State Agency Role in

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• State Agency Role in
• Managing Change for the Successful Implementation
  of VENA
• Carol Peirce, MS, RD, LD/N
• Nutrition Program Director
• Palm Beach County Health Department
• West Palm Beach, Florida

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Managing Change for the Successful Implementation
of VENA

• Planning for change
• Supporting the change environment
• Assessing Local agency readiness for change
• Managing the change process

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Planning Change for the Success of VENA

• For VENA to be successfully implemented there
  needs to be several State agency Plans in place
  to ensure that the human side of directing change
  is sensitive and thorough.
• Communications Plan
• Learning Plan
• Reward and Recognition Plan
• Alignment Plan
• Sustainability Plan

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Plans Needing To Be In Place

• An effective Communication Plan to help local
  agencies learn about, understand and accept the
  VENA philosophy and model.
• A Learning Plan which describes and drives the
  actions that staff at all levels will take to
  implement the change.
• A Reward and Recognition Plan which encourages
  Local Agency efforts to move through the change
  process and explain the consequences of choosing
  not to change.

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Plans Needing To Be In Place

• An Alignment Plan to assure that existing
  technology policies and procedures are reviewed
  and reworked to support the VENA philosophy.
• A Sustainability Plan to prevent return to old
  ways and sustain implemented changes.

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Planning Change for the Success of VENA

• Remember that Plans are just that.
• They are generally a management tool to help us
  focus on the 20 of factors that will produce 80
  of the change results that we want to see.

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Planning Change for the Success of VENA

• A benefit of planning change is the chance it
  gives staff to focus on what really matters to
  long term survival and success. We often think
  people know what to expect, therefore, we fail to
  articulate the Plan clearly enough for them to
  understand and follow.

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Supporting the Change Environment

• All of us are at different places in our
  readiness to change habits and behaviors. The
  challenge is to create a process for change that
  will not strengthen resistance and demoralize
  staff. Instead, create and support the change
  environment.

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Supporting the Change Environment

• States should expect that some Local Agency staff
  will have a hard time understanding and adapting
  to the VENA model.

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Supporting the Change Environment

• States should expect that Local Agencies will
  want to feel that all their concerns about VENA
  are addressed and that they are partners in the
  change process and not targets.

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Supporting the Change Environment

• States should expect that some Local Agencies
  will resist the idea of VENA and may find it
  difficult to implement for a number of reasons.

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Resistance...Some Local Agency Staff

• Dont want to change the way they do things as
  this may diminish their influence and comfort
  level in the work place.
• Dont want to go through the effort to learn a
  new way of doing things in fear that their
  expertise will become less valuable.
• Dont trust the state agencys ability and
  commitment to support the new way.
• Question the credibility and worth of changing to
  the VENA model.
• Perceive the work to implement VENA as
  overwhelming and demanding.

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Managing Change for the Success of VENA

• The way that WIC and Nutrition Service are
  currently delivered may need to be reexamined to
  come in line with the VENA philosophy. This may
  mean revisiting nutrition service delivery
  policies, procedures and monitoring tools and
  deciding whether they will enhance or hamper the
  success of VENA.

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Managing Change for the Success of VENA

• Trying to impose change by means of authority is
  rarely a sound idea.
• Therefore, states should design a plan to roll
  out VENA that will help Local Agencies
  successfully navigate through the change process,
  according to where they are in their readiness to
  change.

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Assessing Local Agency Readiness for Change

• Local Agencies may likely be at one or more of
  the following stages of readiness to change
• Pre-contemplation
• Contemplation
• Preparation
• Action
• Maintenance
• Transition

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Stages Of Readiness To Change

• Where there is no intention to change the way
  nutrition assessment and certification is
  conducted in the Agency (pre-contemplation stage)
  
• States need to market VENA to gain staff
  acceptance and buy in and increase their
  knowledge and understanding of the benefits of
  VENA.

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Stages Of Readiness To Change

• Where there has been some discussion about
  changing the way nutrition assessment and
  certification is conducted in the Agency
  (contemplation stage).
• States need to assist these Local Agencies to
  identify and design strategies to implement VENA
  successfully. In addition Local Agencies will
  need state guidance in setting goals and
  identifying barriers to VENA implementation

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Stages Of Readiness To Change

• Where the Local Agency has begun to discussion
  design plans for changing the way nutrition
  assessment and certification is conducted using
  the VENA model (preparation stage).
• States need to support and assist these Local
  Agencies in adjusting and refining their
  implementation plan.

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Stages Of Readiness To Change

• Where Local Agencies have taken some actionable
  steps to change the way nutrition assessment and
  certification is conducted, using the VENA model
  (action stage).
• States need to encourage them to move forward
  with their plans for implementation and be
  prepared to provide technical assistance.

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Stages Of Readiness To Change

• Where Local Agencies are working at sustaining
  the changes made through evaluating and refining
  new processes and benchmarking best practices
  (maintenance stage).
• States need to encourage these actions, provide
  guidance through program monitoring and help to
  identify gaps in service.

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Stages Of Readiness To Change

• 6. Where new procedures and practices are
  thoroughly incorporated into the nutrition
  service delivery process, identified gaps in
  service delivery which require state level
  (policy) fixes should be addressed quickly so
  that temptations to revert back to previous
  behaviors are totally removed (transition / new
  6th stage).

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Managing Change for the Success of VENA

• VENA will significantly change the way nutrition
  assessment, certification and counseling is done
  in most states.
• Staff development needs will, therefore, take
  center stage in most cases.
• States should be prepared to support staff
  training efforts at all levels.

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Managing the Change Process

• Acknowledging that transition from one model to
  another is only complete when sustained change
  has withstood the test of time.
• States should be available to coach, guide and
  mentor Local Agency staff as they move through
  these stages of change.

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Managing Change for the Success of VENA

• Some Agencies may spend longer time in certain
  stages of change because of internal resistance,
  competency issues or other external barriers.
• In these situations state interventions may be
  needed to address sources of distress for Local
  Agencies.
• States can directly market to Local Agency
  Leaders and community partners who are also
  struggling or enabling barriers to change.

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Managing Change for the Success of VENA

• Leading a major change effort such as VENA in any
  organization is tough work and may begin by
  creating emotional shock waves.
• This paradigm shift will require every employee
  to embrace this change for VENA to be successful.

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Managing Change for the Success of VENA

• Once staff sees
• whats in it for them,
• that the change is supported up and down the
  chain of command,
• that the change process considers their learning
  styles, speed, training needs, stage of
  preparedness for change
• and that resources will be made available to
  support implementation efforts, enthusiasm for
  VENA will grow.

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Managing Change for the Success of VENA

• State Agencies can assist Local Agencies by
  gathering and sharing information on best
  practices.
• In addition, encourage Local Agencies to share
  best practices and strategies among themselves.
  (Buddy system)

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Managing Change for the Success of VENA

• Plans for rolling out and marketing VENA should
  employ several venues to assure success.
• newsletters, focus groups, workshops, face to
  face meetings, conference calls, seminars,
  continuing education trainings etc.,
• Staff assessments should be done early to
  identify, and develop individual training plans
  and to keep staff fully engaged in the change
  process.

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Managing Change for the Successful Implementation
of VENA

• Summary
• Planning for change
• Supporting the change environment
• Assessing Local agency readiness for change
• Managing the change process