All Weeks Leading transformations: Manage change Coursera Quiz Answers
Table of Contents
Leading transformations: Manage change Coursera Quiz Answers
Week 1: Leading transformations: Manage change
Quiz 1: Check your understanding
Q1. The change problem means:
Select only one (1) response.
- 70% of all change programs fail
- Being unrealistic about barriers undermining our chances of success
- Investing in change methods and consultants is worthless
- We inevitably fail to achieve what we wish for
Q2. ‘The Red Pill’ approach to change management is a metaphor for:
Select only one (1) response.
- Getting greater insights from being ‘high’
- Giving up as change is so difficult and complex
- Learning expert tools and techniques
- Seeing through and beyond overly rational views of change
Q3. The Lord’s Slope or ‘sloped playing field’ are metaphors used to help you to:
Select all that apply.
- Avoid misdirected effort and burnout in your enthusiasm for change
- Accept and live with the barriers to change that you will confront
- Creatively and proactively work to address the opposition you face
- Appreciate that the odds are against you and you cannot succeed
Q4. The organisational biases preventing us from fully attending to change include:
Select all that apply.
- A strategy bias that results in inadequate attention to execution
- A reform bias that favours initiative reforms over ensuring results
- A design bias that fails to fully consider implementation
- A heart bias that is overly-focused on emotions in change
Q5. Which of the following are one of Kurt Lewin’s four (4) main insights?
Select only one (1) response.
- Push rather than pull change
- Pay attention to learning in action
- Focus on the technical and economic reasons for change
- Stick to unfreezing, moving and refreezing change
Q6. The main differences between leading and misleading change are:
Select all that apply.
- Misleading change has an excessive focus on management at the expense of leadership
- Leading change means having a pragmatic and realistic view of what managers do
- Misleading change has a one-dimensional and excessively heroic view of leadership
- Leading change means having a charismatic personality
Quiz 2: Check your applied learning 1
Q1. The two main organisational obstacles to change are:
Select all that apply.
- Not enough change techniques
- Individual stupidity
- Entrenched ideas, values and interests
- Fears of real risk and uncertainties
Q2. The Optimism Bias is:
Select all that apply.
- The most valuable trait of all successful change agents
- A cause of unnecessary disappointment and frustration
- A misleading trait that causes us to underestimate obstacles
- A bias that leads to misdirected effort
Q3. Kurt Lewin overcomes the Head Bias by:
Select all that apply.
- Encouraging learning from experience
- Stopping us imposing our expert solutions on others
- Strictly following a process of unfreezing, moving and refreezing
- Paying attention to meaning and emotion in change
Q4. Kurt Lewin overcomes the Strategy Bias by:
Select all that apply.
- Taking into account the need to generate internal support for its execution
- Preparing and supporting people to execute strategy and embed it in the structure and culture
- Developing a perfect strategy to implement strategies up front
- Supporting an experimental ‘Plan-Do/Revise-Do’ approach to learning in action
Q5. The Design Bias is created by:
Select all that apply.
- A bias favouring the design of technical systems (over considering people, operations and maintenance issues
- A bias against design and requires more ‘Design Thinking’
- Operations staff having less power than designers
- Design having higher status and rewards than implementation
Q6. The Reform Bias takes the form of:
Select all that apply.
- Pressure to create reforms, over and above evaluation of outcomes
- Needing to be ‘seen’ to be creating performance-enhancing initiatives
- Less rigour attached to evaluating initiatives compared to initiating them
- No consideration for results and outcomes of change initiatives
Week 2: Leading transformations: Manage change
Quiz 1: Check your understanding
Q1. What are the key distinctive features of the ‘Rational’ change story?
Select all that apply.
- A view of managing change as providing information and issuing instructions (supplemented by instrumental rewards for following instruction and punishments for deviating or opposing)
- A belief that organisations are a set of tasks (qua machines) or functions (qua organisms) (with ‘one best way’ to improve their efficiency and survival)
- A belief in the value of the practical use of logic and evidence
(and ongoing observation and testing in an experimental change process) - two-stage, black and white, bi-polar view of change.
(as progress from an ignorant/unsustainable/bad past to an enlightened/sustainable/good future).
Q2. What are the distinctive features of the counter-stories of change?
