Managing through a period of change

Risk is the final factor. We tend to limit involvement if we think the risks are high. For example, you wouldn’t usually involve many people if you were changing the way you manage Controlled Drugs. You would simply spell out what needs to be done.

However, when a change is lower risk – for example if you were looking at how you might arrange the dispensary more efficiently, you might choose to encourage more involvement. It is best to try to involve your team to some extent whenever you plan some change; while there will be occasions when you must take more control, there is probably always scope for involvement.

Change is inevitable and to help it happen successfully and with limited stress, you should involve your team, give them time to digest it and support them as individuals as they go through it. When the team has reached its goals, then it's time to celebrate success.

Pause to reflect

Assume the mass vaccination of the public is effective and carried out efficiently and speedily, so that by early summer 2021, things are starting to move back to normal.

• Think about something you will want to change as a result of no longer having to socially distance in the pharmacy. Pick something that you know you might want to involve your team in planning
• Briefly, think about how you might approach the change process and how you could involve your team in the planning
• How might the changes express themselves, given that ‘getting back to normal’ might be more welcome than the many changes you could contemplate (although you might want to take the post-pandemic opportunity to ‘reset’ a process or two based on experiences over the past few months)?