Getting your team ready for change

This guide provides strategies for Primary Schools transitioning to Arbor, emphasizing the importance of communication, training, and team engagement to manage change effectively. It addresses common concerns about new systems and offers tips for fostering excitement and support among staff.

This guide is for Primary Schools moving to Arbor. Interested in change management in your Secondary School project? Check out this guide.

One of the most exciting parts of moving to Arbor is the opportunity to make meaningful changes to the way that your school works. A change of system can be a springboard for transformation and improvement! 

But while change is always exciting, it can also be a challenge. You might find that some of your team are resistant to the change.

They might be worried about:

  • having to learn a new system, or a new way of working. This is often the case if they've used your current MIS for a long time.
  • the new software making them redundant, especially if you've chosen Arbor to become more efficient.
  • having time to adapt to the change with the pressures of their day-to-day job. 
  • losing data or reports that they have spent time building. 

The best way to address these anxieties is with open, consistent communication that makes the benefits of change clear. 

How to get your team ready for the change

Make them aware of the need for change

The first step to getting everyone onboard with your move to Arbor is making sure they understand they're aware of the need for change. 

Add Arbor to the agenda of your next staff meeting or send an email update, making sure you include: 

  • Why you need to make the change (e.g. limitations of current system, opportunities opened up by switching)
  • What will happen if we don't make the change?
  • When will the change happen? (e.g. last date using your current MIS, first day on Arbor, training dates etc..)
Top Tip: You can increase buy-in from staff by making sure that your Head Teacher and SLT are engaged in the implementation of Arbor. 
Get them excited for the change! 

Try to show your team how the move to Arbor will benefit the school and - just as importantly - them individually. 

Make sure they can answer the question 'What's in it for me?' - that'll help them to feel engaged and invested in the change. 

Make sure they have the time to learn

Now that you've got everyone excited for the switch, they need to learn how to use the new system. 

Make sure that they have a chance to attend our pre-launch training (or at least to watch the recordings), and an opportunity to explore in our Sunnyville test site. 

Top Tip: Balancing training with running a busy office can be really difficult. Try using the training session recordings and eLearning to break up the training time so that staff can complete it in small chunks. 

Ask plenty of questions, and encourage your team to do the same! 

You're likely to have plenty of questions as you start to use Arbor, and you should make sure everyone has opportunities to ask them.

As you train, and for your first few weeks using Arbor, you should meet at least every few days with your team to review how things are going, and share any feedback or problems. If there are any you can't help each other with, contact our friendly onboarding team for help! 

Top Tip: Encourage your team to ask each other 'Why do we do it that way?' Sometimes, it can be better to change a process to make the most of a the new system. 

 

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