(as involving ‘Transition’, being ‘Agile and Adaptive’ and ‘Resilience’)
Select all that apply.
- Transitions are a three-stage process
(in which people have to be encouraged to let go of old ways, guided through a problematic ‘in-between’ phase, and supported in embedding change in new habits) - Agile and adaptive capabilities are required from entrepreneurial agents and organisations (in adapting to increasingly turbulent and chaotic environments)
- Change requires emotional intelligence and decisive action and NOT rational thought and planning
- Humility, persistence and ongoing attention to the predictable irrationalities and barriers to change are vital forms of resilience required for successful change
Q3. What are the main contributions made by the Iceberg image to Re-Imagining Change?
Select all that apply.
- Warns us of the dangers of neglecting to pay attention to emotional, cultural and political factors (factors may undermine and destroy a change, or need to be mobilised to ensure its success)
- Highlights that our culture encourages a focus on the formal, structural, technical ‘tip’ of a change (to the relative exclusion of attention to culture and politics, meaning and emotion)
- Reminds us that what we ‘see’ is often not what we ‘get.’ (what is ‘below the waterline’ in our culture is something we routinely fail to notice or collude in ignoring)
- Re-Imagines Change as having two clearly separate elements (superficial surface rationality and the real world of emotion and politics)
Q4. What are the main contributions made by the Rollercoaster image to Re-Imagining Change?
Select all that apply.
- Reminds us change is a journey of ups and downs, marked by excitement and enthusiasm, as well as anxiety and fear
- Change is a journey in which it is important we stick to the plan and keep our carriage on the rails
- Captures the fluid, uncertain, tumultuous and scary dimension of change
- Counterbalances images of change as a one-dimensional linear path of progress or a cyclical process of coming to terms with loss and depression
Q5. What is the value of being Mindful for Re-Inventing Yourself (as a manager and leader of change)?
Select all that apply.
- Short-circuiting knee-jerk ‘fight and flight’ responses (to discomforts of uncertainty, unpredicted opposition, and threat)
- Being able to stand outside and reflect on our emotions and prejudices (built into the stories we tell)
- Ability to be flexible in being ready to question our ideas (the assumptions we hold and the perspectives we adopt)
- Easily overcome barriers to change by predicting them beforehand
Q6. What is the value of being able to Mobilise people for Re-Inventing yourself (as a manager and leader of change)?
Select all that apply.
- Getting oneself and others to focus on the job at hand and ignore fears and anxieties
- An ability to ‘lean in’ and question our assumptions about ourselves that hold us back
- Accepting and working creatively to generate energy and resources to overcome the many barriers to change
- Stepping up from being an ‘expert manager’ to playing a more multi-dimensional role of a leader influencing others
Quiz 2: Check your applied learning 2
Q1. An awareness of our many cultural images of change shows us:
Select only one (1) response.
- Most people resist change because they have an image of it as loss and threat
- Change is like the ‘duck and the rabbit’ image, we are inevitably trapped within one perspective
- All images of change are equally valid, and we need to choose between them
- An imbalance towards the Rational image leads to neglect of many dimensions of change
Q2. The value of Re-Imagining Change is:
Select all that apply.
- To remind us it involves the exercise of influence in an uncertain and challenging process
- To provide an evidence-based ‘one-best-view’ of change
- To highlight the creative, emotive and contentious nature of change
- To draw on our rich repertoire of cultural imagery to question and supplement the simple Rational image
Q3. Using the iceberg image:
Select only one (1) response.
- Reveals the surface ‘rational’ tip of organisational change is irrelevant
- Shows you the impossibility of changing ‘frozen’ ideas and habits
- Is a useful yet inevitably partial image of the organisation and change
- Gives you a true and complete picture of what an organisation really is
Q4. Using the rollercoaster image tells you:
Select only one (1) response.
- If you pick up speed and go quickly into change, you are more able to climb out of difficult situations
- There is one ‘big dip’ in change that is scary, but you always come out safely at the other end
- Change may be scary but is thrilling and exhilarating when tightly strapped in
- Managing change is a tumultuous emotional ride
Q5. The value of moving beyond the role of an ‘expert manager’ is it:
Select all that apply.
