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Psychology of IT Driven Change

  

 


Summary: Ensuring success of IT projects needs not just technical skill, but a good understanding of what I call the the soft side of technology – the social, psychological, behavioural and people aspects of IT-Driven change. It also needs an in-depth understanding of the psychology of change from the industrial mindset to the information era.

 

 

Introduction


Few will dispute the fact that the biggest driver of change in businesses today is information technology. Rapid IT-driven change is impacting people. No one likes change. People naturally and strongly resist change. But since change is permanent, it creates stress and impacts people behaviour.  

IT impacts so many employees and their behavior. People are not comfortable with this dynamic change and need support to cope with it. There is need to understand the psychology of change.

People psychology, organizational psychology, organization structure and authority structure - all of these are very important factors which impact the success and smoothness of change.

Stress is just one outcome of change. People’s resistance to IT Driven change has more serious repercussions for businesses. It causes colossal loss of money and time due to failed IT projects. Stories of ERP failures are not new. Most often, ERPs fail not due to technical issues, but because of people’s resistance to change.

To make matters worse, technology is equally confusing to most managers. "I just don't understand this technology" is a very common phrase heard in offices. The CEO, who should normally be driving this change is equally uncomfortable with IT. A deeper look will reveal that this confusion is a result of the psychology of change from the industrial era to information era. It is a result of addressing issues of information age with an industrial age mindset. “Living in the Past Syndrome” causes a man to still be captivated by an industrial mindset and not evolve to an information age mindset.

Required - Catalyst for IT-Driven Change

Businesses need managers trained in psychology who can play this new role as a IT-Driven Change Agent. But they have to first equip themselves to play this role. They need to first understand the psychology and dynamics of this IT Driven Change. They need to understand what exactly creates this stress and confusion during IT Implementations. And learning this is not rocket science, at the same time it needs some specialized training in human psychology. There is a lot more for the manager to know - not only about the technology, but also how to pull the right strings to successfully manage technology driven change.

This course personally benefits the Managers to grow in their career as it makes them ready for th IT age as better, IT Savvy managers.

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The course deals with the psychology of change brought about by IT – cultural change, behavioural change, procedural change and change in relationships of people. It makes you aware of the technological, organizational, behavioural and psychological issues in technology, and thereby helps Managers to take up a completely new role – a role which will help companies save on cost, time and stress of IT Driven change.

 

Benefits

 

1.     Be ready for the new age as IT Savvy Managers

2.     Less Stress as you would better understand the dynamics of the Changing environment

3.     As Managers, you will discover a new role to give a unique contribution to your company

4.     You can help the CEO cope up with the change and win his or her confidence.

 

References:

 

1.     Managers' Guide to Evolve to Information Age                               (www.bestthinking.com/topic/permalink/1082)

2.     What is Subconscious Mind and How Does it Impact our Behaviour      (http://pukamble.tripod.com/subconc1)  

3.      Psychology of Evolution from Industrial Age to Information Age                             (www.prem.cu.cc/probfull)  

 

 

Course Duration:   32-40 hours (Full Course) or 6-10 hours (Short Course)

 

Course Contents

 

Part I:  IT and the Psychological Past

 

1.     Our Common Beliefs on IT

2.     Misconceptions

3.     How Our Industrial Psychology has impacted us in the IT Age

 

Part II:  The Subconscious Behavior and IT

 

1.     Why Study the Subconscious for understanding IT Behavior?

2.     How does the Subconscious govern our Actions – Conscious and Sub-Conscious Decisions

3.     How Subconscious Mind Affects our Professional behavior with respect to IT

4.     How to uncover what is there in the Subconscious Mind

a.     Fear of Technology. Subconscious fears and cravings

b.     “Living in the Past” Syndrome

 

Part III:  Cultural and Psychological Aspects of Computing

1.     Industrial Age Mindset - Misconceptions of IT

2.     Pitfalls of Information Technology

3.     Living in the Past Syndrome – Industrial Age and Information Age

4.     “Time Swing Analysis”

5.     Rules of The Game in Industrial Era

6.     Rules of The Game in Information Era

7.     Evolving from Industrial Age Mindset to Information Age

8.     Misconceptions/ Psychological Issues about IT and its ill effects on Businesses

 

Part IV  -  Managerial and Organizational Aspects of Computing

 

1.     Managing IT

2.     Psychology of Change and Managing IT Driven Change

3.     Managing People under the Impact of Change

4.     Cultural Change

5.     Do’s and Don’ts for Managers

6.     Business Process Re-Engineering

  1. People, Process and Organizational Issues

 

 

 


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Student Feedback - IIM Indore
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