classmate wrote. If your organization has not faced a setback, describe one from a change you know of elsewhere, and say what you would have done as the leader. Explain what changed in the plan as a result of the setback.
How this MSM 6200 Module 5 example is built
The post opens with progress before the setback, then describes the setback with specifics. It explains the decision to pause rather than push through, and then three leadership behaviors during recovery. A paragraph connects those behaviors to research on leadership competencies at different stages of change. A short result follows. The replies ask about open communication and suggest a huddle for staff input, each tied to the post's lessons. The post closes with a lasting change in practice, a daily delay log reviewed by IT, and uses research on recipients' reactions to explain why the pickers' trust grew during the recovery instead of falling. Each reply stays short and specific to what the classmate wrote.
Where the marks sit in the MSM 6200 Module 5 rubric
Mentors grade this forum on a post that analyzes implementation with course concepts and research, attention to both task and people, and replies that add to classmates' thinking. Posts that describe a setback honestly, and show leaders adjusting the plan, demonstrate understanding of implementation as an adaptive process. Research on leadership competencies used to explain the response adds depth. Replies with specific questions tied to the post's lessons earn the most and keep the forum a real conversation. Explaining what the organization learned from the setback, and how it changed later practice, shows that implementation is being treated as learning rather than as following a script.
MSM 6200 Module 5 help: mistakes that cost marks
Students lose points by describing implementation only as following the plan, by hiding setbacks or by focusing only on technical fixes. Others reply with general encouragement. Describe a real problem. Explain how leaders monitored and adjusted. Address how people were kept engaged. Ask classmates a pointed question. Say what changed in practice afterward, since the module values learning from setbacks, not just surviving them. Use the readings to explain why the response worked or failed, rather than telling the story alone. A setback handled well can be the strongest part of a post when it shows leaders listening and adjusting. A free first sample on your own MSM-6200 Module 5 discussion is available on request.
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MSM 6200 Module 5 questions, answered
Where can I find a free MSM 6200 Module 5 sample paper?
A robot pilot's bad week, and how leaders responded, are discussed above with two replies.
What do leaders need to do during implementation?
Monitor progress, respond to setbacks, adjust the plan and keep people engaged.
Should a change pilot be paused when it fails?
Often yes; pausing to fix a problem can protect trust better than pushing through.
What leadership competencies matter in implementing change?
Research found both task-oriented and person-oriented behaviors matter, at different stages of change.
Why communicate setbacks openly?
Plain explanations of what went wrong build patience and trust more than reassurance.