- Means you can neglect boring administrative tasks and focus on inspiring people
- Enables you to live with and creatively respond to uncertainty
- Helps you focus on developing your ability to influence others
- Frees you up from having to always appear to be knowledgeable and in control
Q6. Being mindful and ready to mobilise yourself and others is essential for:
Select all that apply.
- Guaranteeing you will be successful in change
- Putting into practice a productive change cycle
- Change in your own life as well as at work
- Preparing for the complex and confronting nature of change
Week 3: Leading transformations: Manage change
Quiz 1: Check your understanding
Q1. When conducting a Gap Analysis, two (2) key questions to ask are:
Select only one (1) response.
- Where do we want to go?’ and ‘How will we get there?’
- ‘Where are we now?’ and ‘Where do we want to go?’
- Where do we want to go?’ and ‘Why do we want to go there?’
- Where are we now?’ and ‘Why do we want to change?
Q2. A comprehensive Gap Analysis that goes below ‘the surface’ to include political and cultural factors:
Select all that apply.
- does not include ‘above the surface’ structural and systemic ones.
- includes people’s identities, values, expectations, career interests, cabals and prejudices.
- is unnecessary since the key focus is technology, structure and systems issues.
- also includes ‘above the surface’ structural and systemic ones.
Q3. A Force-Field Analysis:
Select all that apply.
- stimulates and pushes reflection on the factors affecting change.
- identifies the forces for and against change that have to be taken into account when planning your change journey. These are represented in a two-column table.
- is a one-off exercise done at the start of the change process.
- assists a group to map out, appreciate, discuss and capture what they consider to be the main factors affecting a change.
Q4. Resistance to change is:
Select all that apply.
- can slow the achievement of organisational objectives.
- is negative and should be crushed.
- normal since change can be disruptive and stressful.
- can be healthy especially when there are weaknesses in the proposed change.
Q5. Creating a Route Map involves:
Select all that apply.
- charting progress through stages of change and adapting to the conditions identified in the Gap and the Force Field analyses.
- adapting Lewin’s three stages of ‘unfreezing’, ‘moving’ and ‘re-freezing’ to the context of the change.
- rigidly sticking to a fixed sequence of stages.
- uses the ‘Gap’ and ‘Force Field’ analyses to determine which change issues are the most significant, and when and how they should be addressed.
Q6. John Kotter’s 8-Steps of Change:
Select all that apply.
- includes creating a guiding coalition to support the change.
- puts a vision of change and strategic outcomes before everything else.
- is compatible with Kurt Lewin’s stages of change.
- begins with establishing a sense of urgency through a series of actions where leaders take to communicate with critical stakeholders why change must occur and why it must occur now.
Quiz 2: Check your applied learning 3
Q1. Refer to the Jabri (2017). The Daffodil Inn case – a change situation confronting the Daffodil hotel chain.
Which of the following are ‘below the waterline’ cultural and political elements in the ‘As Is’ state at Daffodil?
Select all that apply.
- Rigid management
- Loss of pride
- No formal financial incentives for service
- Employee turnover of 40%
Q2. Refer to the Jabri (2017). The Daffodil Inn case – a change situation confronting the Daffodil hotel chain.
Which of the following are agreed ‘above the waterline’ structure and systems elements in the ‘To Be’ state at Daffodil?
Select all that apply.
- Low turnover rates
- Refurbishment and lower vacancy rates
- Improving performance and competitiveness
- Self-managed work teams throughout the organisation
Q3. Refer to the Jabri (2017). The Daffodil Inn case – a change situation confronting the Daffodil hotel chain.
What are the key ‘below the waterline’ forces for change at Daffodil Inn?
Select only one (1) response.
- Senior managers giving strategic priority to substantially reducing vacancy rates
- Some senior managers believing change is desirable and/or urgent
- Senior manager agreement about unsustainable lack of competitiveness
- Senior manager’s belief in the need to urgently address turnover rates
Q4. Refer to the Jabri (2017). The Daffodil Inn case – a change situation confronting the Daffodil hotel chain.
What are the forces against change at Daffodil Inn?
Select all that apply.
- Lack of empowering and influencing change capability in managers
- Pride in facilities and service
- No money for capital expenditure
- The culture of ‘no conflict’ and ‘you’re the boss.’
