A pharmacy owner decides to invest in robotic technology

He creates a plan to bring about this change within four months and invites potential suppliers to his pharmacy as part of a tendering process. To prepare his team, he requests that they stay for 15 minutes after work while he discusses the detail of his change initiative. Having fully briefed employees about what will happen, he is confident that timelines can be achieved.

As employees return to work the following day, there is an uneasy atmosphere. This continues throughout the day and he assumes there is disquiet between certain employees and dismisses it. Two days later, with no improvement, he asks his trusted pharmacy technician to reveal what is going on. The technician responds that everyone is worried that the robot will replace their jobs and many have families to support. The pharmacist explained that all he was doing was installing a robot to prepare the business for the future to release valuable time for delivering services. The technician smiled and said “I think you better tell everyone WHY you are doing it”.

With this knowledge, the pharmacist decided to take a different approach. He met with each of his employees to discuss why change was needed and how the pharmacy contract was changing. He ensured that employees understood the positives and negatives of the current dispensing model. He addressed individual concerns and demonstrated how their skills, experience and knowledge would fit into the new world. He invited questions throughout each conversation. He followed up by requesting that everyone remain after work to ensure that his message was consistent and once again asked for feedback. For those who were not able to attend, he followed up with each employee during their work shift. 

As the change project continued, he fully involved all his staff and allocated each different tasks to complete. He requested formal feedback weekly from his team. He erected a small noticeboard in the tearoom and placed progress notices each week. One change activity involved identifying which products should be placed into the robot. This was achieved on time by his dispensary team. As a simple reward, he treated his team to pizza at a local restaurant. He noticed that his staff were not afraid to ask questions or make suggestions to improve efficiencies for products not suitable to be added to the robot. 

A lesson to be learnt. Do not ignore the people element even when change appears to be simple and straightforward.