Q5. Refer to the Jabri (2017). The Daffodil Inn case – a change situation confronting the Daffodil hotel chain.
What has already been done well to unfreeze the situation (in Step 1: ‘Unfreezing’)?
Select only one (1) response.
- Disseminating information on unacceptably high vacancy rates and staff turnover.
- Making a strong case to Jade about the need for change.
- Creating an alliance with Jim to test ideas, collect information and influence Jade.
- Build upon the vision of a proud hotel culture.
Q6. Refer to the Jabri (2017). The Daffodil Inn case – a change situation confronting the Daffodil hotel chain.
Despite an initial setback, can Deborah now proceed by implementing self-managing teams (Step 2: ‘Moving’)?
Select only one (1) response.
- No, she has not, as yet, established significant urgency and vision nor built a firm coalition.
- No, she doesn’t have a sufficiently detailed plan outlining what self-managing teams will be.
- Yes, she has established a vision for change and provided a practical solution.
- Yes, she has got acceptance of the need for change, and a supportive coalition.
Week 4: Leading transformations: Manage change
Quiz 1: Check your understanding
Q1. A ‘Change Performance’ involves:
Select only one response.
- pretending that things are going well when they are not
- presenting well in public
- working backstage to get things done
- acting effectively on and off stage
Q2. Putting on a mask while influencing others is:
Select only one response.
- necessary
- authentic
- a burden
- fake
Q3. The control of others is best achieved through:
Select only one response.
- using both formal and informal methods
- informal means and persuasion
- formal structures and control
- use of coercion and fear
Q4. Influencing others to change means:
Select only one response.
- using all the justifiable means at your disposal to achieve a purpose
- deceitfully manipulating thoughts and behaviours
- engaging and inspiring them to want to change
- controlling people’s behaviours
Q5. A Machiavellian performance involves:
Select only one response.
- the use of deceit and manipulation
- the pursuit of power at all costs
- winning hearts and minds by appearing approachable and participative
- being willing and able to use participation and coercion when a situation demands it
Q6. A Promethean performance involves”
Select only one response.
- improvising and adapting throughout the course of change
- the exercise of considerable effort to achieve your goals
- controlling people’s behaviours by implementing strategic plans
- combining the best elements of planning and improvising while avoiding the worst
Quiz 2: Check your applied learning 4
Q1. Janusian thinking (Albert Rothenberg) is:
Select all those that apply.
- Creative both/and not polarised either/or thinking
- Being two-faced, and therefore inauthentic
- Being prepared to present a different face to different audiences
- Appreciating the past and exploring the future
Q2. Leaders do the right things; managers do things right.’ (Warren Bennis) means effective change agents:
Select all those that apply.
- Are all authentic leaders who inspire by their high ideals and moral example
- Should do the right things, do things right and appear to be doing so
- Should execute change and provide meaning and purpose
- Are two different types of people doing essentially different tasks
Q3. ‘All the worlds a stage, and we are but players on it’ (William Shakespeare) means influencing change requires:
Select all those that apply.
- Playing to the audience and deceiving them about who you are and what you are doing
- A public performance of unity and rationality while working backstage with diversity, emotions and interests
- Excellence and artistry in performance to capture hearts and minds
- Nothing more than good storytelling and a theatrical performance
Q4. ‘Managing change is an oxymoron’ (Gary Hamel) means:
Select all those that apply.
- Change is best achieved as a ‘top-down’ program run by change leaders
- Management is often associated with control, and in some ways change cannot be controlled
- Expert advice is that it is ineffective to initiate change as a programmed expert-led project
- Change is unpredictable, complex and impossible to influence with any success
Q5. ‘Leadership is manipulation with integrity’ (Tim Dalmau) means in the change process:
Select one (1) response.
- That authentic leaders compromise their integrity when they manipulate others
- That authentic leadership is nothing but a nonsensical and dangerous myth
- That integrity includes listening to others and adapting your message to what they will hear
- That you have to ‘fake it to make it’, deceiving most of the people most of the time
Q6. You can build a throne with bayonets, but it’s difficult to sit on it (Boris Yeltsin) means:
Select all those that apply.
- participation, collaboration and dialogue are sometimes necessary and desirable for sustainable change
- Those who ‘live by the sword, die by the sword’, so punishment and fear should never be used to influence others
- You ‘can’t have your cake and eat it too’, if you use coercion then be ready for the backlash
- The realities of life are that ‘You can go far with a smile, you can go a lot farther with a smile and a gun.’ (Al Capone)
Week 5: Leading transformations: Manage change
Quiz 1: Check your understanding
Q1. An agile learner has the capabilities of…
Select all that apply.
- A scientist, who regards everything we think we know as tentative and a hypothesis
- A planner, who sets clear objectives and rules and sticks to them
- An improviser, who creatively adapts to situations and people in giving rise to something new and unpredictable
- A pioneer, who thrives on uncertainty and enjoys not knowing what (s)he will encounter
Q2. Effectively using ‘mirrors’ for reflection in a change initiative means…
Select all that apply.
- Spending a lot of time in reflective navel-gazing (in front of a ‘mirror’) to find out how good we are looking
- Recognising that we often see what we want to see in any evaluation (‘mirror’)
- Acting from feedback (in a ‘mirror’) rather than taking it as a reflection of who we are and what we have to be and do
- Being ready to update the image of ourselves and a change initiative, as we gather new information (acting as a ‘mirror’) and it reveals faults or mistakes
Q3. Measuring change involves monitoring…
Select all that apply.
- Whether people feel inspired to be part of the change and trust that they will be cared for in the process
- The degree to which people on the ‘front line’ of a change are focused on and equipped for effectively executing the change
- The understanding of vision and priorities, and how far these have been achieved
- Only whether people have been explicitly given tasks and suitably disciplined if they have not met them
Q4. Measuring change requires an ongoing focus on…
Select all that apply.
- Maintaining momentum in the face of challenges and setbacks
- Meeting ‘on-time/on-budget’ goals at all costs!
- Creating sufficient ‘buy in’ to the change initiative
- Establishing a new set of routine habits, practices, and commitments
Q5. Creating learning spaces require you to focus on…
Select all that apply.
- Developing the relationships necessary to support genuine communication and meaningful debate
- Creating or attending regular off-site reviews of progress
- Be attentive to how individuals and groups prefer to learn
- Ensuring you have the power and authority to question and experiment
Q6. The imagery of the kitchen and the playing field imply that learning spaces should provide participants with…
Select only one (1) response.
- Enough physical exercise
- Opportunities to experiment and learn ‘close to the action’
- Nothing but creativity and entertainment
- Suitable food and drink
Quiz 2: Check your applied learning 5
Q1. What we were trying to convey in quoting Congressman Berman’s phrase that ‘There is never enough time to do it right, but always enough time to do it over’?
Select only one (1) response.
- You don’t have to worry about getting things right, you can always cover up the mistakes
- As the New Zealand road sign warns, it is unavoidable that ‘The faster you go, the bigger the mess’
- You can experiment without worrying about failing since you can always do it again
- We often don’t give enough time to doing things correctly. This won’t save time as we will have to spend even more time dealing with the consequences.
Q2. When we are involved in a change initiative, we need to:
Select all that apply.
- Reflect on how we are doing and adapt in real time
- Expect to be able to solve all our problems by thinking intelligently before we leap into action
- Be ready after we have acted to spend time reflecting on lessons learnt for the future
- Always be positive and never dwell on any problems or negatives
Q3. The central focus of measuring should be on:
- Only objective and quantifiable indicators of whether tasks have been completed
- Solely real world economic and technical outcomes and results
- Only the soft emotional side of change – whether people are anxious and stressed or happy, content and having fun
- A set of measures and measuring process that is relevant and balanced
Q4. The role and purpose of measuring are to:
Select all that apply.
- Use measures to legitimate the project and motivate those involved
- Provide you with early warning of emerging problems
- Detect and prevent any deviations from the initial plan
- Clarify your goals and allow you to monitor progress
Q5. Organisational traps mean that:
Select all that apply.
- Organisations deliberately try to stop people from learning
- Our habits and assumptions often blind us to context and prevent us from accepting the unexpected
- Learning can never take place in organisations
- Politeness and political defensiveness prevent problems from being discussed
Q6. Evaluating change is compared to the creative and artistic use of a context-specific Hall of Mirrors because…
Select all that apply.
- We need accurate and relevant measures, and using a set of quantitative measures will ensure that we get objective feedback
- Change initiatives are a series of performances seeking to influence how people think, feel and act
- Evaluations of progress and achievements use measures that are simple, abstract and partial, yet the practice of change is complex, personal and all-encompassing
- Evaluation is ultimately based on subjective, uncertain and shifting views and opinions, and agile learning requires that we are not fooled into thinking otherwise
Week 6: Leading transformations: Manage change
Quiz 1: Check your understanding
Q1. The common contrast between management and leadership:
Select only one (1) response.
- Is a popular and useful general contrast between two approaches or styles to running organisations and influencing change
- Is a precise evidence-based categorisation of identifiable and measurable competencies
- Is a contrast between two different types of people
- Assumes the management approach to change does not work and what is required is change leadership
Q2. The leadership, practice and power gaps:
Select all that apply.
- Require a disciplined project management focus on planning and controlling change. It means getting the ‘tip of the iceberg’ right!
- Are ‘knowing-doing’ gaps
- Can be addressed by establishing a checklist of key action items and a disciplined following of the checklist
- Require you to be mindful of them and mobilise energy, resources and support to overcome them
Q3. A practice gap is created because:
Select all that apply.
- The best laid plans of mice and men often turn out to be different from what was expected
- Of the fuzzy, shifting and confronting data in a change initiative
- Unpredictable outcomes occur when change has not been properly planned
- Applying rules or action items always require other rules or action items to implement them
Q4. Addressing the practice gap requires us to:
Select all that apply.
- Be resilient by toughening ourselves up and not admitting weakness
- Create an environment in which people are able to acknowledge mistakes and have faith in the capabilities and motives of their leaders
- Establish ‘holding environments’ that apply pressure, but not too much!
- Include a cultural ethos of rigorous planning and attention to detail
Q5. What causes the power gap?
Select all that apply.
- Structural inequalities
- Diversity and interdependence
- Under promising and over delivering
- Power of opponents and powerlessness of recipients
Q6. To acquire power and resources you need to:
Select all that apply.
- Develop and maintain a network
- Work withing a staffing and budgeting plan
- Establish or acquire a sufficient power base
- Attend to your motives, values and career interests
Quiz 2: Check your applied learning 6
Q1. Leading change is mainly about:
- Being adaptive and entrepreneurial in attending to, uncertainties, complexities and barriers
- Spending time on leadership, not management
- Acquiring the skills and abilities to figure out what to do
- Knowing what should be done to bring about change
Q2. The problem with over-managed approaches to leading change is they
- Think effective management is an important part of managing and leading change
- Rely excessively on Human Resource (HR) or Organization Development (OD) experts to handle the ‘change management’ aspects of a project.
- Interpret leadership as mainly setting goals, staffing teams, allocating resources and monitoring progress
- Default to an egocentric, reactive and impulsive approach to handling the challenges of change
Q3. An adaptive leader and political entrepreneur is
- Accepting of knowing-doing gaps and cultivates a ‘space to lead’
- Aware of the knowing-doing gaps and understands the type of tactics required to help address them
- Wary of the problems created by knowing-doing gaps and disciplined in focusing on and attending to them.
- Achieves success in every change by having the ‘grit’ necessary to overcome all opposition
Q4. It is one thing to don a leadership mask, and it is another to exercise leadership of the change cycle fully. The difference involves:
- Being successful in giving an inspirational leadership performance
- Being mindful of the challenges of giving an effective leadership performance
- Being sufficiently mindful and effectively mobilising in all elements and phases of the change cycle
- Finding the motivation and resources necessary for an effective leadership performance
Q5. The paradoxes of leading change require:
- Being confident yet mindful in making judgement calls in uncertain and complex situations
- Being able to handle the Promethean and Machiavellian challenges and tensions
- Accepting that ‘good intentions and skilful actions’ aren’t always enough
- Predicting and removing all barriers to change
Q6. As a phrase to remember, ‘mind the gap’ means:
- Accepting that you will not be able to achieve the changes you seek
- Be hesitant and tentative in any decisions you make or actions you take
- Be wary of the gaps that exist between what we assume and plan and what we know and achieve
- Plugging the gap between plans and outcomes
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